Fan Signal Desk
Daily brief on cards and kits.
Edition 40 Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Live Heat

A Piedmont-back T206 Wagner closes at $5.856 million

T206 Piedmont Honus Wagner baseball card in a graded holder
One of three known Piedmont-back Wagners, sold at Heritage for $5.856 million.Image: ha.com

One of three known Honus Wagner cards with a Piedmont advertising back took 53 bids at Heritage before settling at $5.856 million, its second time ever at public auction.

One of only three known Wagners with a Piedmont advertising back drew 53 bids plus registered phone bidders on August 21 in Heritage's Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, closing at $5.856 million including the house's 22% buyer's premium. It carries an SGC Authentic designation rather than a numeric grade, because of evidence of trimming. Our August 23 report had it above $5.8 million with the bidding still open; this is the settled number. It was only the card's second public auction appearance.

Source: Auction Report · Published August 24, 2026
Launch confirmed for August 27 by Manchester City on its own site, corroborated by ESPN.

Manchester City's fan-designed Puma third kit launches Thursday, August 27

Puma's AI Creator platform let City fans build third-kit concepts from text prompts and sliders, and the club says almost 180,000 designs and 1.6 million fan ratings narrowed the field to ten finalists before a public vote picked the winner. It is white, with a navy and sky blue center stripe that fades out and "CITY" embossed on the cuffs. We had the August 27 launch date on August 23; what is new is the design fans actually chose, and City's claim that this is the first fan-and-AI-designed kit a professional club will wear on-pitch. It goes on sale Thursday.

Source: Manchester City (official) · Published August 25, 2026
Ranked on r/baseballcards' top-of-day list for August 25; exact upvote and comment counts unavailable today because Reddit's scored JSON endpoint blocked the desk and the RSS fallback carries no scores.

r/baseballcards: a $6 antique mall pack of 1991 Upper Deck basketball held the Michael Jordan

u/Disastrous_Truth_741 says they almost never rip packs, but a sticker on this unopened 1991 Upper Deck basketball pack read "look for the Michael Jordan," so they paid the $6. The Jordan was the last card in the pack. Public pricing data the desk saw puts base 1991-92 Upper Deck #44 Jordans in roughly the $2 to $27 range depending on grade, so the money here is small; the appeal is that a six-dollar antique mall pack still pays off exactly the way the sticker promised.

Source: r/baseballcards · Published August 25, 2026
Ranked on r/baseballcards' top-of-day list for August 25; exact upvote and comment counts unavailable today because Reddit's scored JSON endpoint blocked the desk and the RSS fallback carries no scores.

r/baseballcards poster digs 2018 Shohei Ohtani cards out of a childhood box and asks the room what to do

Going through cards they collected as a kid, the poster pulled the 2018 Ohtanis aside because Ohtani was the only name they recognized. They looked them up and put the group at roughly $300 to $400 ungraded, their own figure, and there are about 200 more cards of players they cannot place still sitting in the box. The thread is the useful part: collectors talking a newcomer through what a rookie-year run of a still-active superstar is and is not.

Source: r/baseballcards · Published August 25, 2026
Posted August 22 by @SportsCardInv on X.

Sports Card Investor posts a $5,000 eBay sale for a Patrick Mahomes All Kings insert

JUST SOLD: The Patrick Mahomes 'All Kings" out of 2026 Topps Flagship Football for $5,000 on eBay 😮🔥

The All Kings run is the chase in 2026 Topps Flagship Football, and Mahomes is one of the names it was built around. No listing or second report surfaced for this one, so it rests on the post.

Source: Sports Card Investor (X) · Published August 22, 2026
Posted August 22 by @SportsCardInv on X.

Sports Card Investor posts a $1.7K eBay sale for a Fernando Mendoza base autograph

The Fernando Mendoza base auto from 2026 Topps Flagship Football just sold for $1.7K on eBay 👀 What do you think his prices will look like by the end of the season? 🤔

Mendoza's rookie market has had a loud week: Topps confirmed a 1-of-1 Mendoza Rookie Patch Auto pulled on release day, and this is the other end of the same set, a base autograph anyone ripping cases can realistically hit. Sports Card Investor gives the sale as $1.7K on eBay; we found active and presale Mendoza listings but no record of this completed sale.

Source: Sports Card Investor (X) · Published August 22, 2026
Posted August 24 by @GoldinCo on X.

Goldin lists a PSA 10 Messi, Suarez and Neymar triple autograph numbered 4/5 in its Monthly Sports Elite Auction

One of football's greatest trios on ONE card! ⚽⭐ Make your move in our Monthly Sports Elite Auction: bit.ly/4zvi1er Messi. Suárez. Neymar. Three signatures come together on this stunning Topps Chrome UEFA Red Refractor celebrating the legendary MSN trio. With only five copies produced and this example graded PSA GEM MT 10, it's an elite combination of star power, signatures, and serious scarcity.

Three signatures from the MSN front three on one Topps Chrome UEFA Red Refractor, five copies in the entire print run, and this is the one that came back PSA Gem MT 10. Goldin has it in the Monthly Sports Elite Auction; the desk could not independently confirm the lot's close date.

Source: Goldin (X) · Published August 24, 2026

Community posts surfaced by the editor from public feeds. Posts may not be independently confirmed.