Notice anything significant about this 1915 Boston Red Sox Postcard? Yup, that’s Babe Ruth in the middle of the back row!
Sotheby’s offered this piece in their March 1991 auction that featured items from The Copeland Collection.
It was described as a “real photo team postcard” made before the World Series of the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. Boston went on to win that World Series four games to one against Philadelphia. Sotheby’s, of course, highlighted Babe Ruth but also identified Speaker and Hooper on the near mint-conditioned postcard-backed item.
This is the sort of historical collectible that has exploded in price over the past 30 years. The estimate for the postcard was $3,000-4,000 back in 1991 but has skyrocketed in recent years. When the finest graded example (there are just 10 in PSA’s Pop Report), a PSA 6, was offered by Heritage Auctions in February 2024, it went for $564k, and lower-graded copies are now $80k-115k+.
UPDATE: Aug 2024. REA sold the following example for $114k on August 11, 2024.
