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Originally Posted by MattyC
We are entering the realm of high subjectivity here. There are Post War collectors who would put up a very good argument that the 1952 Topps Set is the most important baseball set ever made. I think there is room for both those sets and more, because collecting is all about what one likes. There is just no right or wrong here, no matter how definitively some reactionary views are stated. I think it is important for all collectors to be tolerant of other styles of collecting, for the greater good of the hobby as a whole. The Ruth RC and the Wagner aren't mortal enemies and their existence and appreciation are not mutually exclusive.
There are many people who believe a player's earliest card carries a great significance that later issues simply do not. To those collectors, the Ruth Rookie will obviously be much more significant than other issues released years and decades later. And because legions of collectors believe this, that in itself is "reason" for the rookie to carry a premium over a Ruth card produced in 1933 or 1973. What you call an irrational rookie craze, many other collectors believe to be quite logical. The earlier cards are that much closer to when the player began his journey, to when neither he nor the fans knew the heights he would later reach. Not everyone needs to subscribe to this, for it to be valid. It is why a 1988 Topps George Brett sells for ten cents, and why a 1975 Topps George Brett sells for a few thousand in the same condition. But end of the day, Different Strokes...
I often see people cite how a card's past price years or decades ago was this or that, and when it breaks out and gains new fanfare, the old prices are somehow held up as evidence to undermine what is happening in the present. At some point the Wagner broke out. At some point lots of cards break out from a past historical pricing range. I think clinging to past prices can be done to a fault. Sometimes yesteryear's price stays forever in the past, and becomes nothing more than a dated, irrelevant data point.
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There's no subjectivity. The t206 is the most important. It was the first largely distributed baseball card set. It's followed by the 33 Goudey set, the first bubble gum cards. Then the 52 Topps set as Topps first major issue. Each owes its existence in part to those that came before it. Those 3 sets are the backbone of the hobby.
Ruth's first card is the Baltimore News. The M101-4 is just another card. It's not a rookie card. It wasn't nationally distributed. It wasn't sold in any package. You can't buy a pack of M101-4 cards. It wasn't a "normal" issue like t206 where you could buy a pack a cigarettes and get a Wagner or Cracker Jack/ E-cards that came with candy. The Wagner is extremely scarce within its set. The Ruth is a common card. Any post WW2 card with the same characteristics as the Ruth would be ignored by the hobby.
The Wagner never broke out. It has always been the card to have. The first catalog of baseball cards recognized it as the most valuable card and it has been so since. The problem with the M101-4 Ruth is that for most of its history it was irrelevant to the hobby. It was a common card in an obscure set. A some point, someone got the idea to hype this "fake rookie" as the Ruth card to have. All it took was two people buying into the hype to drive the price up and the hype snow balled. It is the definition of overhyped.