Honus Wagner Baseball Card Sells for $1.62 million

A 1909 baseball card of Hall of Famer, Honus Wagner, sold for $1.62 million to John Rogers, 35, of North Little Rock, Ark., at a memorabilia auction on Friday night held by Mastro Auctions in Chicago. Rogers, who has been collecting baseball cards since age 6, said he had a decades-long dream of obtaining the card which he calls the 'holy grail of baseball cards'. In 2007 a mint condition Wagner card sold for $2.8 million which is the highest ever paid for a baseball card. Hockey great Wayne Gretzky was among the previous owners of the card. Mastro Auctions says there are fewer than 100 Wagner baseball cards in existence, and less than ten are in excellent condition so mystique and allure has grown.

Wagner's card was among the first of hundreds of cards of major league players produced by the American Tobacco Co. and included in packages of cigarettes which were issued between 1909 and 1911. Wagner was the only player who demanded that his card be withdrawn for reasons unknown, although compensation from American Tobacco is the strongest theory. A nonsmoker, Wagner was a Pittsburgh shortstop and considered to be the second-greatest baseball player of his era winning eight National League batting titles. Wagner was one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Wagner retired in 1917 with more hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples and steals than any NL player.