History of the Wagner T206 proof strip
 

Attachment 588077


Does anyone know who has this strip now or if it has changed hands since the 2010 sale?

Besides the following I've seen some other reported transactions (prior to the 2010 sale) that I couldn't confirm.

1978 Discovered by Bill Zimpleman, Mike Wheat, Ken Blazek and Wayne Varner while they were on a buying trip in the Pittsburgh area where they purchased it off a man that had purchased Wagner's house.

1978-1980 Owned by Wayne Varner who won it in a drawing between the four people that discovered it.

1980-1999 Owned by Barry Halper who purchased it from Wayne.

1999-2001 Owned by Steve Verkman who won it for $85,000 in a Sotheby's auction.

2001 Won in a Cleen Sweap auction for $95,000 by the Shop at Home network

May 2002 Won by a 15 year old in a promotional giveaway by Shop at Home.

August 2002 Sold in a Mastro Net Auction for $78,665

*December 2007 Listed in a Lelands auction where it didn't meet the reserve.

July 2010 Won in a Hunt Auction for $316,250

Does Keith Olbermann still own it?

He owns several T206 proofs including a group of subjects that were never issued in the set but I don't remember ever hearing that he owned the Wagner strip.

I think he confirmed on the podcast he did with board member Jay that he owns the strip.

https://themonsterpodcast.com/episode-guide

The dream card :o

Tried to recreate it many years ago, hoping one day I'll get some time to finish and have it litho printed.

https://i.imgur.com/VqUk3ja.jpg

I always thought this 5 card T206 strip offers a perfect opportunity for an enterprising individual to cut up into individual cards, which of course would result in a real nice looking Bowerman example.

Brian

Thank you James I didn't know he was the person that SCP Auctions had purchased it for in the 2010 hunt auction . I'm not on facebook is there another way to view the podcast without having to sign up with any accounts?

Its available in the Apple Podcast App. I think you can also play it from this link:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000522106794

the Wagner strip talk is around the 17 minute mark

I am relatively new to the T206, and really appreciated this podcast. Tremendous educational opportunity. Thank you for posting.

Thank You James. Keith mentioned one of the things about the strip that I have read but I have not able to confirm. He said that Alan Rosen had it and was trying to sell it in the mid 80's if that is accurate he must have been trying to sell it for Barry Halper at that time.

If memory serves, I believe Rosen listed it in a full page ad in SCD

Thanks Jay, it would be great to see the ad if someone has it. I found ads where it sold in 1999 and 2010.

Attachment 588178

Attachment 588179

Mine too Chris. If I had a choice between any of the T206 Wagner's and the proof strip I would choose the strip. It matches one of the plate scratch sheets. I still haven't found the player with the matching scratch for Reulbach which would be whoever replaced Wagner in that sheet slot.

Attachment 588180
Attachment 588182

Attachment 588183

I found some information from when Alan Rosen was in possession of the strip and it states that he was trying to sell it for Barry Halper although a lot of the information is inaccurate including the year it was discovered and when Barry Halper purchased it which is way off on the dates.

February 11 1990

Attachment 588286

The author of that article must have gathered "facts" from Mr. Rosen.

Wagner strip
 

HERE'S A WRITE UP I DID FOR A LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1N 2018..The Honus Wagner Baseball Card Story

Back in 1910 trading cards were issued in packages of cigarettes....These cards were placed in each pack to help the cigarettes from getting bent in your pocket.
Subjects on the cards ranged from flowers, fish, animals, soldiers, presidents, flags but the most popular were the current baseball players of the day...Kids would hang out in front of stores waiting for a smoker to buy a pack then hopefully get the baseball card from the smoker. The baseball set pictured over 500 different cards including all the greats of the time. Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, Cy Young, Walter Johnson and many many more. At that time the players were sent samples of their cards to be used in the packages. Honus Wagner of the Pittsburg Pirates however did not want his picture being associated with tobacco so he asked that they refrain from putting his cards in the packs. The companies assuming every player wanted their pictures in the packs had already issued some of the Wagner cards in the packs but ceased the production of his cards shortly thereafter. As years went by and collectors were putting sets of these cards together they all found that the Wagner card was extremely rare. When I started collecting baseball cards in the 1950's as a youngster the legend of this card was well known. At that time the card has already been valued at $250. where most of the other cards in the set were still only fetching 50¢ to $5.00 apiece. In the 1970's I became a full time collector and dealer of baseball cards. We would set up at shows all over the country buying and selling baseball cards. One of the ways we would buy a lot of cards was to set up in a hotel room and advertise in the local paper that we were in town buying old baseball cards. We would do this in most of the major cities on the east coast. We bought hundreds of thousands of cards but never saw a Honus Wagner card from 1910. By the late 1970's the card value had risen to the $10,000. range. In 1978 we decided to do a buying weekend at two hotels in the Pittsburgh area. By this time I had three partners so two of us were at the Holiday Inn South Hills and Myself and partner were at the Wilkinsburg Holiday Inn. Whatever was bought was to be split up four ways.
Our ad stated we were there Friday, Saturday & Sunday paying top cash for your old baseball cards. Well Friday was pretty slow with very little walking in but I received a call from my friend John Stagerwald sportscaster on channel 2. He asked if he could come over and do and interview for the sports that night on TV.
I brought in my set of the 1910 baseball cards all mounted in a binder and John was going through them on TV....He came to an empty spot and he asked where was this card and I told him that's where the Honus Wagner card belongs. Then I proceeded to tell him the story of the Wagner card. Well that night the piece was run on the eleven o'clock news. Well the next morning we open up the room and very little happening. Then a well dressed man and woman walk into the room with a big shopping bag. Then the man comes over to my table and says to me I hear you are looking for this card. He pulls out a strip with five players on it and there at the second spot was the Honus Wagner card. Unfortunately the card had been folded right on Wagner's pose but still it was the Wagner, the Holy Grail of baseball card collecting. What I assumed it was , was a proof copy of the card since it was in a strip of five. I bought the piece then the man pulls out a Herme's Ice Cream pin from 1910 of Honus Wagner. I proceed to buy that. Then he pulls out two schedule cards from 1910 with Wagner's picture on them. I buy those then I ask him why does he have all these Wagner items. He tells me he owns Wagner's house and I tell him I had been to Wagner's house when his sisters still owned it and none of this stuff was there. He tells me that there was nothing in the house when he bought it but one day he was in the garage and pulled down a ladder to a second floor loft. There he found a lot of Wagner's baseball mementos. The next day I went to the house and spent a lot of money on everything from photos, books, coaching uniform, ect. We assume that that strip of cards was given to Wagner for his OK then he just folded it and put it in his back pocket never to be seen again. Later that week we had to split up all of our purchases. My partner Wayne ended up getting the Wagner card under the stipulation he could not sell it for three years. In 1982 he sold it to one of the owners of the Yankees for $15,000. In the late 1990's that card was placed in an auction and went for 125,000. Last year it was auctioned again and went for $300,000. And to think I was the original buyer. Oh well, you win some and you lose some

Wagner strip
 

HERE'S A WRITE UP I DID FOR A LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1N 2018..The Honus Wagner Baseball Card Story

Back in 1910 trading cards were issued in packages of cigarettes....These cards were placed in each pack to help the cigarettes from getting bent in your pocket.
Subjects on the cards ranged from flowers, fish, animals, soldiers, presidents, flags but the most popular were the current baseball players of the day...Kids would hang out in front of stores waiting for a smoker to buy a pack then hopefully get the baseball card from the smoker. The baseball set pictured over 500 different cards including all the greats of the time. Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, Cy Young, Walter Johnson and many many more. At that time the players were sent samples of their cards to be used in the packages. Honus Wagner of the Pittsburg Pirates however did not want his picture being associated with tobacco so he asked that they refrain from putting his cards in the packs. The companies assuming every player wanted their pictures in the packs had already issued some of the Wagner cards in the packs but ceased the production of his cards shortly thereafter. As years went by and collectors were putting sets of these cards together they all found that the Wagner card was extremely rare. When I started collecting baseball cards in the 1950's as a youngster the legend of this card was well known. At that time the card has already been valued at $250. where most of the other cards in the set were still only fetching 50¢ to $5.00 apiece. In the 1970's I became a full time collector and dealer of baseball cards. We would set up at shows all over the country buying and selling baseball cards. One of the ways we would buy a lot of cards was to set up in a hotel room and advertise in the local paper that we were in town buying old baseball cards. We would do this in most of the major cities on the east coast. We bought hundreds of thousands of cards but never saw a Honus Wagner card from 1910. By the late 1970's the card value had risen to the $10,000. range. In 1978 we decided to do a buying weekend at two hotels in the Pittsburgh area. By this time I had three partners so two of us were at the Holiday Inn South Hills and Myself and partner were at the Wilkinsburg Holiday Inn. Whatever was bought was to be split up four ways.
Our ad stated we were there Friday, Saturday & Sunday paying top cash for your old baseball cards. Well Friday was pretty slow with very little walking in but I received a call from my friend John Stagerwald sportscaster on channel 2. He asked if he could come over and do and interview for the sports that night on TV.
I brought in my set of the 1910 baseball cards all mounted in a binder and John was going through them on TV....He came to an empty spot and he asked where was this card and I told him that's where the Honus Wagner card belongs. Then I proceeded to tell him the story of the Wagner card. Well that night the piece was run on the eleven o'clock news. Well the next morning we open up the room and very little happening. Then a well dressed man and woman walk into the room with a big shopping bag. Then the man comes over to my table and says to me I hear you are looking for this card. He pulls out a strip with five players on it and there at the second spot was the Honus Wagner card. Unfortunately the card had been folded right on Wagner's pose but still it was the Wagner, the Holy Grail of baseball card collecting. What I assumed it was , was a proof copy of the card since it was in a strip of five. I bought the piece then the man pulls out a Herme's Ice Cream pin from 1910 of Honus Wagner. I proceed to buy that. Then he pulls out two schedule cards from 1910 with Wagner's picture on them. I buy those then I ask him why does he have all these Wagner items. He tells me he owns Wagner's house and I tell him I had been to Wagner's house when his sisters still owned it and none of this stuff was there. He tells me that there was nothing in the house when he bought it but one day he was in the garage and pulled down a ladder to a second floor loft. There he found a lot of Wagner's baseball mementos. The next day I went to the house and spent a lot of money on everything from photos, books, coaching uniform, ect. We assume that that strip of cards was given to Wagner for his OK then he just folded it and put it in his back pocket never to be seen again. Later that week we had to split up all of our purchases. My partner Wayne ended up getting the Wagner card under the stipulation he could not sell it for three years. In 1982 he sold it to one of the owners of the Yankees for $15,000. In the late 1990's that card was placed in an auction and went for 125,000. Last year it was auctioned again and went for $300,000. And to think I was the original buyer. Oh well, you win some and you lose some

Cool
 

Cool thread guys...Jerry

Hi Bill, thank you for posting. Just trying to clear something up about when and to whom Wayne sold it. Wayne had posted in this thread (post #68) that he had sold the strip to Barry Halper in 1980 but your recollection is that he sold it to one of the owners of the Yankees in 1982? https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=123958

Barry was a minority owner of the yankees from my understanding

Thanks Bill for sharing the fantastic first person account of the discovery of the Wagner strip. It is always fun to read about collecting as it existed back in the day, and especially when it involves something like the one of a kind Wagner strip.

Brian

Yes, thank you Bill. One of the greatest finds in the hobby IMO.

Thanks for sharing that story Bill. And, yes, Barry Halper was a minority owner of the Yankees.

Bill, amazing and awesome story. Thanks a ton for sharing it. It’s especially cool to think Wagner likely folded the thing, put it in his pocket, and thought nothing of it!

Mr. Zimpleman,

Thank you for keeping an eye on Net54, and especially for providing that account.

Part of the legend and lore as I recall it was that the strip of cards came from Wagner himself, as it was among some personal items from a home he had. Obviously, your account fills in gaps, clarifies, and adds details.

You were buying old cards at hotels and motels on the weekends, back in the day when buyers were soaking cards off of scrapbook pages by putting the pages of cards in the bathtub to soak overnight?

Precious memories, thanks for sharing them.

Thanks for sharing, Bill. Great story and legendary hobby stuff.

Thanks for sharing, Bill. Great story and legendary hobby stuff.