1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #181 PSA 3 VG

Coming off his seventh World Series title, four of which came with the New York Yankees, the Sultan of Swat’s unprecedented popularity caused Goudey to print multiple cards of the slugger in its 1933 set. Babe Ruth appears on cards #53, #144, #149, and #181 in the famous release, all of which remain some of the most revered Ruths ever produced. The Goudey set revolutionized the trading card industry, raising the bar for sports collectibles with its high-quality artist renditions of players, eye-pleasing color splashes, more robust paper stock, and engaging bios that connected fans to players they often had only read about in newspapers. It was also the first set to include sticks of gum with cards, something that would become standard practice in the decades to follow despite causing damage to plenty of examples throughout the years. This imagery of Babe holding his beloved piece of lumber on the front of this card remains one of the most indelible images in baseball card collecting history. Another alluring aspect of this famous Ruth printing is not the name on the front, but the name behind the photo on which this legendary lithograph is based. Charles Conlan shot this picture of Ruth leaning on his right forearm in 1929. It remains one of the most iconic shots of the Sultan. For nearly 40 years, Conlan shot thousands of photos of MLB players, many of which are revered across the industry. But few match up to the subject used for this glorious green Goudey. The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 06/04/2025.