Babe Ruth is widely considered one of the greatest and most iconic baseball players of all time. In addition to his incredible legacy on the field, Ruth’s collectible baseball cards from the early 20th century have also become highly valuable pieces of sports memorabilia. Let’s take a closer look at some key details about these early Babe Ruth baseball cards.
Some of the oldest and most coveted Babe Ruth baseball cards date all the way back to the 1910s, when Ruth was first breaking into professional baseball with the Boston Red Sox minor league teams. One of the earliest known Ruth baseball cards is from the very obscure and rare 1911 Baltimore News laundry checklist set. Only a handful are known to exist today in any condition. The front depicts a basic checklist of players and teams without any images, while the back shows an advertisement for a local laundry business. Graded examples of this ultra-rare Ruth card can fetch well into the six-figure range at auction.
From 1914-1919, Babe Ruth’s rookie cards come from his years playing as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The two most traditionally collected issues are the 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack cards, considered by many the first “true” baseball cards rather than tobacco or trade cards. Both depict a young Babe Ruth in his Red Sox uniform, before he fully transitioned to being a slugging outfielder. High quality examples of these early Red Sox Ruth rookie cards in a PSA/BGS Gem Mint 10 grade can be worth $100,000 or more. Slightly more affordable options are his cards from the 1919 series, depicting Ruth still as a Red Sox pitcher just before being sold to the Yankees.
It’s the 1920s though when Babe Ruth really exploded onto the national scene and became the superstar that he’s remembered as today. His 1920 and 1921 cards from the T206 Gold Border set are iconic in the hobby. The 1920 shows Babe Ruth as a new Yankee with bold colors and graphics, while the 1921 has a classic pose of him swinging the bat. Both have extensive variations in image background colors too. In top PSA 10 condition, the T206 Ruths routinely sell for well over $150,000 each at public auction. Other notable early ’20s Ruths include his first Yankees card from the 1925 W516 Goudey set.
The 1930s brought Babe Ruth to the latter stages of his legendary career yet produced some of the most aesthetically pleasing of his early cards. Highlights include various 1933 Goudey issues depicting Ruth at the end of his playing days but still one of baseball’s biggest stars. A standout is the rare 1933 Goudey Brief History parallel version, only about 50 of which are known. Other 1930s Ruth gems are his cards from 1934 and 1935 playlets as well as several obscure tobacco set issues like the 1935 Diamond Stars. Even poorly graded examples still sell for thousands due to the nostalgia of cards produced when Ruth’s time on the field was coming to a close.
Following his retirement in 1935 after 22 seasons, Babe Ruth memorabilia and collectibles only continued growing in popularity through the late 1930s and 1940s. While he no longer had any new baseball cards released, his vintage cards from the 1910s through his playing days maintained high visibility and demand long after he left the game. Many of these early Ruth issues had print runs and distributions that never achieved huge numbers even when first produced. Combined with the often fragile paper stock and nearly 100 years that have passed since, obtaining high grade specimens of early Ruth cards in today’s market requires astronomical budgets. Nonetheless, to hold an authentic vintage Babe Ruth rookie card or one of his iconic 1920s Yankees issues is still a hallowed prize that continues drawing widespread interest from collectors.
With such an outsized cultural impact and as arguably the single most popular baseball player who ever lived, it’s no surprise that Babe Ruth keeps captivating sports historians and memorabilia investors to this day. Without question, no other player has more iconic or valuable early baseball cards in existence. From his esteemed starting days with the Red Sox to this home run-mashing heyday with the Yankees, each separate issue offers a new chance to own a genuine piece of the Babe Ruth legacy. Whether an affordable common card or a Connie Mack fortune, collectors remain as intrigued as ever to stake their own claim to a part of the original Sultan of Swat’s unmatched collecting history. Babe Ruth cards stand apart as some of the true blue chip offerings in the entire hobby.
