'Holy Grail' Honus Wagner card sells for over $5M as family auctions it from grandfather's collection

Another T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, considered to be the "Holy Grail" of the collectible space, was recently discovered and has been sold at auction for $5.124 million.

The sale was conducted via Goldin Auctions, and it included the buyer’s premium. It’s now the third-most expensive T206 Wagner card ever after a $6.606 million copy was sold in August 2021 and another for $7.25 million in August 2022. 

This recently discovered copy had been in the family of Douglas and Dennis Shields for 116 yards. Their grandfather, Morton Bernstein, the son of The National Silver Company founder, Samuel E. Bernstein, collected trading cards, and more importantly, preserved them since the early 1900s. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXBUSINESS.COM

"We are honored that the Shields family chose us to represent this historic card that has been in their family for 116 years," Ken Goldin, CEO and founder of Goldin Auctions said in a statement, via ESPN. 

This recently discovered copy was graded as a 1 by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), while the other two received grades of 3 and 2 respectively from Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC) when they came about.  

LOGAN PAUL SELLS PIKACHU ILLUSTRATOR TRADING CARD FOR MORE THAN $16.4M

Morton Bernstein ended up purchasing F.B. Rogers Silver Company in 1955, and he made it a point to display his preserved cards in frames throughout his business. Ultimately, The National Silver Company went out of business, and the cards were placed in a warehouse. 

As Douglas and Dennis came forward, the T206 Wagner card was featured on Netflix’s "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch," where Goldin revealed it on a Season 3 episode in December. 

While this is a massive payout for yet another Wagner card, another T206 remains on the market. With six days left on Heritage Auction, an SGC Authentic, which is considered a grade below a 1, is at $2.318 million right now. 

So, what exactly makes this card worth millions today? Scarcity in the collectibles industry is a major key, and since Wagner asked the American Tobacco Company to stop making his card in 1909, there is certainly that factor here. 

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

That was the same year Wagner won the World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who he won eight batting titles with. Nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman," Wagner is one of the most recognized baseball players of all time, being amongst the original Hall of Fame inductees when the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, was founded. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.