Analysis. History. Perspective.

Sports Then and Now



The Most Sought After Baseball Collectibles 3

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Mark Geddes

Memorabilia has become a cornerstone of modern sports. It takes but a minute of entering a stadium to be inundated with concession stands and vendors hawking the latest merchandise. Fans collect, display, and sell these in an ever-growing marketplace. But things were not always this way.

Sports collectibles were an afterthought in the past. These throwaway items were given out in a box of cereal or a pack of cigarettes. As people discarded these items that ended up stored in attics with other junk, their scarcity created higher prices. Below are some of the rarest and most sought-after collectibles in sports.

Honus Wagner Baseball Card

Ask any baseball card collector what the industry’s crown jewel is, and they’ll immediately zero in on the infamous T206 Honus Wagner. This card was produced by the American Tobacco Company back in 1909 and had a limited release. A recent sale of this card in 2016 went for over $3 million.

What makes this card so unique is its rarity. While the company produced thousands of cards, very few Honus Wagner ones went into circulation due to a rumored financial dispute. Even fewer are in existence today.

For fans of the card, Topps did reissue it in 2002 and 2020. But don’t expect to fetch the same price.

Read the rest of this entry →
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