[Exhibitman]

If you are approaching this financially, forget about anything except baseball; all the rest are piss-thin markets. Speaking as a boxing collector, trust me on that. You do not want to be in a collectible that has only a handful of interested parties unless you are in there so cheap that it doesn't matter. The only exceptions are probably a 1965 Namath, a Tom Brady RC, the Star or Fleer Jordan RCs and LeBron's RCs. Also the Jim Brown RC, the Russell and Chamberlain and Alcindor and perhaps Dr. J RCs, the Magic-Bird RC, the Gretzky RC, the Orr RC, and maybe Howe and Hull. Maybe also the Ali RC , if we can agree on which it is. Those have transcendent appeal. The rest are for specialists.

As for the original question, Ruth is a much better answer than Jeter. I do not believe that the abundant Jeter RC will do a ton more long term; remember how nuts Ryan pricing was in anticipation of his election. Ruth has steadily appreciated too. Check VCP on his 33 Goudey.

Now, if it was my money and the goal was financial appreciation I'd spread it around a core of rookies in the modern era, guys like Gerrit Cole or Altuve. Trout is blazing hot right now, so i'd watch it with him, but I think the non-2011 Topps Update RCs and the pre-RCs are reasonable values. I'd plunk a grand or so into his 2011 Bowman cards. As the TU prices out of range of most collectors these should go up. I'd also try to pick up some blue chip HOFers like Williams, Aaron, Musial, Gehrig, etc. A nice play might also be Bonds: if he makes the HOF his cards, which are really cold and have been for a while should see a nice punch upwards.

All of which is academic: if you want to make money buy a stock or something. Cards have less liquidity, relatively large spreads between bid (retail) and ask (selling to a dealer), and big financial barriers to exit (selling fees are at least 13% and go up from there), plus unfavorable tax treatment relative to other investments if held for more than a year. Buy these because you enjoy owning them.