The legendary Babe Ruth is not just one baseball’s top icons. The man George Herman Ruth, or Babe, is still one of the most widely recognized sports heroes of all-time. His home run record may have been broken, but the quality and scoring behind his 714 homers is unrivaled. Every single vintage baseball card collector wants a piece of Babe Ruth in their collection. Investors who invest in sports memorabilia want a piece of Babe Ruth as well.
There is one issue that cannot be overlooked here — Babe Ruth collectors and investors like owe endless gratitude to the 1933 Goudey set!
It was not unique in the 1910s and 1920s to have multiple cards issued for a single player, but it was certainly not as common as in the modern era. The 1933 Goudey gave many tributes to baseball card collectors with 4 different Babe Ruth cards from the set. And as you see, there are some other thanks that should be given as well.
Collectors Dashboard aims to keep both collectors and investors informed of what trends may fade and which trends may endure ahead. The card price appreciation of 2020 and into early 2021 witnessed a sharp correction during the first half of 2021. The mass-produced new cards of recent years took much of the pain, but Babe Ruth remains highly sought after even if some prices have come down selectively.
Just like investing in stocks and bonds, those who endlessly chased prices found out the hard way that there are no guaranteed profits. What is easy to see is that vintage-anything Babe Ruth should remain in high demand. In fact, these will likely be in demand for many decades ahead — and some records were just seen in the 1933 Goudey set.
Memory Lane Inc. conducted an auction for the prized Thomas Newman Collection in June 2021. This doctor amassed a collection worth millions of dollars, and the 73-year old doctor passed away from COVID-19 early in 2021. This is the auction that featured two prominent 1933 Goudey card sales. The “Yellow Ruth” is the most difficult card and it commanded a $4.21 million record-breaking sale of its kind. The “Green Ruth” from the 1933 set fetched $1.27 million as a record for that card’s grade.
GOUDEY WENT “ALL-IN ON RUTH” IN 1933
What may have played a role for Goudey to include Ruth four times was that in 1933 the Great Depression was in swing. Kids were not being given the pennies to buy baseball cards and bubble gum. The Roaring Twenties of a few years earlier had vanished. It was now an oppressive economic time of unemployment and lines for bread and soup. Goudey took a chance here with color cards and it seems that the odds of pulling a Babe Ruth cards kept the interest alive.
This one set’s use of four Ruth cards has allowed some 4,676 graded samples in the PSA population report and over 1,000 of each card at all grades (May 2021). The #144 batting variation is among the most popular, and it’s actually the most common with 1,439 examples. The total population from SGC was 1,976 before the end of May 2021. That was a total of 6,652 graded cards at the end of May 2021 from this set alone between PSA and SGC. This obviously does not take into consideration the ungraded examples nor does it account for other graded cards from Beckett nor those cards still encapsulated by GAI or others.
One factoid to consider is to look at the 1933 Goudey #144 full-figure of Babe Ruth batting. The actual photo that was used for the painting shows that the artist used by Goudey magically put Babe on a diet. Ruth was nearing the end of his career and his weight had begun to become a problem. His painting is less rotund than his photo. Another issue about #144 was a double-print with two variations, with one variation having better focus and clarity.
BABE’S TOTAL GRADED 1933 GOUDEY POPULATION
The yellow card (#53) is considered to be the toughest card for collectors to find. PSA’s graded sampling counts 1,026 for the #53 and SGC has 481 counted in its population.
The population for #144 is 1,439 from PSA and 559 from SGC.
The card #149 for Ruth has a total population of 1,042 from PSA and 434 from SGC.
Ruth’s #181 in the 1933 set had a total population of 1,169 from PSA and 502 at SGC .
Adding all of these up comes to the total population of 4,676 from PSA and 1,976 from SGC.
Collectors Dashboard has shown that card buyers can actually get vintage Babe Ruth cards for under $1,000 per card. That might not be the case if it wasn’t for the 1933 Goudey issuance. If it was not for these cards, the 1933 Uncle Jacks massive premium prices might be more of the norm for collectors and investors. And if not that, then the premiums for the 1910s might even be the norm.
BABE RUTH HIGH-DOLLAR PRICES AT HIGH-GRADES
The record price for the #53 “yellow” card is now a PSA mint 9 with an opening bid of $500,000.00 at Memory Lane. That card saw 76 bids and it propelled the collection-high sale of $4,212,000 after buyer premiums.
Memory Lane also saw the #181 “Green Portrait” of Babe Ruth’s 1933 Goudey at a PSA Mint 9 grade. Bidding started at $300,000.00 and after 45 bids it fetched $1,272,000.00 after premiums.
Closer to the peak of card prices in earlier 2021, on February 27, 2021 a PSA 8 #144 (Batting) Babe Ruth sold for $288,000.00 through Heritage Auctions. The last PSA that sold prior to that, according to PSA price data, was $62,142.00 in November of 2019 through SCP Auctions.
The 1933 Goudey #149 is the “Red” Babe Ruth card. A PSA 7 graded Red Ruth from Memory Lane’s Newman Auction in June 2021 fetched a price of $171,483.60.
BUT WAIT, GOUDEY HAS 1 MORE… OR IS IT TWO?
While we have touted that collectors and investors alike have four choices in the 1933 Goudey baseball set, there is another. Goudey also released its Sport Kings series in 1933 as a multi-sport set. Babe Ruth was one card (#2 in the set) of 48 total cards with the greatest athletes of the times from baseball, football, hockey, golf, tennis and so on. It even included some females to be featured in the Sport Kings set.
The total population that has been graded by PSA was 545 cards ahead of the Memory Lane cut-off period. There are just 242 examples graded in SGC’s total population.
The 1933 Sport Kings example of Ruth graded at PSA 8 sold for $182,863 in the Memory Lane auction in June of 2021. Just three weeks late a PSA 7.5 sold for $49,200 in a Heritage Auctions sale. Three other Heritage Auction sales went off in May 2021 at $58,800 for a PSA 7.5 and $96,000 for a PSA 7 and $210,000 for a PSA 8. The same grade of PSA 8 sold for $114,000 in a December 2020 auction via Heritage.
As for the Ruth Goudey cards, the 1935 Goudey baseball set was the hallmark 4-in-1 print. This set features Ruth with three other players, and while 1935 was two years later it is obvious that Goudey reused the image almost identically. This is just another way that the 1933 Goudey sets have contributed to Ruth’s availability. The 1935 4-in-1 cards are not as desirable to Babe Ruth collectors and investors. There are multiple variations of the Ruth card here in PSA’s population reports.
PSA’s population report included 5 variations: 129 cards, another 149 cards, another 26 cards, another 43 cards, and finally another 220 cards. That is a total population of 567 cards for Babe Ruth’s 1935 Goudey which we will say “borrowed” the 1933 Goudey art. SGC’s graded population was counted as 204 cards in total for the 1935 Goudey Ruth variations. These cards do not fetch even $10,000 in auctions, although we have not looked for exceptions.
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Babe Ruth collectors and investors have a lot of reasons to be thankful that Goudey used Babe Ruth cards so prominently in 1933. This did increase the supply (and act to decrease the scarcity), but it also has allowed Babe Ruth cards to be purchased by those without unlimited funds. Without Goudey’s 1933 contribution it is very possible that even the lowest graded examples of Ruth cards would be exponentially higher in price.
The year 1933 was effectively toward the tail end of Ruth’s career. No Babe Ruth card was issued in the 1934 Lou Gehrig Says set that is also so popular among vintage baseball card collectors, an issue where Goudey issued two cards of Gehrig.
