The best Babe Ruth rookie and early cards, ranked (2026 prices)

The accepted Ruth rookie. It shows him in mid-delivery as a Red Sox pitcher, two years before Boston started using him in the outfield, in a small 1-5/8 by 3 inch photo card. Chicago printer Felix Mendelsohn produced the M101-5 series first, around February 1916, and sold blank-backed cards in sets and sheets. That's why blank backs are the most common version, and why PSA files them here.

There's a wrinkle. Ruth is #151 in both the M101-5 and M101-4 series, so a blank-back copy can't really be tied to one or the other; only a set-specific advertising back settles it. Either way, the supply is tiny: PSA has graded fewer than 40 blank backs, and only three reached PSA 8. They're often off-center, and fakes exist; on counterfeits the white gap between the photo and the thin black frame is noticeably wider than on originals. Sales are rare enough that each one sets the market: a PSA 7 brought $1,415,200 at Goldin in March 2026, and a new-to-the-hobby PSA 3, kept in one family for four generations, sold for $355,600 at Sotheby's in April 2025.

The same card from the second series, which followed about two months after M101-5. This is the one that carries the famous Sporting News advertisement on the back, since the paper's ad appears only on M101-4 cards, and it's the version that gives the set its name. PSA has graded just 18 copies it can confirm as M101-4, which makes it even scarcer than the blank back.

That scarcity shows in the results. A PSA 7 sold for a record $2.46 million at Mile High Card Company in November 2021. A PSA 6 with the Sporting News back made $1,452,000 in the Newman collection sale at Memory Lane in July 2021, and another PSA 6 brought $1.5 million at Goldin in April 2022. If you want the most widely recognized form of Ruth's rookie, this is it.

Ruth's first card of any kind, and one of the rarest cards in the hobby. The Baltimore News issued cards of the city's two pro teams, the International League Orioles and the Federal League Terrapins, and Ruth appears as a 19-year-old pitcher for the Orioles, just months before he was sold to Boston. The back carries the Orioles' schedule, and copies exist with red or blue borders. About ten are known, mostly in low grades, because the thin stock and borders didn't survive handling.

It ranks third only because it's a minor-league card. On price it is in a class of its own. An SGC 3 that had spent more than a century with the family of the paperboy who collected it sold for $7.2 million at Robert Edward Auctions on December 4, 2023, at the time the third-highest price ever paid for a sports card. The same card then resold at Heritage in October 2025 for $4.02 million, a reminder that even the rarest cards don't only go up. PSA has graded just three copies; the last one sold publicly, a PSA 1, brought $450,300 in 2013.

Mendelsohn didn't only sell blank cards. He also sold the 1916 set to businesses, which printed their own ads on the backs and gave the cards away with purchases. Eighteen companies did it, including clothing and department stores, bakeries, breweries and a theater. Some backs, such as Famous & Barr and Standard Biscuit, turn up fairly often across the set; others, such as Green-Joyce, Mall Theatre, Everybody's and Holmes to Homes, survive in tiny numbers for any player, let alone Ruth.

For Ruth collectors, a rare back turns an already scarce rookie into something close to unique. A Ruth with the back of Morehouse Baking of Lawrence, Massachusetts, which handed the cards out with its bread, had never been offered at auction until December 2024, when a PSA 3.5 brought $812,724 at REA. The Herpolsheimer back has only five PSA-graded Ruths; a PSA 2 made $328,800 in 2021. These trade so rarely that each sale is its own data point, but they consistently sell for a premium over a blank back in the same grade.

Goudey's 1933 set is the most celebrated issue of the 1930s, and Ruth appears on four of its cards. These aren't rookies, since he was 38 and near the end of his career, but they are the Ruth cards most collectors actually chase, and #53 is the toughest of the four. It uses the same portrait as #149 against a yellow background.

Prices reflect that. In the grades that trade regularly, #53 costs more than any other Goudey Ruth, with PSA 1s running about $5,500 to $8,600 in 2025 and 2026 and PSA 5s around $45,000 to $58,000. The only PSA 9 sold for $4,212,000 in the Newman collection auction at Memory Lane in July 2021.

The same portrait as #53, this time on a red background, and the second-toughest of the four. No copy has ever graded PSA 9, which makes its top end unusually thin; the best examples are a few PSA 8.5s. A PSA 8 sold for $396,000 at REA in December 2023.

In mid grades it trades at a discount to #53, which makes it the smart way into the Yellow/Red pair. A PSA 2 brought $11,901 in October 2025, and a PSA 1.5 sold for $9,400 in June 2026.

The only Goudey Ruth that shows him full length, swinging, and the most common of the four, because Goudey double-printed it. There are even two versions of the double print, one noticeably sharper than the other. More copies have been graded than any other Goudey Ruth.

Being common in low grades doesn't make it easy in high grades. It is tougher to find in PSA 8 or better than #181, and its PSA 8s sell for roughly $385,000 to $418,000. The low end is climbing too: a PSA 1 sold for $10,433 and a PSA 2 for $15,000 in June 2026, well above the $5,600 to $6,900 most PSA 1s brought in 2025.

The last Ruth in the set, and the only one with a relaxed, non-action pose against a pale green background. It's the easiest of the four to find in top condition, with six PSA 9s and the lone PSA 10 of any Goudey Ruth, which is why it's the most affordable in high grades.

That doesn't make it cheap. A PSA 9 sold for $1,272,000 in the Newman sale in July 2021, and a signed copy brought $1.464 million in February 2026, a record for a signed vintage card until a signed Jackie Robinson rookie passed it that summer. For most collectors, a PSA 3 to 5 at roughly $12,000 to $27,000 is the realistic target.

Ruth's second-year card, from Collins-McCarthy's 200-card set. It again shows him as a young Red Sox pitcher, framed by a dark pinstripe border. The set was the last big card issue before the caramel sets of the early 1920s, and it's found with four backs: blank, Collins-McCarthy, Boston Store and Standard Biscuit. The Boston Store name also appears on a separate 1917 Boston Store issue.

It's every bit as scarce as the 1916 rookies: PSA has graded only 18, and none above PSA 4.5. That's why even a PSA 1 sells for six figures, with recent ones at $102,000 in October 2023 and $116,850 in August 2022.

A 32-card "Famous Athletes" set with Ruth as the last and most valuable card, from the year of his Called Shot in the World Series. Distribution was limited, mostly around Boston, and kids didn't care for the artwork, so few survived. Being the last card made Ruth's copies especially prone to wear.

With only 153 graded by PSA, it's far scarcer than any Goudey Ruth, but it has a smaller following, which keeps prices below the Goudeys in the best grades. Two PSA 8s sold in 2023, for $210,000 at REA and $157,295 at Memory Lane, and a PSA 1.5 made $12,250 in March 2026.