1910 E98 "Set of 30" Honus Wagner, Red Background SGC 96 Mint 9 from "The Black Swamp Find."...

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One of four at this level, none higher! The only "Mint" Red Background.

1910 E98 "Set of 30" Honus Wagner, Red Background SGC 96 Mint 9 from "The Black Swamp Find." Though this remarkable slab of cardboard may share the name and vintage of the hobby's most coveted entry, you can bet you'll never encounter a T206 that can begin to compete with this stellar E98 for state of preservation. Even in the stiff competition offered by the balance of the famous "Black Swamp Find" from which this specimen derives, only two other Wagners measure up to the listed representation by SGC with none scoring better. In short, this rates as one of the very best Honus Wagner playing-days trading cards on the face of the Earth.

The story of "The Black Swamp Find" should be familiar by now to all hobbyists living on the daylight side of a rock, the story splashed across the pages of hobby and mainstream press alike, the collection sharing time with Matt Lauer on NBC's "The Today Show." Named for the treacherous terrain around the small town of Defiance, Ohio where the cards spent a century forgotten in a family attic, this remarkable assembly has provided the closest thing to a time machine available to the advanced baseball card collector.

Wagner was found in both a red and a green version within the Black Swamp find, and a Mint 9 version of each is offered within this Platinum Night auction. Here we present the former, a specimen quite literally unchanged from its appearance on the date of its creation. Of the four Wagner cards to grade "Mint" by SGC, this is the only example with a red background. It's the ultimate hobby dream in the flesh, and a smart investment for the hobbyist who has learned that the steepest value inclines tend to be at the top. Heritage Auctions sold a "Gem MT" example of this card for $239,000 (Platinum Night - Aug. 2, 2012).