Baltimore, Md., Nov 7, 2010 / 17:05 pm
The missions of the School Sisters of Notre Dame will receive a big financial boost from the sale of an unusual item—the most prized baseball card in the world.
Honus Wagner, it appears, didn't want his image used to promote tobacco. That's the story of how a 1909 American Tobacco Company baseball card, featuring the Pittsburgh shortstop, became the most valuable trading card in history. The cards were withdrawn, and only around 50 exist.
This week, though, Wagner's card was put to a nobler purpose: an order of sisters raised $220,000 by auctioning one.
Heritage Auction Galleries, which handled the online sale, recounted that one of the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame had received the card from her brother. Although the card was not in perfect condition, he said, its value “should increase exponentially throughout the (21st) century.”