1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92

Big League Chewing Gum

Enos Gordon Goudey, a native of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia, who had worked for Beemans, founded the Goudey Gum Company in Boston in 1919. In 1933, deep in the Depression, the company put a picture card and a slab of gum in each pack of 'Big League Chewing Gum.' The set is generally described as the first baseball issue packaged with bubble gum, and collectors still rank it among the hobby's 'Big Three' sets.

The cards were a leap forward. At 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches they were much larger than the narrow tobacco cards of earlier decades, printed on thicker stock that set the template for modern cards, and illustrated in bold color. Goudey printed them on ten sheets of 24 cards each. The 1933 issue holds 239 cards; a 240th, #106 Napoleon Lajoie, was not in packs at all and was produced in 1934 and mailed to collectors who complained.

The set leaned heavily on stars. Babe Ruth appears four times, Joe Cronin three times, and Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig twice each. PSA notes that player popularity created something new in the hobby: demand scarcity, where a Ruth or Gehrig card is chased far harder than a common player printed in the same numbers.

The Iron Horse

Henry Louis Gehrig was born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig on June 19, 1903, in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the second of four children of German immigrants and the only one to survive childhood. He spoke German before he learned English. Playing for Commerce High School at Cubs Park in Chicago on June 26, 1920, in front of more than 10,000 people, he hit a ninth-inning grand slam completely out of the park, and the country noticed.

He went to Columbia University on a football scholarship. On April 18, 1923, the day Yankee Stadium opened, he struck out 17 batters for Columbia while Yankees scout Paul Krichell watched, more impressed by his left-handed power than his pitching. Gehrig signed with the Yankees on April 29, 1923.

On June 2, 1925, he began the streak that made his name: 2,130 consecutive games over 15 seasons. Sportswriters nicknamed him 'the Iron Horse' in 1931. By 1933, the year of this card, he was 30, a four-time American League RBI leader and the 1927 MVP. That season he led the majors with 138 runs, hit .334 with 32 home runs and 140 RBI, played in the first All-Star Game, and on August 17, 1933, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, played his 1,308th straight game to pass Everett Scott's record. Scott attended as a guest of the Browns.

The streak survived a lot that year. On April 23, 1933, a pitch from Washington's Earl Whitehill struck him in the head; nearly knocked out, he stayed in the game. In September he married Eleanor Twitchell, daughter of Chicago's parks commissioner, who hired Babe Ruth's agent, Christy Walsh, to represent him. Walsh helped make Gehrig the first athlete on Wheaties boxes.

One picture, two numbers

Both Gehrig cards use the same artwork, drawn from a Charles Conlon photograph taken during the 1927 season: Gehrig in Yankee pinstripes in mid-swing against a light blue sky that replaces the original dugout and crowd. His name sits in the upper right corner and the red 'Big League Chewing Gum' banner runs across the bottom. Why Goudey repeated the image is not known.

The surest way to tell #92 from #160 is the back, where the card number sits at the top above his name and team. The backs carry a biography and the line 'This is one of a series of 240 Baseball Stars,' a promise Goudey did not keep in 1933. The fronts differ slightly in color, but sources disagree on how: one says #92 has the lighter sky-blue background and #160 the darker robin's-egg blue, while PSA says #160 usually shows whiter borders and a lighter blue than #92.

What is not in dispute is that #160 is the scarcer card. By 2018 PSA had graded nearly 1,300 copies of #92 and only a little more than 700 of #160, yet the two have often sold for similar prices in the same grade.

PSA lists the common condition problems: off-center fronts and backs, ink that bled through from stacking wet sheets, and a frequent lack of sharp focus and color. Reprints exist, including a 1983 version; originals have green ink on the back, while reprints may be marked 'Reprint' or printed in black.

From set break to six figures

This entry is a PSA NM-MT+ 8.5, a grade with very little company. On April 14, 2016, one of the finest 1933 Goudey registry sets was sold one card at a time at auction in Dallas, totaling more than $1.17 million. Its Gehrig #92, a PSA 8.5 then described as the lone copy at its grade with six graded higher, brought $89,625, a record for the card at the time. The catalog noted only a hint of rightward alignment and a trace of wet-sheet transfer on the back.

Six years later the market had moved far past that. In spring 2022 a collection built by the late Manny Gordon, a New York diamond dealer, came to auction with all four Ruth cards from the set and a PSA 9 Gehrig #92. The Gehrig, one of five PSA 9s, sold for $672,000, a record that still stands as the card's highest reported price. A PSA 9 of the scarcer #160 had brought $576,000 in January 2019.

PSA's census now lists a single GEM-MT 10, five MINT 9s and 45 NM-MT 8s for #92, with about 1,900 graded in total. PSA's record shows $274,950 as the most recent price for the lone 10, without a date on the summary. In August 2023 a PSA 8 sold for $108,000, and in September 2023 a PSA 7 brought $34,408; lower grades have recently changed hands from about $2,000 to $3,500 for a PSA 1 to $12,800 for a PSA 5.

The luckiest man

Gehrig played on through 1938, winning the Triple Crown in 1934 and a second MVP award in 1936. Midway through 1938 he began to feel symptoms of the disease that would end his life. On April 30, 1939, he went hitless in his 2,130th consecutive game; on May 2 he told manager Joe McCarthy, 'I'm benching myself, Joe.'

The Mayo Clinic confirmed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on June 19, 1939, his 36th birthday. On July 4, 1939, at Yankee Stadium, he told the crowd he considered himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth.' On December 7, 1939, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election, at 36 the youngest player so honored until Sandy Koufax. He died on June 2, 1941. His consecutive-games record stood until Cal Ripken Jr. passed it on September 6, 1995.

The numbers

1933 season

152 G, 593 AB, 138 R (led MLB), 198 H, 41 2B, 12 3B, 32 HR, 140 RBI, 9 SB, 92 BB, .334 BA, .424 OBP, .605 SLG, 359 TB. All-Star; 4th in MVP voting.

1932 season

156 G, 208 H, 34 HR, 151 RBI, .349 BA. 2nd in MVP voting; World Series champion.

1934 season

154 G, 210 H, 49 HR, 166 RBI, .363 BA, .706 SLG. Triple Crown.

1927 season

155 G, 218 H, 52 2B, 47 HR, 173 RBI, .373 BA, 447 TB. AL MVP.

1936 season

155 G, 167 R, 205 H, 49 HR, 152 RBI, .354 BA. AL MVP.

Career (1923-1939)

17 seasons, 2,164 G, 2,721 H, 493 HR, 1,995 RBI, 1,888 R, .340 BA, .447 OBP, .632 SLG

Consecutive games

2,130, from June 2, 1925, to April 30, 1939

Hall of Fame

Special election, December 7, 1939

Timeline

1. Jun 19, 1903

   Lou Gehrig is born in New York City.

2. 1919

   Enos Gordon Goudey founds the Goudey Gum Company in Boston.

3. Apr 29, 1923

   Gehrig signs with the New York Yankees.

4. Jun 2, 1925

   Gehrig begins his streak of 2,130 consecutive games.

5. 1927

   Charles Conlon photographs Gehrig in the swing later used on both 1933 Goudey Gehrig cards.

6. 1933

   Goudey issues its 'Big League Chewing Gum' set, with Gehrig on #92 and #160.

7. Jul 6, 1933

   Gehrig plays first base for the American League in the first All-Star Game.

8. Aug 17, 1933

   Gehrig plays his 1,308th straight game, passing Everett Scott's record.

9. 1934

   Goudey produces #106 Lajoie for the 1933 set and mails it to collectors who ask.

10. May 2, 1939

    Gehrig takes himself out of the lineup, ending his streak at 2,130 games.

11. Jul 4, 1939

    Gehrig gives his 'luckiest man' speech at Yankee Stadium.

12. Dec 7, 1939

    Gehrig is elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election.

13. Jun 2, 1941

    Gehrig dies of ALS at 37.

14. Sep 6, 1995

    Cal Ripken Jr. passes Gehrig's consecutive-games record.

15. Apr 14, 2016

    A PSA 8.5 #92 sells at auction in Dallas for $89,625, then a record for the card.

16. Jan 29, 2019

    A PSA 9 copy of the scarcer #160 sells for $576,000.

17. May 2022

    A PSA 9 #92 from the Manny Gordon collection sells for $672,000.

The world in 1933

• Mar 2, 1933

  'King Kong' premieres in New York City.

• Mar 4, 1933

  Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd president; the next day he declares a bank holiday.

• Mar 12, 1933

  Roosevelt gives the first of his radio 'Fireside Chats.'

• May 18, 1933

  Roosevelt signs the act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

• Jun 6, 1933

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

• Jul 6, 1933

  The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

• Oct 7, 1933

  The New York Giants beat the Washington Senators to win the World Series, 4 games to 1.

• Dec 5, 1933

  The Twenty-first Amendment is ratified, ending Prohibition.

Daily price data

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

No completed sale at PSA 8.5 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 Lou Gehrig #92 is number 22 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 (25 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Gehrig's two 1933 Goudey cards use the same 1927 photograph; the easiest way to tell them apart is the number on the back.
• The rarer of the two Gehrigs is #160, yet the two often sell for similar prices in the same grade.
• The card backs promise 'one of a series of 240 Baseball Stars,' but card #106 was not made until 1934.
• Gehrig passed Everett Scott's consecutive-games record on August 17, 1933, with Scott in the stands as a guest.
• In 1933 a pitch struck Gehrig in the head and nearly knocked him out, and he stayed in the game.
• Gehrig was the first athlete to appear on Wheaties boxes.
• Only one 1933 Goudey Gehrig #92 has ever been graded PSA GEM-MT 10.