What is the most expensive trading card ever sold?
On the 28th of August 2022, a Mickey Mantle baseball card (Topps #311, graded SGC MT 9.5) sold for $12,600,000. The 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner cigarette card has also sold for as much as $2.8 million.
Questions about Trading card
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Why is the Honus Wagner T206 trading card so valuable?
The T206 Honus Wagner card, distributed by the American Tobacco Company in 1909, is rare because Wagner reportedly objected to his image being included in a product children would collect, stopping production abruptly. Fewer than 100 copies are believed to exist. The set is considered by collectors to be the most popular of all time.
Who created the first modern baseball card set?
Topps owner and founder Sy Berger created the 1952 Topps Baseball set, the first to include full playing records and statistics. It established the template that modern baseball cards follow.
How is the condition of a trading card graded?
Cards are graded on four criteria: centering, corners, edges, and surface. Major grading companies including PSA, Beckett, and SGC assign individual scores across those four areas and combine them into a final grade on a scale of 1 to 10, from poor to pristine.
How big is the global sports trading card market?
The global sports trading card market is currently valued at $44 billion and is expected to grow to approximately $100 billion by 2027.
When did Panini first produce a World Cup sticker album?
Panini partnered with FIFA in 1970 to produce the first World Cup sticker album for that year's tournament. The tradition of trading duplicate World Cup stickers became a playground fixture in the 1970s and 1980s.