IN his day, which was in the early part of the 20th century, up until 1918 when he stopped playing baseball, Honus Wagner was a pretty cool dude.

A major league shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was not only a sporting icon, a brilliant hitter, runner and fielder, the best there's ever been some say, but an upright citizen who eschewed smoking when everyone around him from film stars to dustmen were lighting up like bonfires.

it is ironic then that a cigarette card bearing Wagner's image has become the most sought- after of all time. Fewer than 60 of these cards are believed to exist, the popular theory being that Honus halted their production because he did not want children to be encouraged to smoke.

In February this year, a Honus Wagner baseball card was sold in California for $2.35 million. That's more than £1.17 million for a piece of card about 1x2 ins.

This shines a whole new light on to the national convention of cigarette card collectors that took place in Worcester. They came from all over the world to Perdiswell Leisure Centre to look through the thousands of cards on display, be they on sporting themes, military, showbiz or ships.

All this may qualify for an anorak rating somewhere along with stamp collecting, were it not for the Wagner card. Predictably, a specimen failed to turn up at Worcester, but this didn't mean the annual convention's first ever visit to the city wasn't a success.

"Until 1989 it had always been held in London," explained David Stuckey, who edits the trade magazine Card Times. "Since then it has travelled around the UK. The last time it was in the Midlands was six years ago in Stratford-upon-Avon."

He should have had no trouble finding the address, for although he now lives on Merseyside, David spent several years in the early 1970s on the staff of this newspaper.

"Cigarette cards first made their appearance in Victorian times," David explained. "They started life as blank cards that were inserted as strengtheners into paper packets of cigarettes.

"They evolved into advertising cards bearing product details. This device was first used in America in 1886 and then by WD and HO Wills in Britain in 1888. The aim was to keep smokers loyal to a particular brand.

"The golden age was between the two world wars when they were produced in their millions. There were many sets on aircraft, motor cars and ships, while others covered subjects from household and garden hints to cinema and sports stars and just about everything else. Production stopped during the Second World War, for with the country facing shortages, they were seen as a waste.

"They didn't come back in any great number after the war, but in the late 1950s bubblegum cards began to make their presence known in the UK and they too are eagerly sought today."

A big blow for the card collecting hobby, known as cartophily, was the decision by Brooke Bond to end its issue of tea cards in 2000 after 50 years of successful series.

"They don't attract huge prices but they could do in the future," David said.

All this might appear to make cartophily a hobby for the aged, but that's not so, as the young faces in the crowds at Perdiswell showed.

"Youngsters start today by collecting stickers from magazines and that's their introduction to this much wider world," he explained.

But not even 300 Roonies or 200 Ronaldos will equal one Honus Wagner. Which puts things into perspective.