1933 Goudey Babe Ruth Card PSA 9 Sells for $1.525 Million at Heritage Auctions

One of the finest surviving examples of Babe Ruth’s 1933 Goudey #181 card sold for $1,525,000 Friday night at Heritage Auctions. The PSA Mint 9 card was part of Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. The $1.525 million final price includes Heritage’s buyer’s premium.

The result came for a card sitting near the very top of the PSA population. Just six examples of the 1933 Goudey Ruth #181 have been graded PSA 9, according to Heritage, and only one has received a higher grade.

That rarity becomes even more impressive considering the card is more than 90 years old and dates to one of the landmark baseball card sets of the prewar era. Goudey’s 1933 baseball release contained 240 cards and helped usher in what Heritage Auctions describes as the hobby’s “Bubble Gum era.” Babe Ruth was important enough to appear four times in the set, with cards numbered 53, 144, 149 and 181.

The #181 card takes a different approach from some of Ruth’s other appearances in the set. Rather than an action-oriented image, it presents an older Ruth in a straightforward portrait against a colorful background, a look that has become instantly recognizable among vintage baseball card collectors.

Condition is what pushed this particular copy into another level. Cards from the 1930s were made to be handled by children, traded and stored long before anyone imagined they might eventually become seven-figure collectibles. Finding a 1933 Goudey Ruth surviving in Mint 9 condition is therefore extraordinarily difficult.