How much would you pay?

[conor912]

For the sake of this poll, I'm going with a '33 Goudey Ruth, PSA 5. Which of the 4 Ruths doesn't matter for this exercise, nor does the strength of the grade. Assume we all agree that it has a current "market value" is $5k.

I've been thinking about the prices some cards have gotten to lately and the psychology that goes along with them. I'm curious to know what you would all pay for said Ruth if it carried zero resale value. I'm interested in what percentage of the prices we pay are justified in our brains by the fact that we can always resell it if we need to. However, if a card had zero resale value, much like a pair of used socks, how much would you pay strictly for the joy of owning it.

[Leon]

I said 1k - 3k as the Goudey Ruth (144) is one of my favorite cards in the hobby, if not my favorite. I would pay that much to own a nice one.....

[Republicaninmass]

I've always loved the color of #181. It reminds me of some candy from the 30s I've never had, but Probably tasted better then than it does now.

[familytoad]

I think I wouldn’t pay anything.
I’m far from a flipper , investor or anything like that but if it had no resale value, I could just print out a (better) picture of Ruth and collect pictures from the internet.
Not many people pay money for things that have no value...I might not be able to get much for my old socks but they provided the $6 of value when I got them

I’m probably straying from the real point, but my answer remains the same.
A picture on cardboard has to have some value or I wouldn’t pay up for it. May as well buy a fake Goudey on eBay , there are plenty...

In my mind, while it could be different in reality, I could turn my collection back into money. A profit or a loss is yet to be determined, but if I knew it was zero, I probably wouldn’t have paid so much for them...

[Slinger]

I haven't collected in almost 3 decades.

I got back into it to buy with the intent that in another 3-4 decades when I give/leave the cards to my son, they will be worth far more than what I paid for them. That's the hope anyway.

So a $0 value, doesn't interest me for my particular purchase game plan.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Leon

I said 1k - 3k as the Goudey Ruth (144) is one of my favorite cards in the hobby, if not my favorite. I would pay that much to own a nice one.....

I agree with Leon in that #144 is also my favorite, but even hypothetically, I cannot image it not having any re-sale value.

[C-mack]

I'd pay 100 to 400 for just about anything I thought was neat and had to have it lol so the Ruth would easily fall into this category

[darwinbulldog]

If nobody other than me cared about baseball cards, I guess I'd value it about the same as some other card that I like the look of, let's say the Stan Hack Diamond Stars card or a T206 Hal Chase portrait, which I'd be happy to pay $10-$20 for even if no one else wanted them just because of how old they are and how cool they look. Same for Ruth.

But this is kind of an old wound. At the risk of going a bit off-track here, I had exactly the card you describe and sold it for $2000 back in '05. Actually had it on eBay with a BIN for $2500, which someone clicked on when he wanted to just make an offer, then told me that he didn't want it for $2500, that he just wanted to offer $2000 but would throw in an extra $50 because he was a nice guy, then (over the next few weeks) bounced a check, then tried to send a second check to a P.O. Box via UPS (who won't deliver to a P.O. Box), then came on the forum when I posted about it to warn other sellers and criticized me for overreacting and not just trusting him, all while I was trying to not be evicted from my apartment because I suddenly found myself $2500 short. I was a student at the time, and that one card accounted for probably like 3/4 of the value of my entire collection.

I just read through the thread as a refresher. It was pretty much just as I remembered.

[Throttlesteer]

You can easilyg answer your question. Check what a 1933 Goudey Ruth reprint is fetching on EBay. Short of something providing obvious utility, wouldn't any objects value be determined on it's resale potential? .