Baseball Card Sells For $2.35M

Buyer Of Rare 1909 Honus Wagner Card Is Southern California Collector

(AP)  The "Holy Grail of baseball cards," the famous 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has sold for a record-setting $2.35 million, the seller of the card said Monday.

The buyer has only been identified as a Southern California collector. SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sports memorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card.

There are about 60 of the tobacco cards in existence featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, one of the first five players to be inducted in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

The seller, Brian Seigel, in 2000 paid a then-record $1,265,000 for the prize card, which is in much better shape than the others.

"This particular one was preserved in spectacular condition," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach - the company that certified the authenticity of the card. "It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards."

Still, the Wagner cards are so rare that even tattered ones will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Seigel said.

The others "you could stick in middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card," said Seigel, CEO of Emerald Capital LLC, an asset management company, who lives in Las Vegas.

Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings, bought the card for $451,000 in 1991.

During his ownership of the card, Seigel displayed it at several sports collectible shows, showed it at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and brought it to opening bell ceremonies for the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York.

"The Wagner card gave me a tremendous amount of pride, excitement and pleasure," he said. "I hope the new owner will have the same satisfaction I enjoyed over the years."

The tobacco cards used to be included in packs of cigarettes. Collectors believe Wagner's cards are rare because he stopped allowing the American Tobacco Co. to use his image, fearing it would encourage children to smoke.

Nicknamed the "Flying Dutchman," Wagner was the National League batting champion in eight of his 21 seasons and finished his career with a lifetime .329 average. He retired in 1917 with more hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples and steals than any National League player.

[cdegolier]

Agnim, what does anything you said have to do with the story. Please find something better to do with your time.

[cdegolier]

Agnim, what does anything you said have to do with the story. Please find something better to do with your time.

[agnim]

U.S. Urged to Reveal Whereabouts of Prisoners Held in Secret Jails

More information has come to light about the CIA's network of secret overseas prisons. A Palestinian man named Marwan Jabour has told Human Rights Watch that he was held in a secret US prison in Afghanistan for nearly two years. According to Jabour, his clothes were taken from him when he arrived at the prison. He was left completely naked for a month and a half. He was chained tightly to the wall of his small cell so that he could not stand up. He was placed in painful stress positions so that he had difficulty breathing. And he was told that if he did not cooperate he would be put in a suffocating %u201Cdog box.%u201D For two years Jabour spent nearly all of his time alone in a windowless cell, with little human contact besides his captors. Jabour said, %u201CIt was a grave. I felt like my life was over.%u201D Based in part on information provided by Jabour, Human Rights Watch has released the names of 38 men believed to have been held in secret CIA prisons who have since disappeared. The group is calling on President Bush to account for the disappeared %u2013 all of whom are Muslim men

ANY AMERICANS?

[anopinion1]

i have collected cards to when i was younger.....
but in all reality
THIS IS A FRIGGIN PIECE OF CARDBOARD.........
the money from this whole thing could be used in a far better fashon.

and godseyesore i have never commited a crime and probably never will.......

was just saying these people need a damm life and need to stop masturbating to old baseball cards.....

[delta5243]

back when I collected baseball cards witha a passion I had a remember looking at pictures of this card for hours lol and to anopinion1, you are a complete moron...period, and to tom_gwynn, I couldn't agree more.

[tom_gwynn]

Why would you want to do that? Because you're a mean, sadistic jerk with no respect for history, or are you just dumb?

I say kudos to Mr. Wagner, who was clearly a man of principle in his day, refusining to allow his image to be used to lure kids into a lethal habit.

[anopinion1]

god would i love to take a match to that card with the owner sitting their helpless.........
then slap him across the face for being an idiot