A rare baseball card that a Peachtree City man paid nearly $50,000 for in 1996 could sell for $1 million or more in an upcoming online auction, Channel 2 Action News reported.
J. Ross Greene bought one of the T206 Honus Wagner cards that could be traced back to its original owner, he told Channel 2. He paid $48,500 to buy one of the cards that have become more famous than the player on them.
Greene is one of a handful of owners of the rare cards.
“I’m kind of a nobody in terms of the people who’ve owned (this) card,” Greene told Channel 2.
The first three owners of Greene’s card were all iconic sports writers, he said.
The cards are considered some of the most valuable pieces of sports memorabilia.
On Oct. 1, 2016, a T206 Wagner card sold for $3.12 million, setting the record for highest price paid for any baseball card, according to Yahoo Finance.
Wagner is a Hall of Famer who played 21 seasons in the big leagues between 1897 and 1917, almost all with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The cards were put in packs of cigarettes from 1909 to 1911.
Wagner may have opposed the American Tobacco Company using his likeness to market cigarettes to children, but he might also have shut down production because he wasn't paid, according to Bleacher Report.
Now, Greene wants to sell his Wagner card to help pay for his grandchildren’s educations.
“I can’t cut it up into eight pieces for my eight grandchildren,” he said. “They’re not as interested in collecting as I was.”
The auction begins May 24 at SCP Auctions.
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