W551 Ruth - Status in the Hobby

[ullmandds]

Years ago...when ruth strips were $100...I didn't value them enough to add to my PC. When they staerted gettting expensive...I started appreciating them more. All strips are not created equal though. I have close to ten strips of ruth...I shy away from ones that dont look like ruth...w514 being the exception due to its curiousness!!!!

im not even sure this is considered a strip???

[ullmandds]

S’more

[oldjudge]

I like a few of the photographic strip cards, but most others are on cheap paper and to my way of thinking, horrible looking. I would never want any of these.

[FrankWakefield]

I used to think just like what Jay just posted. The paper reminded me of that thick construction paper that I used in primary school. I'd be trying to draw, trying to color, trying to cut out pieces of paper lefthanded with those ridiculous cheap metal scissors... And many of the strip cards looked like that: something I'd have drawn, colored, and jaggedly cut.

I've found being a hater is easy. One of my daughters, wiser than I was at her age, as we looked at something that someone else was proud of and as I criticized it a bit, she said, "Dad, don't blah somebody else's bling." It took a few seconds of reflection for that to sink in. I still criticize, but I think it is less often and less harshly.

So, back to hating. I really like a Sports Americana book, I think it's a 5th edition, green cover, Baseball Card Alphabetical Checklist. There are newer editions that have a bunch of 21st century players... The green edition I like best. With it, I can look up a player who will be listed alphabetically, and then there's a bunch of letters and numbers, eg E102. That means the player is in the E102 set. The book has a few mistakes, but it's mainly well done. If I read about a player and he interests me, then I'll be wanting a card of him from his playing days, and if I don't have one, I start searching for that green book. What I'm I hating? I hate that there's not a vintage set that had all 8 of the Eight Men Out - Blacksox. (I get annoyed at how there wasn't a significant card issue that shows Jack Rothrock as a Cardinal, he wasn't up very long, and realistically didn't deserve to be in the 1933 or 1934 Goudy sets, nor the Diamond Stars... so I'm making do with Rothrock on a matchbook cover, and on a 4in1 Exhibit card.)

The closest we can get to all 8 of the Blacksox is SEVEN, in the W514 strip cards. The cutting is a mess. If you want graded cards then strip cards don't grade well. The Paper has a slightly low ph, they'll degrade with time, they're fragile. And strip card haters, don't leave out that Wagner isn't in the set. But golly gee, the set has a fantastic assortment of HOFers. How many sets have both Mathewson and Stengel, or Babe Ruth and Southworth??? Or how about non HOFer Burt Shotton and Ty Cobb?? A very few. W514 is a snapshot of 20th century baseball immediately after the 1915 Cracker Jacks and M101-5s... and before the flood of candy cards of the early to mid 1920s. Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson, Nap Lajoie... Wow!

I don't know if my thoughts have matured or manured, but I have learned to not hate the W514s, and have even gotten to like them. They are the green eggs and ham of the immediately post WW1 baseball cards. I'm glad people still hate them, makes them less expensive than they could be.

[FrankWakefield]

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1696648687

[Casey2296]

Not really a strip card guy, but I've always wanted a W516 Cobb, Speaker, and Ruth. Currently chasing down a different rabbit hole though so I've never made an effort to pick them up.

[Ima Pseudonym]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Lots of great insight and opinion.

The reason I was asking is because I recently picked up a W551 Ruth on a bit of an impulse buy. I really loved the idea of owning an early-days Ruth, and there just aren't many of those I can afford.

I've never been too excited by the strip cards but I thought there was a chance I'd fall in love with it after holding it in my hands and seeing it in person -- which has happened before. Alas, the meter wasn't really moved once I received it. It's a fine card and all, but it isn't the first card I pull out to show people, if you know what I mean.

So, I'm trying to decide if I should sell it and use the money on something I'd be more excited about (like a '34 Goudey Gehrig, or a Ginter Anson, etc). Or, if people would think I'm crazy because, after all, **it's an early playing-days Ruth!!** and how could you get rid of a playing-days Ruth once you have one in your possession?

I do already have a nice Sanella though.... but, let's be honest, most people probably don't consider that a real baseball card either. LOL

[nat]

It's a hobby. More to the point - it's YOUR hobby. Do you like the Ruth more than you'd like the Gehrig or whatever? That's your real question.

If you're looking for investment potential or something, then sure, what other people think might matter. But if you're just asking about what to do with your PC, whether other people like strip cards isn't really relevant. Do YOU like them?

[brianp-beme]

By the way, nice W551 of Ruth. I now really like this card of him because it seems to have a fairly accurate side view depiction of Babe early in his career, as seen with the comparison photo I provided in my previous post.

By providing this comparison photo I might have just made this card more popular...discuss.


Brian (and by discussing with others, perhaps this will flip on the switch in your brain, the "I'm keeping this Ruth card because maybe, after all, it is interesting" switch)