( CNN ) -- Years after his death , baseball legend Honus Wagner hit a home run for a group of nuns , who will use proceeds from the sale of his extremely rare baseball card to do charitable work . Texas-based Heritage Auctions conducted the internet auction , which concluded Thursday night with a winning bid from Doug Walton , whose family owns seven stores in the Southeast specializing in sports cards and collectibles . `` I have been in the market for this card for a long time , '' Walton told CNN . `` It is the Mona Lisa of baseball cards . '' Walton paid $ 262,900 , Heritage said , with $ 220,000 of that going to the School Sisters of Notre Dame . The card 's price beat initial estimates by $ 162,900 . Both the card and the account of how it came to be sold make for compelling stories . Like other stars of the early 20th century , Wagner , a Hall of Famer with the Pittsburgh Pirates , appeared on tobacco company cards . The T206 cards were made between 1909 and 1911 . Wagner 's likeness was removed , either because he opposed being associated by young fans with tobacco or because he was n't being paid enough by the company , said Chris Ivy , director of sports sales for Heritage Auctions . Only 50 to 60 T206 Wagner cards are believed to exist . One in near-mint condition sold for $ 2.8 million in 2007 . The Catholic order , which has a facility in Baltimore , Maryland , obtained the card when the brother of one its nuns died earlier this year , leaving several baseball cards to the congregation . Neither of the siblings has been identified . Never mind that the card 's sides had been trimmed to fit in a scrapbook , that it was laminated and lost some paper on the back , leaving it in poor condition . It 's an authentic T206 Honus Wagner card . `` The fact that this was in her brother 's collection since the 1930s and no one knew it '' makes its history special , Ivy told CNN . The Catholic missionary and teaching order said Wagner 's name `` is blessed to us now . '' `` We 're very grateful to have the extra funds to help the School Sisters of Notre Dame where we minister in more than 30 countries , '' said Sister Virginia Muller , treasurer of the order 's Atlantic-Midwest area , in a statement . Walton , managing partner of Walton Sports Cards and Collectibles , said he 's tried three previous times to buy a Wagner card , but was outbid . He plans to have the card make the rounds of the company 's stores in Tennessee , Florida and South Carolina . He concedes he paid about $ 60,000 more than the card is worth , but `` the back story made me spend the extra money on it . '' About 75 percent of his pursuit of the T206 card was emotion , he said . `` I 'm a very stubborn person . ''
Rare Honus Wagner baseball card sold at auction . Catholic nuns will receive $ 220,000 to do charitable work . Buyer has been in the market for card for a long time .