Lot # 24: 1922 E121-120 American Caramel Babe Ruth (HOF - Holding Ball) - SGC GD+ 2.5

Category: Featured Items

Starting Bid: $5,000.00

Bids: 25 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Summer, 2024 Premier Auction",
which ran from 9/12/2024 4:00 AM to
9/28/2024 9:00 PM



While the explosion in prices for Babe Ruth's cards has been extraordinary, it has also been explainable.  The prospect of owning a card of the game's greatest name from his playing days is a goal of almost every collector, and an understanding of the difficulty of obtaining cards from the 1920s has been long overdue.  While the colorful Goudey cards and rare Baltimore News and M101-4 cards have long overshadowed the black and white issues of the 1920s, the 1920s cards were manufactured during Ruth's meteoric rise in popularity, while he was becoming the household name he remains today.  The variety of interesting cards and difficult advertising backs is only becoming known to the wider hobby in recent years.

Presented here is a card from the E121 American Caramel "Series of 120" issue of 1922, picturing Ruth holding a baseball.  The image pictures the Babe in the Yankee pinstripes, perhaps the most iconic sports uniform of all, his youthful face appearing on a card just one season after breaking his own home run record, smashing 59 round trippers and driving in 168 runs, with a batting average of .378, which would be his career high.  The card boasts extraordinary eye appeal, though is accurately graded at GD+ 2.5 due to a series of light creases along the right edge of the card, encroaching into the image area at Ruth's shoulder.  Some small corner creases are evident at both right corners, and a few minor spots of foxing appear on the reverse.  Still, an outstanding example of an important early card of the Babe.

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