1933 Butter Cream R306

The small, elongated (measuring 1 1/4" by 3 1/2") cards of this 30 card set are unnumbered and contain many cut-down, blurry black and white photos. The producer's name is sometimes printed on the reverse. Despite their limitations, Butter Cream cards are highly prized by collectors. The cards have been alphabetized and numbered for reference in the checklist below. There are two varieties of the back for each card: One says "Your estimate of this yea… [Read More]

The small, elongated (measuring 1 1/4" by 3 1/2") cards of this 30 card set are unnumbered and contain many cut-down, blurry black and white photos. The producer's name is sometimes printed on the reverse. Despite their limitations, Butter Cream cards are highly prized by collectors. The cards have been alphabetized and numbered for reference in the checklist below. There are two varieties of the back for each card: One says "Your estimate of this year to Sept 1st; and "Your estimate of this year to Oct. 1st. The Babe Ruth card within this set is one of the more legendary rarities of the hobby. How rare is this Ruth card? Rare enough that through 1989 it was generally believed that the R306 set was complete at 29 cards. Two copies of the Ruth card, however, surfaced at the 1989 National Convention in Chicago, pushing the checklist up to 30 cards and establishing the R306 issue as perhaps Ruth’s rarest card. Though a third (lower grade) copy was known to exist, according to the information provided in REA’s 2008 catalog, it was lost in transit in 1990 in a deal involving hobby legends Lew Lipset and Barry Halper. To this date, the number of known copies remains at a mere two, one of which the whereabouts is unknown and the other – graded VgEx 4 by PSA – was offered for sale in REA’s May, 2008 auction ultimately commanding $111,625. The Ruth is, understandably, unpriced due to scarcity and the set price references the collection of the 29 standard R306's. It's been theorized that the Ruth was intentionally short-printed perhaps as a stumbling block to send in all 30 cards for a special prize. [Collapse]