Ruth v. Wagner v. Cobb v. Jackson v. Mantle.....

[chipperhank44]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Ruth is the best player of all time in virtually every legitimate ranking, if not every one. Add in the home runs, New York, the outsize personality, and so on, and he is in a class by himself. No surprise that he is the dominant player in the hobby. And Mantle, though by no means number 2 as a player, is probably second in hobby stature due to home runs, New York, and for lack of a better word, duende. Mystique, charisma, what have you. Cobb, Wagner, Mays, Aaron, Williams -- all better baseball players than Mantle. But not in the eyes of collectors.

Very true about Mantle. His '51 Bowman and '52 Topps (along with early high grade examples) continue to set sales records each time they are offered at auction. It's that Yankees mystique. I'm sure some of you have seen the outrageous prices people are paying for Jeter's stuff lately...

[camlov2]

If there were the same number cards available for each of the five mentioned I believe that Mantle and Ruth would be the most desirable/most expensive/hardest to acquire. Mantle's demand is spread out due to the large number of his cards available within the topps sets.