Wagner graded by NASA (Part I)

Written By T206museum (April, 2001)

Recently, there is a graded T206 Honus Wagner available on eBay.com. It is being graded by one of the card grading companies in Canada, North American Sportscard Authenticators (NASA), and received (Grade 1 - Not Authenticated (NA)). The seller has high feedbacks and believes the card is real since it is encapsulated by NASA but not authenticated (NA) due to the trimming on the card borders.

We do not want to cause any auction interference and comment on the authenticity of this Grade 1 (NA) specimen at this moment. In fact, in 1999, NASA graded another T206 Honus Wagner card prior this one and that card received a Grade D (Poor) as shown below.

Special thanks to a Canadian collector for the contribution of this article. Collectors can use the following article as reference to judge what type of grading company NASA is. Your own judgement is needed.

Part II includes an email NASA sent to T206museum.com

By Mike Ganter (The Toronto Sun - November 15, 1999)

Joe Strong is accustomed to finding small treasures in other people's castoffs, but even he was surprised to find Honus Wagner staring back at him after a recent hunt.

Wagner's 1909 baseball card just happens to be one of the rarest and most expensive cards out there.

Strong, a 29-year-old Hamilton resident, has been collecting cards for the past year and a half. He came across what is believed to be one of 16 Wagner cards in existence while rummaging through a box of cards he purchased at a recent yard sale in Hamilton.

The card is in terrible shape. The back is gone after being pasted in a scrapbook and the front is heavily creased.

Even so, Strong and card grader Guy Stopard have put it up for sale over the Internet for $15,000 and already have had at least 10 serious inquires.

Even if he gets close to the asking price, it is not bad for an $800 purchase.

"I didn't even know what I had at first," Strong said. "It looked really old so I went to the library to check it out.

"Once I know who it was I took it to a couple of card shops in the area but they all said it was fake. I asked them whether they had ever seen a real one before and none of them had, so I asked them how they knew it was fake."

Stopard, one of only a couple of card graders in Ontario, gave it the seal of approval.

Strong, though, may never have found this gem had he not struck up a conversation with the woman at the yard sale table that day.

"There were a few boxes of cards on the table so I asked whether she had any more. She told me I could look at what she had in the basement. I wound up buying all of it for $800."

Strong also e-mailed a picture of the card to Christie's Auction House in New York. John Martino, who grades cards for Christie's, said he would want to examine the card himself before declaring it the real deal, but said what he saw certainly looked real.

In mint condition, a Wagner card has sold for between $600,000 and $700,000.

Wayne Gretzky and disgraced former NHL owner Bruce McNall once paid more than $400,000 US for a Wagner card.