Babe Ruth

1928 Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig H&B Louisville Slugger Bats Advertising Display

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When Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig appear in the same ad, you know it’s a legendary piece of baseball memorabilia.

REA offered this incredible advertisement in their July 2000 catalog. Here’s the lot’s complete description:

This visually appealing fold over H&B advertising piece was furnished to store owners for window display. The front features a large photo of Ruth and Gehrig examining an H&B Louisville Slugger bat. The interior portion pictures numerous baseball stars endorsing H&B bats as well as an order card for dealers. Unfolded front measures 12″ x 18″ Condition details include separations along the fold lines and tears. An extremely attractive advertising broadside which displays beautifully as is, but would benefit greatly from some minor professional restoration which could easily help return this piece to its original glorious state. This is the only example of this extremely rare advertising piece Robert Edward Auctions has seen to date.

Wikipedia has a great article for Hillerich & Bradsby if you’d like more history about the Louisville Slugger brand.

1927 Babe Ruth Babe Comes Home Lobby Card

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When REA, then a division of MastroNETInc. offered this 1927 Babe Ruth “Babe Comes Home” lobby card for sale in their July 2000 catalog, it was the only example of this particular type known to exist.

Here’s the lot’s description:

The best Babe Ruth lobby card in the world! Full color lobby card (14″ x 11″) from the 1927 First National Pictures release of “Babe Comes Home” features Ruth in uniform at bat. This is the only known example of this lobby card, and one of only several “Babe Comes Home’ lobby cards known to exist in the entire collecting world. This extraordinary rarity is highly prized in both the baseball and movie collectible field. There is some undetectable professional restoration otherwise in Near Mint to Mint condition.

Another example appears to have popped up since the REA sale; Heritage sold the following one in March 2011 for $2390.

Perhaps it’s changed hands a few more times since, but it’s currently listed on eBay (August 2024) with an asking price of $9,500. The seller wrote that it was one of two known in the item’s description. They also said it was one of a set of eight scene cards.

1939 Babe Ruth Signed Advertising Contract

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Here’s an incredible advertising contract featuring the full-name signature of “George H Babe Ruth.”

The fully executed agreement was signed by a representative of the National Broadcasting Company in March 1939, and states the final terms for what I guess was the severing of the relationship that had provided for Ruth’s endorsement on behalf of Red Rock Bottlers, Inc.

You can see that the EX/MT document came with a PSA/DNA certification. It was auctioned off in December 2004.

Early Exhibit Card Machine With Autographed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Exhibits

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Here’s a nice mid-1920s wooden exhibit card machine with two little signed cards showing a 1928 Blue Series Babe Ruth and Grey Tint Lou Gehrig exhibit. Sotheby’s offered the item in their April 1994 Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia auction.

Here’s the lot’s full description:

Early Exhibit Card Machine with Autographed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Exhibits, mid 1920s wooden exhibit card machine made by Metropolitan Coin Machine Inc. of Brooklyn, N.Y., holds two autographed exhibits of Ruth and Gehrig, the Ruth exhibit is a 1928 blue tint series with the Babe in quotes, a strong bold black ink signature, the Gehrig is a 1926 grey tint exhibit with the signature in the back-ground, “Lou” is a bit light but the “Gehrig” is bold and clear, overall condition of both cards is excellent to mint, with minor corner wear, the machine itself has a glass front and has been refinished, lock and key back, blue lettering “Novelty Card Vendor,” height 13 inches, width 7 1/2 inches, and depth 7 inches, at least near mint condition, wooden exhibit card machines are very rare, very few have survived and the autographed exhibits displayed of Ruth and Gehrig just add to make it a top shelf collectible.

It’s not the exact same card (auto location), but REA sold a signed 1928 Babe Ruth Exhibit card for $5,875 in 2008; it would be just a touch (ok, A LOT) pricier at auction today.

Also, FWIW, I think the Gehrig exhibit might have been a 1928 release as well, but I’m no expert on pre-war exhibit cards.

1921 W551 Babe Ruth/Ty Cobb Strip Card Pairing

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The awesome thing about flipping through old catalogs is running across random cards and sets that pique your curiosity and make you learn more about the hobby; that’s precisely what happened when I saw this 1921 W551 Babe Ruth/Ty Cobb Strip in Mastro’s August 2006 catalog.

This example is graded 88 NM/MT 8 by SGC, but I found the 1922 date on the slab and the auction’s title interesting. I used to collect Babe Ruth strip cards and swore this was a 1921 card. So I double-checked Old Cardboard and PSA, and they both date the W551 set to 1921, and it turns out SGC does now as well. Weird…

After some more research, I learned that, if anything, someone could reasonably confuse these W551s with W514s since nine of the 10 baseball player strip card poses are the same. However, the text below the picture is a little different, and Ruth’s picture is entirely different.

Anywho, back to W551, here’s PSA’s set profile: 

The 1921 W551 baseball card set consists of 10 cards, each measuring approximately 1-3/8” x 3-1/4”. The unnumbered cards were printed in strips, with each front revealing a color drawing of a National Pastime hero. The player’s name and team name are printed in the bottom margin. The backs are blank. The W551 set is made up of Frank Baker, Dave Bancroft, Jess Barnes, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Wally Pipp, Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Tris Speaker, and Casey Stengel. Ruth’s example is by far the most desirable item.

And here are a few more W551 fun facts:

  • The cards are 1 3/8″ x 2 1/4″ (but vary drastically from hand cutting).
  • The set has 40 cards (boxers, other sports, movie stars) but only ten baseball cards, but it does have Gene Sarazen (golf) and W. Tilden’s (tennis) rookie cards, which are pricier than you’d think
  • 8/10 of the baseball players are Hall of Famers
  • There are really good reprints with blue labeling; there are also a lot of fake two-card strips (including fake Ruth/Cobb pairs)
  • The cards came in strips of 10

Also, despite there being a ton of them out there, including 13 Ruth/Cobb Panels from PSA and 8 from SGC, 168 PSA and 91 SGC Ruth strips, and 139 PSA Cobb and 76 SGC strips, these cards aren’t cheap. Happy collecting!

1933 Goudey Babe Ruth Parody Painting

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Pig League Chewing Gum! Christie’s offered this George Chastain parody painting in their October 1993 Sports Memorabilia catalog.

In the description, Christie’s wrote:

An original painting in acrylics by George Chastain, parody artist known for his pulp magazine, science fiction and movie parodies. The painting spoofs the 1933 Goudey Ruth card No. 181 and refers to ” Pig League chewing gum ” and substitutes peanuts, hot dog, beer and Porker Snax for the bat on the actual card. The painting measures 11 x 14 inches and is one of a series of baseball card parodies done by Mr. Chastain. The lot does not include any publication rights.

The estimate was $800-1,000.

Precious Paper has it now (July 2024) and is selling the painting for $2,500. Here’s a screenshot in case it’s sold and removed from their site—you know, to document hobby history!

1915 Boston Red Sox Postcard

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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.

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