The Honus Wagner T206
August 16, 2021 4:07 PM Subscribe
The Honus Wagner T206 is the sports card GOAT, and always will be. It sold recently for $6.6 million. Dan Hajducky and Tisha Thompson at ESPN.com give a short history of baseball card boom and bust and boom.
Baseball cards, and other collectables, are only worth what someone is willing to pay. So in essence, we're only talking about any of this because of the personal decisions of extremely rich people. Their whims are being broadcast throughout our culture. It's just one more way that money distorts reality, in a similar way that mass distorts space-time.
posted by JHarris at 6:54 PM on August 16, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 6:54 PM on August 16, 2021 [12 favorites]
I’ve seen one in Cooperstown. It’s tiny. I’m sure there are more expensive things when measured by the gram, but perhaps none more pointlessly extravagant, a thing so costly but without any intrinsic value. It’s a strange thing to see in person that way.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:25 PM on August 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:25 PM on August 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Their whims are being broadcast throughout our culture. It's just one more way that money distorts reality, in a similar way that mass distorts space-time.
This explains a lot about that night when I ate the stick of gum off the Ty Cobb card I found in the record bin between some old lacquer 78s at that thrift store.
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have eaten the card, but the gum tasted terrible. I think the printing ink might have had some lead in it.
I'm told I met Doc Ellis that night but all I remember is a really colorful coyote telling me stories about the conscious nature of the universe observing itself.
posted by loquacious at 8:27 PM on August 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
This explains a lot about that night when I ate the stick of gum off the Ty Cobb card I found in the record bin between some old lacquer 78s at that thrift store.
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have eaten the card, but the gum tasted terrible. I think the printing ink might have had some lead in it.
I'm told I met Doc Ellis that night but all I remember is a really colorful coyote telling me stories about the conscious nature of the universe observing itself.
posted by loquacious at 8:27 PM on August 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
There's no better way to completely ruin a small child's newfound enthusiasm for collecting baseball cards than to point out that the Honus Wagner card they got in a Topps baseball card starter set is just a reproduction.
Yes, that small child was me. Maybe I was a little too young to understand how baseball cards worked, but the card I held in my hand clearly matched the picture in the little price guide that came with the kit and for a brief moment I really thought I had made it big.
Also, it's too bad the speculators had already ruined baseball card collecting by the 1980s because my mom never threw out my circa-1987 set which today would be like having cards from 1953 except there's no equivalent of the 1952 Mantle card because because by then everyone started actually saving all this ephemera in mint condition.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:05 AM on August 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Yes, that small child was me. Maybe I was a little too young to understand how baseball cards worked, but the card I held in my hand clearly matched the picture in the little price guide that came with the kit and for a brief moment I really thought I had made it big.
Also, it's too bad the speculators had already ruined baseball card collecting by the 1980s because my mom never threw out my circa-1987 set which today would be like having cards from 1953 except there's no equivalent of the 1952 Mantle card because because by then everyone started actually saving all this ephemera in mint condition.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:05 AM on August 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
On the one hand: yeah, fuck anyone who has $6.6 million to spend on a piece of cardboard – which doesn't even have any utility, except to say "I can afford to spend $6.6 million on a piece of cardboard".
On the other hand: maybe I get it, to a very small degree? I got bitten by the vinyl collecting bug for a while. (My thing is electronic music.)
And when trawling through Discogs...there's a weird magnetic allure when you find an obscure release that pushes your buttons. The music is the most important thing, but there's more to it than that. The name of the artist, the release, and the tracks. The logo of the label. The year and place it was released. Just the vibe of the whole thing. They all add up to an aesthetic that speaks to a particular moment in the genre's history – and the tendency to mythologize those moments is strong.
Which is how I've come to spend ridiculous sums for twelve-inch singles containing two songs. (I eventually quit.)
On some level, my brain becomes convinced that this record will somehow change my life for the better; that owning this disc will somehow be worth the eye-bleeding price. (Even though I can listen to it online for free. Just like you can look at a Honus Wagner T206 online for free.) That isn't really the point. It's about owning a piece of something magical. Like owning a splinter of the True Cross.
On the third hand: yeah, fuck anyone who has $6.6 million to spend on a piece of cardboard. No one should be that rich.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 4:24 AM on August 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
On the other hand: maybe I get it, to a very small degree? I got bitten by the vinyl collecting bug for a while. (My thing is electronic music.)
And when trawling through Discogs...there's a weird magnetic allure when you find an obscure release that pushes your buttons. The music is the most important thing, but there's more to it than that. The name of the artist, the release, and the tracks. The logo of the label. The year and place it was released. Just the vibe of the whole thing. They all add up to an aesthetic that speaks to a particular moment in the genre's history – and the tendency to mythologize those moments is strong.
Which is how I've come to spend ridiculous sums for twelve-inch singles containing two songs. (I eventually quit.)
On some level, my brain becomes convinced that this record will somehow change my life for the better; that owning this disc will somehow be worth the eye-bleeding price. (Even though I can listen to it online for free. Just like you can look at a Honus Wagner T206 online for free.) That isn't really the point. It's about owning a piece of something magical. Like owning a splinter of the True Cross.
On the third hand: yeah, fuck anyone who has $6.6 million to spend on a piece of cardboard. No one should be that rich.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 4:24 AM on August 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by tavella at 5:40 PM on August 16, 2021 [1 favorite]