The buyer of this summer’s $1.62 million T206 Honus Wagner has made another big purchase.
It’s bounced around the memorabilia market for several years now, selling in 2006–and again this week. Now, the Heisman Trophy award given to USC tailback Charles White in 1979 has a new owner.
John Rogers, the Arkansas-based collector/dealer who bought a PSA 5 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card in a Mastro Auctions sale in August, spent $216,000 for the trophy this week at the Legends auction in New York. But he’s hoping he doesn’t own it for long.
Rogers tells the LA Times he’s hoping to find a way to give the award back to White. “It pains me to think anyone would be forced to sell something so special,” Rogers said.
White sold the trophy in 2000 and it’s been offered at auction a couple of times since. Rogers says he’ll sell the award for the same price he paid and is hoping to get USC involved in some sort of fundraiser that would get the trophy back in White’s hands.
After White sold his trophy to pay bills, the Downtown Athletic Club began forcing each year’s recipient to sign agreements not to sell their individual awards.
