T206 Honus Wagner baseball card will be sold by Philip Weiss Auctions, November 22-23

Oct. 3, 2008 - PRLog -- (Oceanside, N.Y.) - A coveted T206 Honus Wagner baseball card – often called the Holy Grail or Mona Lisa of sports collectibles – will be sold as part of a huge weekend multi-estate sale planned for Nov. 22-23 by Philip Weiss Auctions. Nov. 22 will be dedicated mainly to sports memorabilia; Nov. 23 will feature comic collectibles and original comic art. In all, nearly 1,000 lots will change hands.
   “This will be our greatest sports sale ever,” Philip Weiss said of the first day of the sale. “The Honus Wagner card, which we expect will bring $500,000-$800,000, comes from the original owner's family and has never before been offered on the market. It is SGC graded 3, and that's the only thing keeping it from being worth much more.” A similar card graded SGC 8 sold for $2.8 million last year.
   The Nov. 22 session will also feature a collection of original-owner T205 and T206 cards, to include a highly prized Ray Demmitt error card. The Honus Wagner card was issued as part of the T206 series (1909-1911) by the American Tobacco Company. The cards were inserted into packs of cigarettes as a promotion, but Wagner – a non-smoker – refused to allow production of his own card to continue.  
   As a result, only around 200 Honus Wagner cards were ever distributed to the public. In 1933, the card got its first assigned value ($50) in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time. The card that sold for $2.8 million was once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who paid $451,000 for it in 1991. He sold it for $1.2 million.
   Two transactions later, the card soared to $2.8 million – still a record for any sports card. The card has become so famous that in an episode of the television series Prison Break, a thief gets five years for stealing a Honus Wagner T206 card (it was considered a felony, because of the card's worth). Honus Wagner is one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, playing 21 seasons, mostly with Pittsburgh.
   Speaking of baseball, other items to be offered in the Nov. 22 session include a PSA-certified bat signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; a contest bat signed by Ruth, from the original owner; an archive of Ty Cobb letters, written to a lady friend he was courting; a large Babe Ruth photo that once hung in Yankee Stadium; a Babe Ruth signed baseball from 1927; and team-signed balls from the '50s.
   Horse racing enthusiasts will be excited to learn of a fresh-to-the-market collection of items from the estate of Willie Shoemaker, arguably the best and most famous jockey of all time. Featured will be trophies and other items, such as his 1959 Belmont Stakes sterling silver trophy, when he rode Sword Dancer; and a 1961 sterling cocktail shaker trophy, when he rode Sherluck; plus other items.
   Other Willie Shoemaker items that will cross the block on Nov. 22:
1961 sterling tray, for Cicada.
1961 Frizette Stakes sterling ice bucket, for Cicada.
1962 Beldame sterling cocoa pot trophy, for Cicada.
1967 Woodward Stakes sterling water pitcher trophy, for Damascus.
1967 August Belmont memorial cup, for Damascus.
1957 Travers Gallant Man sterling cup.
Hollywood Turf Club 4,000th win award (May 19, 1961).
7,000th victory tray, Santa Anita (March 14, 1976).
1976 sterling tray for the Hollywood Park All-Star Jockey Race.
1976 silver tray, for King Pellinore.
1963 Kentucky Derby participation trophy, for Candy Spots.
Riding crop from the 1970 World's Record Race at Del Mar, 4th race, Dare's J.
A hand print in silver velvet of Shoemaker.  
   Rounding out the expected top lots in the Nov. 22 session are an important collection of trotting broadsides and lithographs (depicting trotting horses), including Currier & Ives; historical memorabilia, to include a jacket that once belonged to General Pershing; a portion of a trophy that may have been presented to Lou Gehrig for breaking Everett Scott's consecutive game streak in 1933; and other items.
   The Nov. 23 session will feature two fresh-to-the-market comic art collections that include three original Charles Schulz Peanuts strips and Prince Valiant cover art by Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy. The day will also include a Herriman Krazy Kat daily; a Felix the Cat Sunday page; a Segar Popeye; and an archive of 1950s DC comic pages, including pages from Superman and World's Finest.
   Also set to cross the block on Nov. 23 are several Wayne Boring Superman dailies; a high-grade copy of Famous Funnies #1; and other comic books and big little books. Rare books and autographs include an important Frank Lloyd Wright letter regarding the building of the Guggenheim Museum, with initialed plans by Wright. Also, a Louis Vuitton trunk from the Guggenheim family will be sold.
   The start time for both auction days is 10 a.m. Previews will be held all day Friday, Nov. 21, and in the morning on the date of sale, starting at 8 a.m. A sizable crowd is expected at Philip Weiss Auctions' showroom, located at #1 Neil Court in Oceanside, N.Y. Online bidding will be facilitated by eBay Live Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.com. Phone, e-mail and absentee bids will also be accepted.
   Philip Weiss Auctions will conclude the year with a sale in December (time and date to be announced) that will feature the ice cream and soda fountain collection of Ken Allisburg. Included will be dispensers, store displays, trays, signs and other advertising. Toys and trains will also be offfered.
   Philip Weiss Auctions is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign an item, estate or collection, you may call them directly, at (516) 594-0731, or you can e-mail them at phil@prwauctions.com. To learn more about the firm and its calendar of upcoming sales, and to view images of some lots to be offered in the Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 sales, click on www.prwauctions.com.

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Ken Hall writes pre-sale and post-sale press releases for auction houses, for a fee ($250 US$). He writes, submits and tracks stories for clients. Submissions are published in trade magazines, posted on industry websites and appear in local newspapers.