LOT #50188 |
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1916 Famous & Barr Co. Babe Ruth #151 PSA VG-EX 4....
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Sold on Jul 14, 2023 for:
$645,000.00
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Description
1916 Famous & Barr Co. Babe Ruth #151 PSA VG-EX 4.UPDATE: We have altered this lot description due to a light crease visible in the lower right corner of the back of the card which is apparent upon close inspection.
How does one measure supremacy? For many years, when it came to Babe Ruth, the answer was as simple as an examination of his stat line. It's been said that records are made to be broken, but Ruth positively shattered them, dismissing the standards of incremental advancement for a paradigm shift that serves as the clearest evidence of the sport's transition from Dead Ball Era to Live. Some records have fallen, occasionally with help from medical science, but any argument that Ruth was not the most dominant athlete in sports history is doomed to burial beneath a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
But we're talking trading cards here, and personal opinion offers no such handy metrics with which one might construct a consensus ranking. All we can do is make our case, which we believe to be as compelling as it is clear and simple.
With affectionate deference to the T206 Wagner and the 1952 Topps Mantle, cards well-deserving of their placement at the ceiling of the trading card pantheon, we are inclined to assign the primary ranking criterion to the identity of the subject. In this regard, the argument for Ruth has already been made. Certainly the matters of happenstance that made the Wagner and Mantle cards the hobby's most famous short-prints remain a point of intrigue--and each card pictures a true baseball legend--but there can only be one King, and that has to be Ruth.
From that point, we fall very much in line with the collecting dogma that has held sway over the trading card community for generations: All hail the rookie! There is only one universally recognized Babe Ruth rookie card, and this is it.
But this is no "ordinary" Ruth rookie variant, if any such card could ever wear that adjective. Only seven examples of the #151 Ruth rookie with a "Famous & Barr" back exist in the full PSA population, with this example ranking at dead center of that tiny population. Consistent toning of the ancient paper provides the most apparent evidence of this relic's advanced age, as the corners are remarkably sharp for the grade. Centering is slightly shifted to the right, but remains well within acceptable parameters. When considering that Tom Brady rookies released in 2000 in a population of one hundred commonly command seven-figure prices, this Ruth rookie from a skimpy census of seven seems like a true bargain at our conservative pre-auction estimate. Graded PSA VG-EX 4.
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Auction Info
2023 July 14 - 15 Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction #50064 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
July, 2023
14th-15th
Friday-Saturday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 49
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 5,855
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20% of the successful bid per lot.
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