The Babe Ruth Card

I have had a two week crash course in how to sell baseball cards. My father-in-law, Bill had a collection of 21 cards that belonged to his father. He made me the primo agent to put them out on the market and sell them. My preliminary research on ebay came up with a $10,000 price tag on a card that looked pretty much the same as the one that I had in my possession. Yet it has been difficult to produce research on the exact card because many were issued around the country under a variety of sponsorships.

The ten thousand dollar card was, of course, Babe Ruth. Let me flash back a month or so when Bill asked me to see what I could do with the card. There were 21 of them attached by glue to a very old backing. I told him that the first thing we must do is to get a professional to remove them from the backing. Fortunately we know a trained museum trained paper restorer. She carefully removed the cards from the backs and charged us a reasonable $325 or so.

I searched the Internet for people that I thought to be knowledgeable and reputable dealers. I found a straightforward website that gave a straightforward way to grade the cards. I scanned all of the cards and personally rated them according to the method recommended on the site. I sent the man an email with cards delineated and graded along with careful scans of both front and back of the cards. I wrote him a nice honest and friendly email. I heard nothing for a week, so I decided to call him. He answered me from Florida and said, "Oh, sorry that I have not gotten back to you. I was buying a $40,000 collection here." This sounded to me a little like bragging, although I checked his credentials and found that he graduated from a Catholic University. I threw this at him. "Oh, I looked into your history and saw that you went to a Catholic University..." He strangely replied, "Oh, it was Catholic in name only and actually, I have some problems with the way the new Catholicism is run..." The more he talked about this, the more wacko he sounded to me. He promised me that he would get back to me by Monday at the latest, and Monday is passed and gone.

On Monday, Valentine's Day, Bill was here for his son's (visiting from New Mexico) birthday party. We discussed my progress with the cards and I showed him the newly restored cards. He was very impressed. We both laughed about the possible $10,000 figure for the Babe Ruth card.

On Tuesday, I decided to do some more research. It was then I found a "Ruth" card on ebay listed for $20,000. I found that cards, to receive more, must be graded by a professional independent grader. I thought I found one local in Rohnert Park, but when I called a card shop in Rohnert Park, he told me that the place had been out of business for four years. But he wanted to see my cards.

Joe struck me as an honest man first. He enjoyed looking at the cards, but mostly our chat was informal. He said that he had a friend who had money who might be interested in the cards. "I'll get back to you on the weekend," he said. He called back the next day (three times) telling me that his friend, the well off tax lawyer wanted to meet with me and see the cards.

When I talked to Fred, the lawyer, on the phone he was friendly and unassuming. We talked on the phone. I could hear the excitement in his voice and, I was sure he was going to make me an offer. I called Bill and we decided on a price: $10,000 for the Ruth and $5000 for the rest of the cards.

I met Fred in his office in Rohnert Park. Just after we shook hands he took the folder and opened to see the cards. He took one out and held it carefully close to his eyes, then smelled it. He then spent about 15 minutes in non stop dialogue about the cards. "Don't mind me," he said, as carefully looked and smelled each card, "I talk to myself as do this." At first he was skeptical about the authenticity of the cards. They did not have that "old card smell" that he loved so much.

I asked him if he knew John Spalding, a well known figure, former sports writer and parent of Donna's high school friend. Of course, he knew John. They had done some transactions together. "John saw these?" he said. I explained that John had just talked to Bill about them briefly. He finally said that he decided that they were authentic. But the cards from the caramel company used thicker paper and the writing on the back was so much more sophisticated, but these certainly were one of a kind. "I can't believe the condition that these are in- just beautiful, perfect corners." Then he told me that these were cut, but beautiful and he suggested that I get them graded as I had intended to do. He said the quality was just not the same as the ones from the caramel company, but that somebody would be interested in buying them. After a long conversation about the cards, I shook hands and left. He asked me to keep in contact and tell him how the process goes.