Baseball Cards Making Collectible History

"Mona Lisa" Card Nets Millions; New Jeter Offering Features Real "Card Trick"

The cards of a pair of baseball greats have the collector world buzzing amid visual magic and mystery. One, a single card known to some as the "Mona Lisa" of baseball collectibles, has a mysterious new owner. The other is the first run of the new card of a contemporary great that was published with an intentional visual gag - just the kind of flaw that may one day garner the affection of die hard collectors.

T206, the 1909 baseball card of Honus Wagner - considered the ultimate prize among baseball's rarest collectibles - sold to a new, anonymous owner this past week for $2.35 million in Los Angeles. Numerous reports state that the card was in "almost" mint condition (meaning it was bought and saved in a time prior to modern techniques for preserving such items) though Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach, Calif., told the Associated Press that the card, which he termed "the Holy Grail" of baseball cards was "preserved in spectacular condition."

But don't take "spectacular" to mean anything like today's "mint" assessment, says the man who sold the card.

Brian Seigel, who paid over $1.2 million for the card back in 2000, said that the Wagner cards are so rare that even those that are worn and tattered will still fetch big bucks.

"You could stick (some of them) in the middle of the street and let cars drive over it (sic) through the day, take it in your hand a crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card," he told the AP.

As the card of one of baseball's bygone immortals was changing hands, the new offering for one of today's greatest has been published with at least one hint to the game's golden age. The new Topps' Triple Play of Derek Jeter features the Yankees' great at the plate - as Mickey Mantle looks on, accompanied in the stands by President George W. Bush!

According to MLB.com, it was all a real card trick. Someone at Topps used a little digital wizardry to put the President and late Mr. Mantle into the card.

"We saw it in the final proof and we could have axed it," Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "But we decided to let it run, we wanted to print it. We thought it was hilarious."

On the card, Mantle appears with bat in hand in the dugout, while Mr. Bush (who onece owned the Texas Rangers) is shown in the stands waving. Topps will issue just 660 cards from this set before a full set is issued at baseball's midseason this summer.

As of this posting, a small number of these 2007 Series 1 Derek Jeter cards (whcih will surely end up with some catchy moniker) are up for auction on eBay with starting prices of .99 cents and no bidders. It may just be a matter of time, but perhaps not the 98 years since the T206 was offered, for these cards to find value among collectors.