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Today is a deep dive into a Babe Ruth 1916 Sporting News PSA 7 that IPOs on Collectable Sunday 25th April at 6pm EST. We’ll also look briefly at the NFT they’re pairing with the drop.
Table of Contents
What is the Babe Ruth 1916 Sporting News PSA 7?
This is Babe Ruth’s rookie card. It shows him pitching for the Red Sox before they converted him to an outfielder and traded him to the Yankees. The card itself comes in a couple variants — on with a blank back (this one) and one variant with advertising on the back. It’s exceptionally rare with only twenty total registered with PSA.
There are three total PSA 7s with only two blank back. One card is graded higher, at PSA 8.
This specific card has traded twice on the open markets.
In 2017, it sold for $600k at Robert Edward Auctions, and it fetched $82,250 a decade earlier.
According to the SEC filing, this card is currently owned by Collectable’s parent company, Collectable Technologies, Inc. They were paid a 9% sourcing fee as part of the consignment ($140k cash, $175k equity).
It IPOs on Collectable 25th April for $3,690,00 with no retained equity (unless you count the 5% mentioned just above).
Add IPO to calendar
Cultural Relevance
Babe Ruth was arguably the best baseball player ever to play the game. He’s certainly the best two-way player – he was an outstanding pitcher before he moved to the outfield.
Over his 22 year career, he racked up a career .342 batting average, 714 home runs, 2,174 runs, 2,214 RBIs, and an obscene .690 slugging percentage.
His .690 slugging percentage, 1.164 OPS and 206 OPS+ are still records 86 years after his retirement.
The day of his 714th home run, the Babe went 4 for 4. Three home runs and a hit RBI. Total 6 RBIs in one game.
Had he not spent five years pitching with the Red Sox, he almost certainly would have hit another 200 home runs, eclipsing 900 total. That would still be a record.
And he was even better in the postseason. He had a career .744 slugging percentage across ten world series runs, and he won the ring seven times (three with the Red Sox and four with the Yankees).
In three games pitching in the post season, Ruth chalked up a 0.87 ERA across 31 innings, winning three games and losing none.
Ruth led the league in innumerable categories through his 22 years, including each of the following ten or more times:
- Wins above replacement (WAR)
- Offensive WAR
- WAR Position players
- On-base average
- Slugging %
- On-Base Plus Slugging
- Home Runs
- Walks
- Adjusted OPS+
- Adjusted Batting Runs
- Adjusted Batting Wins
- Offensive Win %
The man was a juggernaut.
He was elected as part of the first-five into the inaugural Hall of Fame class.
The World Series MVP Award is the Babe Ruth Award and Major League Baseball annually presents the Babe Ruth Home Run Award to MLB’s top home run hitter.
Inferred Value – $2.5m – $4.0m
[Detailed Valuation Available to Insiders Only]
Category Strength
The sports cards category returned a 60% ROI in Q1 2021.
Subcategory Strength
Risk Profile
Recent Growth Trend
Growth Outlook and Future Catalysts
This completely depends on the industry as a whole. If you think the industry will continue to appreciate, especially at the very high end, this is a great bet on that.
Asset Liquidity
This will have a roughly 90 day lockup period then will trade daily.
Platform Risk
Intangibles
Other than the 5% equity sourcing fee, there’s no retained equity on this one, which is really unusual for a Collectable asset of this caliber.
I also believe the cultural relevance score is a bit low (it compares him to modern juggernauts like X-Men), so I want to give a couple extra points here to make up for that.
From a personal point of view, I really like that it shows him pitching. Just my opinion, but I reckon he could have gone on to be one of the best pitchers of all time. What a man.
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