Sometime around 1909, a kid named Morton Bernstein tore open a pack of Sweet Caporal cigarettes and pulled a baseball card. The card pictured Honus Wagner, the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop who had demanded the American Tobacco Company stop using his likeness.
Only a handful were ever printed. Morton kept it.
His family kept it for 117 years.
On February 21, that card sold for $5,124,000 at Goldin's Winter Vintage Elite Auction. It is the most expensive T206 Wagner ever sold at PSA 1, beating the previous record by 64%. And it is the only known Wagner that can be traced directly to its original tobacco packaging.
The Card
The 1909-11 T206 White Border Honus Wagner is the most famous baseball card in existence. Roughly 60 are estimated to survive. About 54 have been graded by PSA and SGC combined.
Wagner reportedly asked the American Tobacco Company to stop producing cards with his image. The reason is still debated. Some say he didn't want to be associated with cigarettes. Others say it was a licensing dispute.
Either way, production was cut short. The scarcity created the legend.
This particular card is a Sweet Caporal 150/25 back, graded PSA PR-FR 1. That's the lowest possible grade on the PSA scale. Doesn't matter.
PSA gave it a special "Shields Family Collection" label, acknowledging the provenance. A PSA 1 with a 117-year paper trail turned out to be worth more than most higher-graded Wagners.
The Bernstein Family
Morton Bernstein's father was Samuel E. Bernstein, founder of The National Silver Company. Morton went on to purchase the F.B. Rogers Silver Company in 1955 in Taunton, Massachusetts. The town was known as "Silver City."
Morton framed his baseball cards and displayed them in his offices. When the company eventually closed, the cards went into warehouse storage. They were later passed down to his grandsons, Dennis Shields of Los Angeles and Douglas Shields of Inverness, California.
The card first went public in December 2025, when it appeared on Season 3 of Netflix's "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch." Ken Goldin called it unprecedented. "I've never been able to trace a Wagner that has stayed in only one family since the day the card came out," he said.
$5.124 Million and the Wagner Ladder
The final price of $5,124,000 (including buyer's premium) makes this the third most expensive T206 Wagner ever sold.
The all-time ladder:
1. $7.25 million (2022, private sale, SGC 2) 2. $6.606 million (2021, auction, SGC 3) 3. $5.124 million (2026, auction, PSA 1)
The previous record for a PSA 1 Wagner was $3,136,500, set in 2022 by the "All-Star Cafe" example. That card was once owned by Charlie Sheen and sold through Mile High Card Co.
This one beat it by roughly $2 million.
One more thing. 2024 was the first year in three decades with no public T206 Wagner sale. The market went an entire calendar year without one changing hands.
Then this one showed up and reset the PSA 1 ceiling.
The Rest of the Auction
The Wagner wasn't the only seven-figure lot. Goldin's Winter Vintage Elite Auction had results across the board.
A 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth signed card, PSA VG-EX 4.5 with a PSA/DNA NM-MT 8 autograph, sold for $1,464,001. A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, graded SGC NM+ 7.5, brought $732,000, a record for that grade. A 1957-58 Topps Bill Russell rookie, PSA 8.5, hit $549,000.
The auction opened January 21 and closed February 21. A full month of bidding.
Why Provenance Beat Grade
A PSA 1 is a beat-up card. Corner wear, creasing, surface issues. The kind of condition that would make most collectors pass.
But this one had something no other Wagner can claim. An unbroken chain of ownership from the day it left the cigarette pack to the day it crossed the auction block. One family. One story. 117 years.
That story was worth $5.124 million. Provenance doesn't just add value. Sometimes it is the value.
