Vesna
Thu Sep 04 2008, 6:57pm
A League Of His Own
Nina P. West, Artfact.com 08.25.08, 7:20 PM ET
Honus Wagner. Not exactly a household name, but among serious collectors of baseball memorabilia, his image is the hottest thing going.
This month a Wagner card sold for $1.62 million in Chicago, a record price for any baseball card at a public sale. No one was surprised. The Honus Wagner card is one of the most coveted pieces of baseball paraphernalia available and often referred to as the "Holy Grail.''
The buyer, John Rogers, calls his purchase the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. A baseball card collector since childhood, the Arkansas businessman remembers cutting out a copy of the Honus Wagner card from a magazine and carrying it around in his pocket for years. Decades later, on the prowl for an original, he was ecstatic when he found one this month at Mastro Auctions, a leader in sports memorabilia sales.
With the encouragement of his wife, he fought a four-minute bidding war against another buyer and ultimately came out on top. His purchase was made sweeter by the offer he received after the auction for $100,000 more than his $1.62 million purchase price. He turned the offer down but felt validation, saying that it made him realize, ''I'm not a nut.''
Rogers need not fear that he made a mistake. Other examples of the Wagner card have sold for as much as $2.8 million, a price brokered in 2007 for a card owned at one time by hockey star Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall, a former owner of the Los Angeles Kings. The card is so rare that even a tattered example can fetch $150,000.
http://images.forbes.com/media/2008/08/25/0825pow_420w.jpg
Nina P. West, Artfact.com 08.25.08, 7:20 PM ET
Honus Wagner. Not exactly a household name, but among serious collectors of baseball memorabilia, his image is the hottest thing going.
This month a Wagner card sold for $1.62 million in Chicago, a record price for any baseball card at a public sale. No one was surprised. The Honus Wagner card is one of the most coveted pieces of baseball paraphernalia available and often referred to as the "Holy Grail.''
The buyer, John Rogers, calls his purchase the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. A baseball card collector since childhood, the Arkansas businessman remembers cutting out a copy of the Honus Wagner card from a magazine and carrying it around in his pocket for years. Decades later, on the prowl for an original, he was ecstatic when he found one this month at Mastro Auctions, a leader in sports memorabilia sales.
With the encouragement of his wife, he fought a four-minute bidding war against another buyer and ultimately came out on top. His purchase was made sweeter by the offer he received after the auction for $100,000 more than his $1.62 million purchase price. He turned the offer down but felt validation, saying that it made him realize, ''I'm not a nut.''
Rogers need not fear that he made a mistake. Other examples of the Wagner card have sold for as much as $2.8 million, a price brokered in 2007 for a card owned at one time by hockey star Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall, a former owner of the Los Angeles Kings. The card is so rare that even a tattered example can fetch $150,000.
http://images.forbes.com/media/2008/08/25/0825pow_420w.jpg