1948 Leaf Joe DiMaggio #1

Color comes back after the war

The Leaf Gum Company of Chicago built its first major baseball issue around bold color. Each card set a player portrait against a solid or two-tone background, with the name in a colored box below, and measured about 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches. Collectors got one card in each 5-cent pack. One leading auction firm calls it the first major color release after World War II, arriving once wartime printing restrictions had lifted.

The backs carried a short biography and an ad for All-Star Baseball Gum, plus one of three premium offers. Ten wrappers turned in to a store got a 5 1/2 by 7 1/2 inch black-and-white portrait of one of eight legends, among them Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Five wrappers and 10 cents mailed to Leaf got a 12 by 6 inch team pennant. A third offer promoted an album that would hold 168 cards.

That album was part of a puzzle. The set has only 98 cards, but they are numbered as high as 168, and Leaf was the first major issue to use skip-numbering this way. Some hobby writers suspect it was meant to keep children buying packs in search of numbers that did not exist; others think Leaf planned further series that were never finished. Half of the 98 cards, 49 in all, were short-printed, and the prevailing theory is that the set came out in two series with the first far more widely distributed.

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

The Yankee Clipper at 33

Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California, the eighth of nine children of Italian immigrants. His father was a fisherman, as generations of DiMaggios before him had been. His brother Vince, already playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, talked his manager into letting Joe fill in at shortstop at the end of the 1932 season. In 1933, his first full year, DiMaggio hit safely in 61 straight games, a league record.

The Yankees bought his contract while letting the Seals keep him for 1935, when he hit .398 with 34 home runs and 154 RBI. Sources differ on the cash part of the deal: one says $25,000 plus five players, another $50,000 plus five players. He debuted in New York on May 3, 1936, and played all 13 of his major league seasons for the Yankees, making the All-Star team every one of them.

By the time the Leaf card appeared he had already won MVP awards in 1939, 1941 and 1947 and set the record that still defines him: a 56-game hitting streak from May 15 to July 16, 1941. He missed 1943 through 1945 to military service. In 1948 he led the American League with 39 home runs and the majors with 155 RBI while batting .320 in 153 games, and he finished second in the MVP voting. The Yankees went 94-60 and finished third.

On February 7, 1949, he signed a contract worth $100,000, and he is described as the first baseball player to pass that mark in earnings. He played only 76 games that season but hit .346. He retired after 1951 with 2,214 hits, 361 home runs, 1,537 RBI and a .325 average, nine World Series titles, and just 369 strikeouts. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955 on 223 of 251 ballots and died in Hollywood, Florida, on March 8, 1999.

The lead-off card

DiMaggio is card No. 1, the second time he led off a major set of the 1940s after the 1940 Play Ball issue. The set around him is loaded: rookies of Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, Satchel Paige, Warren Spahn, Larry Doby and Ralph Kiner, a tribute to Babe Ruth, who died on August 16, 1948, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, and even a card of Honus Wagner, then a Pirates coach. Joe's brother Dom appears on card #75, praised on the back as 'sure-death on fly balls.'

There is no card #2, so the DiMaggio sat directly on top of Ruth in a numbered stack. That position cost it. Cards at the top of a pile took the rubber bands, the handling and the knocks, and PSA notes the DiMaggio was roughed up more than other cards in the set and is rarely found well centered. One auction catalog adds the fragile Leaf stock and frequent gum staining to the list of problems.

The same catalog calls this DiMaggio's only postwar bubble-gum card issued during his playing days, noting he did not allow cards of himself to be printed by Topps or Bowman. That makes the Leaf the one pack card made while he was still playing in the postwar years, the DiMaggio of the 1947 and 1949 championship teams.

What an NM 7 means here

PSA's census for the card, as published in 2026, lists 49 copies at NM 7 with 20 graded higher: 13 at NM-MT 8, one at NM-MT+ 8.5 and a single MINT 9. No copy has reached GEM-MT 10. About 1,600 copies have been graded in all, and only 69 of them reach NM 7 or better.

Two NM 7 copies sold at auction in 2025, for $10,200 and $10,500. The catalog descriptions show what separates them from the pack: four strong corners, good centering and almost no gum staining. One of them also showed how Leaf's color drifts from card to card; its usual darker green background came out with a yellowish hue, a variation the catalog calls normal for the set.

The highest public sale for the card is the lone PSA 8.5, described as the only copy at that grade with one higher, which sold at auction in Dallas on November 16, 2017, for $43,200. Lower grades trade far more often: PSA's own auction record shows PSA 6 copies between about $4,000 and $5,600 in 2023-2024, and low-grade copies from about $900 to a few thousand dollars.

1948: Truman, television and the Babe's farewell

The cards landed in a country between a war and a cold war. In 1948 the Berlin Blockade began and the U.S. launched the Berlin Airlift, the U.S. recognized Israel, NASCAR was founded in Daytona Beach and the ABC television network began broadcasting. Harry Truman upset Thomas Dewey in November.

In baseball, Babe Ruth died on August 16, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves for the World Series title. Leaf answered the moment with a #3 Ruth tribute card right behind DiMaggio's #1, putting the Yankees' past and present in back-to-back slots.

The numbers

1948 season

153 G, 594 AB, 110 R, 190 H, 26 2B, 11 3B, 39 HR (led AL), 155 RBI (led MLB), .320 BA, .396 OBP, .598 SLG, 355 TB (led AL). All-Star; 2nd in MVP voting.

1949 season

76 G, 272 AB, 94 H, 14 HR, 67 RBI, .346 BA, .459 OBP. All-Star.

1947 season

141 G, 168 H, 20 HR, 97 RBI, .315 BA. AL MVP.

1941 season

139 G, 193 H, 30 HR, 125 RBI (led MLB), .357 BA. AL MVP; 56-game hitting streak.

1939 season

120 G, 176 H, 30 HR, 126 RBI, .381 BA (led AL). AL MVP.

Career (1936-1951)

13 seasons, 1,736 G, 2,214 H, 361 HR, 1,537 RBI, .325 BA, .398 OBP, .579 SLG, 369 SO

Honors

13 All-Star selections, 3 MVP awards, 9 World Series titles

Hall of Fame

Elected 1955 on 223 of 251 ballots

Timeline

1. Nov 25, 1914

   Joe DiMaggio is born in Martinez, California.

2. Oct 1, 1932

   DiMaggio makes his professional debut with the San Francisco Seals.

3. 1933

   DiMaggio hits in 61 straight games for the Seals, a Pacific Coast League record.

4. May 3, 1936

   DiMaggio debuts for the Yankees.

5. Jul 16, 1941

   DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak reaches its final game.

6. 1948

   DiMaggio leads the AL with 39 home runs and the majors with 155 RBI.

7. Aug 16, 1948

   Babe Ruth dies; Leaf includes a #3 Ruth tribute card behind DiMaggio's #1.

8. 1949

   Leaf's cards reach packs, according to recent research; backs carry 1948 or 1949 copyright dates.

9. Feb 7, 1949

   DiMaggio signs a contract worth $100,000.

10. Sep 30, 1951

    DiMaggio plays his final major league game.

11. 1955

    DiMaggio is elected to the Hall of Fame.

12. Mar 8, 1999

    DiMaggio dies in Hollywood, Florida, at 84.

13. Nov 16, 2017

    The lone PSA 8.5 copy sells at auction in Dallas for $43,200.

14. 2025

    Two PSA NM 7 copies sell at auction for $10,200 and $10,500.

The world in 1948

• Feb 21, 1948

  NASCAR is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

• Apr 19, 1948

  The ABC television network begins broadcasting.

• May 14, 1948

  The United States recognizes Israel.

• Jun 24, 1948

  The Berlin Blockade begins; the Berlin Airlift follows two days later.

• 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.

• Dec 10, 1948

  The United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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 price-guide value is an editorial estimate, not a transaction and not an asking price. Guides lag the market and smooth over grade and condition. It is neither a floor nor a ceiling: a sale can land above or below it, and it should be checked against a realized sale before anything rests on it.

By reference price, 1948 Leaf Joe DiMaggio #1 is number 66 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 (24 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• There is no card #2 in the Leaf set, so the DiMaggio #1 sat directly on top of the #3 Babe Ruth tribute.
• Leaf printed only 98 cards but numbered them as high as 168, and backs advertised an album to hold 168.
• The Leaf set includes a card of Honus Wagner, the man whose objection to tobacco cards created the famous T206 rarity.
• Joe's brother Dom has his own card in the set, #75, praised on the back as 'sure-death on fly balls.'
• DiMaggio struck out only 369 times in 13 seasons.
• Only one copy of the card has been graded PSA MINT 9, and none has reached a 10.
• In 1949, the year the cards likely shipped, DiMaggio signed a contract worth $100,000.