Collector's Choice - A couple low grade Ruth cards

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Combine my fascination with Babe Ruth cards and my growing uncertainty about how high and how fast card prices are rising, I decided I wanted to add one more Ruth to my collection as cheaply as possible (wanted to stay around $1000) before they ALL get out of reach. Yep, I guess I'm a victim of the FOMO that we've all been talking about in some of those other threads. My only condition is that it had to be issued during his playing days, and it had to be an American card (so no foreign issues).

I landed on wanting to add a W517 Portrait card. It's cheaper because it's technically a strip card, but the larger size and big photographic image really sticks out, so I consider it to still be a value.

As luck would have it, ebay had TWO beat up copies sitting out there for a few weeks similarly priced around my price point.

Neither one was going to win any beauty awards, but when you are looking for a bargain Ruth, you have to make concessions

I went back and forth trying to decide which card was "better", and finally pulled the trigger. And now that I have it in hand I am extremely happy with my choice. But just for conversation, I'm interested in which card YOU guys would have picked and why.

Here's an image of both of them.

The top card is the one I purchased. The PROS of that card: 1. Cleaner image. 2. No paper loss. 3. $100 cheaper. The CONS of that card: 1. Heavy crease. 2. An "Authentic" grade which may limit the future resale value a bit (although I'm still confused as to why some W517 cards get number grades and others don't since they are all hand cut).

The bottom card is one I ALMOST purchased. The PROS: 1. No creases. 2. Number grade (although not a very high one). The CONS: 1. Paper loss on back. 2. Staining which muddies the image.

As I went back and forth, I ultimately made my decision based on the Yankees logo on his hat. Once I noticed that the staining on the bottom card seemed to wash out the logo (at least it appears that way in the picture), I decided to take the card with the sharper image (even though it's creased).

Anyway, that's my thought process. Curious how others think. Drop in a comment and let me know (and throw in an image or two of your beat up Ruth cards just for fun).

Funny side note, although both cards were sitting out there for a month, they both had 30 watchers. After I bought mine, the other one sold within a few hours. I have a feeling my purchase triggered someone else's FOMO

RuthCompare.jpg