1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson #79 RC

Color comes back after the war

During World War II, restrictions on ink, cardboard and the supplies needed to make gum all but stopped baseball card production. By PSA's count the gum card market went seven years without a serious baseball product. When cards returned, the first new issue was a plain set of small black-and-white photo cards from Bowman. Right behind it came a far louder set from the Leaf Gum Company of Chicago.

Leaf's cards measured about 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches, the same general size as the Goudey cards of the 1930s, and set player photos against bold solid or two-tone color backgrounds with the name in a colored box below. The backs carried a short biography and an ad for All-Star Baseball Gum, with a wrapper redemption offer. Collectors got one card in each 5-cent pack. It was the first color baseball set after the war.

The year is still argued. Some cards carry a 1948 copyright and others a 1949 date, and nearly all the write-ups describe the 1948 season. Recent research cited by one major auction firm concludes the cards shipped in 1949, the same year as Bowman's competing set, which is why the issue is often written as 1948-49.

A set built to frustrate

Leaf numbered its cards between 1 and 168 but produced only 98 of them, so children bought pack after pack hunting for numbers that did not exist. A premium offer on some backs advertised an album with room for 168 cards. As late as 1960, collectors were still trying to work out how many cards the set contained.

Roughly half of the set was also severely short-printed. Sources differ on the details: most counts give 49 short prints in a 98-card set, while one set profile also describes 96 cards with 48 short prints. Either way, the shortage makes the set one of the hardest postwar issues to finish, and a few variations, including Gene Hermanski with and without the last letter of his name and Cliff Aberson with two sleeve lengths, push a master set to 101 cards.

Why Leaf did it is unclear. It may have planned more series that were scrapped when Bowman signed players to exclusive contracts, or it may simply have wanted to keep children buying. The checklist is loaded with stars who had never had a card, including Robinson, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Satchel Paige and Larry Doby, alongside Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.

The man on card #79

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, and raised in Pasadena, California. At Pasadena Junior College and UCLA he was a four-sport athlete, better known for football than baseball. Drafted in World War II, he was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated Army bus, acquitted, and honorably discharged.

He played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1945 and hit .376 for them. Dodgers president Branch Rickey chose him to break baseball's color line, assigning him first to the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn's top farm club, in 1946. On April 15, 1947, Robinson started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, ending roughly six decades of segregation in the major leagues.

That first season he hit .297, scored 125 runs, led the National League with 29 stolen bases and won the first Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award, a single honor then covering both leagues. He did it while enduring racist abuse from fans and some opponents.

Robinson played ten major league seasons, all with Brooklyn, made six straight All-Star teams from 1949 to 1954 and won the 1955 World Series. He retired on January 5, 1957, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. He died on October 24, 1972.

On April 15, 1997, his number 42 was retired throughout Major League Baseball, the first number retired across one of the four major American sports leagues. Since 1987 both leagues' Rookie of the Year awards have carried his name.

1948: second base and second season

The year on the card was a year of change. In February 1948 Robinson signed a $12,500 contract, less than he had made that winter on a vaudeville tour and a speaking tour of the South. He reported to spring training about 30 pounds overweight after ankle surgery, and the dieting that followed left him weak at the plate early on.

After the Dodgers traded second baseman Eddie Stanky to the Boston Braves in March, Robinson moved to second base and fielded .980 there, second in the league at the position. He hit .296 with 38 doubles, 12 home runs, 85 runs batted in and 22 stolen bases, and on August 29, 1948, in a 12-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, he hit for the cycle. The Dodgers briefly reached first place in late August but finished third at 84-70.

He was no longer alone. Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, both also rookies in the Leaf set, were playing for the Cleveland Indians, who won the 1948 World Series, and the Dodgers had three other Black players. On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed the executive order ending segregation in the armed forces. The next season, with batting help from George Sisler, Robinson hit a league-leading .342 and became the first Black player to win the National League MVP award.

From penny-pack premium to seven figures

Because the card is hard to find clean, prices climb steeply with grade. In the spring of 2024 a PSA 7 that the auction catalog described as having brilliant colors, a crisp image and strong corners sold for $69,000. On March 31, 2026, another PSA 7 sold at a live auction for $93,712.

A sales tracker recorded further PSA 7 sales of $96,000 in September 2025, $94,600 in early March 2026 and $132,000 in April 2026; it lists the March 31 live-auction copy at $109,600 rather than $93,712. Another record of auction results lists $75,000 as the most recent PSA 7 price.

Higher grades jump again. As of July 2026 the highest reported price for an unsigned copy was $468,000, for a PSA 8 sold in 2022, and the same record of auction results lists $336,000 as the most recent PSA 9 price.

Signed copies are rarer still. PSA has authenticated only five signed 1948 Leaf Robinsons. One, found by a family member in a briefcase among a deceased relative's belongings, graded PSA 1 with an autograph graded PSA/DNA 8, and on July 23, 2026, it sold at auction for $1.86 million, the most ever paid for any Jackie Robinson card and for any vintage baseball card signed on the card.

What to look for

Among his cards, the 1948 Leaf holds a singular place. PSA calls it his only true rookie card, and a leading auction catalog describes it as, in the eyes of many, his single most desirable baseball card. It comes from a set that also gave Paige and Doby their first cards. The same Leaf set includes a card of Honus Wagner, then a Pirates coach, shown stuffing chewing tobacco into his mouth.

Leaf cards were printed on coarse stock that shows wear quickly, and the printing was crude, so registration problems and off coloring are common across the set. The Robinson is one of the set's more difficult cards: PSA notes it usually suffers from poor print quality and color, black print defects stand out against the light background, and the background is often a faint or dull yellow.

That is why a PSA 7 (Near Mint) is a high grade for this card. PSA's population report lists 78 copies at NM 7, 40 at NM-MT 8 and seven at Mint 9, against hundreds in the low grades. Toning, soft corners, centering and print lines are the usual reasons a copy grades lower.

Buyers should check the card number and the 1948-49 Leaf design; Robinson's other early cards, such as his 1949 and 1950 Bowman issues, are different cards from a different maker.

The numbers

1948 season (BRO)

147 G, 574 AB, 108 R, 170 H, 38 2B, 8 3B, 12 HR, 85 RBI, 22 SB, 57 BB, .296 BA, .367 OBP, .453 SLG, 117 OPS+. 15th in MVP voting.

1948 fielding

Moved to second base; .980 fielding percentage, second in the NL at the position

1947 season (BRO)

151 G, 590 AB, 125 R, 175 H, 31 2B, 5 3B, 12 HR, 48 RBI, 29 SB (led NL), .297 BA. Rookie of the Year; 5th in MVP voting.

1949 season (BRO)

156 G, 122 R, 203 H, 16 HR, 124 RBI, 37 SB (led NL), .342 BA (led NL). NL MVP, All-Star.

1945 (Kansas City Monarchs, NAL)

37 G, 50 H, 4 HR, 31 RBI, .376 BA. All-Star.

Career (incl. 1945 NAL)

11 seasons, 1,568 H, 141 HR, 765 RBI, 203 SB, .313 BA, .410 OBP, .477 SLG

Honors

Rookie of the Year 1947, NL MVP 1949, six All-Star selections (1949-1954), 1955 World Series champion, Hall of Fame 1962

Timeline

1. Jan 31, 1919

   Jack Roosevelt Robinson is born in Cairo, Georgia.

2. 1945

   Robinson plays for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League.

3. Apr 18, 1946

   Robinson makes his professional debut with the Montreal Royals.

4. Apr 15, 1947

   Robinson starts at first base for Brooklyn, breaking the major league color line.

5. 1947

   Robinson wins the first Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award.

6. Feb 1948

   Robinson signs a $12,500 contract with the Dodgers.

7. Mar 1948

   Eddie Stanky is traded to Boston and Robinson takes over second base.

8. Aug 29, 1948

   Robinson hits for the cycle in a 12-7 win over the Cardinals.

9. 1948

   Leaf's cards carry a 1948 copyright date.

10. 1949

    Research indicates the Leaf cards ship this year; Robinson wins the NL batting title and MVP award.

11. 1955

    Robinson's Dodgers win the World Series.

12. Jan 5, 1957

    Robinson retires from baseball.

13. 1962

    Robinson is elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

14. Oct 24, 1972

    Robinson dies at 53.

15. Apr 15, 1997

    Number 42 is retired throughout Major League Baseball.

16. 2024

    A PSA 7 copy sells at auction in the spring for $69,000.

17. Mar 31, 2026

    A PSA 7 copy sells at a live auction for $93,712.

18. Jul 23, 2026

    A signed copy (PSA 1, autograph 8) sells at auction for $1.86 million, a record for any Robinson card.

The world in 1948

• Apr 3, 1948

  President Truman signs the Marshall Plan.

• Apr 19, 1948

  The ABC television network begins broadcasting.

• May 14, 1948

  The United States recognizes Israel.

• Jun 24, 1948

  The Berlin Blockade begins, and the U.S. launches the Berlin Airlift.

• Jul 26, 1948

  Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the armed forces.

• Aug 16, 1948

  Babe Ruth dies.

• Oct 11, 1948

  The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves to win the World Series, 4 games to 2.

• Nov 2, 1948

  Harry Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond for the presidency.

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, 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson #79 RC is number 20 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 (6 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Leaf numbered its cards up to 168 but printed only 98, so children hunted for cards that never existed.
• As late as 1960, collectors were still trying to figure out how many cards the 1948-49 Leaf set had.
• The same set has a card of Honus Wagner stuffing chewing tobacco into his mouth, a surprise to collectors who believed his T206 card was withdrawn over an anti-tobacco stance.
• PSA has authenticated only five signed copies of this card.
• The record $1.86 million signed copy was found in a briefcase among a deceased relative's belongings.
• Robinson hit for the cycle on August 29, 1948, the season the card's write-ups describe.