I touched on this piece in last week’s article. It’s the closest thing we have to an uncut T206 sheet. Clearly it’s significance goes well beyond that fact though. It’s hard to believe that such an item exists given how rare the T206 Wagner is to begin with. In my opinion, this “card” is the most desirable T206 (or related item) out there. Some people might prefer a Wagner or the Collins With Bat Proof, but I’d take this strip every day of the week.
Legend has it that this card was found in the attic of a home that Wagner had once owned. The attic contained many of Wagner’s personal items including baseball gear and uniforms. In fact, this card is said to have been found in the back pocket of a pair of uniform pants. The generally accepted theory is the strip was given to Wagner in an attempt to secure his permission to use his likeness.
As you can see, there are many differences between the way the cards in the strip look and the ultimate finished product. These differences are not too surprising given that this piece was a “Proof” which was given to Wagner before all of the details were ironed out. The lines between the cards caused quite a discussion on net54baseball.com back in 2010. The lines are odd because, as we know, T206 sheets were ultimately not printed with lines between them. There was a bit of back-and-forth between people who had viewed the card in person and were confident that it was one continuous strip of paper, and a vocal minority who theorized that the strip was made up of 5 individual cards which were carefully pasted together. In this theory, the lines between the cards was actually a seam. Ultimately, it seems that the people who held this viewpoint had not viewed the card in person (at least for the most part) and just couldn’t accept that the lines were printed on the cards. However, there were many differences between the strip and the ultimate finished product, so it doesn’t really make sense to make such a determination based on the printed lines. Lots of minor details were changed between the time this strip was printed and the time the first T206 cards were released in cigarette packs. On June 12th 2010, Wayne Varner made this post on net54:
Ted Z and others, I can shed a little light on this proof strip. Back in 1978 Bill Zimpleman, Mike Wheat, Ken Blazek, and myself, Wayne Varner were on a buying trip in the Pittsburgh area and we purchased this strip from a gentleman who had purchased Wagner’s house. We bought a number of items he found in the house. I cannot remember all the details, but after we purchased the strip, we had a drawing, and I won the strip. I sold it in 1980 to Barry Helper, who to my knowledge owned the strip until he passed away*. I can tell you from holding the strip many times, it is not cards pasted together. Could that have been done at the factory and then potographed to send to Wagner, possibly, but not likely. However it was done, it was definitely done at the factory, and has the proof lines like all the proof cards I have ever seen. I have seen the strip on several occasions since Barry passed away and it is in the same orginial condition as when I owned it from 1978 until 1980. There is no question it is orginial and unaltered no matter what anyone says. Hope this helps a little.
Wayne Varner
SHOEBOX CARDS
Mr. Varner was the first collector/dealer to own the card. He mentions that the thought Halper owned the strip until his death, but actually, Sotheby’s auctioned off the Barry Halper collection in 1999, 6 years before Halper passed away (in 2005). The next few years after the Sotheby’s auction were quite eventful.
Sotheby’s auctioned off the strip in 1999, as part of the Barry Halper Collection. It sold for $85,000.
In late 2000, the strip sold for $93,000 in a Steve Verkman Cards and Memorabilia auction.
The winning bid was placed by the “Shop at Home Television Network”. They bought it with plans to feature it as a prize in an upcoming giveaway they were doing. It was won by a 15 year-old from California named Jordan Marquez. Unfortunately, Jordan was hit with a hefty tax bill as a result of winning the strip, and was forced to sell it. It was consigned with Mastro Net in 2002, where it sold for $78,665.
After that busy three year stretch, the strip stayed out of the spotlight for a while. However, it wasn’t too long before it surfaced again. In May of 2010, the Wagner Strip was on display at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia to promote it’s inclusion in the upcoming Hunt Auction, which took place at the All Star Fanfest. The winning bid of $316,250 (after the juice) was placed by SCP Auctions on behalf of one of their clients.
The Wagner Strip has not sold publicly since 2010. The T206 market has been quite strong in the intervening eight years. I imagine the strip would sell for quite a bit more if it were to hit the auction block in the near future.
Sources:
http://www.t206museum.com/page/periodical_32.html
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=123958
https://www.huntauctions.com/live/imageviewer.cfm?auction_num=27&lot_num=242&lot_qual=
http://www.t206museum.com/page/periodical_13.html