It’s always special when a rare piece of sports history hits the auction block, and that’s happening at Heritage right now. An awesome 1917 Babe Ruth baseball card is drawing serious attention, evidenced by the current top bid already surpassing the $100,000 mark.
This is obviously interesting because it’s from the earliest days of the Great Bambino’s Hall of Fame career. The hammer isn’t set to drop until the end of the month, so it’ll be fun to follow the action in the coming days.
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Heritage’s Winter Auction Features Rare 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Ruth
The card that’s generating the excitement at Heritage is a 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Babe Ruth #147 with a blank back, graded SGC EX 5. At the time of this writing, the top bid is $110,000 ($134,200 when you factor in the buyer’s premium).
At the bottom of the product description, you can see that Heritage’s guide value/estimate is $250,000-plus. So, one can assume they expect action on this card to heat up as we continue approaching the January 30 proxy bidding deadline.
Some simple stats supplied by Heritage show this card has the attention of many. Eighteen registered bidders are competing for the item, along with nearly 200 collectors tracking the lot and nearly 1,000 page views of the card.
One thing that makes the 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Babe Ruth so interesting is the razor-thin population. This particular blank-backed example is the only one in the SGC census, with just two examples graded at this level and only one better copy known to exist.
What Makes the 1917 Babe Ruth Baseball Card Stand Out
While Ruth’s 1916 rookie card rightfully commands attention, this 1917 issue tells another intriguing story. The card has a similar typeface in the lower border, along with comparable formatting to Ruth’s rookie. With that in mind, some people think both cards came from the same photo session.
However, it’s worth noting that the E135 version has a taller height-to-width ratio and features a high-gloss front surface that was innovative for the era.
It was produced on thin cardstock, which can make it hard for a card to survive in good condition for over a century. But the above Ruth card shows minimal corner wear (it actually looks great if you look closer on Heritage’s website), which is the primary factor keeping it from climbing even higher on the grading scale.
Other Babe Ruth Treasures in Heritage’s January Sale
The 1917 E135 isn’t flying solo in this auction. Heritage has assembled an impressive collection of Ruth material for their Winter Sports Card Catalog event.
A 1916 Herpolsheimer Co. Babe Ruth Rookie #151 graded PSA Fair 1.5 headlines the rookie card offerings (highest bid at the time of this writing was $175,000). It’s one of just five PSA-certified examples known to exist.
There’s also a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #149 PSA VG+ 3.5, with the current highest bid at $11,500. The Goudey series featured Ruth on four different cards.
Why This Ruth Card Could Exceed Expectations
Heritage sold another 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy Babe Ruth #147 SGC EX 5 for $244,000 in July 2025. Knowing that, it feels like the current $110,000 bid could just be the beginning. If the July comp closed at $244K, it’d be surprising if this current example didn’t at least surpass the $200K mark.
Population matters quite a bit here, too. Whoever takes this card home will be getting one of the best surviving examples of a card that’s already incredibly rare. The blank back variation adds even more intrigue, since these were produced in much smaller quantities than those with advertising on the back.
This is all probably why Heritage set $250,000-plus as the guide value/estimate. It’ll be fun to track the bidding throughout the rest of the month. What do you think the winning bid will be?
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