Honus Wagner Card Graded PR-FR 1 Sells for Record $1,426,800 at Auction

A fabled T206 Honus Wagner card graded PR-FR 1 by PSA sold for $1,426,800 Saturday night in an auction run by Goldin Auctions.

The T206 Wagner card, which was produced by the American Tobacco Company in limited quantities from 1909 until 1911, is widely considered to be one of the most valuable and highly sought-after cards in the collecting community.

Khristi Zimmeth of the Detroit News wrote in 2015 that there were only 57 Wagner T206 cards known to exist, which is in stark contrast to the thousands of cards that exist for other players who were produced in the set.

Per Joe Posnanski of The Athletic, a financial dispute between Wagner and the American Tobacco Company is likely what led to his card being produced at such a low quantity.

Of all the Wagner T206 cards that have been sold at auction thus far, the most expensive was a PSA 5 that sold for $3.12 million in 2016.

While the PSA 5 is one of the highest-graded Wagner T206 cards known to exist, the card that sold Saturday had one of the lowest grades possible for an authentic card.

PR-FR means the card is in poor to fair condition, and while that detracts from the value to some degree, the rarity of a Wagner T206 card in any condition still helped it sell for a high number.

Another factor that props up the value of the Wagner T206 card is the fact that Wagner is among the greatest baseball players of all time.

During his 21-year career with the Louisville Colonels and Pittsburgh Pirates, he hit .328 with 101 home runs, 1,732 RBI, 3,420 hits, 1,739 runs scored and 723 stolen bases.

He helped lead the Pirates to a World Series championship in 1909 and won eight battle titles from 1900-1911 as well.

Wagner was also part of the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, when he was inducted alongside Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.