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View Full Version : What are the best Babe Ruth Game Used cards?



glchen
09-14-2012, 01:40 PM
As part of my collecting, I collect some game used cards of some Hall of Famers. In particular, I am focusing on Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, and Ty Cobb because they have a decent amount of different types of game used cards out there, and to buy a whole bat or jersey would obviously be too expensive for myself or most people. In this thread, I am focusing on Ruth, but I want to know what are the best Ruth game used cards to purchase. Specifically, here are my questions.

(1) How do we know how "genuine" the pieces are? First, there are always articles in the news on that some trading companies may have purchased fake game used articles such as here: http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/dealer-charged-in-jersey-scheme-paints-ugly-picture/

However, let's assume the trading companies were as honest as possible, and they still tried to buy genuine pieces. However, would some of them still be more authentic than others, and do collectors know which cards these went into? For example, PSA/DNA (and Mears does the same) grades bats from Authentic to PSA 10, where a PSA 10 bat is a bat that was supported by the bat shipment records, provenance, and other bat indicators such as inch marks. A bat that is much lower grade may have a weight that is not in the batting records and so forth. This lower grade bat may have just been a Babe Ruth pro model bat that was used in the minor leagues by some other player during that time period. So ideally, I would like a bat and jersey piece that came from as high a grade a bat or jersey as possible. Has anyone studied this? The only thing that I can say is that from this, I prefer the game used cards that has a picture of the whole bat or jersey that the piece came from. It's not much, but at least it is something.

(2) On a related note for jersey cards, has anyone looked into categorizing the different jersey cards into cards that came from home jersey, away jersey and pants? Obviously pant cards are the least favorable "jersey" cards. However, ideally, I would like to have a home jersey, away jersey and pant card for Ruth. I know that some cards already have all of these pieces for you (e.g., I have seen a Donruss TOTT card with this). However, these cards tend to be very expensive with small pieces. If I knew which cards had which pieces, I could get larger pieces for a better price.

(3) Finally, in general, what are the opinions of the best Ruth game used cards? For reality sake, let us not include the bat knob and bat barrel cards since these would obviously be the best, but these are not affordable to most folks. I would say the best jersey card is the TOTT Ruth Jumbo jersey card which seems to run around $2-3K, which is still very expensive. The best bat card seems to be the 1999 Upper Deck Ruth bat card, which seems to have a decent size bat piece and has a picture of the bat on back. Unfortunately, I do not own either of these cards. If anyone else knows of other really nice game used cards for Ruth let me know.

If this thread gets decent responses, I would like to open similar threads for Gehrig, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner, also. I do own a few game used Ruth cards already, so I've attached a picture of a couple of them. Thanks again!

yanks12025
09-14-2012, 01:54 PM
I wouldn't trust any of that stuff.

schubert1970
09-14-2012, 03:19 PM
The good news out of this is if many of the items we thought had been cut up might have actually survived intact.

I agree with the previous post.

Cubsfan4life
09-14-2012, 03:35 PM
Game used Ruth cards are very sketchy, but this one is from a 1925 Home jersey, which sold for $264,210 in 2003. A few of older Donruss game used Ruth cards have pictures of the jersey they were cut from as well.
http://www.lelands.com/Auction/AuctionDetail/14637/May-2003/Sports/Babe-Ruth/Lot627~Circa-1925-Babe-Ruth-Game-Worn-Jersey-with-Photo-Documentation

Jags Fan Dan
09-14-2012, 03:35 PM
Sorry, glchen, but if you are looking for enthusiasts of game used memorabilia cards, you are going to be disappointed here. You would find more enthusiastic responses on a card collecting site. Not trying to run you off, but on this site it has been my observation that most active members either don't care about game used cards or have negative feelings about them, usually because they feel that the cards represent the destruction of game used items.

Good luck with your collection!

yanks12025
09-14-2012, 03:46 PM
Game used Ruth cards are very sketchy, but this one is from a 1925 Home jersey, which sold for $264,210 in 2003. A few of older Donruss game used Ruth cards have pictures of the jersey they were cut from as well.
http://www.lelands.com/Auction/AuctionDetail/14637/May-2003/Sports/Babe-Ruth/Lot627~Circa-1925-Babe-Ruth-Game-Worn-Jersey-with-Photo-Documentation

I hope they really didn't cut that jersey up. This should be a crime, it's destroying history.

sox83cubs84
09-14-2012, 03:55 PM
Game used cards are a money-making travesty, ruining the enjoyment of one section of the hobby to fulfill the greed of card companies. Why doesn't Topps, Upper Deck, or whomever go out and buy, say, a T206 Honus Wagner, cut it into 9 or 12 pieces, and put IT on cards, making for probably the most exciting card chase in card collecting's history? It'll never happen...the card companies only want to deprive other parts of the hobby (game used, autographs) of intact collectibles, not their own slice of the pie.

Dave Miedema

frikativ54
09-14-2012, 04:32 PM
I hope they really didn't cut that jersey up. This should be a crime, it's destroying history.

While I am saddened that that jersey was cut up, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was "destroying history." In a sense, card companies are actually creating history, in that game used cards are an interesting commentary about the values of 1990s-present society.

schubert1970
09-14-2012, 05:12 PM
While I am saddened that that jersey was cut up, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was "destroying history." In a sense, card companies are actually creating history, in that game used cards are an interesting commentary about the values of 1990s-present society.

So can you explain the correlation of current society values of the past 20 years and defacing game used items?

Just my theory. It's about making money? This tends to happen in a capitalist society and precedes the 1990's.

schubert1970
09-14-2012, 05:24 PM
While I am saddened that that jersey was cut up, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was "destroying history." In a sense, card companies are actually creating history, in that game used cards are an interesting commentary about the values of 1990s-present society.

So can you explain the correlation of current society values of the past 20 years and defacing game used items?

Just my theory. It's about making money? This tends to happen in a capitalist society and precedes the 1990's.

frikativ54
09-14-2012, 05:32 PM
So can you explain the correlation of current society values of the past 20 years and defacing game used items?

It's about commodification and the everybody-needs-to-own-a-part-of something society in which we live. That's our legacy, IMO.


Just my theory. It's about making money? This tends to happen in a capitalist society and precedes the 1990's.

I agree that it's about making money as well. However, for many card collectors, game-used cards provide the enjoyment of being as close as they can get to past (and present) generations of ballplayers. It would be one thing if this were just the card companies, but there are actual people like the OP who are getting pleasure out of these cards.

schubert1970
09-14-2012, 05:45 PM
It's about commodification and the everybody-needs-to-own-a-part-of something society in which we live. That's our legacy, .

I guess our legacy started in 1990. Thanks for the cliff notes version of American history.