The Honus Wagner baseball card is one of the most famous and valuable collectibles in the world. Produced between 1909-1911 by the American Tobacco Company as part of their infamous T206 baseball card set, it is estimated that only 50-200 genuine Honus Wagner cards still exist today in various conditions. Because so few of these historic cards were printed over a century ago and have survived in different states of preservation since then, determining an exact number is impossible but most experts believe the amount of authentic Honus Wagner T206 cards left ranges between 60-100.
The story behind why so few of these cards were printed begins with Honus Wagner himself. As one of the greatest shortstops in baseball history who played for both the Louisville Colonels and Pittsburgh Pirates at the turn of the 20th century, Wagner was featured as one of the 512 total players in the monumental T206 set. Unbeknownst to the American Tobacco Company at the time, Wagner had strong objections to having his image used to promote tobacco products due to his anti-smoking and chewing stance. Once discovering his likeness was being used on baseball cards to market sweet cigarettes and chewing tobacco to children, it’s said Wagner demanded his card’s production be halted. As a result, far less Honus Wagner cards made it to market compared to the other players in the set.
It’s also possible other factors led to the card’s low numbers, such as quality control issues disqualifying defective prints or the cards simply not selling well and being destroyed. No definitive records exist of exactly how many sheets of cardboard containing the Wagner card image were printed by the American Tobacco Company in the early 1900s before production ceased. Over the decades since, natural disasters, fires, floods, wear and tear have destroyed untold numbers of any Wagner cards that may have originally been out there.
So in the over 100 years since the cards were new, the combination of their limited initial production coupled with the inevitable losses of time, has left experts estimating that somewhere between 50-200 authentic examples could still be in collections or yet to be discovered. Finding an intact Honus Wagner has become exponentially more difficult as the card population decreases with each passing year. The last known census of Wagner cards conducted by the Sporting News in 1999 determined there were only 57 known at that point, compared to over 100 estimated to have originally been printed.
In terms of their individual conditions, the degrees and states that the surviving Honus Wagner cards are in varies greatly as well. Some are merely fragments while others remain in completely intact near mint condition protected by holders and storage over a century. The highest graded example that was once part of the famed Mile High Collection sold in 2016 is a PSA 8, just two points away from gem mint. Other less well preserved specimens may have issues like creases, stains or fading and grade considerably lower. Condition is absolutely critical to a card’s potential worth considering their great age.
As the rarest and most coveted of all trading cards, an unprecedented public mania surrounded one of these classic Honus Wagner portraits when it became the most expensive collectible ever sold at auction. The now infamous “Grette Card” that was part of the legendary 1957 find fetched $2.8 million USD in an August 2007 online sale. Other prized examples that come to market sell in the multi-million range as well depending on condition. With so few believed left in the world and the hysteria that ensues whenever one surfaces, the collectibles market may never know for certain how many of these precious relics from the early days of American pastime truly still exist in private hands or waiting to be revealed after over a century since their creation.
