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Charlie Sheen Stolen All-Star Café T206 Honus Wagner at Auction

Once stolen from actor Charlie Sheen, this Holy Grail of cards is now at auction

March 08, 2022

Wagner

Perhaps the most famous copy of the world's most famous card is now available at auction. A T206 Honus Wagner card that once belonged to, and was stolen from Charlie Sheen is now available. Read the story behind the wild theft and recovery of the card and about the new auction.

A T206 Honus Wagner is the Holy Grail of baseball cards. Since 1933, every record-breaking sale of a sports card has typically been the Wagner. A copy of this card is the current-record holder with a sale price of 6.6 million dollars! You can see that card HERE.

For unknown reasons, Wagner did NOT want his card produced in the T206 Tobacco set back in 1909-1911. Perhaps trying to prevent kids from using tobacco, or a contract dispute over compensation between he and the American Tobacco Company are the two top theories. Printing of the Wagner card came to a halt, leaving the hobby with fewer than 100 cards known to exist. One of those cards belonged to Charlie Sheen; he is known to be a HUGE collector. Sheen's Wagner was once STOLEN. The story is wild and ended up with a presidential pardon. Now that very same card is coming to auction.

CHARLIE SHEEN'S "ALL-STAR CAFE" T206 HONUS WAGNER

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The All-Star Café was a restaurant that catered to a sports theme much like a Hard Rock Café is all about music. The biggest athletes in the world got behind the eatery like Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods and more. Charlie Sheen is HUGE into sports cards and memorabilia, once owning Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series ring, so naturally he invested. More than just dollars, Sheen included pieces of his collection in the restaurant.

Located in Times Square in New York City, the Café had "The Sheen Room" where Charlie's items were displayed under plexiglass. The T206 Honus Wagner that Sheen owned was loaned to the Café and was placed under the plexiglass for all to see.

In 1998, a chef and maintenance manager realized there were no cameras or alarms in the Café; times were different in the late 90's. The men STOLE the Wagner and replaced it with a fake copy. When nobody noticed the card on display was a fake, the conspirators sold the card to a well-known dealer. Sheen purchased the card for $222,500 but the thieves sold the card for $18,000. Not 180 - just $18,000.

Another employee then tried to steal more items of Sheens but this time broke the plexiglass! Naturally the authorities noticed the theft this time. The FBI got involved and called the top dealers in the country including the dealer that purchased the Wagner. It didn't take long to find the thieves from the restaurant but the most astounding part of the story - the FBI didn't know anything about the missing Wagner still! Until the interrogation for the SECOND heist and casually mentioning the Wagner as being stolen, the FBI and others had no idea that under the plexiglass was a fake T206 Honus Wagner.

The Wagner was recovered and the culprits were sentenced. One of the employees was just an informant and received only four years of probation. Eventually this person was given a Presidential pardon.

This exact Sheen Wagner has changed hands in 1993, 2000, 2009, and 2013. Not since 2013 has this card been made available, but it is now!

Mile High Card Company is offering the card in their auctions. See the card and auction HERE.

If you have a T206 Honus Wagner, we'd LOVE - and we mean LOVE to hear from you! Please don't go all Ocean's 11 to find one, though; we wouldn't do well in interrogation.

On a serious note, we're always interested in buying your vintage cards! We have previously purchased other rare T206 cards like the Eddie Plank in The Fairy Godmother find.

WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than using our website, too.

Shipping your collection

We will evaluate your cards for free. Once appraised, if you choose not to sell, we will return your cards at charge to you. With our FedEx account, we will ship your cards fully insured with 2-day shipping.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here - we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

We have another location in New York you can meet us at; read all the information here.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.

Whether you have vintage cards or modern wax you want to sell, you can reach out to us any time!