PSA Offered $2.8 Million For Trimmed T206 Honus Wagner

Geoff Wilson put out a great video on the Sports Card Investor channel. Hear me out!

I know I am not shy about criticism of Geoff, but I also believe I’m more than fair to him. Okay, maybe I hammered the Lewis Taint thing too hard. Haha, nah.

Earlier this week, though, SCI put out the following video:

Ken Kendrick, the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks MLB team, has probably the most amazing sports card collection in the world. He has the highest-graded examples of many of the most iconic vintage cards in history.

Geoff did a great job interviewing him, and the edit is fantastic. One thing I want to point out, though, is something I haven’t seen covered anywhere else, and a Google search didn’t reveal anything.

At around 9:50 into the video, they turn to the T206 Honus Wagner. You know the one:

Ken jumps right into the story about how the card was trimmed, and the Mastro trial, and then goes on to say that David Hall, the founder and then-Chairman of PSA, called him to offer him the $2.8 million that Kendrick had paid for the card, because of PSA’s guarantee.

This feels like big news! I get comments nearly daily about how PSA refuses to do anything about their highest-profile card being trimmed, and now the owner of that card says that PSA offered to buy it back from him and he refused. He in fact believed that the controversy surrounding the card made it more valuable.

Geoff just blew by the revelation and changed the subject entirely.

Was it known publicly that PSA offered to buy it back? I hadn’t heard it, and can’t find anything.

Edit: cllct did write about this last year:

A couple of other notes from the interview:

• Either Geoff has been studying or has research team giving him facts about vintage cards before he talks about them. It worked well.

• Neither Geoff nor Ken mentions the scarcity of the 1954 Bowman Ted Williams.

• Ken, who grew up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and now owns a team in the same division as the Los Angeles Dodgers, hurls a good dig at today’s Dodgers.

Luka Raw

On this week’s Clearing the Bases, I showed a raw /199 Luka Dončić Blue Prizm rookie card, worth thousands of dollars, for sale ungraded on eBay. I thought it was surprising that someone would sell that without it being graded first, and may have speculated that it had been graded and cracked

This upset some commenters! Several people commented that they are collectors and have never and will never grade a card. It was offensive that I would suggest that a card should be graded.

First of all, I never suggested that any card should be graded. I said it’s unusual for a modern basketball card collector to sell a very valuable rookie card of Luka Dončić without first grading it. Collectors may not find any value in slabbing a card, but sellers of high-value cards often do.

And, well:

Yes, that’s the same serial number.

Simon466 covered this too:

🥺 A Sports Card Item I Wanted To Buy This Week

I was born in 1979, so I want a graded wax pack from each major sport from that year. (Yes, I know hockey will be a tough one.)

I’ve been watching auctions wistfully, wishing I didn’t have a $5,000 tax bill due in 5 weeks.

🔮 Clearing The Bases Preview

Topps mixed up Henry IVs, among other mistakes (and one cool update) I’ll cover:

🔗 Links:

I’ve mentioned this before, but I really enjoy Mantel’s Mail Day newsletter. I have no idea who J.R. Fickle is, but he’s funny.

Burbank Sports Cards was robbed? I’ve been waiting weeks for this news to hit, but no one seems to have picked up on it. My attempts to reach them have gone unanswered. Simon466 did cover this, but there don’t seem to be any statements.

The most iconic baseball card of all time was photographed right here in Phoenix

PSA Temporarily Halts Some International Submissions

On this date in sports history: On March 7th, 1857, baseball adopts 9 innings and 9 players as the standard, among other rules that are still in place today.