Probably Plank. If it was any card at all. Some of the 70's exposure to card collecting was ads in the sporting news offering a good bit of money for the Wagner.
I think it's a matter of a certain group of things about a particular collectible that drive the prices.
Great player/ popular subject
Rare item, but not so rare it can't be had at any price without a very long wait. For most mainstream hobbies that seems to be around 50-100 known sometimes a bit less.
Great story.
Easy answer to "why is it valuable"
The Wagner is a great choice, combining all of those.
The same goes for the Upside down airplane stamp
And some of the most expensive US coins (Although they're all more rare.)
The Plank is close, but the story just isn't easy for everyone to understand, and isn't "romantic" enough.
The Baltimore Ruth is too rare.
The 52 Mantle might have it, but it's not really all that uncommon. And while it had some mystique the popularity was really driven by the NY dealers and people who pushed the idea of him as the greatest ever. (Maybe, maybe not - that's something for another thread)
The Wagner, while not the rarest card had all of the above. And did almost from the beginning.
I know someone in a hobby where there are no items that have all those qualities. Even the common stuff is much harder to find than even some of the tougher cards. But the most expensive item is around $10,000. Even some very nice items that exist in maybe 2-3 copies known only get up to maybe 4-5000.
Another hobby I'm into has a group of stuff that put all together might get to 100 items known. Certainly it's under 200. They've become "expensive"
since there's so few, but will never reach the level of the Wagner.
That's because they're too hard to find, the popularity is often variable. And none of the stuff has a story that resonates with non-collectors.
Without a Wagner, our hobby would be much smaller, much less expensive, and the stuff would be a lot harder to find.
Steve B
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