Most affordable Ruth cards

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

One of my best garage sale finds when I was a kid was a stack of Look & Sees, including the Ruth. It was quite the surprise considering the absolutely worthless junk that was sitting out.

It was being held by two roommates, both slovenly 30's-40's guys, and heavy drinkers. One of them turned to his friend and directed, "Offer everything for $50 to the next person to show up. That will get us some cases of beer for the weekend."

In terms of garage sales, it was one of the worst I had ever seen. These poor guys didn't have anything of value; it should have all been thrown out. Just for fun, I asked if he had any cards. Out of his front shirt pocket, he pulled a thick stack of Look & Sees. In spite of my young age, I was familiar with the set and knew there could be a Ruth in there. He let me look through them, and yep, there was a Ruth. I asked what he wanted for them. He was adamant that he'd only part with them if I took everything there for $50. I reminded him that I was a kid and had no means of even taking the stuff, let alone $50. We settled on $4 for the cards.

I have all but ten of them, which I traded to a father and his young son at a local show not long afterwards for a '56 Topps Mantle, which I also still have. I'm not sure what the father was thinking, but I was fine with it. It was his idea how many to trade. He wanted the Ruth, but that was never in the equation, so he offered this other proposal which was naturally fine by my 11 year old self.

[robw1959]

I think Schapira Ruth cards can be had for around $1K if they are somewhat beaten up.

[ALR-bishop]

I know they are ugly cards but one is a Fleer first

[B O'Brien]

I thought about this same question for a while and went with the Kashin, myself. I really like the image and didn’t want to dish out Goudey $. I really like a similar looking Gehrig Kashin to pair with it.

I’ve also got the duo with the Baseball Magazine inserts, that I’ve had framed up for years. They were my only option when I was starting out in prewar.

Good luck with the hunt,
Bob

[packs]

Here's my Kashin: