Do Or Do Not, There Is Not Try, Babe Ruth Immortals?

This month Leaf will be releasing 2017 Leaf Babe Ruth Immortal Collection set but unlike last year’s Leaf Babe Ruth Collection this set is a high-end product that will include 6 cards per box; 2 Babe Ruth bat relics (one NY and one Boston), 2 Yankee Stadium Seat relics and 2 base cards. Additionally, there is a chance of pulling a bat barrel, bat knob or cut signature card too. There are only 175 cases released (10 boxes per case) and the boxes will run $160 each and are due out the end of this month. 

I, well my wife (now ex), pulled a Babe Ruth bat card out of 2001 SP Legendary Cuts so even if I had the $160 to spend I don't think I would buy a box since I already have a Ruth bat card. Sadly I think this is just going to flood the Ruth bat relic market and cards from this set will be significantly cheaper than Ruth bats from other sets.

On the BO Forum people have been going back and forth about the product with it being pretty much 50-50 with people supporting the product versus people against the product. The biggest argument being that those who are against the release of the product don’t like the idea of Babe Ruth bats being cut up.

Where do you stand?

Calling All Ruth Collectors

If you are interested in owning a piece of Babe Ruth history and have around $1 million in disposable cash you are in luck. The catcher’s mitt dates back to 1912 when Ruth was playing catcher for his high school, St. Mary’s High School in Baltimore in 1912. He gave the glove to a kid who’s family has held on to the glove for over 100 years. In 1993 they loaned it to the Babe Ruth Museum where it has been on display for the past 23 years but the family has now decided it is time to sell the glove.

According to TMZ Sports the auction is being run by Goldin Auctions on April 30^th in New York City, the opening bid is $125,000 but is expected to top the $1 million mark easily.

There are some collectibles that I am ok with companies purchasing and cutting up to include as relics in cards. Anything modern is fine as long as it is not a milestone item, most items dating back in to the early 1900s is also ok within reason but once we start talking about a one-of-a-kind item like this mitt or Joe Jackson’s Black Betsy, these items need to remain complete and in a collection, even a museum is possible. I am really hoping this card goes to a collector or a museum and not in to the hands of card company.

My Contest Entry For Frankie's "Very Simple Contest"

Frankie from My Life In The Sports Card Hobby is running a “Favorite Cards” contest where he asks that his readers post the three favorite cards that are in their collection. What I initially thought was a simple question I realized I was mistaken. This is like Wallet Card all over, which cards do I go with?

Do I go with vintage cards? Maybe a Griffey card, but which one? How about something from one of my other personal collections? How about a favorite pull? This took more time than I figured it would take but in the end I got it down to four cards with two being tied for the #2 spot.

#1

1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92

 

#2
Second place is a tie between two cards that my wife pulled from the same box in 2001
2001 SP Legendary Cuts
Babe Ruth bat
Joe DiMaggo cut signature

 

#3
2000 Ovation Griffey game used shoe- Japanese version

A Babe Ruth Jersey Goes For Big Bucks

UPDATE 5/24:  There is a rumor that LT and his agent Mark Leipseiter were notified that it was Charlie Sheen who was the winning bidder of Lawrence Taylor's Super Bowl Ring.

In an auction conducted by SCP Auctions, a well-known sports cards and memorabilia auction house, a Babe Ruth 1920 Yankees jersey closed at a whopping $4.4 million when the auction ended yesterday. This is the earliest known game-worn Ruth jersey and it is from his first season in New York. The winning bid was placed by Lelands.com, an online auction house, who plans on selling the historic jersey themselves.

A treasure like this needs to remain whole and in someone’s personal collection, I would hate to see this specific jersey end up getting chopped up and inserted in to a card.

Other amazing items included in the auction:

A 1934 Babe Ruth Yankees game-used baseball cap, which had been owned by David Wells who wore it during the 6-28-97 game against the Cleveland Indians, I guess that makes it a double game-worn cap. This sold for $537,278 in the auction.

A 1924-28 Babe Ruth game-used bat which sold for $591,007

An autographed 1968 Mickey Mantle game-worn road jersey that sold for $366.967

A 1931 Lou Gehrig game-worn home jersey for $275,706

Bobby Thompson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” cap for $173,102

Jackie Robinson’s 1950 All-Star game bat for $133,234

Also in the auction was Lawrence Taylor’s 1991 Super Bowl XXV ring for $230,401 and Dmitri Young’s card collection, which included a 1954 Hank Aaron rookie card ($537,954) and a 1955 Roberto Clemente rookie card ($432,690), which Young has said all the proceeds from his card collection sales will go to starting a foundation for kids in Ventura County.

There is an interesting story connected to the LT Super Bowl ring, current Giant Osi Umenyiora had promised that if he reached 1 million Twitter followers by Sunday he was going to bid/purchase the ring and then randomly select one of his followers to bring the ring to LT. On Saturday (5/19) when he was sitting at 50k followers he lowered the request to 500k followers. When the auction closed Sunday night Umenyiora was sitting at 52,899 followers so he never made the bid and the ring sold to another collector. This has led to a number of football fans wondering why he could not at least bid for the ring even though he fell short, i.e. - do a good deed.

My Best Break Ever

Have you ever had a pull or a box break that you can easily list as your “Greatest”?

My all-time greatest box break goes back 11 years ago, I had just started a new job and to save on driving an hour each way to work every day we moved to the other side of Puget Sound to a town called Silverdale in early 2001. I was fortunate enough to find a small card shop down the street from work and quickly became friends with the owners and a handful of their regulars. It was nice having a true local card shop, something I hadn’t had since 1993.

 A couple of times a month I would stop by to talk sports and see what was out or coming out soon and I was told that the release of 2001 SP Legendary Cuts was turning out to be a solid product that was selling well so I decided to grab a box.

 At the time I believe the boxes were running around $90-100 and each box contained 18 packs with 4 cards per pack. Each box promised three hits, a Debut Bat Card, a Legendary Bat Card and a Legendary Jersey Card with Legendary Cuts (1:252 packs) and Legendary Cut Combo Cards (#/25) as long shots.

When I bought the box I opened a pack in the shop and was pretty happy with the base design. We had an appointment and hopped in the car and as we drove my wife asked if she could open a pack. When my wife, who does not care for sports, opened a pack and her jaw drops I knew it was big…

 

I told her to keep opening and after a few more packs she stops again and looks at me with a smile and then shows me this card…

She decided to stop to let me open the other half of the box after we got home and I knew that the box still was supposed to contain a Debut Bat Card and a Legendary Jersey Card and after seeing Ruth and DiMaggio I was hoping that my box was a super-hot box and would include the Joe Jackson Debut Bat Card and/or a Nolan Ryan Legendary Jersey Card.

After 13 years of marriage I can tell you that my wife has the lucky touch when she picks out packs and on the other side my luck just plain sucks. Needless to say I should have let her finish opening the rest of the box because I pulled a Gaylord Perry Legendary Jersey Card (which I have since sold) and a Bill Buckner Debut Bat Card. I will never complain about those two hits especially when they came in a box with a short-print Ruth Bat card and a #/275 DiMaggio Cut Signature.

But, when I pulled my two hits compared to my wife's two hits I could not help but hear...

Plain and simple…Best Box Break Ever!

2011 TriStar Obak Dual-Auto Pairings

TriStar is putting up some more preview images of their upcoming 2011 Obak: History of the Game product, which should go live the second week of August. If you are familiar with last year’s product you will know this product which is not necessarily a bad thing in this case.

An interesting concept that caught me eye is the dual-autograph pairings which include Babe Ruth & Charlie Root, Joe DiMaggio & Ken Keltner and Ichiro & George Sisler. Root is the pitcher who gave up Ruth’s “Called Shot” home run during the 1932 World Series. Keltner was the 3^rd Baseman who threw out DiMaggio ending his 56-game hitting streak and Ichiro broker Sisler’s 257-hits in a season record.

 I absolutely love the idea but I do not like the design. I know there are licensing issues with using a player’s image but something could have been worked out. The designers used four different fonts (a big no-no in design) and they overloaded the design with text. This is a case where more equals less.

Value Box Time

While out running some errands I stopped by wallyland and my son wanted to see if they had any packs of the new Topps WWE cards, they did, but what caught my attention was a re-pack box from Topps. It was a Topps 2010 Baseball Value Box, it contained 6 packs of Topps Series 2 baseball, a hobby pack of A&G, a million card giveaway code card and 1 of 3 “exclusive” chrome refractors (Ruth, Ripken or Strasburg) for $14.98 which I figured was not a bad price.

I can not say I got anything good out of the packs except for a couple of million card giveaway code cards but I am excited because I pulled the Ruth exclusive card and this will make a nice addition to my Ruth collection. Honestly I am not sold on Strasburg being as dominant as everyone makes him out to be and I would have just tossed the card in with a trade eventually anyway.

The Lost Ball

Have you ever missed out on an amazing opportunity? Something that when you look back on it many years later you feel like kicking yourself for letting it go?

It was the winter of 1992 and I was with my girlfriend wandering around the downtown area of a small town near where we were living at the time. We were looking for antique stores; my ex had a thing about buying anything and everything that was antique. But what caught my eye was a storefront sports collectible shop. It was the kind of place that is small, dark and cramped. An older guy who had been in business for years at the same location owned it. He seemed to have a story about everything in the shop, but overall a nice guy.

After a short time wandering around the shop I noticed a small collection of baseballs tucked away in to a case. There seemed to be nothing special about the collection until the old guy grabbed out a ball that had rolled to the back of the case. He handed me what I thought was just an old discolored ball. I turned the ball in my hand and was nearly floored when I noticed that distinctive “B”. I was actually holding a Babe Ruth autographed ball, a piece of history in my hand.

The old guy was selling it on consignment and there was a COA, which now means as much as showing a piece of TP, but at the time was something of a comfort. It was selling for around $1650, which was within my price range, but damned if my ex didn’t step in and bring me down to Earth. I was given the ultimatum of leaving with her or the baseball. I look back now and kick myself for making the choice I had made (saying this half-jokingly). But, I do look back as an opportunity missed.