On September 20, 2018 the highest graded T206 set in existence sold via Heritage Auctions. Each card was offered as a stand-alone lot. The combined sales price was staggering. I couldn’t find the exact figure, but PSA CEO Joe Orlando posted that total was over $8,000,000. The set boasted an unheard of thirteen PSA 10s, McGraw (Finger in Air) being the lone Hall of Fame PSA 10. Twenty-four of the Hall Of Famers were graded PSA 9.
You can check out the auction in it’s entirety by following the link below. In order to see the realized sale prices, you’ll have to log in, or create an account if you haven’t yet.
There were dozens of cards in this auction that would have headlined most other auctions. The cards were below were the highlights of the auction in terms of realized sale price, but I urge to to follow the link above and check out the rest of the auction.
In 2009, the School Sisters of Notre Dame received a most unexpected donation. The School Sisters are a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic Sisters. On February 3rd, 2009, a man (who’s name the nuns have decided to keep confidential) with close ties to the organization passed away at the age of 85 and bequeathed his estate to the order. The nuns were not surprised to be benefactors of the man’s will. His sister had belonged to the order, and he had never married or had children. Besides leaving his home to the nuns, he also willed the contents of his safe deposit box.
When the nuns opened the box, they were surprised to find this T206 Wagner with an attached typewritten note that said,
“Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!”
After picking up the baseball card, Sister Virginia Muller, the order’s former treasurer, searched the Internet to determine its worth. When she saw the value of other Wagner cards, her jaw dropped.
“I very carefully put it into the back of my files,” she said, laughing. “Then quickly insured it.”
-New York Times January 31, 2011
All of the news stories written about the card at the time have noted that the man acquired the card in 1936, though there is no mention of how that was ascertained. There is also no mention of him owning any other sports cards or collectibles.
“I wish I knew more of the story, like where he got the card or why he kept it, But I guess it will remain a mystery.”
-Sister Virginia Muller in the January 31st 2011 issue of the New York Times
When the nuns were ready to sell the Wagner, they chose Heritage Auctions to handle the sale. The card was featured in Heritage’s “November 2010 Signature Collectibles Auction” which closed over a two-day period on November 4th and 5th. When the auction clocked ticked down the zero, the winning bid (including the juice) was $262,900. Unfortunately, the winning bidder never paid for the card.
Heritage reached out to collector Dr. Nicholas DePace, who agreed to buy the card for $220,000. According to the New York Times story, Heritage declined to take a commission on the sale, sending all $220,000 to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. I don’t know whether or not Heritage was able to collect a full or partial commission from the winning bidder, but regardless it was a really classy move by Heritage to send the full $220,000 to the charitable group.
Dr. DePace
The story doesn’t quite end there. Two days later, Dr. DePace received a call from someone at Heritage asking him if he’d like to make a quick $60,000 profit by selling the card to another interested party.
“I said, ‘What’s the matter with you guys? It’s no longer just a baseball card; it’s become a religious relic, a St. Jude of memorabilia. I’m keeping it.”
-Dr. Nichlas DePace in the January 31st 2011 issue of the New York Times
Dr. DePace said he intended to feature the card in a non-profit sports museum he planned to open in Collingwood, New Jersey.
In August of 2012, word started circulating on net54baseball.com that an Old Mill with blue ink had been found at the National. Initially most people thought it was a joke, but within a couple days a picture was posted of the card inside an SGC holder. Many long-time collectors who had inspected it in person agreed that it looked legitimate. SGC thought enough of the card to label it as a “Blue Back”. At this point, many forum members who had only viewed camera phone pictures deferred to the collectors who had seen the card in person. Still, many were not convinced. Some thought the card looked good but that the ink could have faded or been exposed to chemicals. A member posted a reprint Old Mill back which had been printed with blue ink side-by-side with the back of the Walsh (shown below). There were also a small group of posters who agreed the heavy and even rounding of the corners gave them pause, as many artificially aged reprints exhibit suspiciously even corner rounding.
In December 2012, the card showed up for auction via Huggins and Scott. It debuted with a hefty $15,000 minimum bid. It sold but only received one bid. The story died down a bit after that. In November 2013, the card showed up for auction again, this time via Heritage Auctions. It sold for $14,340 this time. Forum posters noted how the new owner had listed it on Heritage’s website with a $30,000 price tag. At this point, the card kind of fell off the face of the earth. People stopped talking about it, and it hasn’t been offered for sale since. When the discovery was first publicized, collectors everywhere pulled out their Old Mill backs to give them another look, just in case they might have a blue back. Nobody found one. It’s hard to imagine that only one single card from a factory-cut sheet would have survived. It’s absolutely possible of course, just unlikely. If you look closely at the edges of this card, you can make the case that it was originally hand-cut. If it was, that would make a lot of sense. If a sheet was printed with blue ink and then scrapped, you would expect most cards on the sheet would have remained in the garbage and star players like Walsh would be most likely to survive.
There is no question that the front of this card is legit. It shares some printing flaws with a few other Walsh cards printed in 1910. T206 back collector Scott Stiffler posted this comparison of his card (the SGC 40) with the Blue Old Mill to show the print anomalies that the two cards share. They both have a weak border on the left and right sides and little red dots on the “I” in Chicago and on his forehead. The Piedmont 350 below exhibits the same weak border on the right hand side as well as the red dot at the top of the “I”.
Controversy is likely to follow this card until another Old Mill with Blue Ink is found (if that ever happens). I tend to trust the advanced collectors who have held it and pronounced it the real deal. I also trust that SGC would have done their due diligence in making sure the card was not re-backed or altered in any way that could be detected. My biggest concern about the card personally is this: If it were re-backed, it would probably look just like this because the person who did it would want to round the corners to try and smooth the edges and avoid detection.
I’d love to see it in person someday. Until then, I’ll remain the slightest bit skeptical, like most others who have only seen the scans online.
