Honus Wagner T206 sells for $2.1 million despite lack of gold foil, hologram, blades of grass or torn up clothes

Darren Rovell tells us that Honus Wagner has been bought once again, this time for $2.1 million, an increase from the last time he (Wagner, not Rovell) was bought back in 2008 for $1.6 million. No word on the buyer, though the person was described as male and "not within the hobby", which is good because any true hobbyist these days knows that it's a suckers bet to buy a card that doesn't have a fancy gold foil stamp on it, or maybe a piece of dirt inside of a little plastic bag inserted into a cutout. I mean, really.

I also gotta say, the second you spend an amount of over... say... $30... You're pretty well "within the hobby". Unless maybe you're Ron Fowler, and from your outsider perspective, you literally thought you were buying Honus Wagner's contract for a year, and you ordered Josh Byrnes to spend no more than $3 million on a short stop, which I have a tendency to believe.

Everth Cabrera, the Padres current shortstop, is set to earn $1.275 million this season. When Honus Wagner was alive, the richest contract offered to him was $20,000 ($500k when adjusted for inflation). I guess give it a hundred years, free agency, non-hobbyists crazy for nostalgia and the Hall of Famer is proving his worth.

For you other non-hobbyists, the T206 Honus Wagner is considered the most valuable (and most famous) baseball card. Firstly, because the T206 set is super old (sold in 1909 to 1911), secondly because Honus Wagner himself is considered among the very best players of all time and third because his card in particular was limited in print compared to other cards in the already rare set. Honus Wagner is said to have asked to stop having his card distributed because he didn't want his picture on cigarettes. Honus Wagner apparently did not want anybody to ever believe that he could be smoked.

That's manly.