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97-409: The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. The card's odd texture and shape led to speculation that it was altered. The Gretzky T206 Wagner was first sold by Alan Ray to baseball memorabilia collector Bill Mastro, who sold the card two years later to Jim Copeland for nearly four times the price he had originally paid. Copeland's sizable transaction revitalized interest in

194-405: A mint condition 1909 T206 Honus Wager baseball card, with a Piedmont cigarette brand back, at a Sotheby's auction. The card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner" to the public. The Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company graded this card a PSA 8 Near Mint-Mint (NM-MT) on their 10-point scale, the highest grade given to a T206 Honus Wagner card. Bill Hughes was the official grader of

291-399: A "master pressman with 5–10 years experience, and would require a machine which would cost between $ 500,000 and $ 2 million." Afterwards, an appraiser named Bob Connelly valued the card at $ 850,000, based on the two previous paper analysis reports. In November 2005, Cobb and Edwards put the card up for sale on eBay. They had to shut down the sale, however, because Connelly only agreed to appraise

388-583: A $ 100,000 deposit to iEscrow.com in order to be pre-approved to make bids for the card. On July 15, the card was sold to Brian Seigel, a collector from California, for $ 1.265 million (equivalent to $ 2.238 million in 2023). In February 2007, the Associated Press announced that Seigel had sold the card privately and directly to an anonymous collector from Southern California for $ 2.35 million (equivalent to $ 3.453 million in 2023). Less than six months later, on September 6, 2007, SCP Auctions announced that

485-404: A CTP ( computer-to-plate ) device known as a platesetter. The positive image is the emulsion that remains after imaging. Non-image portions of the emulsion have traditionally been removed by a chemical process, though in recent times, plates have become available that do not require such processing. The plate is affixed to a cylinder on a printing press. Dampening rollers apply water, which covers

582-536: A New Jersey cardiologist, who immediately agreed to buy the card for the same price. On December 20, 2010, after taking its 19.5 percent buyer's premium, the auction house sent $ 220,000 by bank wire to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The religious order had already announced that the proceeds from the sale would go to its ministries in more than 30 countries. It is currently on display in the Rally Rd Showroom in

679-426: A brushed or roughened texture and are covered with a photosensitive emulsion . A photographic negative of the desired image is placed in contact with the emulsion and the plate is exposed to ultraviolet light . After development, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image, which is thus a duplicate of the original (positive) image. The image on the plate emulsion can also be created by direct laser imaging in

776-504: A card count of 1 sold in August 2020 for a new record of $ 3.93   million (equivalent to $ 4.63 million in 2023), and pushed further back by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $ 5.2   million (equivalent to $ 8.11 million in 2023) in November 2020, until another T206 Wagner sold for $ 6.6   million (equivalent to $ 7.42 million in 2023) in August 2021, returning

873-531: A center, and some of Géricault's prints were in fact produced there. Goya in Bordeaux produced his last series of prints by lithography— The Bulls of Bordeaux of 1828. By the mid-century the initial enthusiasm had somewhat diminished in both countries, although the use of lithography was increasingly favored for commercial applications, which included the prints of Daumier , published in newspapers. Rodolphe Bresdin and Jean-François Millet also continued to practice

970-503: A cigar baseball trading card in 1899 and a newspaper ad for Murad cigarettes during the 1909 World Series . Another explanation surmised is that Wagner did not consent because he felt he was not receiving just compensation from the ATC for his baseball card. Wagner had a history of being a tough negotiator; he had announced his retirement from baseball in December 1907, but returned shortly before

1067-475: A new plea agreement. Mastro was released in May 2017. A similar but unaltered card, the 'Jumbo Wagner' , also has a NM-MT grade quality for the majority of the card, but the lower quality edges have not been trimmed, lowering it from NM-MT to an overall grade of PSA 5 – one of only three (along with Mastro's trimmed card) rated PSA 5 or better – sold at a 2013 auction for $ 2,105,770.50. The Honus Wagner card

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1164-415: A printing technology, lithography is different from intaglio printing (gravure), wherein a plate is engraved , etched , or stippled to score cavities to contain the printing ink; and woodblock printing or letterpress printing , wherein ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images. Lithography uses simple chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image

1261-506: A professional player, are valued by collectors. Rookie cards are often considered by collectors to be the most desirable kind of trading cards. At the Olympic Games , there is a thriving market for collectible lapel pins . Various pins representing media organizations, sponsors, athletes, nations, and mascots are distributed, and athletes and attendees often engage in pin trading amongst themselves to collect them. The tradition began at

1358-553: A result of the publicity generated from the financially successful Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner, a number of previously undiscovered legitimate T206 Wagner cards have surfaced. There are fewer than 60 authenticated Wagner cards in existence. An authentic card is part of the Leopold Morse Goulston Baseball Collection in The New York Public Library 's George Arents Collection. An authentic card

1455-521: A rubber blanket , which squeezes away the water, picks up the ink and transfers it to the paper with uniform pressure. The paper passes between the blanket cylinder and a counter-pressure or impression cylinder and the image is transferred to the paper. Because the image is first transferred, or offset to the rubber blanket cylinder, this reproduction method is known as offset lithography or offset printing . Many innovations and technical refinements have been made in printing processes and presses over

1552-553: A single sale, through Mastro. Mastro contacted Sotheby's , the renowned New York auction house, and asked them to accept the Copeland memorabilia collection on consignment . Sotheby's advertised Copeland's items as the "Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia" to attract hobbyists and other potential clients. The March 1991 auction attracted nearly 800 collectors who were interested in purchasing some of Copeland's rare memorabilia. The bidding prices far exceeded

1649-428: A substantial amount of money at the time (approximately equal to $ 325 in 2024), if he refused authorization for monetary reasons. The ATC had already produced a number of T206 Honus Wagner baseball cards; the exact number is unknown, but is speculated to be between 50 and 200. They stopped production of the card, however, after Wagner denied authorization. In 1991, National Hockey League player Wayne Gretzky purchased

1746-695: A width of 1 + 7 ⁄ 16 inches (3.65 cm) and a height of 2 + 5 ⁄ 8 inches (6.67 cm). Some cards were awkwardly shaped or irregularly sized, which prompted a belief that many of the cards in the series had been altered at one point or another. In his work Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set , Scot A. Reader wrote that "[i]t is not at all uncommon to find T206 examples that have been altered at some point during their near-century of existence." These discrepancies were taken advantage of by so-called "card doctors", who trimmed corners and dirty edges to improve

1843-483: Is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone ( lithographic limestone ) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German author and actor Alois Senefelder and was initially used mostly for musical scores and maps. Lithography can be used to print text or images onto paper or other suitable material. A lithograph

1940-488: Is a water-repelling (" hydrophobic ") substance, while the negative image would be water-retaining ("hydrophilic"). Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible printing ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows a flat print plate to be used, enabling much longer and more detailed print runs than the older physical methods of printing (e.g., intaglio printing, letterpress printing). Lithography

2037-514: Is also called an ink pyramid because the ink is transferred through several layers of rollers with different purposes. Fast lithographic 'web' printing presses are commonly used in newspaper production. The advent of desktop publishing made it possible for type and images to be modified easily on personal computers for eventual printing by desktop or commercial presses. The development of digital imagesetters enabled print shops to produce negatives for platemaking directly from digital input, skipping

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2134-514: Is an elaboration of lithography in which the ink is transferred from the plate to the paper indirectly by means of a rubber plate or cylinder, rather than by direct contact. This technique keeps the paper dry and allows fully automated high-speed operation. It has mostly replaced traditional lithography for medium- and high-volume printing: since the 1960s, most books and magazines, especially when illustrated in colour, are printed with offset lithography from photographically created metal plates. As

2231-567: Is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 2010, a rare Honus Wagner was found in a box left by the brother of Sister Virginia Muller, who left all her possessions to the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame . The card came with her brother's handwritten note: "Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!" The Roman Catholic nuns auctioned

2328-403: Is not a fake and, due to its excellent condition, should fetch over $ 1 million in an auction. Cobb and Edwards also have alleged that they have been dismissed because they are inner city black men in a hobby that has been dominated by successful white men. Cobb, like Mastro back in the late 1980s, does not divulge the exact details of how he came to own the card. He has variously stated he purchased

2425-441: Is something printed by lithography, but this term is only used for fine art prints and some other, mostly older, types of printed matter, not for those made by modern commercial lithography. Originally, the image to be printed was drawn with a greasy substance, such as oil, fat, or wax onto the surface of a smooth and flat limestone plate. The stone was then treated with a mixture of weak acid and gum arabic ("etch") that made

2522-482: Is still used for fine art printmaking. In modern commercial lithography, the image is transferred or created as a patterned polymer coating applied to a flexible plastic or metal plate. The printing plates, made of stone or metal, can be created by a photographic process, a method that may be referred to as "photolithography" (although the term usually refers to a vaguely similar microelectronics manufacturing process ). Offset printing or "offset lithography"

2619-415: Is still used on older presses, using rollers covered with molleton (cloth) that absorbs the water. This increased control of the water flow to the plate and allowed for better ink and water balance. Recent dampening systems include a "delta effect or vario", which slows the roller in contact with the plate, thus creating a sweeping movement over the ink image to clean impurities known as "hickies". This press

2716-557: The 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens , where cardboard pins were worn by coaches, athletes, and reporters for identification. Some pins have become highly coveted by collectors, including a pin from the 2016 Summer Olympics featuring an image of Pikachu and a pin from the 2024 Summer Olympics featuring an image of Snoop Dogg . Lithography Lithography (from Ancient Greek λίθος ( líthos )  'stone' and γράφω ( gráphō )  'to write')

2813-606: The 1932 World Series . It sold for $ 24.12 million in 2024. In 2016, the ten most valuable sports cards and memorabilia sold for a record-setting combined $ 12,186,294. The highest price fetched for an association football shirt is $ 224,000. The shirt belonged to Pelé , who wore it during the 1970 World Cup final in which Brazil went on to win. Collectors of sports memorabilia may seek to authenticate items to prove their veracity. Autographed items are nearly always more valuable than non-autographed items. Sports memorabilia items are considered good investments by collectors, as

2910-525: The Arizona Diamondbacks . A different card, named the "Jumbo Wagner", was sold at auction again in 2016 for a record $ 3.12   million (equivalent to $ 3.96 million in 2023). These transactions have made the Wagner card, at times, the most valuable baseball card in history. However, this record was first broken when a Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Superfractors series rookie card with

3007-405: The trading of sports memorabilia. Items that have been in direct contact with a famous athlete can have significant monetary value. Game-used items such as a ball Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run of the 1998 season, sold for $ 3 million. The most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold was a New York Yankees baseball jersey worn by Babe Ruth during his ' called shot ' game in

T206 Honus Wagner - Misplaced Pages Continue

3104-629: The "white border set" – of baseball cards of 524 players into its cigarette packs. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Two years later, the ATC was broken up into several major companies as part of the United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. American Tobacco Company , 221 U.S. 106 (1911). The typical card in the T206 series had

3201-548: The $ 25,000 that Lifson fronted him for the Gretzky T206 Wagner—;claiming that Lifson could sell the lower quality one for $ 30,000 and make a quick $ 5,000 profit. Lifson was skeptical, but he took Mastro's word and accepted the deal, successfully selling this other Wagner card to New Jersey businessman Barry Halper for $ 30,000. (Halper sold that card and 200 other baseball memorabilia items in 1998 to Major League Baseball for over $ 5,000,000.) In 1987, Mastro sold

3298-652: The ATC's request have been the subject of much speculation. The most commonly told account is that Wagner rejected the deal because he did not want young baseball fans to purchase the tobacco packs for his baseball card. Wagner held his fans in high regard, particularly the younger ones. His granddaughter, Blair, remarked that "[h]e loved children. He wanted to teach kids good sportsmanship. When it came time for that card to come out, it wasn't that he wasn't paid. He didn't want kids to have to buy tobacco to get his card." However, Wagner chewed tobacco , and he had previously appeared in advertisements for many tobacco products, including

3395-472: The Christie's auction with a bid of $ 641,500 in 1996 (equivalent to $ 1,246,250 in 2023). Four years later, on July 5, 2000, Gidwitz partnered with eBay and Robert Edwards Auctions to start a 10-day online auction for the card. Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, set up a registration system in which they approved prospective individuals before they actually made bids. These individuals had to wire

3492-493: The Gretzky T206 Wagner have been shrouded in mystery. He tried to avoid answering any questions regarding the matter but, in a 2001 interview, claimed to have received it from a relative, whose name he did not disclose. Inside the memorabilia community, there was speculation that the card had been cut from a printing sheet during the deal made with Mastro. Mastro has told colleagues in the memorabilia circuit that he purchased

3589-452: The Gretzky T206 Wagner to Jim Copeland, a San Luis Obispo, California , sporting-goods chain owner, for $ 110,000. With that transaction, there was a sudden renewed interest in baseball card collecting. As Lifson commented, the Copeland deal revitalized the industry and "created an incentive to sell these great cards." Within five years, Copeland decided it was time to sell his card collection; he chose to sell his entire 873-piece collection in

3686-573: The Piedmont and Sweet Caporal brands of cigarettes and were produced at Factory 25 in Virginia , as indicated by the factory stamp imprinted on the back of the cards. Starting from January 1909, the ATC sought authorization from baseball players for inclusion in the T206 series, which would feature 524 major league players, 76 of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame . Wagner had been at

3783-502: The Soho section of New York City. In 2019, Rally Rd announced that it was going to begin selling shares in the card at $ 52 each. In May 2020, Gregorio Amor and a team of investors, purchased the card. Many of the remaining T206 Honus Wagner cards in existence have rated low on the PSA grading scale. Only three existing Wagner cards received a PSA rating of EX [5] or better. One such example is known in

3880-414: The T206 to the most expensive sports card. That is, until August 2022, when another 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sold increased the record to $ 12.6   million to become the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia of any type in history. In October 2013, Bill Mastro, CEO of Mastro Auctions (the owner of Robert Edward Auctions) pleaded guilty to mail fraud in U.S. District Court and later admitted to

3977-452: The accusations as "bullshit," adding that they would not have been made "if we were white." Card Collector Services graded the card and officially ruled that it was indeed a reprint . Cobb and Edwards dismissed the findings and went to Integrated Paper Services (IPS), an independent paper testing and analysis lab, in February 2003 to have their card's paper tested. An IPS expert determined that

T206 Honus Wagner - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-443: The appearance of the card. The front of all T206 series cards, including the Wagner card, displayed a lithograph of the player created by a multi-stage printing process in which a number of colors were printed on top of each other to create a lithograph with the appropriate design. The backs of the cards featured the monochromatic colors of the 16 tobacco brands for which the cards were printed. The Wagner cards in particular advertised

4171-513: The artists' work. Grant Wood , George Bellows , Alphonse Mucha , Max Kahn , Pablo Picasso , Eleanor Coen , Jasper Johns , David Hockney , Susan Dorothea White , and Robert Rauschenberg are a few of the artists who have produced most of their prints in the medium. M. C. Escher is considered a master of lithography, and many of his prints were created using this process. More than other printmaking techniques, printmakers in lithography still largely depend on access to good printers , and

4268-399: The back of the card was indeed real but in his opinion the front was not. He explained that all T-206s have dark brown letters printed for the team's name and player's name and this one was in black. Additionally, he stated that he was not comfortable with the print process exhibited on the card's front. Meanwhile, a number of card collectors who doubted the card contacted eBay and demanded that

4365-399: The baseball card. In response to the authorization request letter sent by John Gruber, a Pittsburgh sportswriter hired by the ATC to seek Wagner's permission, Wagner wrote that he "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes." He threatened to seek legal action against ATC if they went ahead and distributed his baseball card. The reasons for Wagner's strong negative reaction to

4462-402: The blank portions of the plate but is repelled by the emulsion of the image area. Hydrophobic ink, which is repelled by the water and only adheres to the emulsion of the image area, is then applied by the inking rollers. If this image were transferred directly to paper, it would create a mirror-type image and the paper would become too wet. Instead, the plate rolls against a cylinder covered with

4559-565: The card at an estate sale from "an old couple" for $ 1,800 in 1983 or 1984; he claimed not to know who Honus Wagner was at the time of purchase. When Cobb and Edwards tried to sell the card on eBay in 2002, an attorney from Newport, Kentucky (part of the Cincinnati metro) filed a police report against the two men because he believed the card was a reprint that was stolen from his office months earlier. The police launched an investigation, but found no evidence of wrongdoing. An outraged Edwards dismissed

4656-404: The card dated back to 1910, which would be consistent to the time period when the card was distributed. The expert ruled that the "paper stock was consistent with the time that card would have been made." Cobbs and Edwards later went to an Ohio paper industry consultant who confirmed that the card was from 1909. The consultant stated that a decent counterfeit of the card could only be produced from

4753-448: The card from a printer, which was not Ray's profession. Ray personally stated that Mastro might have been doing this to prevent others from trying to trace the card. Some also claim that Mastro bought the card from Sevchuk, not Ray. After the transaction was completed, Mastro went back to his car and showed the Gretzky T206 Wagner to Lifson. Mastro offered one of the other T206 Wagner cards in his personal collection to Lifson as payment for

4850-526: The card had been sold once again to another anonymous collector for $ 2.8 million (equivalent to $ 4.1 million in 2023). The anonymous collector was later revealed to be Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick . Shortly after Gretzky's 1991 purchase, previously ignored allegations that the card had once been subject to alteration flared up again. This is when Gretzky approached the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company to grade

4947-451: The card if his report was printed in its entirety at the eBay card listing. A few months after the sale, Edwards asked Connelly if he would accept the card for his auction. Connelly consented and took the card across the country to prospective buyers. Meanwhile, HBO 's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel decided to cover the progress of Cobb and Edwards' struggles with the card. Connelly met a card dealer in New York City, Mike Mangasarian, who

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5044-475: The card to Gibbs a few weeks later at a Walmart store in Miramar, Florida . Gibbs could not afford the taxes on the card, so she decided to consign the card to an auction later on. She consigned the card to Christie's, a New York-based auction house better known for selling famous artworks. Michael Gidwitz, the same individual who battled with Gretzky and Mark Friedland for the card at the Copeland auction in 1991, won

5141-559: The card to the All Star Cafe where it was stolen and later recovered by the FBI . It is graded PSA 1. It sold in March 2022 for $ 3,136,500, setting a record for a PSA 1 example. Sports memorabilia Sports memorabilia are collectables associated with sports , including equipment , trophies , sports cards , autographs , and photographs . A multi-billion-dollar industry has grown around

5238-417: The card was sold via Robert Edward Auctions to card collector Brian Seigel for $ 1.27 million. In February 2007, Seigel sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $ 2.35 million. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $ 2.8   million (equivalent to $ 4.11 million in 2023). In April 2011, that anonymous purchaser was revealed to be Ken Kendrick , owner of

5335-423: The card's listing on the website be removed. eBay officials decided to remove the listing the day before the auction was scheduled to begin. As a result, a number of previously interested collectors decided not to bid for the card at the auction the next day. As Connelly pointed out, the collectors chose not to make bids because "[w]hen eBay pulled the card ... it raised too many questions about its authenticity." As

5432-442: The card, resulting in the aforementioned PSA 8 NM-MT grading. Despite PSA company president David Hall's personal statement that the card was "superb" and a "fantastic card in every way," a number of people in the memorabilia industry were not convinced that the card had not been altered at some point. Soon afterward, Alan Ray came back into the picture, claiming that he had proof the card had been doctored by Mastro at one point after

5529-405: The card, which despite its poor condition was expected to fetch between $ 150,000 and $ 200,000. On November 4, 2010, the final sale price exceeded the expectations of auctioneers at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions and sold for $ 262,000 to Doug Walton, a collector and card-shop owner. Walton, however, never paid, and Heritage Auctions subsequently contacted one of its longtime clients, Nicholas DePace,

5626-477: The card, working for PSA at the time. Hughes admitted to knowing that the card had been altered when he graded it. The Gretzky T206 Wagner first came to attention in 1985, when small-time Hicksville, New York card collector Alan Ray contacted Bob Sevchuk, the owner of a Long Island sports memorabilia store, to arrange a potential $ 25,000 deal for his T206 Honus Wagner card. Bill Mastro, a sports memorabilia dealer who later founded Mastro Auctions and became one of

5723-401: The cards into obsolescence. During the presidency of " trust-buster " Theodore Roosevelt , the ATC was subjected to legal action from the government, in hopes of shutting down the monopoly in the industry. Thereafter, the ATC was back in competition with other tobacco companies, so it reinserted baseball cards into cigarette packs. In 1909, the company introduced the T206 series – also known as

5820-406: The competition when the bidding reached the $ 300,000 mark. As Friedland made each bid, the phone bidder would counter with a bid $ 5,000 or $ 10,000 higher. Friedland dropped out of the competition after the phone bidder countered with a $ 410,000 bid for the card. With Sotheby's 10% buyer's premium, the final price of the card came out to $ 451,000 (equivalent to $ 1,008,882 in 2023), nearly four times

5917-401: The court that he had trimmed the "Gretzky" Wagner card to sharply increase its value. Other T206 Wagners, both legitimate and fake, have surfaced in recent years. Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. One particular T206 Honus Wagner owned by John Cobb and Ray Edwards has attracted media controversy over its authenticity. The American Tobacco Company

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6014-599: The development of the medium has been greatly influenced by when and where these have been established. An American scene for lithography was founded by Robert Blackburn in New York City. As a special form of lithography, the serilith or seriolithograph process is sometimes used. Seriliths are mixed-media original prints created in a process in which an artist uses the lithograph and serigraph (screen printing). Fine art prints of this type are published by artists and publishers worldwide, and are widely accepted and collected. The separations for both processes are hand-drawn by

6111-487: The durability of the image on the stone depends on the lipid content of the material being used, and its ability to withstand water and acid. After the drawing of the image, an aqueous solution of gum arabic , weakly acidified with nitric acid ( HNO 3 ) is applied to the stone. The function of this solution is to create a hydrophilic layer of calcium nitrate salt, Ca(NO 3 ) 2 , and gum arabic on all non-image surfaces. The gum solution penetrates into

6208-508: The grand prize drawing for the card was held on CNN 's Larry King Weekend . At around 9:00   p.m., Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson , one of King's guests on the show, pulled out the name of one Patricia Gibbs, a postal worker living in Hollywood, Florida . After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to contact Gibbs, King's staff finally got through to her phone, and informed Gibbs of her prize. Treat Entertainment and Walmart gave

6305-410: The gum arabic surfaces and was repelled by the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite. Lithography works because of the mutual repulsion of oil and water . The image is drawn on the surface of the print plate with a fat or oil-based medium (hydrophobic) such as a wax crayon , which may be pigmented to make the drawing visible. A wide range of oil-based media is available, but

6402-610: The industry and prices of items grow rapidly. In the sports memorabilia industry, there are two main focuses of collectors: autographed cards and tickets, and used clothing and equipment. Signed cards and tickets are preferred in pristine condition, while used uniforms are considered to be more desirable when they are unwashed, as stains from dirt, grass, blood, and sweat add value. Unique or odd items are also highly collectible, and items such as hair, floorboards, and chairs from stadiums have sold for large quantities of money. "Rookie" memorabilia, meaning items from an athlete's first year as

6499-425: The industry as the 'Jumbo Wagner' [shown on the right]. Graded EX 5 (MC) on the PSA grading scale, the card has unusually ample borders due to a miscut. These dimensions far exceed the standard size for a T206 baseball card, virtually preserving a Near Mint example within its boundaries. President of PSA, Joe Orlando said "The PSA EX 5 (MC) 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner (serial number 15385994) is, without question, one of

6596-430: The initial $ 25,000 trade in 1985. He had a photograph of the card taken before the transaction with Mastro and claimed that the card in the photo looked significantly different from the photo of Gretzky's card. He sent the comparison of the two photos to both McNall and Sotheby's, but never received a response from them. Some memorabilia collectors have dismissed Ray's claims, saying that the photo hardly proves any doctoring

6693-449: The intermediate step of photographing an actual page layout. The development of the digital platesetter during the late 20th century eliminated film negatives altogether by exposing printing plates directly from digital input, a process known as computer-to-plate printing. During the early years of the 19th century, lithography had only a limited effect on printmaking , mainly because technical difficulties remained to be overcome. Germany

6790-537: The medium in France, and Adolph Menzel in Germany. In 1862 the publisher Cadart tried to initiate a portfolio of lithographs by various artists, which was not successful but included several prints by Manet . The revival began during the 1870s, especially in France with artists such as Odilon Redon , Henri Fantin-Latour and Degas producing much of their work in this manner. The need for strictly limited editions to maintain

6887-441: The most powerful figures in the industry, heard the news, and immediately jumped on the offer. Mastro, with the financial backing of friend Rob Lifson, sought to improve the offer and had Ray add 50 to 75 of his other T206 series cards, including the rare T206 Eddie Plank , into the deal. Ray, who later stated he "had a money situation," agreed to Mastro's terms of the deal. The circumstances regarding how Ray came into possession of

6984-454: The next four years to facilitate sports memorabilia auctions and established himself as a leading card dealer in the industry. In 1993, illusionist David Copperfield used the popularity of the card as part of a magic trick which he performed during his TV Special The Magic of David Copperfield XV: Fires Of Passion . Copperfield had Gretzky sign the card, then proceeded to tear the card into four pieces, after which he restored it one piece at

7081-442: The parts of the stone's surface that were not protected by the grease more hydrophilic (water attracting). For printing, the stone was first moistened. The water adhered only to the gum-treated parts, making them even more oil-repellant. An oil-based ink was then applied, and would stick only to the original drawing. The ink would finally be transferred to a blank sheet of paper , producing a printed page. This traditional technique

7178-410: The pores of the stone, completely surrounding the original image with a hydrophilic layer that will not accept the printing ink. Using lithographic turpentine , the printer then removes any excess of the greasy drawing material, but a hydrophobic molecular film of it remains tightly bonded to the surface of the stone, rejecting the gum arabic and water, but ready to accept the oily ink. When printing,

7275-498: The pre-auction estimate. The phone bidder was Wayne Gretzky, who purchased the card with advice and financial backing from his 'boss' Bruce McNall , the owner of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings . Copeland received around $ 5 million for the entire collection. The publicity coverage of the Sotheby's auction renewed interest in the hobby of sports memorabilia collecting. Mastro worked with Sotheby's for

7372-533: The pre-auction estimates, as a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sold for $ 49,500, more than three times the initial pre-auction price estimate. Pre-auction estimates placed Copeland's T206 Honus Wagner at a price of $ 114,000. Within minutes of the opening bid for the T206 Wagner card, the highest bidder had put down $ 228,000, twice the pre-auction estimate. A bidding competition between Mike Gidwitz, Mark Friedland and an unknown phone bidder ensued. Gidwitz dropped out of

7469-417: The price had now been realized, and the medium became more accepted. In the 1890s, color lithography gained success in part by the emergence of Jules Chéret , known as the father of the modern poster , whose work went on to inspire a new generation of poster designers and painters, most notably Toulouse-Lautrec , and former student of Chéret, Georges de Feure . By 1900 the medium in both color and monotone

7566-496: The printing of wallpaper; but it was transformed when the founder's grandson, Fernand Mourlot , invited a number of 20th-century artists to explore the complexities of fine art printing. Mourlot encouraged the painters to work directly on lithographic stones in order to create original artworks that could then be executed under the direction of master printers in small editions. The combination of modern artist and master printer resulted in lithographs that were used as posters to promote

7663-427: The sports memorabilia collection market. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to ice hockey figures Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall for $ 451,000. Gretzky resold the card four years later to Walmart and Treat Entertainment for $ 500,000 for use as the top prize in a promotional contest. The next year, a Florida postal worker won the card and auctioned it at Christie's for $ 640,000 to collector Michael Gidwitz. In 2000,

7760-547: The start of the 1908 baseball season after receiving a $ 10,000 contract, double his salary from the 1907 season. This theory has its flaws, however, since Wagner sent Gruber a check for $ 10 to compensate him for the fee ATC would have paid him if Wagner had given permission to create his baseball card. Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson, authors of The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card , asked why Wagner would compensate Gruber for $ 10,

7857-451: The state of the sports collectible market contributed to projections that the auction could set a new overall price record for the sale of a T206 Honus Wagner. The card ultimately sold for $ 2,105,770.50, including the buyer's premium, a record price for a baseball card in a public auction. In April 2013, Robert Edward Auctions was scheduled to begin an auction of a T206 Honus Wagner that was once owned by actor Charlie Sheen . Sheen had loaned

7954-495: The stone and paper are run through a press that applies even pressure over the surface, transferring the ink to the paper and off the stone. Senefelder had experimented during the early 19th century with multicolor lithography; in his 1819 book, he predicted that the process would eventually be perfected and used to reproduce paintings. Multi-color printing was introduced by a new process developed by Godefroy Engelmann (France) in 1837 known as chromolithography . A separate stone

8051-404: The stone is kept wet with water. The water is naturally attracted to the layer of gum and salt created by the acid wash. Printing ink based on drying oils such as linseed oil and varnish loaded with pigment is then rolled over the surface. The water repels the greasy ink but the hydrophobic areas left by the original drawing material accept it. When the hydrophobic image is loaded with ink,

8148-439: The time and magically removed the signature. Gretzky, who was not a major card collector, said he purchased it because he thought "the market would remain strong," thus making for a valuable investment. McNall orchestrated the plan to buy the card. In a 2005 interview, McNall stated his "philosophy was, if you buy something that is absolutely the best in the world, you'd be okay because there is always another buyer for something at

8245-457: The top end." In 1995, Gretzky sold the card to Walmart and Treat Entertainment for $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 999,782 in 2023). The two companies intended to use the card as the grand prize in a promotional contest. The card was sent all across the United States, as part of Walmart's plan to rejuvenate the baseball card market. On February 24, 1996 (the 122nd anniversary of Wagner's birthday),

8342-581: The top examples of this historic card known. The technical grade includes the MC qualifier. The card was given this designation by PSA due to its oversized nature. This particular T206 Honus Wagner stands out from other known examples and therefore gives it placement as a top-notch specimen." Initially sold at auction for $ 1.62M in 2008, the 'Jumbo Wagner' was featured by Goldin Auctions in their 2013 Winter Auction, which closed on April 5, 2013. Historical price increases and

8439-431: The top of his game throughout the decade, and was even considered to be the game's greatest player at the time. He had appeared on advertisements for a number of other products such as chewing gum, gunpowder, and soft drinks. Unsurprisingly, the ATC asked for Wagner's permission to have his picture on a baseball card. According to an October 12, 1912, issue of The Sporting News , Wagner did not give his consent to appear on

8536-409: The years, including the development of presses with multiple units (each containing one printing plate) that can print multi-color images in one pass on both sides of the sheet, and presses that accommodate continuous rolls ( webs ) of paper, known as web presses. Another innovation was the continuous dampening system first introduced by Dahlgren, instead of the old method (conventional dampening) which

8633-737: Was a quick, cheap process and had been used to print British army maps during the Peninsular War . Most of the commercial maps of the second half of the 19th century were lithographed and unattractive, though accurate enough." High-volume lithography is used to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and packaging—just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print and graphics on it. Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are printed using offset lithography. For offset lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminum , polyester , mylar or paper printing plates are used instead of stone tablets. Modern printing plates have

8730-515: Was an accepted part of printmaking. During the 20th century, a group of artists, including Braque , Calder , Chagall , Dufy , Léger , Matisse , Miró , and Picasso , rediscovered the largely undeveloped artform of lithography thanks to the Mourlot Studios , also known as Atelier Mourlot , a Parisian printshop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot family. The Atelier Mourlot originally specialized in

8827-489: Was ever done on the card. On December 4, 2012, Mastro was indicted on federal fraud charges, and entered a plea of not guilty. In 2013, Mastro pleaded guilty, having entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, and admitted to trimming the Honus Wagner card in the mid-1980s to increase its value. Mastro's plea agreement was rejected by a judge. In August 2015, Mastro was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison under

8924-522: Was first reissued by Topps in 2002, with variations on its background color. The card was printed with the original 1909 orange color (#179), and also in blue (#307) and red (#456). In 2020, a new Honus Wagner card was issued by the company (#45) as part of the second wave (of 5) released that year. Another T206 Wagner card owned by two Cincinnati men was dismissed as a fake by Bill Mastro and PSA president Joe Orlando. The two men, John Cobb and Ray Edwards, have tried to prove that their Piedmont-backed card

9021-471: Was formed as a result of an 1889 merger of five major cigarette manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons & Company, Allen & Ginter , Goodwin & Company , F. S. Kinney Company and William S. Kimball & Company. Because the company came to monopolize the tobacco industry, ATC did not have to conduct advertising or promotions for its products. Since baseball cards were primarily used as a sales promotion, ATC removed them from its tobacco packs, almost driving

9118-520: Was invented by Alois Senefelder in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1796. In the early days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography": "lithos" ( λιθος ) is the Ancient Greek word for "stone"). After the oil-based image was put on the surface, a solution of gum arabic in water was applied, the gum sticking only to the non-oily surface. During printing, water adhered to

9215-489: Was sent on behalf of a prominent collector to check the card out. Mangasarian said the card seemed authentic and stated he would attend the auction for the card later on if the card could be taken out of the thick lucite holder for a closer examination. A promise was made that this could be done the day of the auction in Binghamton, New York . After the auction and by not bidding on the card Mangasarian revealed to HBO that he felt

9312-666: Was the main center of production in this period. Godefroy Engelmann , who moved his press from Mulhouse to Paris in 1816, largely succeeded in resolving the technical problems, and during the 1820s lithography was adopted by artists such as Delacroix and Géricault . After early experiments such as Specimens of Polyautography (1803), which had experimental works by a number of British artists including Benjamin West , Henry Fuseli , James Barry , Thomas Barker of Bath , Thomas Stothard , Henry Richard Greville , Richard Cooper , Henry Singleton , and William Henry Pyne , London also became

9409-444: Was used for each color, and a print went through the press separately for each stone. The main challenge was to keep the images aligned ( in register ). This method lent itself to images consisting of large areas of flat color, and resulted in the characteristic poster designs of this period. "Lithography, or printing from soft stone, largely took the place of engraving in the production of English commercial maps after about 1852. It

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