Honus Wagner T206 Card Sells for $5.124 Million After 116 Years in Same Family
The Shields family T206 Honus Wagner card sold for $5. 124 million, making it the third-highest public sale of a T206 Wagner and the most valuable PSA 1 example of the card. The card had been kept in the same family for 116 years and was featured on a recent streaming series that documented its consignment to auction.
Honus Wagner: the Shields family discovery and the auction result
The card was part of a framed collection inherited from Morton Bernstein, who removed the Wagner from a Sweet Caporal cigarette pack in the early 1900s. Bernstein, who owned a silver manufacturing plant, assembled a collection that was passed down through generations and preserved by his grandsons, Dennis and Douglas Shields. After the framed collection was opened, the Wagner card received a PSA 1 grade and was consigned to an auction house after being featured on the streaming series.
The final hammer price of $5. 124 million places this Shields family example as the third-most expensive T206 Wagner ever publicly recorded and establishes a new high for a PSA 1 graded T206 Wagner. The sale is notable because the card had not been visible to the collecting community for more than a century while it remained in the family’s care.
Why the PSA 1 grade and historical rarity matter for Honus Wagner
The card received a PSA 1 grade after removal from the framed collection. Of the 36 T206 Wagner examples graded by that particular grading company, 10 carry a 1 grade. Combining the tallies from the main grading companies leaves only 53 total examples graded across the two major services referenced in recent coverage. That small population helps explain why individual examples command multimillion-dollar prices even in low numerical grades.
The T206 Wagner was pulled from production in 1909 at the player's request. Different explanations for the withdrawal exist in historical materials: some attribute it to the player’s opposition to being associated with cigarettes, while others cite concerns about outside parties profiting from his image. Regardless of the reason, the production halt made surviving examples especially scarce and highly prized.
Market context, public sales and what comes next
Since 2015, there have been 16 publicly known T206 Wagner sales of at least $1 million. A 17th sale is on track to join that group as an example graded below a 1 grade by another grading service carries a bid of $2. 32 million with seven days remaining in that auction cycle. Recent transactions and auction interest demonstrate continued appetite in the market for the T206 Wagner, across a range of conditions and grading outcomes.
The Shields family sale also drew attention because the card’s long private history was documented on a streaming series, bringing a previously unaccounted example into the public eye. The family has described holding the cards for sentimental reasons tied to their grandfather’s passion for the hobby.
What the sale means for collectors and the T206 narrative
This sale reinforces that provenance and story can affect demand as much as condition. A century-plus family history, an appearance on a national streaming program, and a formal PSA 1 grade combined to produce a record-setting outcome for that grade tier. Collectors and market watchers will likely track the approaching auctions and the rising membership of the million-dollar club for this iconic cardboard piece of sporting history.
Details around recent and pending sales continue to evolve; public bidding activity and future consignments will determine how this sale influences price benchmarks for different grade levels of the T206 Wagner going forward.
