Babe Ruth $$$

[packs]

To anyone who's thinking about how to acquire their first Babe, my opinion and advice is to buy anything you can afford when you can afford it. You will not regret extending yourself when you did.

Case and point, I bought this WWG for $500 when I was in grad school. I used my own loan money to do it and it meant not eating as much as I would have liked to. Do I regret it? No!



I bought my Kashin at the start of the pandemic. I wasn't exactly thrilled about paying $1,800 for it. But, uh, another win I think:

[doug.goodman]

My favorite Ruth issues are from the Blum's Bulletin

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Originally Posted by packs

To anyone who's thinking about how to acquire their first Babe, my opinion and advice is to buy anything you can afford when you can afford it. You will not regret extending yourself when you did.

I think this is a very good point. While nothing is a sure thing, it doesn't get much safer than Ruth when it comes to buying a high dollar card and hoping it maintains it's value.

And there is something about owning a real, playing days Ruth card that is very satisfying. I mean, it's a baseball card of BABE RUTH!

[packs]

They say nothing is recession proof but Babe Ruth is about as ironclad an investment you can make. I don't think any collector of any length of time has paid less for Ruth one year to the next.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by packs

They say nothing is recession proof but Babe Ruth is about as ironclad an investment you can make. I don't think any collector of any length of time has paid less for Ruth one year to the next.

Agreed. Ruth is a strong investment and a relatively low risk investment

IT is also great long term collection

[Snowman]

I need more Babe Ruth cards lol. This thread has me convinced. Time to sell some of these basketball cards...

[Snowman]

The Fro Joy and W517 are probably cheaper because they are oversized and PSA puts them in the big slabs. The Churchmans is cheaper because PSA refuses to put his name on the flip. I really like the Churchmans card though. If PSA ever decided to put his name on them, watch out! I bet they'd skyrocket in value overnight.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Snowman

The Fro Joy and W517 are probably cheaper because they are oversized and PSA puts them in the big slabs. The Churchmans is cheaper because PSA refuses to put his name on the flip. I really like the Churchmans card though. If PSA ever decided to put his name on them, watch out! I bet they'd skyrocket in value overnight.

PSA does not slab Fro Joy. I am not sure who does now. Mine are in Beckett holders that are thick enough to withstand Superman's heat vision.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Originally Posted by Snowman

The Fro Joy and W517 are probably cheaper because they are oversized and PSA puts them in the big slabs.

I think there is some truth to that. I actually LOVE my w517 Ruth portrait...I think the large portrait image is unique for his playing days cards. And with the card stock, w517s definitely feel more like cards than the large Kashin pictures.

But I'm slowly colleting the set. I wanted to make it a binder set because most of my cards are raw and fit nicely in four pocket pages. And even though standard PSA and SGC slabs also fit nicely in four pocket pages I can't figure out a way to nicely fit the oversized w517 slabs in a binder, so my handful of graded w517s are separate from my binder set. And that kind of bothers me.

Someday I may just bite the bullet and crack them all out...(which I would hate to do because there are SO many fake/reprint w517s out there, you really need to buy graded for the high dollar cards if you are buying them online. So cracking them out would really hurt resale value in the future).

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I need more Babe Ruth cards lol. This thread has me convinced. Time to sell some of these basketball cards...

Agreed and like everyone wish we bought into more Ruth Earlier

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by packs

To anyone who's thinking about how to acquire their first Babe, my opinion and advice is to buy anything you can afford when you can afford it. You will not regret extending yourself when you did.

Case and point, I bought this WWG for $500 when I was in grad school. I used my own loan money to do it and it meant not eating as much as I would have liked to. Do I regret it? No!



I bought my Kashin at the start of the pandemic. I wasn't exactly thrilled about paying $1,800 for it. But, uh, another win I think:

You are quite correct. You will not regret it. I bought my 1933 Goudey Ruth card (see OP this thread) and my Ruth signed ball (also signed by Gehrig and Cobb) both for $800 in 1988 upon completion of weather forecasting school at Chanute AFB Illinois and receiving my $20K reenlistment bonus (Air Force and Navy go to the same weather schools even now). Also bought a Ford Mustang that I put 326,000 miles on from Rantoul Ford. I thought the money paid for both was crazy, and the only way I could have afforded such high-end baseball stuff was because I had reenlistment money. But look what has happened over time. Usually my luck is the Midas Touch in reverse, whatever I touch turns to crap, not gold. I just gave away, literally, all my 1988 to 1993 cards. I did, however, hang on to a Stadium Club Jeter RC and a few others.

[SteveS]

25-30 years ago I was at a show, and a guy was selling just the Ruth portion of a '35 Goudey for $100. I walked around trying to convince myself to buy it, but just couldn't think of any. First of all, at that time the full card could be had for less than $1,000. Second, by having only 1/4 of it is that even considered a card anymore? This thread got me thinking whether I had made a mistake to pass it up, but I still don't think I'd buy it today even at the same price. If you have just the upper-left part of the '35 Goudey, would you feel that you own a "Babe Ruth card"?

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Originally Posted by SteveS

25-30 years ago I was at a show, and a guy was selling just the Ruth portion of a '35 Goudey for $100. I walked around trying to convince myself to buy it, but just couldn't think of any. First of all, at that time the full card could be had for less than $1,000. Second, by having only 1/4 of it is that even considered a card anymore? This thread got me thinking whether I had made a mistake to pass it up, but I still don't think I'd buy it today even at the same price. If you have just the upper-left part of the '35 Goudey, would you feel that you own a "Babe Ruth card"?

Probably not 30 years ago, but NOW I think $100 for the just the Ruth square seems about right. I don't think it qualifies as a card, but it's an authentic Goudey Ruth image from his playing days. It would have limited resale value, but if $1000 is out of a collector's budget (and let's face it, there are likely MANY collectors out there that want a Ruth card but can't justify spending $1000+), I can imagine there are collectors out there that would consider $100 a fair price.

I sort of follow the price history on that card, and a "Ruth square" came up on eBay within the last year or two....it's no longer in the Sold listings, but if I recall it sold in the $150 to $250 range.