Honus Wagner card fetches $1.62 million

CHICAGO, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A 1909 baseball card depicting early Hall-of-Famer Honus Wagner was sold for $1.62 million in Chicago, auctioneers said.

The Wagner card was part of one of the earliest series of baseball cards ever issued, coming with cigarettes made by the American Tobacco Co. Doug Allen, chief operating officer of Mastro Auctions of Burr Ridge, Ill., said the buyer was an Arkansas man, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.

The Wagner card sale came as part of the National Sport Collectors Convention held at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill., with the card bidding taking place at a sports bar and restaurant in downtown Chicago.

Honus Wagner was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates who dominated the National League in the years between 1900 and 1913, but he demanded the cigarette company withdraw his card for reasons that aren't clear, making his cards very rare, the Tribune reported.

Wagner was one of the first five players inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.