Near miss...Cards that you've personally taken out of existence...

[canjond]

Originally Posted by terjung

Your story reminds me of the story that one of the Baltimore News Babe Ruth prookie cards was lost. (I can't personally verify that, but have read it in more than one place.) I'm just glad that I haven't misplaced a $300k card. (not that I own one)

Are you sure that happened to a Baltimore News Ruth? I know the story about the Butter Cream Ruth which was thrown out by Barry Halper. Here is the story as told by Rob Lifson...

"Incredibly, the first (lower grade) R306 Ruth unveiled in 1989 no longer exists. That card was also presented at auction, in the very early 1990s, by legendary collector/dealer/auctioneer Lew Lipset (author of The Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards). Barry Halper was particularly interested. However, the condition of the card was very weak and the minimum bid was very high. No one placed the opening bid, so Halper chose to not bid also, but he continued to express very strong interest immediately after the auction. A deal was struck between the two collecting legends. Barry also won an item of larger dimensions in the auction. Unfortunately, when Barry received the package, he unpacked the larger item and by accident completely forgot about the R306 Ruth, perhaps thinking it would be sent separately. He did not realize his error until it was too late and all the packing materials – along with R306 Babe Ruth – had been thrown out. The card was lost forever. It no longer exists."