THE NHL : A Very Expensive Collect Call

Wayne Gretzky could feel the tension building.

He has been in Stanley Cup finals. He has set consecutive-game streaks that might never be broken. He has scored crucial goals with the clock ticking away the final seconds.

But that was different. Then, he had a hockey stick in his hand and the situation under control.

Now, all he had in his hand was a telephone and he was trying to control a situation a continent away.

It was last Friday. Gretzky and King owner Bruce McNall, partners in race horses and a football team, were talking about making a serious investment in the baseball card business.

A unique auction of valuable cards was being conducted at Sotheby’s, a New York auction house normally identified with rare paintings or pieces of sculpture.

McNall and Gretzky had their eyes on a set of 1910 cards. The centerpiece was a Honus Wagner, Hall of Famer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Also to be auctioned was a 1952 Mickey Mantle. McNall, based on the Sotheby’s catalogue, expected it to go for $12,000-$15,000.

It went for $49,500.

Since McNall originally figured the Wagner card would sell for $125,000-$150,000, he knew it, too, might go for three times that amount.

“I told Wayne that the decision you have to make with great things is, if you want to buy it, buy it,” McNall said. “There’s always a number.”

The number he and Gretzky agreed to spend was $500,000 between them.

First on the auction block was the rest of that 1910 set, 520 cards in all.

McNall-Gretzky bought the set for $90,000.

But the bidding for Wagner began at more than $200,000. McNall and Gretzky were on separate phones in Los Angeles, listening to the bidding in New York.

When it hit $360,000, McNall asked Gretzky what he thought.

Gretzky: “You said we would go to $500,000. We still have $410,000 left.”

Not for long. When another bid came in at $405,000, McNall put in the $410,000.

Gretzky couldn’t stand the pressure. He hung up before learning that the card was theirs.

“Besides,” he said with a grin, “the call had already cost me $3.”

Adding in the commission, the card wound up costing McNall and Gretzky $451,000, the highest price ever paid for sports memorabilia.

“I’ve always wanted to have the best in the world, whether it was coins, stamps or hockey players,” McNall said.

There is already talk that the card will eventually be worth $1 million, but McNall shrugs at such conjecture.

“I’ve always found in life that if I felt I might have overpaid for something or gone to the limit, those turn out to be the best investments,” he said.

“There is no precedent for this kind of thing just like there is no precedent for the salary of a Wayne Gretzky. It has no relevance to anything else because it is unique. The card is worth whatever I’m prepared to sell it for or whatever someone is prepared to pay. I thought it would go for something like $300,000, but I like that it went for what it did because that shows a strong and healthy market.

“Since this is the highest price ever paid for a card, it’s certainly not worth any more right now. But if the market continues strong and somebody wants to own the best cards, they’ll have to buy this one.”

Add collecting: This is a hobby for which McNall has long been known. He began to amass his fortune collecting coins.

But Gretzky, too, collects things. He has a letter from Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Bell lived outside Toronto in Brantford, Ontario, later to become famous as Gretzky’s hometown.

“In the letter, Bell talks about making his first phone call,” Gretzky said. “I paid $15,000 for it.

“I’ve been offered a lot more, but I won’t sell it.

“They are talking about building a museum for (Bell) in the area. If they do, I might loan the letter to them.”

Some Great Ones to collect: Gretzky has saved two items of incalculable value for his kids.

For his two-year-old daughter, Paulina, he has put away his first card as a King and the only one he has ever signed.

For his son, Ty, born last year, Gretzky has saved the stick he used to break Gordie Howe’s record of 1,850 points.

“The stick will be his when he’s 21 and he can do what he wants with it,” Gretzky said of his son.

Signing his life away: Although he dabbles in collecting and owns half of the world’s most expensive baseball card, Gretzky is turned off by the dollar value youngsters put on cards.

“You hear kids talking,” Gretzky said. “They’ll get an autograph and say, ‘That’s worth $5. That’s $7.’ They just look at it as money. You can’t sit in a hotel lobby any more without them coming from everywhere.

“It’s amazing. We’ll get to a hotel around midnight and they’ll be lined up there, all waiting with their collecting books. I’ll say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ ”

Known as one of the most accommodating superstars in any sport, Gretzky has never shied away from signing autographs. But even he has his limits.

“They’ll ask you to sign a card but they don’t want just one signed,” he said. “They’ll pull out a book and ask you to sign 10. And if you don’t, you become a bad guy.”

The pressure on Gretzky in that regard has seemed worse than ever this season. In Winnipeg, he was trying to get on the team bus after a game, surrounded by a phalanx of policemen, when a group of overly enthusiastic fans broke down a barrier and rushed him. No one was hurt, but it was an uneasy situation.

“I’ll tell you, I get scared when I see 400 people coming at me,” he said. “Jim Morrison I’m not.”