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Lot # 180: 1909 Sporting Life w/Original Ad for T206 Honus Wagner Card

Starting Bid: $500.00

Bids: 20 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2018 Invitational",
which ran from 7/15/2018 9:00 AM to
8/17/2018 10:00 PM



Important media that introduced the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card to the world. And it could very well have motivated Honus Wagner himself to have the card pulled. Sporting Life was read by all "serious" baseball people with large numbers of players and execs. Historic September 4, 1909, issue sports an ad for the T206 baseball cards with an actual photo of the Honus Wagner card. It is likely that this issue was the way Wagner himself spotted the card and to make it worse it used the word "FREE" in large type further exasperating the Dutchman. The only known original copy- with another sample existing solely in digital scan form. That scan may very well be from this same one as we know of no others. Printed on highly fragile pulp paper stock, these issues are extremely rare and many of the early ones are the only ones known. Originally these were in bound volumes in an important sports museum. Scanned for posterity, this was sliced from the volumes so the spines are split. Known Sweet Caporal advertisement features the ad for Wagner with such superstars of the day as Keeler & Delahanty. There is also an article inside entitled "Cobb's Critics" with a small pic of Ty. An overall incredibly important piece of the T206 history. 

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