1923 Ruth Exhibit - Lipset Auction

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

No one here has an agenda. The card is priced highly enough in the auction that no one here is trying to lowball it to snag it on the cheap. The questions raised here have been raised by other long-time Exhibit collectors who do not believe that the card is conclusively a 1923 issue. I will not rehash the points already discussed. With respect to certain of your comments, I would suggest the following:

1. Old-time data are often no more than assumptions by collectors based on partial information. A nonexistent T206 back in the ACC is the most glaring example of this sort of thing. I believe that we are better informed now than we were years ago, with the consequence being that some issues are treated as being rarer than before and others are questioned. This card happens to be one where the "orthodox" view as enshrined by the authorities you cite is being challenged. Absent an advertisement, a sheet or something from the era from ESCO, no one really knows how the cards were issued.

2. We can pick and choose old references if we like to support either view. For example, the 1982 Beckett book lists the Ruth as with and without the borders as part of a 1921-23 continuum with no price premium for either. Where did Denny Eckes get that from? He's dead so I don't think we can ask.

3. No one except the old collectors you referenced can say why they did not have the card. Maybe they could not find it; maybe they did not try. Since most are dead, that information is likewise dead.

4. No one is saying that the card is not desirable. It is. However, even assuming it is a 1923 card, why it is rarer than any other 1923 and should command such a titanic price premium has not been established or even discussed. Granted, 1923's are definitely tougher than any other year except perhaps 1926, but to pay a massive premium for the Ruth with borders over the one without is in my view unmerited because the 1923 cards are not massively rarer or more valuable than the 1921-1922 cards. Would I pay 2x-3x what I felt a borderless card is worth? Sure. But 10x or even more? No way. And I think a lot of other Exhibit collectors feel the same, which is why you perhaps are not seeing the auction action you wished for. I share your pain on that score--I have some other Exhibit cards that are unbelievably rare but not unbelievably in demand commensurate with their rarity. Are there more 1930 Jim Thorpe's, 1920s Red Grange's, Ruth and Baby Snookums, Ruth movie portraits, Dempsey and Valentino, etc., than T206 Wagners? Probably not, but no one is beating down my door to make the trade.