Rare Babe Ruth Rookie Card Sold for $760,000
The Babe Ruth card
A rare Gimbels Department Store version of the M101-4 1916 Babe Ruth Rookie Card has surpassed its estimate by selling for $762,500 in Bonhams’ Fine Books and Manuscripts sale.
One of the of most sought-after trading cards in existence, the consignor’s grandfather – a 10-year-old Milwaukeean at the time – acquired the card over a century ago during a 1916 promotional giveaway of baseball cards featuring the top players of the day put on by Gimbels Department Store.
The card led the 195-lot sale which also included a collection of works and personal items from the life of Cormac McCarthy. The 17 lots from his second wife Annie DeLisle featured items such as signed first editions of McCarthy’s novels including an inscribed edition of Child of God (sold $24,320), a writing desk ($20,480) and travel clock ($3,840), making a total overall including early photographs of $118,000.
Other highlights included:
- a first edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) sold for $165,600, more than doubling its estimate
- a rare uncut copy of Harmonices mundi libri V. Linz: Johann Planck for Gottfried Tampach, 1619 by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) which sold for over four times its estimate at $127,500
- a first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling which sold for $70,350
