Babe Ruth Uncatalogued Cuban Card Help Needed

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Posted By: James Feagin

Hello,

I'm thinking about purchasing the following Ruth. It is presently uncatalogued and surely could use some help on it. I do know this was sold through Ryan's Cuban Baseball auction. The three main questions I have are....

1.) Has anyone else seen another one?
2.) Without seeing another one, would you consider this a card?
3.) For the Spanish speakers here, who can translate the bottom?
4.) An estimate of years based on uniforms and background?
5.) A really really rough estimate of how much this could be worth.



Thanks a million,

James

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Posted By: Paul

Not sure why I'm answering. Not good at Spanish or estimating card values, but here goes it. I think it's saying- Difficult that his wave is surpassed by his personal magnetism. Atleast something like that. I would consider it a card, & would guess maybe $500.00 ?? It looks mid 1920's to me. I think I've seen another one before, but don't remember where.

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Posted By: Chad

This is the description from Ryan's original auction of the card where it sold for $368 plus the hammer. It then sold on ebay a few weeks later for about twice that. (Sorry I can't give a specific price. I remember thinking that I wished I had the brains to flip it, though.)

Anyway, the description:

DESCRIPTION:
This is one of the most mysterious cards we have found in our travels. Several years ago we had the privilege of purchasing the book collection of the premier Cuban baseball historian and author, Severo Nieto. Nieto is the author of dozens of books on the history of Cuban baseball including biographies of some of its greatest stars such as Cristobal Torriente, Alejandro Oms and Lazaro Salazar. Unfortunately, nearly all of his books remain unpublished as he still lives in Cuba where it is obviously very difficult for an author to have his works published.

Severo Nieto Fernandez was first published in 1956 as co-author of "Beisbol Cubano," a book of records and statistics. He did have several articles on Cuban baseball published over the next few years in various sports magazines, but his next book, "Conrado Marrero - El Premier" wasn't published until 2000. His most recent book to be published is a biography of the great Jose Mendez.

The reason for mentioning the purchase of Nieto's book collection is that this card was found inside the pages of an old Spalding guide that was part of the collection. We have never seen another example or any card that is even remotely similar to it.

It measures 2 7/16" by 3 3/4" and is on thick cardboard. It appears to be hand-cut and has a blank reverse. There is a bughole that goes through the Babe's right forearm.

Your guess is as good as ours regarding the date, manufacturer, or purpose of the card. Perhaps it was a multi-sport set that used Ruth for baseball, as so many similar sets did. Whatever it is, it's certainly one of the more unusual Babe Ruth cards.

[glchen]

I know that I'm digging up an old thread, but I recently saw an ebay listing that looks to have the same photo used in this card: Link (not my listing). I don't know if Frank (fkw) still owns this card as he had for sale a while ago: Link.

According to the ebay listing:

"For sale is a Type 1 Original Photo of Babe Ruth. In this beautiful image Ruth is posing for a picture showing off what all of the fans were paying to see each game. This looks to be from his 1929 season by his uniform. This image is Credited by BOHEMIA LIBRE. The slug on the back of the photo is missing. It measures 7 x 9.25 inches and is in Great Condition. There is some small creases along the corners as well with a light crease in the top portion of the photo going down. This is a great shot of Ruth posing in his pinstripes during the Pinnacle of his career!!! "

A quick google of "Bohemia Libre" seems to say that they are either a Cuban or Puerto Rican magazine. Therefore, perhaps this card was included as insert in one of their magazines in 1929 or early 1930s.

[h2oya311]

Nice photo id find! Thanks for sharing...hopefully the mystery of this card can finally be uncovered by some of our net54 experts (if it hasn't already)!!

[Leon]

Not too long ago I had it looked at by one of the best graders in the industry (imo). He put it under a microscope and said he feels it is period circa 1930s. It is on card stock so probably wasn't an insert. My guess is it was cut from an ad piece but I am no where near sure...I wish I would have gotten it in Ryan's auction.