Does Diamondbacks owner's vaunted $2.8 million Honus Wagner baseball card have a secret flaw?
Apr 17, 2010, 11:45 AM EDT
Honus Wagner: still dead. But he’s worth $2.8 million to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who just recently revealed that, yes, he owns a small piece of cardboard for which he paid nearly three million clams. That’s the 1909 Wagner baseball card from the T206 collection — they call it the Holy Grail of baseball cards — which Kendrick purchased from former pitcher Tom Candiotti in 2006 (among previous owners are Wayne Gretzky and former LA Kings owner Bruce McNall). That’s $2.8 million, sealed in plastic, just relaxing in Kendrick’s safe deposit box. Yeah, suck it, Haiti.
But now Kendrick wants to shout to the world about his “precious.” So he called a press conference to announce that he’s loaning the card, along with 24 others in his collection — to the Baseball Hall of Fame for exhibition. Now it’s the King Tut of baseball cards, I suppose. Only this relic may have an imperfection of which Kendrick is unaware. To explain, here’s MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who is a noted baseball card expert:
“Well, there’s a secret he probably doesn’t know,” Olbermann, host of MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, told Out of Bounds. “Before McNall bought the card, he was advised by several experts that there was a lot of evidence that the card had been trimmed to improve its condition. That is an opinion I share.”
To the uninitiated, altering a vintage baseball card is somewhat of a blasphemy, but more to the point, decreases its worth. From a June, 2007 article in the New York Daily News:
Photos from a hobby insider that show what Alan Ray, a New York-area collector who sold the card to memorabilia king Bill Mastro in 1985, has been saying for years: The card was cut from a sheet and later doctored to enhance its appearance and value.
The photos raise new questions about the true value of the card, which was purchased this winter by a Southern California businessman who wants to remain anonymous.
The T206 collection got its name from a factory worker who cataloged cards and assigned a “T” to 20th century tobacco cards, according to the Hall of Fame. The Arizona Republic:
The 1909 set included Wagner, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who made his card valuable by demanding it be pulled from distribution shortly after it was released. The second most valuable card in existence, based on quality and rarity, is an Eddie Plank card from the same year. Kendrick has both.
Oops; that’s wrong as well, according to Olbermann:
“The article is also mistaken — the Plank card is not the second most expensive card — it is not even the second most expensive within the T206 set. That honor belongs to a variation card of Joe Doyle, listing him with ‘N.Y. Nat’l’ rather than just ‘N.Y.’ “
That would be the 1910 Piedmont Cigarettes T206 Joe Doyle, “Hands Above Head” card.
The collection that Kendrick is loaning to Cooperstown also includes rare Hank Aaron, Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Jackie Robinson cards. And if you’re jealous of Kendrick, fear not. You, too, can own a Honus Wagner T206.
“There are probably 100 Wagners out there,” Olbermann said, “and there is almost always at least one for sale.”
***
Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick reveals $2.8 million secret Honus Wagner card [Arizona Republic]
Kids’ All-Star Quest Powered By Pirates’ Ancestors [SportsbyBrooks]
Just can’t cut it [New York Daily News]
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- 60eagles - Apr 17, 2010 at 10:29 PM
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CorkedBat56 you seem to rely on internet and news papers too often. Just how in the hell did they prove the card was trimmed without taking it of of the PSA holder. This argument is too stupid for me to cemment further.
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- oberman is a used tampon - Apr 18, 2010 at 12:20 AM
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oberman is a moron. his liberal followers are idiots. this nov. things will start to change when the majority of america speaks and removes the pelousy, reid and all the rest of the socialists from congress. then in 2012 we can get rid of the anti-christ and then he can go and lead the EU or something. they probably love his policies. but america don’t! we don’t like his policies. we don’t like him. we don’t like what he stands for and what he is doing to our country.
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- CrawDaddy_in_DC - Apr 18, 2010 at 2:37 PM
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See…yet another cryin’ crybaby. STOP yer CRYIN’. Pitiful…just plain sad. “socialists from congress. then in 2012 we can get rid of the anti-christ”. You must be smokin’ for your glaucoma problems…too much wacky weed. STOP it. Get over it. Your kind of ilk is going the way of the Dodo. Don’t hate the fact that Keith can make folly out of your RNC, TeaParty, witch of the North, etc. He just makes news funny. Don’t cry cause you can’t see it. As for the card, I’ll take the gum, you keep the card.
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- Right of right - Apr 19, 2010 at 3:02 PM
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No, it’s left wing-nut. The word “wing” describes the type of “nut” and therefore the hyphen goes between those two words.
Maybe you should spend more time trying to figure out why you and your ilk are so hell-bent on trying to destroy this country with your me-me, self-entitled, socialist ideology and less time trying to sound intelligent, when clearly you are not.
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- Right of right - Apr 19, 2010 at 3:09 PM
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Sorry, Bucko, but you’re dead wrong. If a word can stand on its own such as “bag” or “nut”, and you add another word in front of it that describes a specific type of bag or nut, then a hyphen does indeed go between those words.
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- Right of right - Apr 19, 2010 at 3:23 PM
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Until you donate and have sacrificed everything you have for Haiti and are living in a shelter or under a bridge in a cardboard box, shut up.
If he wants to spend millions on a baseball card then more power to him because guess what? It’s his millions to spend! Now I know that’s a difficult concept for you democrats to comprehend with your parasitic mentality, but believe it or not you really DO NOT have any right to a percentage of the money earned by hard-working “real” Americans.
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- scotty p - Apr 24, 2010 at 2:58 PM
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Get off the sports blog and go back to your sicko bookstore
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- Baseball Card Mark - Apr 29, 2010 at 12:24 PM
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Wow, I thought the REAL autor of the article was Rick Chandler so how did Big Mike take over?
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- Tony Metler - May 11, 2010 at 10:30 AM
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I don’t see what the fuss is about. I always thought a little trim was a good idea.
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- Skids - May 14, 2010 at 1:06 PM
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Say what you all want to about Big Mike, he’s right about one thing. Olbermann is a fool, right or left wing, he is nothing but a washed up sports announcer now trying to show everyone how smart he is, and he’s not. He’s a jerk off.
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- tcco007 - May 15, 2010 at 11:34 AM
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No worries, just another member of the Tea Party who can’t spell or communicate properly due to education cuts they asked for in Congress.
