Wagner T206 Auctioned in 1981

[insidethewrapper]

I found this item in the July 31, 1981 SCD. The Wagner item description was interesting in this Lew Lipset Auction :

[Vegas-guy]

Haha... "trim to a mint card"

[bnorth]

That's some rare honest advertising.

[toppcat]

Lew's Ex+ to Ex-Mt = VG at best

[Fred]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Lew's Ex+ to Ex-Mt = VG at best

"Watch you talkin bout Willis?" I don't even want to have to explain that quote...

Are you saying that Lew was a little "generous" in his grading?

Tell you what, just reading the auction ad makes a lot of us salivate... I would love to see the final hammer on the items in that auction. Back then, the final hammer prices may have seemed a bit outrageous, but today, we'd all call them a steal.

Makes you wonder if this is "the" Gretzky/McNall Wagner that is also PSA cert number 000000001. If so, does that mean that someone with a last name that starts with "M" was the winner of the auction?

[swarmee]

Wouldn't that more likely be the Jumbo Wagner that's a PSA 5(MC) for being oversized?
I thought the Mastro Wagner was cut down from a strip of 5.

[bbcard1]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Lew's Ex+ to Ex-Mt = VG at best

Lew was quite a pioneer and we should be grateful for his endeavors, but his grading could be a couple of full grades off. Never in the right direction.

[insidethewrapper]

I'm sure if I sent in that card it would come back "ungradable" due to size.

[benjulmag]

The Wagner that is the subject of this thread is owned by and currently on display at the HOF. It sold in Lew's auction in 1981 for $25,011, which at the time was the highest price ever paid for a baseball card. It subsequently ended up in Barry Halper's collection, where it resided until MLB bought a portion of the collection for $8M and gave it to the HOF.

I would grade the card ex to ex+. It is significantly oversized, and has the best corners of any unaltered T206 Wagner (though one of the corners might have a crease). It is a gorgeous Wagner!