The hobby’s most iconic card under $15k?
 

In follow-up to my weekend “would you sell 80% of your collection to purchase an ‘52 Topps Mantle” I wanted to start a 2nd post here with a spin-off question.

As background, I considered the possibility of selling 80% of my personal collection to fund the acquisition of a 1952 Topps Mantle (low grade).

In the end, after doing the math (literally), I would have to sell too deep and would have to sell cards that I enjoy too much. Instead, I categorized my collection into 3 segments:

- would never sell
- might sell
- yes, would sell… easy to replace someday and/or not a huge connection to the card

So… I have opted to focus only on my “yes, would sell” cards and have decided to drop my aim just a bit from ‘52 Topps Mantle and am back for more advice!

I estimate I’ll end up with a budget of about $15k and would love to add an exciting new, iconic card to my collection. See below for some of my early considerations. Thoughts on these options? Other options?

Thanks again, Net54 community. I enjoy and value your thoughts!

Jeff

I’d love to own any of those cards, but if I have 15k to drop I’m probably looking for a decent green Cobb as my first choice. That said, I solely collect t206 so I’m obviously partial to that set. Good luck…..I’m sure you’ll end up with something epic…

For me it would be either of the 51 Bowman cards. Personally not a fan of any of the other cards. Best of luck on your choice.

I'd give the nod to the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson, with honorable mention to the t206 Green Ty Cobb Portrait.

I’ll be selling this Topps 54 Hank Aaron soon for around 15k. If your interested shoot me a pm.

All great choices and you cannot go wrong with any of them.

With that said a Goudey Ruth is the card I would choose (especially the Red)

Thx but I already have a 54 Aaron... good luck with your sale!

t206 Cobb Portrait (red or green) or 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth (#53 or #144). I would say those are equivalent and you really need one of each eventually. Look for the highest grade with best eye appeal you can find with your 15k.

I don't like to zero in on one card as it may not come up for sale. By having multiple options, you should be able to knock one off your want list in a short time frame.

Speaking generally, I'd pick a 51 Mays over any of the others you listed here. I think Mays is still a relatively undervalued player, and I think the 51 Mays is a great looking card. But personally I'd look for one with better eye appeal than the one you shared. I'd rather have one with worse centering or softer corners, if it meant avoiding the print lines running right through his face.

My next choice would be either Ruth, since he's the most famous player of all time and is probably the safest investment.

Fun thread.

I see we're plugging a few cards here...

This may be a little over $15k, but...it'll be the highest graded Green Cobb offered in REA's upcoming Spring (Premier) Catalog Auction.

The best looking 33 Goudey Ruth. 3s and 4s have dropped/will drop to that price. Good luck!

Obviously grade factors in but a Red Cobb in a PSA 4 strikes me as pretty iconic :D

This and it isn't even debateable. :rolleyes:

Agree !

People always seem to never want to let go of their non oddball mainstream regular issue Goudey Ruth’s and Topps/or Bowman Mantles....
Next is Jackie Cobb and Mays..those seem to be the top 5 most wanted and least easy to pry out of collectors hands players cards.

You can get MOST iconic cards for less than 15K. I think at that price all that you're excluded from is the 52 mantle (maybe not even excluded if you can find a real beater), the T206 Wagner, and Baltimore News Ruth.

I'm pretty sure 99% of all other iconic cards are attainable in collector grade condition for less than 15K.

Those are all great options IMO! Of those, I''d choose the yellow Ruth.

Not on your list, but I have always loved the '41 Playball Joe D. A nice 6 should be about $15k.

I bought this one a few months back. Gotta love NM looking cards that have some paper-loss on the reverse!

My opinion
 

In priority order:

1) Goudey Ruth #144
2) T206 Green Cobb
3) Goudey Ruth #53
4) 1951 Bowman Mantle
5) 1952 Topps Jackie
6) 1951 Bowman Mays

The cards at whatever grade level should have strong centering and eye appeal.

Thanks Howard… thankfully, I already have the full body Ruth in my collection. I’m curious why you recommended Yellow Ruth over Red Ruth… rarity?

#1. Ruth, no question, not even close. In my opinion even better than that 52 Mantle.

#2. Mantle true rookie (51)

#3. Mays Rookie

All three of these are more more interesting and rare than a 52 Mantle in my opinion.

Regarding selling a bunch of cards to fund a big card. I have done that on two different occasions, each time picking up a card in the 12-17k range. Never regretted it.

In the ballpark of $15.k each, if T206 is your thing:

T206 Cobb Red - PSA 5
T206 Mathewson Portrait - PSA 6
T206 Walter Johnson Portrait - PSA 6
T206 Cy Young Portrait - PSA 6

Highly desirable beauties !

Hopefully Stevie Wonder didnt grade yours. Sheesh!

I'd have to side with the yellow Ruth. Rarity does tend to make it a bit more costly than the other 3.

Not sure you could touch a 25 Exhibit Gehrig or get a decent 14 CJ Cobb or Jackson at those prices?

I actually considered a 1915 CJ Cobb but for my budget, the quality of recent sales just isn’t great.

But I’d LOVE to add that to this mix of options

Get another Ruth. The red and green are perfectly acceptable and equally iconic IMO. My second and third choices would be a T206 Cobb Portrait and a 51B Mantle.

52T Jackie. His best looking card hands down, also his rarest mainstream issue. Also I think it has the most upside potential.


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Source? Pop report has between 900-1200 of each. I've never heard one is more rare. Yellow has a pop of even higher than red.

I like the 1933 goudey ruth #181 the best

I've read this in many publications and assumed it to be true. I'm sure there are different takes. However, I searched and found the first source I that I came across(Justcollect.com) to say this....."The Yellow Ruth (#53) has proven to be the most elusive of the bunch, followed closely by the Red Ruth (#149) that portrays the slugger in the exact same pose".

I certainly don't claim to be the expert here, but have always thought that to be the case. Maybe this is outdated or different compared to more current information.

I have always heard that that was so as well, although I never thought much about it.

Pops for Yellow amd red are 900, green 1k, batting pose 1200.


I'm betting none are more scare. I like 181, but I'm in the minority

I presume the other 3 are genuinely more scarce than the batting pose.

There should be differences in the print runs between different series; it's unlikely every series had the same print run. This may or may not produce a significant difference.

#144 is a double print on the sheet and should be found twice as often as the other cards within its series. This would include the red Ruth. Interesting that the POP reports suggest a difference but not a roughly 2X difference. The other 3 Ruth's appear to be printed normally.

15K budget...hear me out.

Imagine being the sole collector waking up every morning to 30,000+ 1988 Fleer Sammy Stewart cards greeting you everyday. Just something to consider.

I believe the most iconic vintage card, and the one with the most potential future upside, that can be found for under 15k (15 koruna, which is Czech currency, and thus roughly equivalent to 68 cents), is the below example Irvin Wilhelm T205 Piedmont, as it still has the chance of someday, as the result of advances in baseball card paper loss identification technology, of being proven to be the rare "suffe ed" variation.

Brian

Brian, I don't know what you are doing/have done for a career, but if it isn't comedy, you have missed your calling! :D

response
 

Graded population wise it is about equal to the red. In my experience, it is higher demand than the red.

I'd go with the Ruth #53, but you can't go wrong with either of the '51 Bowmans if you want an iconic rookie card.

I have heard the same...

Nice card Mike. I would go with a green Cobby or the Goudey Ruth. Can never have too Cobbies

Can't you just see Sammy rolling up in his Trans Am in the high school parking lots?

Interesting people still allowing multiples of the same card in low mid grade in the same auction.

Imo nothing as iconic as the 52 mantle. Better cards of better players, sure. But topps is still around and for all intents and purposes, this was their first issue. Like the first Corvette, not the best, but the first

Save up, wait for the crash...buy the mantle with cash.



It might not be a 90% but look for the right card when people need to sell. Not like you need a mantle today...thankfully. grossly overpriced IMO. More than enough to go around, people are just flipping week to week, auction to auction passing to the greater fool, or someone who both sold and bought the inflated pricing. I love it and glad I cashed in. My psa a, auto 6 signed 52 mantle did over 100k . No regrets on that on3

Zach Wheat- thanks!

1949 Bowman Robinson, Doby and Paige. Score the first three great NL stars into the majors. Maybe get a Campy if you have a few bucks left. FWIW, I think the recognition of these early NL pioneer MLB players is only going to go up as time passes. The 1952 T Robinson also is a great choice. It is one of his nicest cards.

1933 Delong. gehrig

Ruth
 

Fun thread Jeff, Thank you for starting this. All of your choices are very iconic cards within the hobby.

I would go with the Goudey Ruth #149 as my first choice and Cobb Red Portrait in like 4.5-5 range for my second choice. The Green Cobb Portrait would be an excellent choice as well, but I would want one with high eye appeal in the lower 2 grade that 15K would afford you and you will certainly get that with the 4.5 or 5 on the Red portrait. Good Luck! I hope you share whatever it is you decide.

Update on my plan… and a question for this smart group!

My adult son is my trusted advisor and partner in fun on this journey and he LOVES the 51 Bowman Mantle (logic, I already have the iconic Cobb Portait Cobb and the full body ‘33 Goudey Ruth. Solid logic!)

Here is my question - totally boring but important. Since I’ll probably need to liquidate ~$15k or so of my current collection to build funds to buy the Mantle, for tax and capital gains issues, is it worth trying to find a Mantle seller who might consider at least a partial trade?

That could lower my capital gains risk on the sale of my current cards, right?

(Sorry, told you it was boring🤣)

Jeff

Yep, pretty boring. So I guess I'll bore you to tears.

I'm not sure what you mean by "capital gains risk". But if you're trying to imply that a trade means you don't have to pay tax on your capital gains when you trade your cards in for other cards, then sadly you're wrong, at least under current law.

Having said that, prior to 2018, you would have been right! But under the last round of tax reform, like kind exchanges (i.e. trades) are now only nontaxable events for real estate assets. Every other asset is no longer eligible for like kind exchanges. For the perennially jaded, be my guest in assuming that our former president wanted to protect tax benefits for his preferred asset class, while eliminating that benefit for every other asset class to find some revenue to offset tax cuts in other areas.

All of which is a long way of saying that even if you trade one baseball card for another, you have to recognize a gain on the card you gave up if it has increased in value between when you acquired it and when you traded it. Along these lines, if you bought a card in 2013 for $5, and then today you trade it for a card that today is worth $100, then it sounds like you have a capital gain for $95.

I will concede that if by "capital gains risk", you mean to suggest that since there's no cash involved in your trade, the likelihood of anyone noticing or catching you is lower, then I suppose there's some chance that you might be right. But as a tax professional, I would never encourage anyone to flout the law simply based on the premise that the likelihood of discovery is low.

Or as Mark Twain once said: "We ought never do wrong when anyone is looking". Or when we've mused about it on a public chat board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb6vvAG3xfo

I agree on these, especially 1 and 2. (as I have copies of both)
For some reason, the T205 Cobby isn't ever on one of these lists, but I think he should be! Because of this (and the fact I own 2 so am hopeful) the upside might be pretty good. That's not the reason I love the card though. It's one of the best looking cards in the hobby, of one of the greatest players ever.

I paid about 15k for this one (around a year and a half ago)...About 2500 more than it sold several months earlier and am still happy to look at it. :)

https://luckeycards.com/t2052.jpg

(Deleted so as not to discuss political crap)

No politics on the forum
 

Please, no political crap....

As for the most iconic prewar card, except maybe the T206 Wags, I think #144 is it.
Green Cobby is right there also and you can find really nice examples, in lower grades, to easily fit the budget. This was in the 10k range a few years back, in the BST area. Thanks again, Tony. Love this card.

https://luckeycards.com/greencobb.jpg



.

My apologies to Leon and to the forum. I shall endeavor to avoid political crap in my posts.

How did this one get in here?

Attachment 565042

...or...if condition isn't your priority:

Nah! You probably couldn't get a loan for this one:

Attachment 565043

When I was about 25 in 2002 or so, I sold a G-ish (creased) but still fantastic looking '52 Topps #312 Jackie for 500 bucks. In my defense, I made money on it and couldn't afford what I had paid for it to begin with. Ooops. Oh well...

Today after getting back into the hobby in earnest in my late 30's, I have a fairly decent sized, 99% postwar collection. I suppose I could move the bulk of it and pair down to only 5-10 truly "iconic" cards which could include some prewar the likes of Ruth or Cobb, but so far have never been motivated to do that. I guess we'll see if that changes one day.

For me, it's these:

1) 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson
2) 1933 Goudey #53 (Yellow) Babe Ruth
3) 1951 Bowman Willie Mays
4) 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson
5) A centered 1954 Topps Hank Aaron

55% of a Wagner
 

850K would be the estimate (didn't this just sell?)

As much as I love card collecting, I would never buy a card for $15,000 unless I knew I could sell it the next day for that amount or more very quickly to more than one party...meaning, it has to be a deal....

Now, I would spend $15,000 on a game used jersey all day long......

:)

To each their own - that's the beauty of the hobby, when it is a hobby (rather than a game of hot potato)!

If he has 15K to spend on a card, he's asking for advice on which card to buy that will do exactly that. For me, I would buy the best "big" card (exhibit, etc) that I could afford. But it's the wrong card, the market is limited. But the market isn't limited for the cards he's looking at. he just wants the best one.

Jerseys are tuff cause you can't easily photomatch older jerseys. Newer ones are easier. I have about 30 jerseys that are all matched. But older ones, if I can't photomatch it, there's too much fraud out there.

To each his own, if there was only one right way to collect, everything would be too limited!

LOL - I actually would probably spend $15K on a card....just haven't found the right one yet! The game used stuff keeps getting in the way....

Not enough dollars to go around and gamers take precedence, for me anyway....

Since joining last year, I have been amazed to see some of the card collections and individual cards people have displayed.....very impressive.....

I thought I had a decent collection till I got here. Very humbling.

Relatable, but I figure if my pre-war baseball card collection is anywhere close to average by Net54 standards, it's still better than what 99.9999% of people have. Not that most of those other people have any interest in owning a pre-war baseball card, but still.

Yeah, that is pretty iconic right there in that grade, :eek::eek: I would be happy looking at that too.

Can you really get a PSA 4.5 52 topps Jackie centered like that for 15K? That's the question? I have one in that grade that is so nice I wouldn't take 15 for a down payment on mine, :D

Anyway, Can't go wrong with any of those. The problem is I want them all!!!!! Buy first,:p sell later?

Yeah, these guys are sickening here...:DIf I had their cards, I'd burn mine!!!

It's a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the ride.

One card at a time, takes patience, sacrifice, and commitment. I don't know how many times I put off the kitchen remodel to get that Cobb card...

Thanks!
And this one was bought for a little over 12k, 3 1/2 years ago....it would probably be more today. I can look at Cobbs , from this series, all day long.

I’d also add a low grade high eye appeal 48 leaf Robinson to this list.


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I will be answering in terms of investment since price is being factored into the question.

1954 Topps Hank Aaron.

PSA 7's are hovering around the 15k mark. If you want a nicely centered one, you'll have to pay a bit more. But one can certainly be picked one up at that price still.

Sure, you can also go with a low grade 33 Goudey Ruth or even a low to mid-grade red/green Cobb, but the way I see it, when comparing to the Aaron RC, the Cobb(s) came out about 50 years earlier and the Ruth was about 25 years later. But the Aaron (PSA 7) is already at the same price point as those other two. That and it being a PSA 7 tells me that in the long run, the Aaron would be at a much higher price point in the years to follow than those other two iconic cards.

If Pre-War isnt a prerequisite, The Nolan Ryan rookie is pretty iconic. you could get a very nice 8 or 8.5 for under your 15K limit.

If you really are looking at this from an investment standpoint as well as not restricting it to pre-war, and are willing to do a bit of gambling, what about high-grade rookie cards of various players currently not in the HOF, for whatever reason(s), but who would be in there most definitely if they were just considered for their stats alone. Like Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Bary Bonds, and the like. There is a chance, and a good one I think, that some, if not maybe all, these and similar type players do end up in the HOF some day. And if/when that/those day/days come, I can see such HOF recognition tremendously adding to their card values, especially to their rookie cards in high-grades.

Rose is out because of being banned from baseball for gambling. But with the hypocritical way in which MLB, and pretty much all major sports, seem to have changed their thinking and willingly embraced and aligned themselves with the gambling industry in recent years, I wonder if he won't eventually get in after all. Albeit, I'm guessing MLB will continue to make him pay by not allowing it to happen until after he's passed away, so he can't enjoy it and rub it into anyone's face that put him down about it before. And hopefully along with him, they'll finally let a deserving, IMO, Joe Jackson in as well.

And with all the other rule changes and ways they keep changing the game and how it is played today, I can eventually see some of the alleged (and even proven) PED users eventually being allowed into the HOF as well. Times and thinking keep changing, and it is likely that so many more MLB players were involved with PEDs as well back then, but it is just the superstar players, like those I previously mentioned, that seem to be the only ones that got the headlines and backlash for taking part in what was most likely rampant and spread across the entire sport. And then coupling that with the total farce of how MLB dealt with the admitted, collusive cheating actions and activities of the Houston Astros, and the literal non-punishment given any of the players because of that. It just seems to illustrate and present a very much more critical and biased point of view and thinking towards the PED users. The Astros' sign-stealing scheme was not a sport wide action or activity being done by any other teams or players, and was found to be 100% proven and true. But literally no repercussions or punishment at all, even in terms of damage to players reputations and how they are viewed by the media and members of the BBWAA (who vote for the inductees to the HOF) seems to have occurred. Were Jose Altuve to retire today, is there any doubt he wouldn't get serious 1st ballot HOF consideration in five years? Meanwhile, the likes of McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens were doing what likely tons of players across all the teams in the majors were doing, but they somehow seem to be singled out and their punishment amplified. It is commonly thought/felt that the likes of McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens would have easily had HOF level careers without the alleged use of PEDs. So why do they appear to be subject to different levels of punishment and treatment than those players that were suspected cheaters throwing spitballs, using corked bats, or even having team employees using cameras to steal signs from other teams during games for them? There is a certain level of hypocrisy that clearly exists, and I feel that eventually that will change and at least some of those alleged (or even proven) PED using players will eventually get elected to the HOF. And were I to guess, I've always thought McGwire would be the first to finally break through that barrier, as he is probably the most liked and media friendly of the early superstar PED users, and therefore, possibly they first one to be given the benefit of the doubt, and finally let in the HOF as a full-fledged inductee. And then I can see other alleged/proven PED users eventually getting in as well, depending on how nice and friendly they are/were to others, during and after their playing days. Here you go, and you can take the savings below $15K to maybe buy a lower condition T206 Cobb or some other iconic pre-war card.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22494113729...256b4957044430

https://www.ebay.com/itm/31450020082...7580d49e6447cc

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26441471321...452dca5c389e75

Great card Jon and let’s add a little writing to the back like paper loss.