1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144

The gum card that set the standard

Enos Gordon Goudey, a Nova Scotian who had worked for Beemans, founded the Goudey Gum Company in Boston in 1919. In 1933 the company put a baseball card in every pack of its 'Big League Chewing Gum,' and the set is generally described as the first baseball issue packaged with bubble gum.

The cards measured about 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches, much larger than the narrow tobacco and candy cards that came before, and were printed on heavier stock with full color artwork. The backs carried a real biography in green ink along with the gum advertising. The issue held 239 cards in 1933; a 240th, #106 Napoleon Lajoie, was made in 1934 and mailed only to collectors who asked for it.

Goudey copyrighted each card like a book, sending the U.S. Copyright Office a two-dollar fee, an application, a notarized affidavit and two copies of every card. The registration records usually name Saul M. Arkin or Elmer Crowell, or both, as the author or illustrator.

Printed twice on purpose

The set was printed on ten sheets of 24 cards and released through 1933. Sheet 6 held cards 143 through 165, which is only 23 numbers; card #144 filled the extra slot, printed twice. As a result #144 turned up in packs at twice the rate of an ordinary card.

The duplication left a mark collectors still look for. The two #144 positions on the sheet are not quite the same: one version shows much better focus and clarity than the other.

Being common in packs did not make #144 common in high grade. PSA's card profile says the double-printed #144 is 'actually harder to find in high-grade' than the green #181. One collector guide's count of copies graded by the three major services put #144 at 2,028, the most of the four Ruths.

The full-length Babe

Ruth has four cards in the 1933 set, more than any other player. Card #144 is the source image for two of the others: #53 and #149 crop this same pose at the waist and set it against yellow and red backgrounds. Only #181, Ruth seated with his bat against green, uses a different picture.

The back of #144 has its own text, different from the shared back of #53 and #149, and prints 'George Herman (Babe) Ruth' in larger type. It tells his career in more detail, including the claim that the Red Sox paid 'less than $3000' for him in 1914 and sold him six years later for $125,000. Modern accounts give other figures: PSA's biography reports $25,000 for the 1914 purchase and $100,000 for the sale to the Yankees.

When the set was issued Ruth was 38, near the end of his Yankees career. Collectors have long read the four Ruth cards as a kind of tribute to a star past his peak but still the biggest draw in the game.

1933: still the Babe

Ruth was coming off the 1932 World Series, where his fifth-inning home run in Game 3 in Chicago on October 1 became the legend of the 'called shot.' In 1933 he hit .301 with 34 home runs, 104 runs batted in and a league-leading 114 walks.

On July 6, 1933, he started in right field in the first All-Star Game at Comiskey Park and hit the game's first home run, a two-run shot off Bill Hallahan in the third inning, in a 4-2 American League win. In the last game of the season he took the mound for a publicity stunt and pitched a complete-game win against the Red Sox.

The Depression reached even Ruth's paycheck: his salary dropped from $75,000 in 1932 to $52,000 in 1933. The Yankees finished second, seven games behind Washington. He played one more full season in New York, went to the Boston Braves in 1935, and entered the Hall of Fame in its first class in 1936.

How the market has treated #144

In early 2019 one of the top-ranked 1933 Goudey registry sets was sold at auction, bringing $3,650,622 in all, more than double the presale estimates. Its four Ruth cards brought a combined $1,296,000, led by a #144 graded PSA Mint 9 at $528,000.

In May 2022 the four Ruth cards from the collection of the late Manny Gordon, a New York diamond trader, each graded PSA 8, were sold at auction. His #144 brought $384,608.

At the PSA 7 level of this entry, prices have moved widely. A PSA 7 sold at auction on September 9, 2023, for $54,882, the most recent PSA 7 result in one published record of auction prices. A sales tracker logged other PSA 7 sales that year at $114,000 in May, $138,000 in June and $96,000 in August, which shows how much eye appeal and centering can matter within one grade.

Signed copies are another market entirely. A #144 graded PSA 3 with an autograph graded PSA/DNA 7 sold for $433,100 on June 20, 2026, while an unsigned PSA 3 sold for $26,846 that July.

What to look for

Card #144 is the only 1933 Goudey Ruth showing him full length in his batting pose. If the picture stops at the waist, it is #53 (yellow) or #149 (red). Check for the red 'Big League Chewing Gum' banner, which sheet 6 cards carry, and compare focus: one of the two printings is noticeably sharper.

In PSA 7 the card is a true high grade. PSA's population report lists 43 copies at NM 7, 31 at NM-MT 8 and four at Mint 9. At the low end, a PSA Authentic copy sold at auction for $3,750 in February 2026, and PSA 1 and PSA 2 copies sold at auction for $10,433 and $15,000 in June 2026.

Like the rest of the set, the cards came wrapped with gum and often show residue or creases.

The numbers

1933 season (NYY)

137 G, 459 AB, 97 R, 138 H, 21 2B, 3 3B, 34 HR, 104 RBI, 114 BB, .301 BA, .442 OBP, .582 SLG, 176 OPS+. All-Star.

1933 AL ranks

1st in walks (114), 2nd in home runs (34), 3rd in slugging (.582) and OPS (1.023)

1933 pitching

1 G, 1-0, complete game, 9 IP, 5.00 ERA

1932 season (NYY)

133 G, 156 H, 41 HR, 137 RBI, 130 BB, .341 BA, .489 OBP, .661 SLG

1934 season (NYY)

125 G, 105 H, 22 HR, 84 RBI, 104 BB, .288 BA

Career (1914-1935)

22 seasons, 2,873 H, 714 HR, 2,214 RBI, .342 BA, .690 SLG

Hall of Fame

Inducted 1936, in the first class

Timeline

1. Feb 6, 1895

   Babe Ruth is born in Baltimore.

2. 1919

   Enos Gordon Goudey founds the Goudey Gum Company in Boston.

3. Oct 1, 1932

   Ruth's 'called shot' home run in Game 3 of the World Series in Chicago.

4. 1933

   Goudey issues the 'Big League Chewing Gum' set; #144 is printed twice on sheet 6.

5. Jul 6, 1933

   Ruth hits the first home run in All-Star Game history.

6. 1934

   Goudey mails card #106, Napoleon Lajoie, to collectors who request it.

7. Feb 26, 1935

   The Yankees trade Ruth to the Boston Braves.

8. 1936

   Ruth is elected to the Hall of Fame in its first class.

9. Aug 16, 1948

   Ruth dies at 53.

10. 1969

    The Goudey company files surface and are dispersed among collectors.

11. Feb 2019

    A PSA 9 #144 sells at auction for $528,000 as part of a $3.65 million 1933 Goudey set sale.

12. May 2022

    Manny Gordon's PSA 8 #144 sells at auction for $384,608.

13. Sep 9, 2023

    A PSA 7 #144 sells at auction for $54,882.

14. Jun 20, 2026

    A signed #144 (PSA 3, autograph PSA/DNA 7) sells for $433,100.

The world in 1933

• Jan 30, 1933

  'The Lone Ranger' debuts on American radio.

• Mar 4, 1933

  Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as president and soon declares a national bank holiday.

• Mar 31, 1933

  Congress establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps.

• Apr 5, 1933

  Executive Order 6102 makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold.

• May 27, 1933

  The Century of Progress world's fair opens in Chicago.

• Jun 6, 1933

  The first drive-in movie theater opens near Camden, New Jersey.

• Jul 6, 1933

  The first All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park.

• Dec 5, 1933

  Prohibition ends with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 7 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144 is number 31 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Sheet 6 of the 1933 Goudey set had 23 card numbers and 24 slots, so #144 was printed twice.
• The two printings of #144 differ: one is in noticeably sharper focus.
• Cards #53 and #149 are waist-up crops of the very image on #144.
• The back of #144 says the Red Sox paid 'less than $3000' for Ruth and sold him for $125,000; modern accounts give different figures.
• A signed PSA 3 copy sold for $433,100 in 2026, while an unsigned PSA 3 sold for $26,846 the next month.
• Despite being double-printed, #144 is harder to find in high grade than Ruth's #181, according to PSA.