Fresh To Market 1916 M101-5 Blank Back Babe Ruth Rookie Card PSA 3
 

By way of introduction, my name is Brian and I help lead the trading card side of the business at Sotheby's. A longtime lurker of the forum, I finally decided to create an account, becoming an "official" member of the community. Personally, I am a collector of primarily modern day baseball and football cards. Vintage wise, I am searching for a 55 Koufax PSA 7, hopeful I can find a copy that appeals to me at the National this summer.

With my first post, I would like to share a short story of a card that I am grateful to have the privilege of bringing to public auction: a fresh to market 1916 M101-5 Blank Back Babe Ruth Rookie Card graded a PSA 3.

This card has never left the family of the original owner, having traveled through four generations. The original owner, a grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Germany, collected a near-complete set of these blank backs as a teen.

Now co-owned by two brothers, the Ruth and the rest of their great-grandfather’s near-complete set were kept safe for two decades more and, now adults, the brothers approached Sotheby’s with the cards in ungraded condition. After assessment by PSA, the Babe Ruth was not only authenticated but awarded a PSA 3. Few of Babe Ruth’s rookie cards have such a complete story of their provenance. The card is currently available as part of our Timeless Titans | Legendary Sports Cards sale that is now live and open for bidding.

I am very fortunate to be part of this experience and am happy to share the story with not only the net54 community but the vintage card collecting community as a whole. I look forward to sharing additional stories in the near future.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auct...Filter=AllLots (Approved)

A card as majestic as that needs a much better holder and a more competent TPG. How can people take PSA seriously when they display an epic card like this in such dreadful fashion?

Not only is it placed way off-center.... it's tilted. And the reflective crumpled baggie takes it to another level of sloppiness. I cannot fathom how/why any high-end collector would find this awful presentation acceptable.

Awesome card and impeccable provenance though.... best of luck with the sale, and welcome to net54.

I agree, it looks silly in that holder.

It's a tough crowd, Brian ... but these guys aren't wrong -- PSA owes you a redo. Amazing card.

Agreed! How can they slab a Babe Ruth ROOKIE like that ??? :eek::eek: Awful ...

Appreciate the replies and welcomes to net54. While I understand the community's opinions regarding the slabbing of the card, I have sincerely valued the opportunity to help tell this card's story and bring it to market. I am excited to see it find its new home!

I echo everyone else’s comments about the presentation of that card in that slab. PSA is a bunch of ass clowns and to do that card like that is a horrible injustice. It would look 100 times better an SGC slab.

Contact Nat Turner directly and show him the card. Worth a shot. He was great with me when I had an issue that he resolved. That card needs to be shown properly.

They have 3d printed inserts for cards like this now. This is embarrassing from PSA.

Definitely not a good look for PSA.

Just let me pop the side of the case a few times on the kitchen counter and I will have that Babe temporarily centered within its PSA coffin.

Brian

So much for "Buy the card, not the holder."

"Few of Babe Ruth’s rookie cards have such a complete story of their provenance"


Truly curious - does the provenance really matter as long as the card is real?

If it's meaningful it matters. There are more stories than one could imagine of common $100 items owned by somebody famous or were somewhere important that makes the items worth exorbitant amounts. For example, a wooden deck chair from the tiranic, its provenance turns it from a $100 chair into $100,000.

I would be very interested in learning more about the provenance, mostly because m101-5 blank- back distribution remains mysterious. There is little or no known advertising for these cards, other than the Chicago Examiner March-April, 1916 ads that offered the entire set for 15 cents. The OP says the original owner had a near-complete set as a teenager, yet I have not seen any ads for collecting them piecemeal or in groups, as is the case with m101-4 and the advertising backs for both sets, so how does one amass a near-set? Perhaps we can learn more, such as how many are in the near set and which cards are missing? Are the remaining cards headed for auction? Finally, where was the family living in 1916--maybe that can give clues as to how the cards were available.

Todd—my guess is that near sets started as full sets where some cards were subsequently lost. I also believe that some blank backs came from post 1916 unsold uncut sheets being cut up.
I have also never been impressed by blank backs—like all Ruth rookies they are desirable, but they are not that scarce. Ad backs, on the other hand, are both scarce and desirable.

Jay you may be right, as these are the prevailing theories surrounding m101-5, although there is room for extra or other explanations. I just read the auction write-up and see that the young man collected while growing up in Chicago. He could have obtained his cards from the Chicago Examiner ads or from Mendelsohn's Chicago offices directly. Still, the grouping of the remaining cards may provide insight. If for example the only cards missing are sequential- say the last twenty or the first twenty– it may be that these were distributed in series ala many of the m101-4s. Incidentally and FWIW, I believe the Ruth looks more like an m101-4 than m101-5, given the vertical pressure marks found on cards in the m101-4 set (also note the lack of the tell-tale print line from the right border to Ruth’s hip that is often if not usually seen on m101-5 Ruths). However, I was told that the rest of the group is indeed from m101-5, so maybe this was an intermediate print-run from the end of m101-5 to m101-4. As usual, I am geeking out over these things.

I'll add to the chorus of comments about the slabbing - what an absolute embarrassment. This is like putting a rare piece of jewelry in a display case where it can roll around inside. Set it properly in the holder, FFS.

Todd--I agree that it was either an intermediate print run or possibly he got the Ruth later and it was an M101-4. The cardboard definitely looks like a 4.

+1 agree

But simple solution is to simply contact them about getting it re-done

My biggest pet peeve in the hobby. It's a disgrace and happens far too often. SGC is starting to do it too. SHOCKER. The customer should never accept this. I wouldn't. I would love to bid on the card but would NEVER pay 1 doll hair looking like that. They do this all the time because they simply don't care. A shame too. It's "Fresh to the Hobby", "Newly Discovered" with Dis "honest corners" and swimming in a plastic holder. How to ruin a beautiful significant card in 30 seconds., by PSA.

What did it sell for? It says bidding has closed.

$355,600 according to the site

For a blank back that is about right. I think it might have gone for a tad more in REA or HA, but that is just speculation on my part.

I agree for the auction it was at not known for card auctions and for it being off center I think the price was respectable
I agree at a more traditional vintage card auction site it might have potentially gotten more eyes on it and another 15% bump

It's interesting to speculate about what AH would get the best price, but I can see why someone outside of the hobby who discovered this card would do what they did.

The thinking would be "everyone has heard of Sotheby's" rather than "collectors may be more comfortable/familiar with bidding on AHs that are sports memorabilia specialists, such as REA, LOTG, Mile High, Memory Lane, etc.". I left off Heritage because they seem to have a slightly larger footprint than the others, since they auction more than sports memorabilia.

When Christie's had their Golden Age of Baseball auctions in 2016 (?), I went through the process of registering because there were some items I wanted that I didn't think would come up for auction again and was able to bid through their portal.

But I probably wouldn't do that again for a "traditional" auction house if they offered the usual selection of graded cards that would probably show up in another auction at another time (not saying that the Ruth card is "usual").

Imagine spending $355k and still needing to send it to PSA to do the job right.

wow very good point
never though of that if it moves to much and the corners get damaged that will really affect the eye appeal as well as the value

When the card can slide around in a shitty slab and possibly be damaged, you are still buying the card and not the holder. That 3 can be a 1 in minutes.

.

Is that photoshopped or fixed (corner tapped LOL) ?

Congrats!

Not mine - Just for fun I copied the pic off of PSA registration .. kind of shows that the card is moving around in there

:D