Incredibly rare Honus Wagner bats $105,000 during event that sees record numbers for Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and signed Walter Payton card, among others
DALLAS, Texas (July 15, 2024) – Heritage Auctions’ long, hot sports summer heated up over the weekend when the two-day Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction realized $8,717,622 thanks to some surprise scores from numerous All-Star offerings. The nearly sold-out event, which drew more than 2,400 bidders worldwide, proved the perfect set-up for the hotly anticipated August 23-25 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, which counts among its numerous Hall of Fame-worthy treasures Babe Ruth’s Called Shot jersey and opens for bidding in less than two weeks.
One of Ruth’s fellow inaugural Hall of Famers, Honus Wagner, called his shot in the Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction, with his 1911 M110 Sporting Life Cabinets card graded PSA EX 5 – the highest graded example in the world, standing all alone – realizing $105,000. Sporting Life Cabinets from 1911 look like the T3 Turkey Reds, but they’re far more scarce – and far more fragile, which accounts for their sparse population.
PSA has seen just 18 Wagners – and even fewer Ty Cobbs, with only 15 in the population report featuring another member of that first Hall of Fame class. No wonder, then, that a 1911 M110 Sporting Life Cabinets Cobb graded VG-EX 4 realized $75,000 over the weekend. It’s just one of two examples at that grade, with none higher. There were six players in the whole series, with only 64 total in the population report. Two other rare survivors likewise saw impressive results over the weekend: A Christy Mathewson graded PSA VG-EX 4 sold for $33,600, while a Frank Chance graded PSA EX 5 realized $30,000.
This auction features two of the most sought-after Portrait-Red Ty Cobb T206s from the same period. One, the El Principe de Gales Cobb graded PSA NM 7, realized $84,000, befitting its status as the highest-graded example of a card seldom seen at auction. The other was the American Beauty Portrait-Red Cobb, the lone PSA EX-MT 6 in existence and, like its Cuban cigarette counterpart, the highest-graded example. It sold for $75,000.
“This auction was a great example of the overall strength and depth of the sports card market, with solid results across the board,” says Heritage’s Director of Sports Auctions, Chris Ivy. “Everything proved a big hit during this auction: singles and sets and sealed wax, high-grade and mid-grade, vintage and modern, set registry singles and low-population rarities.”
Speaking of: One of the auction’s headliners is a card traditionally sold for a few hundred dollars in near-mint and mint condition: the 1960 Topps Willie Mays & Bill Rigney (Master & Mentor). PSA has seen more than 1,800 examples of this card. But only one has ever been deemed a Gem Mint 10. That one sold in this auction for a staggering $40,800.
One of the most obscure offerings in this auction – a 1962 Pittsburgh Exhibits Sandy Koufax (7 Of Diamonds) – likewise realized an extraordinary sum when a PSA VG 3 sold for $27,000.The grade might not seem impressive until you discover that this postcard-sized card featuring the Left Hand of God is the only one ever graded by PSA – a true one-of-one in an auction filled with exceptional rarities.
Two-time All-Star pitching great Bob Veale, who once made an uncredited start as a Birmingham Black Baron, doesn’t often find himself included in post-auction recaps: Heritage has sold fewer than two dozen of his cards over the years, with the top-seller (until now) a Gem Mint 10 1965 Topps NL Strikeout Leaders card that also featured Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale and realized $2,280. But over the weekend, Veale scored an incredible feat: His lone 1966 Topps card to receive a grade of PSA Gem Mint 10 sold for a breathtaking $32,400.
Other Gem Mint 10s from that set, including the 1966 Harmon Killebrew, also reached uncharted territory over the weekend when one of two cards to get that grade sold for $28,000. Only two years ago, a PSA NM-MT 8 from that set sold for $222. And the sole Gem Mint 10 1966 Eddie Mathews sold for $31,200. Just last year, a Mint 9 realized $408.
Baseball players weren’t the only big scorers in this auction: A 1976 Topps Walter Payton rookie offering is among the most coveted cards in The Hobby. But over the weekend, Heritage sold a signed example for $34,800 to become the most valuable autographed slab of Sweetness Heritage has ever offered.
Click here for complete results from the July 12-13 Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction.
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