LOS ANGELES - The 'Holy Grail of baseball cards,' the famous 1909Honus Wagner tobacco card once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky,has sold for a record-setting $2,350,000, the seller of the cardsaid.
The anonymous buyer has only been identified as a SouthernCalifornia collector. SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sportsmemorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card. It isscheduled to be shown at a news conference at Dodger Stadium today.
There are about 60 of the tobacco cards in existence featuring thePittsburgh Pirates shortstop, one of the first five players to beinducted in Baseball's Hall of Fame.
The seller, Brian Seigel, paid a then-record $1,265,000 in 2000for the prize card, which is in much better shape than the others.
'This particular one was preserved in spectacular condition,' saidJoe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator ofNewport Beach - the company that certified the authenticity of thecard. 'It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards.'
Still, the Wagner cards are so rare that even tattered ones willsell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Seigel said.
The others 'you could stick in the middle of the street and letcars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumpleit up, and it still would be a $100,000 card,' said Seigel, CEO ofEmerald Capital LLC, an asset management company, who lives in LasVegas.
Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings,bought the card for $451,000 in 1991.
