It is a fair bet that almost all adults know the name Babe Ruth. Very few people in the world know anything about a confectionery company called Uncle Jacks, Inc. The value of sports collectibles can often be driven sky high based on scarcity. One rather scarce baseball card of Babe Ruth is the 1933 Uncle Jacks Candy card, and its value is quite high.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class. It has become undeniable that collectibles now compete for the same money that could have otherwise been invested into stocks, bonds or real estate. Rare vintage baseball cards fit right into this theme, and any vintage collectible featuring the great Babe Ruth commands high prices paid by investors and collectors alike.

Goldin Auctions has listed a 1933 Uncle Jacks Candy Babe Ruth baseball card that is graded by PSA with a VG+ 3.5 grade. This particular example is the highest PSA-graded example of the mere 10 cards that PSA has ever graded.

The 1933 Uncle Jacks Candy Babe Ruth baseball card meets the criteria that will draw collectors and investors alike. The set itself is quite scarce, as is the Ruth card. Finding cards in high-grade conditions is impossible.

One issue that may act as an overhang is that even some of the top vintage baseball card collectors have never owned, viewed or even heard of this set — a true testament to scarcity. Its photo quality may also not be among the strongest of the 1930s cards.

With an auction set to end on June 26, 2021, the minimum price of $25,000.00 had already risen to $49,000 with 11 bids having been seen. There is good reason to believe that this PSA 3.5 graded sample will sell for a much higher price. An auction from March of 2017 commanded a price of $59,097.60 via Lelands for a PSA 2.5 graded example, and even the card price softness in 2021 still has card prices much higher than back then.

The entire 1933 Uncle Jacks Candy baseball card set consisted of just 30 cards in total, and the 1-15/16″ x 3″ measurement is not even a normal case-loader for PSA’s encapsulation. The Uncle Jacks Candy cards come with unnumbered blank backs. Babe Ruth’s name is identified along the bottom border on this blue hued portrait card, along with the “King of Swat” under the name.

Not all of the stars of the 1930s were featured in the Uncle Jacks Candy set that was effectively a contest to attend a World Series. Hall of Famers like Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove and Rogers Hornsby are included along with Ruth, as are key players such as Lloyd Waner, Bill Terry, Hack Wilson and others. There is no card of Lou Gehrig in the set.

The key issue which made the Uncle Jacks Candy baseball cards scarce is that the set was distributed only in the New England area around the company’s base. To show just how scarce the cards are, the PSA population report has just 82 cards from the entire set that have ever been graded — and 5 of those 82 graded examples are the redemption cards. According to the Pre-War Cards site, the three grading houses of PSA, SGC, and Beckett do not even have a total of 200 cards ever graded in the combined populations.

Baseball cards of Uncle Jacks rarely come up for sale. Including the $59,097.60 price for a PSA 2.5 grade, the PSA site has recorded 5 sales of Babe Ruth cards that took place from 2017 to 2019, with a PSA 1 graded example fetching $12,277.00 from PWCC (eBay) in 2018 and a PSA 2 selling for $23,976.00 in 2019 via Memory Lane.

According to the Goldin Auctions description:

The piece presents beautifully, with a clear, softly hued photographic likeness of the legend reposing on gently toned cardstock. The faintest hint of a surface wrinkle can be discerned, with difficulty, at the lower left. This uniquely supreme memento represents a tremendously significant potential addition to the most sophisticated array of specialized Ruth collectibles. This rare piece projects singular Very Good-plus condition, while boasting eye appeal and inherent charisma that demonstrably surpass the card’s formal grading assessment.

There are many reasons that Babe Ruth cards and other collectibles will be in high demand for decades into the future. There is, however, no reason to expect that the Uncle Jacks Candy cards of Babe Ruth will ever fit into the rare vintage cards of Babe Ruth that can still be purchased for under $1,000… Not even close!