Maple Leafs

Corbeau, Wagner & Gretzky: A Cross Sport Card Story

Aug 2, 2016 • 2:31 pm

The T206 Honus Wagner is the undisputed champion of the baseball card world, if not the sports card world in general. Distributed in cigarette packages between the years 1909 to 1911, the card is estimated to have had a print run limited to 50 to 200 copies, a stark contrast to the approximate six figure print runs of the remaining cards in the series. Why the discrepancy? Well, various reasons have been offered, the most popular being that Honus himself fought to have the card pulled as he opposed his likeness being used to market cigarettes. While the rarity and age of the card alone are sufficient to have driven its long term demand, the “ahead of its time… tone of Wagner’s stand against tobacco certainly added a mystique around the card that has helped to sustain its place in memorabilia folklore….

Picture courtesy NY Daily News

….and yet, there’s more to the story of this card than what I just threw out there. Far too much to go into without fully kiboshing any connection to hockey! I'd highly recommend tracking down a copy of “The Card…, which goes into the highly controversial history of one particular T206 Honus Wagner, and what makes it quite infamous. For the sake of not leaving you wonderful people hanging, though, I provide a very “Cole’s Notes… version! Strap in…

So, what about this one (in)famous Honus Wagner card I referred to, huh? Well, slap my ass and call me Charlie, it just so happens to have a connection to the world of hockey! This comes in the form of the best known specimen of the T206 Wagner, known as the “Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner…. This card is, shocker, named after Wayne Gretzky, the most famous co-owner of the card when he and Bruce McNall purchased it in 1991 for just north of $450,000. Over the next 16 years the card was sold five times (and won once after it was made the grand prize in a Wal-Mart contest after the company bought it from Gretzky and McNall), with the most recent sale price (in 2007) being a hefty $2.8 million.

Now, a few notable things occurring in the chain of ownership that one might find interesting. First, and I point this out only as something I noticed reviewing the sales over the course of 22 years, Gretzky and McNall made the second lowest profit off their sale of the card ($49,000). The lowest profit you ask? It came off the initial 1985 sale, which saw the Wagner and numerous other cards sold collectively for approximately $25,000 (again: go read “The Card… to see just how little justice and detail I do this sale…). Most significant to the history and aura of the Wagner card, however, is the fact that this copy of the card was long suspected to have been cut from a sheet, not come from a cigarette pack, and had it’s sides trimmed prior to the Gretzky sale. Both having been hand cut from a sheet and the sides being cleaned up are factors that would significantly and negatively impact the value of a card, and yet we have a card being sold for $2.8 million in 2007. A card that the initial seller and one of the authentication experts hired in 1991 have stated was, in their opinion, cut from a sheet, while another owner recently (2013) admitted to in federal court having cleaned up prior to the Gretzky sale. Craziness I tells ya! CRAZINESS!!!

Certainly a complicated history with this card, but it also remains the sports most valuable. But what about hockey? Does the NHL have it’s own Honus Wagner? Well, not in terms of all the controversy by any means! But if we focus on an age and rarity that have put it in a spot as the sports priciest? You bet hockey’s got it! So who is this player? Who do we speak of? Hold on to your seats ladies and gentlemen, as I give you…

Bert Corbeau!

Ok, most will need a bit of an introduction to Mr. Corbeau. Bert, a defenseman, played a decade in the NHL for the Hamilton Tigers, Toronto St. Pats, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. He was part of the Habs first Stanley Cup winning team, on the first Maple Leafs team, the first player to play for Montreal and Toronto in their career, and the first player to accumulate 100 penalty minutes in a season. Lots of firsts, eh? Never mind that the man also went on to referee in the NHL. Sounds like a pretty well rounded career! And yet he is less well known for any and all of these things than for his appearance on a single hockey card during his time with the Toronto St. Pats….

Picture courtesy www.classicauctions.net

Let's set the stage: The year is 1923. The company: William Paterson Inc in Brantford, ON (another Gretzky connection). The business? Candy. The product was the Paterson’s Hockey League Bar. As if chocolate was not enticing enough for a child, a promotion was included whereby each bar included a card of one of 40 different NHL players. Here was the real draw, however: collect all 40 cards and send them back to the company and the folks at Paterson’s would send you a new pair of skates!!! You would also have your cards returned, albeit tagged as cancelled via a hole punched from it and a stamp on the reverse of the card indicating the date of redemption.

Picture courtesy www.classicauctions.net

I'm sure many of you have picked up on the rub here: how does the company ensure they don't lose money on a promotion such as this? The sure fire tried and true method – limit the amount of sets that could be completed! How to achieve this? Short-print one of the 40 cards! Enter Bert Corbeau! While no one is entirely certain how many Corbeau cards were actually distributed, only five to 10 have been confirmed to exist at present, with only two of those not being cancelled versions. This is certainly rarer than the Honus Wagner card we discussed earlier. In fact, it is considered so rare that many individuals consider the Paterson 1923-24 V145-1 series as complete even when the Corbeau card is not present. At the same time, the V145-1 Bert Corbeau has not demanded nearly the price of the Wagner, booking at $20,000, often fetching more than this however, due to its rarity, but not pushing six figures. In fact, within the past decade a full set of all 40 cards, including the Corbeau, sold at auction for just over $135,000, with the price supported by the inclusion of many other high end rookie cards, including King Clancy, Aurel Joliet, Howie Morenz and Jack Adams. Nevertheless, the Corbeau card does hold the distinction of being the highest valued non-graded hockey card in existence, and as such has its own special place in the world of hockey collectibles and memorabilia!

So there you go! A little hockey history, some Gretzky, a pinch of legal and ethically questionable behaviour, and some sketchy business approaches to ripping off kids! Warms the cockles of our hearts! At any rate, please do drop a line if you have any questions about any hobby-related topics, and I’ll see what I can do to address them in a future article!

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Do you have a piece of treasured memorabilia that has a great story behind it? Let me know and you can be featured in an article. Doesn't matter how big or small the piece is, how valuable it may be, or whether it's a common item or more oddball. If you think it has a story, contact me via the information below and we'll chat. In the meantime, check out some previous "Display Case" articles via the links below to see what others have submitted in the past...

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Shawn Gates

shawn.gates@hockeybuzz.com

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