Oops! I guess it's not that rare after all

[fkw]

Cards...

20 years ago the 1933 Sanella Babe Ruth card used to sell for $1500+
Now your lucky to get 1/15th of that.....

Another example of a very common card some think is rare is the 1921 Schapira Candy Babe Ruth "Portrait" card. in last 12 years on eBay Ive seen maybe 4-5 groups of 20+ cards sold on eBay. The story behind it is the portrait card was on every box and you need to save 250 of the "portrait" cards to send into the company to get the Ruth signed ball.... well many kids came up short of the 250 needed and hoards of 20-50 cards are not uncommon when discovered. Ive owned maybe 15-20 of them over the years but havent bought one in 5 years now because the price is too high compared to what I paid for then in eBays early days ($15-$50 ea.)

PS The Dormand PC of Hodges.... There was a single lot of 500+ Hodges that was auction a few years back in a major auction... I always knew the day that lot showed that the value of that card would dive bigtime

[Hankphenom]

The Runnels calculator IS rare, Val, there just doesn't seem to be much demand for it. I've seen maybe six or seven of them in 30 years of collecting and dealing in Senators stuff. I'd call that rare. Can I get more than 25 bucks for it now? No, but that's true of a lot of Senators stuff for which the demand seems to have fallen off a cliff. If there were a bunch of them in Texas or anywhere else you'd see them on eBay all the time. Items like this bring to mind the time years ago when I showed Jimmy Spence a letter on White House stationary addressed to Clark Griffith and signed by a White House functionary. It had to do with opening day, and I thought it was pretty cool. I asked Jimmy what he thought it might be worth. Jimmy sighed, handed it back to me, and said: "I'd put this in the category of 'rare and undesirable'." As a dealer, I've learned the hard way just how many items fall into that category. The Runnels Batting Calculator is still a really cool piece, whatever it's market value.
Hank Thomas

[GasHouseGang]

With the advent of ebay nearly any item can be purchased at some time during the year. You used to have to go to a show to see most of these items and auction catalogs weren't as prevalent either. It's been great for the consumer, but has driven down the value of a lot of collectibles. I think what I am slowly realizing on most of the card issues, is that the cards are available, but condition is the true rarity. It makes building a lower grade collection much more affordable than it used to be.

[ValKehl]

Hi Hank,
Thanks for your kind words about the Runnels Batting Calculator. I agree that it "is still a really cool piece, whatever it's market value." In fact, a few years ago, I bought a second one, at a small fraction of what I paid for the first one; stock-market gurus refer to this as dollar-cost-averaging! So, I'm all set for the day when the price of these sky-rockets once again! Ha! Ha! BTW, I believe the Runnels pose on this piece is the same as on his Briggs Hot Dogs card.

Hope all is well with you - see you at the Chantilly Show next week.
Best
Val