If you found a Wagner...

[Joshchisox08]

Originally Posted by coolshemp

Since this is the season of great finds, I was wondering what most of you would do if you were lucky enough to find a Wagner T206 in grand pappy's attic? Would you keep it and finish your T206 set or sell it for the million or so dollars?

As much as I love the set and would love to own the entire set. I would most definitely sell it.

$$$ I can get more T206 with it and let alone more important things like a house for my son, fiance, and I.

Interesting and cool question idea.

[MVSNYC]

Probably keep...enjoy owning it, and then pass it down to my son.

[bnorth]

Sell it and completely retire.

I am in the minority and think the T206 is a ugly set so if the $ stayed in cards I would sell it and own the nicest complete T210 set I could afford with the proceeds.

[philliesfan]

With my current financial situation, I would most surely sell. I would first make sure my 2 children have their colleges paid for. Then I would buy a few T3's and T206's and smartly invest the remaining to help my kids when they go to buy homes of their own.
Robert

[pokerplyr80]

I would keep it for a while, but ultimately I would have to sell it. It would be hard to justify keeping a baseball card worth twice what my house is worth, or more.

[edjs]

Sell. I couldn't afford to keep it properly. What would I do, put it in my box of cards?

[insidethewrapper]

What would you do if you found it at a garage or estate sell etc and the owner didn't know what they had ? Would you 1) tell them the value of it ? , 2) Buy it for a few dollars and both the seller and buyer are happy with the transaction.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by coolshemp

Since this is the season of great finds, I was wondering what most of you would do if you were lucky enough to find a Wagner T206 in grand pappy's attic? Would you keep it and finish your T206 set or sell it for the million or so dollars?

Sell it. No questions about it. The lowest priced one is worth more than the house my family of 6 currently reside in.

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

What would you do if you found it at a garage or estate sell etc and the owner didn't know what they had ? Would you 1) tell them the value of it ? , 2) Buy it for a few dollars and both the seller and buyer are happy with the transaction.

Let the seller know and just hope they felt the knowledge was worth a finder's fee if they then chose to continue with the sell.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

What would you do if you found it at a garage or estate sell etc and the owner didn't know what they had ? Would you 1) tell them the value of it ? , 2) Buy it for a few dollars and both the seller and buyer are happy with the transaction.

Good question. I would go with option 3. If the estate/garage sale was in a poor/middle class neighborhood option 1 without hesitation. Estate sale in a high end neighborhood option 2 without hesitation.

[Neal]

Sell .... in a heartbeat!

I would then buy a real nice 51B and 52T Mantle (in mid grade), pay off the mortgage, and put the rest away

[Eric72]

I would hold on to the Wagner. The rest of the (relatively speaking) crap I have been collecting would get sold off. Then, I would buy a '52 Topps Mantle, and rebuild my collection from there.

[frankbmd]

I would make sure it became designated as the

"Burke++ Wagner"

then I would increase the Monster Number value of this card to 480,

then I would sell it as the only MN premium card ,

and buy a tropical prewar island.

[Section103]

I couldn't sell it fast enough.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Section103

I couldn't sell it fast enough.

What if I told you you could sell it for $1 million today or $5 million in 4 years. Could you not wait 4 measly years?

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

What if I told you you could sell it for $1 million today or $5 million in 4 years. Could you not wait 4 measly years?

Yup, that'd be the smart move.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

What if I told you you could sell it for $1 million today or $5 million in 4 years. Could you not wait 4 measly years?

Personally I would sell today. In 4 measly years I could be dead, car crash, cancer, or a plethora of other really bad things could happen in that time. The old 1 bird in the hand is better than 4 in the bush thing.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

What if I told you you could sell it for $1 million today or $5 million in 4 years. Could you not wait 4 measly years?

I'd ask where you are getting your information from, and if you had some good stock tips as well.

[ullmandds]

id enjoy it for a spell...then sell and buy my dream house!

[rats60]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I would make sure it became designated as the

"Burke++ Wagner"

then I would increase the Monster Number value of this card to 480,

then I would sell it as the only MN premium card ,

and buy a tropical prewar island.

You could give it to me and then I would have a monster number of 1160.

As a Pirates fan and someone with 522 different T206's, I would definitely keep it.

[Rich Klein]

I'd call LEON since he has all the contacts, tell him its 10 percent to him and let him sell the darn card

[coolshemp]

Great answers! Kinda (very) hypothetical, but fun to dream about, like winning powerball!

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I would make sure it became designated as the

"Burke++ Wagner"

then I would increase the Monster Number value of this card to 480,

then I would sell it as the only MN premium card ,

and buy a tropical prewar island.

Frank, I'm all in for a tropical prewar island, as long as Tattoo says "Da card! Da Card!" each time new auction winnings arrive.

[gemmint77]

Keep it for a week, then sell that Wagner!!!

[tab]

I would keep it for as long as I could! Then I would have to sell it at some point. I would also be afraid of burglary if someone found out about it. Hard to enjoy it if it's locked up in a bank vault.

I could only hope that I would find two. One to keep and one to sell.

[TCMA]

When my dad obtained his first Wagner in 1972 he immediately called my mother from a pay phone. He found it among T206's he purchased in a large lot for twenty cents each. It was also one of the last cards he needed to complete the set, so he was pretty excited.

He held that one until 1974 when he upgraded to a better one and sold off the original. Here they are below:

[Joshwesley]

Originally Posted by TCMA

When my dad obtained his first Wagner in 1972 he immediately called my mother from a pay phone. He found it among T206's he purchased in a large lot for twenty cents each. It was also one of the last cards he needed to complete the set, so he was pretty excited.

He held that one until 1974 when he upgraded to a better one and sold off the original. Here they are below:

What the crap??

Didn't the Wagner have some value in the early 70's... Maybe 1-2k??

[edjs]

By the way, I did just find my Wagner. Not the one we are talking about, but pretty tough. If only scarcity=astronomical price!

[Joshwesley]

Originally Posted by edjs

By the way, I did just find my Wagner. Not the one we are talking about, but pretty tough. If only scarcity=astronomical price!

As a born and raised "mobilian" what's the story with the Wagner kid that played for mobile?

Really cool piece!

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by Joshwesley

What the crap??

Didn't the Wagner have some value in the early 70's... Maybe 1-2k??

It did. My father brokered a deal to sell one for someone in 1973 for $1100. And then he purchased the "Jumbo" Wagner for $1300 - $1500 in 1974 after he drove to VT from NY to follow up on a lead for one. Prices rose exponentially from there.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Joshwesley

What the crap??

Didn't the Wagner have some value in the early 70's... Maybe 1-2k??

Supposedly the one Bill Mastro bought in the 1970's as a teenager to complete his own set was somewhere around $1,500. Then the one he bought about 1985 and then later notoriously trimmed was a $25,000 card. They had value back then, but nothing compared to what they are today after the explosion of the internet hobby could pass the legend along to the masses. As crappy as what Mastro did is, it's only further fuel to the fire in terms of the legend and will keep all Wagners - and particularly that one - going up up up in value every single time it's sold.

It's ironic to me that the single most valuable and famous baseball card in the world is trimmed / altered, and still in a PSA 8 slab. One of my prized possessions is a '56 Mantle with a bum lower right corner because many years ago, I scratched a stain off of it and thus "altered" it in the eyes of many grading companies. Anyhow, I think of the Wagner now and try not to give myself such a hard time about it....


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[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by TCMA

When my dad obtained his first Wagner in 1972 he immediately called my mother from a pay phone. He found it among T206's he purchased in a large lot for twenty cents each. It was also one of the last cards he needed to complete the set, so he was pretty excited.



He held that one until 1974 when he upgraded to a better one and sold off the original. Here they are below:

First Wagner (the trimmed one) looks like the same that Keith Olbermann can be found showing ballplayers at Citi Field in a YouTube video. The second appears to be what's known as the "jumbo Wagner" that is PSA 5 MC. Which likely looks very similar to the way the Gretzky / McNall / Gidwitz / Walmart / now Ken Kendrick PSA 8 Wagner looked before good old Bill Mastro put it under the exacto knife.

Is the PSA 5 jumbo given the "MC" designation because it's oversized (even thought that was natural and it was not "cut" per se...)? If so seems a bit odd to me that it's the card labeled "MC" while the PSA 8 Wagner still resides in a plastic tomb with no qualifiers. That one by the way has been re-stabbed at least once - photos of the original PSA case exist from the early 1990's where the 0's in the serial number have slashes through them...

Again, if you are missing my point it's just interesting to me that the most famous and valuable baseball card in the world is to at least some extent a total fraud - and that the first card PSA ever graded doesn't even meet their own professed standards. I guess what is "good for the hobby" has to be taken into consideration, and at the end of the day it's all the more interesting as part of the Wagner card's lore...


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[Joshwesley]

At this point IMO.... it's not going to matter what happens to the Gretzky/D-backs Wagner.... stories and time only add to its legend and value.

The card is unflappable.... sort of like Trump... doesn't matter what he says/does.. his poll numbers are gonna go up.. (not to bring politics into the thread) lol

That Honus is untouchable.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

First Wagner (the trimmed one) looks like the same that Keith Olbermann can be found showing ballplayers at Citi Field in a YouTube video.

Correct! It is one and the same .

Originally Posted by jchcollins

The second appears to be what's known as the "jumbo Wagner" that is PSA 5 MC.

Also correct!

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Is the PSA 5 jumbo given the "MC" designation because it's oversized (even thought that was natural and it was not "cut" per se...)? If so seems a bit odd to me that it's the card labeled "MC" while the PSA 8 Wagner still resides in a plastic tomb with no qualifiers.

And can't it be argued that there's a "10" within those oversized borders of the Jumbo Wagner?

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Again, if you are missing my point it's just interesting to me that the most famous and valuable baseball card in the world is to at least some extent a total fraud - and that the first card PSA ever graded doesn't even meet their own professed standards.

Makes ya wonder, doesn't it .

[Exhibitman]

I'd have to sell it; I have a child about to start college. Even a low grade card would pay for her entire education in one shot.

As for the eternal garage sale question: of course I would purchase it quietly and not say a word to the seller. I know it is considered good form to say that I would pass on the sale if the situation actually arose; I just happen to be crass and craven and brazen enough to admit unapologetically that that is never gonna happen. I am not going to throw away a winning lottery ticket that someone else did not know enough to cash. Knowledge is power. Same as eBay; if you don't understand what you are selling, don't sell it. I bought a shoebox collection last weekend at a garage sale. Turned out that the seller or someone acting with the seller had gone through the box and pulled every star. All I ended up with were two Bert Blyleven cards and a few junk wax era HOFers that I didn't have before. Should the seller have told me that the box had been picked over? Nope. My duty to figure it out. I didn't have the time to go through a couple thousand cards on the spot and the price was low enough that I figured it was akin to a pack bust of junk wax. I ended up stuck with a box of worthless commons, so the seller got the better of the deal. If there'd been a Wagner in that box, I'd have been the fortunate one.