I was an intern at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Pretty much everything in the museum -- from the hundreds of plaques honoring each Hall of Famer to the off-display 1919 promissory note between the Yankees and the Red Sox regarding some guy named Babe Ruth -- brought out my inner baseball nerdiness and took my interest of the game's history to the highest levels possible.
But nothing -- not a game-worn Babe Ruth jersey, not George Brett's pine tar bat, not even Brad Lidge's 2008 World Series hat which was worn during the greatest moment of my time as a baseball fan -- made my jaw drop as much as an innocent little piece of cardboard.
The holy grail. The T206 Honus Wagner card. The most valuable baseball card in existence... until August of 2020.
One of the few T206 Wagner's sold for $3.12 million in 2016, then a record for baseball card sales and an absolutely obscene amount for anyone who doesn't appreciate the mystical and almost idol-like quality of the piece of baseball memorabilia. But a recent sale of a signed Mike Trout rookie card completely blew that price out of the water (h/t Matt Kelly of MLB.com).
2020 has already been a year where we've seen baseball card records shattered, though the record set by the Trout card contains a slightly larger amount of money. However, the other record is nothing to shrug off: after all, it's not even a baseball player that is featured on Topps Now's highest-selling card of all time.
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The surefire Hall of Famer has grown a lot the past two seasons, as he continues to pile more and more accolades onto his already-impressive resume. So too, as "Vegas Dave" Oancea is well aware, has the value of his baseball card. Matt Kelly shares that Oancea bought the $3.9 million card in question for "only" $400 thousand two years ago.
Not a bad pay day for a little 2.5-inch by 3.5-inch piece of baseball memorabilia.
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- Signed Michael Jordan Rookie Card Sells for Record Price
- Signed LeBron James Rookie Jersey Card Could Be Worth $1 Million at Auction
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