Wow, I never knew what happened to this Wagner card, or who had purchased it, after Bill Haber died.
I could have been the third owner of this card - if I could have come up with $500! In the late 1960s-early 1970s, I had started collecting the T206 set, and was purchasing them for 35 cents each from Wirt Gammon, of Chattanooga, TN. I would send him $8.75 - or $17.50 if I really saved up - and Wirt would send me 25 (or 50) different cards. I would look through them, keep what I needed, and return the duplicates to him for credit. Over a few years, I probably got about 500 different cards - the vast majority of my set - from Wirt
In one of the shipments (he mailed them in the old metal Band-Aid boxes), Wirt sent a note saying since it looked like I was getting pretty close to completing the set, if I would be interested in purchasing his Honus Wagner card, he would sell it to me for $500. I was in college, and there was no way I could come up with that kind of money, so I passed.
So, Wirt was also selling cards to Bill Haber, of Brooklyn, NY, and Bill did come up with the $500, and purchased the card. I first met Bill in person in August 1971, when we both went to Cooperstown and were two of the founding members of SABR. Bill brought a notebook with him, in which he had mounted his T206 set, so I did get to see the card then - and again about five years later when I visited Bill at his home.
After Bill died in 1995, his collection was sold, and I never knew what had happened to that Wagner - until now! (and no, I still don't have one).
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