A second 1909 Sweet Caporal T206 Honus Wagner card sold for north of $3 million in about a week’s span. The latest, once owned by former MLB player and broadcaster Joe Garagiola, sold for $3.599 million Saturday night through Heritage Auctions.
One week ago, a PSA 1 graded (on a scale of 1-10) version of the T206 Wagner sold for $5.1 million via auction through Goldin. That was the third-highest publicly known sale of this Wagner card. Saturday night’s sale created the shortest time span between publicly known T206 Wagner sales ever recorded by Card Ladder, an online card sales database.
The “Garagiola Wagner” is graded “Authentic” by SGC, which is below a 1 grade, due in part to paper loss on the back of the card. It was sold by the Garagiola family in 2021 for $2.52 million, a massive return on a card that was acquired through an interesting return many years earlier.
“Garagiola talked about how he traded his 1954 Giants uniform, which is a championship season, as part of the package for this one,” said Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions. “He loved owning it and owned it for a long time. It’s a nice, strong quality example. It’s got a little bit of paper loss on the back, but I think that accounts for its survival. It was safely tucked within some type of scrapbook for decades.”
“He loved owning it and owned it for a long time,” said Chris Ivy of Heritage Auctions about Joe Garagiola and the T206 Honus Wagner card. (Heritage Auctions)
Although 1954 was a memorable year for the then New York Giants, Garagiola wasn’t exactly an integral part of that team — he played in only five regular-season games before ending his nine-year MLB career.
In 2021, Joe Garagiola Jr. told Sports Collectors Daily that his father, who died in 2016, added a set of the iconic 1933 Goudey baseball cards that he pieced together later in life after not being able to afford them as a child to seal the deal for the Wagner card. Although the value of a ’33 Goudey set varies today depending on the condition of the cards, Heritage sold one set in January for a little over $40,000.
“I am also very sure there was no money involved. That was not anything he ever did,” Garagiola Jr. said. “That’s a very important part of the story: He had the true passion of the real collector. Dad would trade things. He would be in touch with other collectors. He worked hard his whole life and could have written checks for any of this. But he chose not to.”
It’s safe to say Garagiola won that trade.
Below is a glimpse of the top 10 known sales of the 1909 T206 Wagner:
Top 10 publicly known T206 Wagner sales to date
- $7.25 million — SGC 2 grade; best offer; private sale; Aug. 4, 2022
- $6.61 million — SGC 3; auction via REA; Aug. 15, 2021
- $5.12 million — PSA 1; auction via Goldin; Feb. 21, 2026
- $3.72 million — PSA 1.5; auction via Goldin; Oct. 9, 2022
- $3.66 million — PSA 2; auction via Goldin; May 24, 2021
- $3.59 million — SGC authentic; auction via Heritage; Feb. 28, 2026
- $3.12 million — PSA 5 (miscut); auction via Goldin; Oct. 2, 2016
- $2.52 million — SGC authentic; auction via Heritage; Feb. 26, 2021
- $2.28 million — PSA 1.5; auction via Heritage; May 5, 2021
- $1.98 million — PSA authentic; auction via Mile High; April 27, 2025
- $1.97 million — PSA authentic; auction via Mile High; Sept. 8, 2023
“There is really just a fascination with the American Tobacco Company’s T206 set,” Ivy said. “It’s one of the most collected and most storied sets in the history of sports collecting. It just attracts and pulls so many people in to try and collect everything. There’s only 70 people in the world that can actually complete that set because of the scarcity of the Honus Wagner card. That’s what really drives the value and the fascination with it. Now it’s become a bit of a pop culture item.”
Meanwhile, the modern-day hobby icon managed to add one more $1 million card sale through Heritage on Saturday as Michael Jordan’s first one-of-one card sold for seven figures.
The 1997 Fleer Ultra Jordan Masterpiece Edition set featured the first one-of-one of Jordan’s career. (Heritage Auctions)
A one-of-a-kind 1997 Fleer Ultra Jordan Masterpiece Edition card sold for $2.1 million via auction. It’s the highest publicly known sale of a Jordan card in 2026. It’s also the 11th known sale of a Jordan card for at least $1 million. It’s the only $1 million-plus Jordan sale of a card that doesn’t have either an autograph or a game-used NBA Logoman patch.
Although one-of-ones are regularly included in sports card sets today, the ’97 Ultra set featured the first one-of-one of Jordan’s career, making it one of the most important Jordan cards in existence.
The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.