Babe Ruth Investment?

[PhillyFan1883]

Good luck on your quest! I too started collecting vintage even younger than you. You have a head start on everyone and the cards are a great investment moving forward. I like the suggestions of the Goudey’s, but if you do that I think the Yellow batting pose will have the most upside since it was printed slightly less than the others. Supply and demand. Listen to Jay Miller he gave great advice as far as not jumping on the first one and everything else he said. Another trend in our hobby is eye appeal over technical grade. Make sure whatever copy you get has nice eye appeal more than the grade.

[Exhibitman]

One more important thing: buy a card you really like. If it is just money then buy stocks. One of the great things about cards or art is that they can be pleasing to own and valuable.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

I'd say definitely NOT a photograph. Prices are high now, and there is a reason every auction is stacked with them. You could barely give these away for years. Maybe the hobby is maturing, I dont buy it, or them.

Steer clear of exhibits and postcards. Also, never paid much attention too until the last few years. They were never looked at as being as desirable as a gum or candy card. Prices have really taken off. Full size photos, I get it, but the old man in me wont bend to these new trends.

Strip cards, yuck.

Go with the nicest Goudey or maybe even a Sports King Ruth you can afford, and enjoy it.

Yes, steer clear of postcards. They are a less collected item. And are not going to go up in value. (* I am being very sarcastic, btw).
Postcards and Exhibit cards should definitely be something you want to look at. The Exhibits are a little more plentiful and I don't see their long term valuation skyrocketing. (at least in the next 20 yrs or so). But they can be great and a less expensive alternative to a Goudey. And postcards are very cool to a lot of us collectors. This was bought on this forum for a little over 1500 dollars, less than 2 yrs ago. I think it will be worth more if I ever want to sell it. But I bought it because I like the photo and card. As others have said, if you buy wisely pricewise AND you like the card, you should be fine.

[uniship]

Young man definitely go about this cautiously - but don’t let anyone talk you out of what you want to do. I can think of 1000 other things that would be far worse at age 14 than investing in a choice, vintage Ruth card. In fact if you have the ability I think it’s an excellent idea.

With that being said, the ‘21 exhibit is a wonderful selection and that would be my top recommendation.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Leon

Yes, steer clear of postcards. They are a less collected item. And are not going to go up in value. (* I am being very sarcastic, btw).
Postcards and Exhibit cards should definitely be something you want to look at. The Exhibits are a little more plentiful and I don't see their long term valuation skyrocketing. (at least in the next 20 yrs or so). But they can be great and a less expensive alternative to a Goudey. And postcards are very cool to a lot of us collectors. This was bought on this forum for a little over 1500 dollars, less than 2 yrs ago. I think it will be worth more if I ever want to sell it. But I bought it because I like the photo and card. As others have said, if you buy wisely pricewise AND you like the card, you should be fine.

Exactly. And whatever you do... don’t buy photos! I have done horribly. ��
They were literally giving these away... not in packs of tobacco or gum... some other time. But... not sure when or who. I had to buy all of mine.
Anyway... goudey is prob the safest.. you will not lose money. That said, imo.. the upside isn’t huge at that dollar as you are looking at a 3-3.5. There are many of them. The 1921 exhibit would prob be my card if choice at that price point if i was doing cards. Like others said.. buy a pretty one of whatever you decide.. not just in grade.
For upside... i like photos(i put money where mouth is). That said, like everything else... you need to buy the right photo. I would start small and educate yourself first. However, if you can get into a type 1 photo used for a card or a Poignant piece of memorabilia of Ruth, that would be a safe bet. Make sure it is a good image either way. I would probably always be here to bail you out if needed if you bought something like this right
Good luck and welcome to the sickness young man!

I do love cards.. just sayin’

https://twitter.com/weingartensvint/...498190337?s=21

[TUM301]

Originally Posted by buymycards

$5 to spend at age 14? Good for you!

When I was 14, all I had was my paper route money. Much of that went to beer and cigarettes.

Then I wasted the REST !

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by rats60

I really don't know where you got the 600k from, but I hope you realize that the Ruths would be worth in excess of a million dollars. You would have received a much higher return if you had invested in higher grade cards.

There were several articles about that. There are websites as well, its well known that if you have 10,000 in an index dow fund 40 years ago and reinvested dividends you would have 600,000 now..it sure would exceed 300,000 with the dividends reinvested....if you did it in the 1940s..it would be more than a million as well...

I didnt say all cards wouldnt outperform the market..i said 99% of cards wouldnt exceed...the OP then said 10,000, 40 years ago if you go by the price of the market would go up 30x., i corrected as its more in the 60x range when include dividends reinvested...

also in the 1970s, there were no graded cards...everyone thought their card was mint...centered cards werent that big of a deal either..so yeah your 'mint' card that is offcenter wouldnt be a psa 9 now etc...

so cant just assume you would get the best example of the card when going by what standards people cared about then.....

[theotobel]

Thank you so much Jay! I will definitely talk to my parents and be in touch sometime soon.

[theotobel]

Thank you so much everyone for your input! As a matter of fact, I've worked as a little league umpire for the past few years and have saved up some money. I wanted to invest in something that interests me (baseball cards) instead of stocks or another form of investment.

Have a great Thanksgiving,
Theo

[Leon]

Originally Posted by theotobel

Thank you so much everyone for your input! As a matter of fact, I've worked as a little league umpire for the past few years and have saved up some money. I wanted to invest in something that interests me (baseball cards) instead of stocks or another form of investment.

Have a great Thanksgiving,
Theo

Good luck Theo. Keep us updated with what you do. Happy holidays to you and yours too.

[nebboy]

My pick for that amount would be e212 Ruth montage
-not my card-