1933 Goudey Baseball Cards: Most Valuable (Top Picks)

The 1933 Goudey Baseball card set is one of the hobby’s most coveted treasures.

The card design is one of the most beautiful of all pre war card sets.

Colorful renderings of some of the hobby’s most popular players, the set is anchored by not one, but four Babe Ruth cards!

Plus, oh yeah, there’s the added bonus of two Lou Gehrig cards in the set, two of the hobby’s most valuable cards. 

The 1933 Goudey cards are not rare (aside from the Nap Lajoie), but are tough to find in great condition.

Sports card collectors have continued to bid up the big names in the set. 

For investment purposes, Goudey baseball cards should remain an excellent long-term investment. 

Here we explore the most valuable cards in the 1933 Goudey Baseball card set. 

1933 Goudey Baseball Card Facts

The 1933 Goudey baseball cards brought about a new spin to the burgeoning baseball card market.

There had been many tobacco and candy issues released in years prior, but the 1933 Goudey cards were the first to sell a baseball card with a piece of gum.

Issued by the Goudey Gum Company of Boston, Massachusetts, the cards were larger than any of its predecessors (2 3/8″ x 2 7/8″).

Tobacco and early gum cards usually had narrow borders and less space on the back for player details. 

1933 Goudey cards came in one cent packs, containing one baseball card and one slab of gum.

A 1933 Goudey Baseball wrapper

As shown on the pack wrapper above, Goudey also offered fans the chance to mail in 30 wrappers for photo cards, now known as the R309-1 Premiums.

Fans at the time could trade in 30 1933 Goudey wrappers for one of four Goudey Premiums, such as the R309-1 Ruth shown here

The 1933 Goudey card stock was also thicker than many of its predecessors.

From the PSA website

Where tobacco and candy cards of the past, with their thin cardstock canvases, carried a delicate feel, the gum cards introduced an intriguing mode of substance; the cards were somehow sturdier, with more heft, than those that had come before

A few other interesting points about the set

1. There are (for unknown reasons) many cards in the set that do not have the red ‘Big League Chewing Gum’ box and text on the bottom.

Courtesy Net54: Cards 97-99, 106-114, 121-129, 142, and 190-240 are all missing the “Big League Chewing Gum

1933 Goudey Paul Richards card

2. The 240 card set features multiple cards of star players; including four Babe Ruth, two Lou Gehrig, three Joe Cronin, and two Jimmy Foxx, cards among others. Some of the multiples use the same exact player photo and can be hard to distinguish from one another. 

3. The Goudey set also features cards of fifteen minor league players. One of the minor league players was Tris Speaker, who was retired from baseball at the time of the issue. But, Speaker was a part owner of the Kansas City Blues at the time, giving Goudey a reason for his inclusion. 

4. The Nap Lajoie card #106 was not initially released with the set. Collectors were not happy with the omission, forcing Goudey to print the Lajoie with the 1934 Goudey set. The trading card was sent to collectors. Some say the Lajoie might have been a ‘chase’ card, but one author states that it might have just been a simple printing mistake.

The 1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie card is the rarest card in the set.

5. The Goudey owned World Wide Gum of Quebec also issued a corresponding 94 card set in Canada, often referred to as the ‘Canadian Goudey Set’.

While the cards are identical, the backs are different and say ‘World Wide Gum’. There are back variations and some have a mix of English and French text. The cards are much scarcer than the US-issued Goudey cards.

A #80 World Wide Gum Babe Ruth back. Some back variations exist with English and French text, although this one is just English.

6. Lastly, the 1933 Goudey Ruth and Gehrig cards are among the most counterfeited cards in the hobby. We’ve created a guide to help distinguish between a real and fake Goudey card.

Our Top Picks – 1933 Goudey Baseball Cards

Best Overall Value:  Tris Speaker #89

Best Investment Potential:  Babe Ruth #181

Best Overall Design: Carl Hubbell #230

Most Underrated Card: Jimmy Foxx (29 and 54)

1933 Goudey Baseball Most Valuable Cards

We’ve narrowed down the most valuable cards in the 1933 Goudey Baseball set, sorting values from the PSA SMR Price guide, using PSA 7 (Near Mint) values. 

If you want to buy any of the cards listed here, realize that most of the valuable cards in the set (Ruth, Gehrig) will cost a small fortune in higher grades. 

You can buy commons in lower grades for about $20 per card, so outside of the big stars, putting together the set is within reason.

1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #53 

The #53 Goudey Babe Ruth card is one of four Babe Ruth cards in the set.

The production runs for the #53, #149, and #181 Ruth Goudey cards are estimated to be about 350,000 per card.

But, it tends to carry a small premium due to a slightly lower PSA graded population. 

Here are the latest auction sales of the four PSA 2 Goudey Ruth cards. While these numbers can change like the wind, there is a premium for Goudey Ruth #53.

Babe Ruth Goudey value comparison.

1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie #106

The 1933 Goudey Lajoie was not initially included in sets.

The 1933 Goudey Nap Lajoie card is quite scarce. PSA has graded only 95 copies.

The reason for the scarcity?

Goudey for some reason didn’t include the card in its production run for 1933. 

Collectors looking to finish the set were not pleased, forcing Goudey to produce the card with its 1934 production runs.

The Lajoie uses the 1934 Goudey design (see the little baseball figures in the background?).

From the PSA website:

The missing card was sent through the mail to the collectors who contacted the Goudey company. Many of the examples were mailed with a paper clip affixed to it, leaving impressions on the surface of the card. As a result, you will encounter some examples that exhibit spider wrinkles along the front or back of the card. That said, and considering the overall rarity of the card, there are some highgrade examples in the marketplace. This is best explained by the fact that the card was never subject to insertion into packs, avoiding some of the traditional handling.

Today, the Goudey Lajoie card continues to break records at auction. Given its low scarcity, it is one of the holy grails for collectors.

The 1933 Goudey Lajoie is now thought of alongside other prized cards, like the T206 Honus Wagner, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, and the 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card. 

1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #149

The Goudey #149 Ruth is identical to the #53 Ruth, aside for the fact that it has a red background. 

The backs of the #53 and #149 George Herman (Babe) Ruth cards are also identical (aside from the different number at the top of the card).

Goudey #149 Red Ruth tends to sell in a fairly close price range with #53 and has roughly the same exact PSA graded population – both with roughly 1100 copies.

1933 Goudey Ruth #144

Known in the hobby as the ‘full body’ Ruth Goudey, the #144 card was double printed by the company.

The print runs for the 1933 Goudey #144 Ruth are estimated to be around 680,000 in total, well above Ruth’s other Goudey cards. 

The PSA Population report shows this is the case with the #144 graded population well above the other three.

Ruth Goudey #	PSA Population
53	1092
144	1528
149	1097
181	1226

Despite its wider availability, the #144 Goudey is in my opinion, the most visually appealing card in the set. 

1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #181

An authentic #181 Goudey Ruth

The fourth Goudey Ruth card (#181) features Ruth in a serious pose, while holding his bat, likely getting ready to enter the batter’s box.  

I do love the #144 Ruth, but this is my second favorite Goudey Ruth card.

The contrast of the green background and Ruth’s detailed likeness makes for a gorgeous baseball card.  

PSA has graded over 1200 copies of the #181 Ruth, slightly above the graded pop of the #53 and #149, but below the ~1500 PSA graded copies of Ruth #144.

1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92 and #160

An authentic 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #160 

There are two cards of New York Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig in the 1933 Goudey set, #160 and #92. 

The two cards, however, are nearly identical. You need to look closely, but there are subtle differences between the two.   

Goudey Gehrig #92 tends to have whiter borders and a darker blue background as compared to Goudey Gehrig #160.  

An authentic 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92

Goudey Gehrig #92 (PSA graded pop of ~1500) is much harder to find than Gehrig #160 (PSA graded pop of ~850).

On average the harder to find #160 Gehrig does carry a slight premium.

1933 Goudey Benny Bengough #1

Some might be familiar with Bengough for his time spent with the Yankees in the 1920s. A defensive specialist, but mostly backup catcher, Bengough won three world series with the infamous ‘Murderer’s Row’ of New York. 

His 1933 Goudey card lands on the most valuable baseball card list, not exactly because of scarcity, but for its position at #1 in the set. The first cards in older issued baseball card sets are notorious for getting abused condition-wise. 

1933 Goudey Jimmy Foxx #29, #154

1933 Goudey Jimmy Foxx #29

Jimmy Foxx might be one of the most underrated HOF baseball players.

Among some of Jimmie’s many achievements with the Athletics and Red Sox:

2X WS champ, 9 time All Star, 3x A.L MVP, Triple Crown in 1933. 

Goudey spelled Foxx’s first name as ‘Jimmy’ whereas the more common spelling was “Jimmie”. But, Foxx was known to sign autographs under both names, so this is technically not an error card.

Like Gehrig, Foxx has two cards in the set, and the cards are identical. The #159 card has darker printing, noticeable in the ground area where the greens and browns are a darker color.

The #154 Foxx card is harder to find and does carry a slight premium.

1933 Goudey Jimmy Foxx #154

1933 Goudey Rogers Hornsby #119, #188

1933 Goudey Rogers Hornsby #119

In a bit of a rarity throughout the set, Goudey produced two cards of the same player, yet with different images. 

The Rogers Hornsby #119 Goudey card shows him in one of the few horizontal cards in the set. 

The #188 Hornsby card shows the HOF player in the dugout, as a player manager at the time.

1933 Goudey Rogers Hornsby #188

1933 Goudey Dazzy Vance #2

One of the ‘short prints’ in the set, the 1933 Goudey Dazzy Vance card has less than 500 graded copies. Vance, a HOF pitcher, was the NL strikeout leader in seven consecutive seasons. 

1933 Goudey Mel Ott #127, #207

1933 Goudey Mel Ott #127

Like Hornsby, Ott has two cards, with different images. Notably, Ott has two cards that are missing the bottom red border with “Big League Chewing Gum”.

I really like the two Ott cards. I think the full image without the red border makes for a beautiful card. Both have roughly the same graded population.

1933 Goudey Mel Ott #207

1933 Goudey Dizzy Dean #223

I love this Dizzy Dean card from the Goudey set.

It comes from sheet 9 in the set which is one of the ones with the lowest production runs. According to Jason at SABR cards, 10-20% scarcer than other sheets.

We can see this from the PSA pop reports which show that the Dean Goudey card has less than 700 graded copies. 

1933 Goudey Tris Speaker #89

Speaker was retired when this card was produced, but he was a part owner of the Kansas City Blues.

Thus, this card was mostly a tribute card for Speaker. 

Still a great card and somewhat affordable in lower grades.  

Speaker tends to be a bit overlooked compared to some of the bigger names of the era. In my opinion, it is the best overall value in the Goudey set.

A lower grade Goudey Speaker Speaker can often be found for under $500.

1933 Goudey Carl Hubbell #230, #234

The 1933 Goudey Carl Hubbell is our choice for best overall design in the 1933 Goudey set.

One of the few horizontal cards in the set, the Hubbell card #230 is my favorite for overall design. 

Also it’s on the sheet which had a lower production run. This makes it a great card to pick up if you can find an affordable copy.

Investment Potential Of The 1933 Goudey Set

The 1933 Goudey Baseball card set is a landmark set, right up there with the T206 ‘White Borders’, 1914/15 Cracker Jack and 1952 Topps sets. 

Thus, my opinion is that the 1933 Goudey Baseball set is one of the best investments in the hobby.

It’s the perfect combination of fairly low supply (population), beautiful design, historical significance (first cards in a pack issued with gum) and massive star power, as evidenced by the four Babe Ruth and two Lou Gehrig cards.

Of course completing the entire 240 card set is probably out of budget for the 99% of collectors reading this article. 

However, assembling low grade versions of some of the most valuable cards in the set is still, in my mind, a very smart long term investment strategy. 

Overall Investment Rating: 9 out of 10

1933 Goudey Baseball Card Checklist

1 Benny Bengough RC2 Dazzy Vance RC3 Hughie Critz RC4 Heinie Schuble RC5 Babe Herman RC6 Jimmie Dykes RC Error6 Jimmie Dykes RC Corrected7 Ted Lyons RC8 Roy Johnson RC9 Dave Harris RC10 Glenn Myatt RC11 Billy Rogell RC12 George Pipgras RC13 Lafayette Thompson RC14 Henry Johnson RC15 Vic Sorrell RC16 George Blaeholder RC17 Watty Clark RC18 Muddy Ruel RC19 Bill Dickey RC20 Bill Terry RC21 Phil Collins RC22 Pie Traynor RC23 Kiki Cuyler RC24 Horace Ford RC25 Paul Waner RC26 Bill Cissell RC27 Sarge Connally RC28 Dick Bartell RC29 Jimmie Foxx RC30 Shanty Hogan RC31 Tony Lazzeri RC32 Bud Clancy RC33 Red Kress RC34 Bob O’Farrell RC35 Al Simmons RC36 Tommy Thevenow RC37 Jimmie Wilson RC38 Fred Brickell RC39 Mark Koenig RC40 Taylor Douthit RC41 Gus Mancuso RC42 Eddie Collins RC43 Lew Fonseca RC44 Jim Bottomley RC45 Larry Benton RC46 Ethan Allen RC47 Heinie Manush RC48 Marty McManus RC49 Frankie Frisch RC50 Ed Brandt RC51 Charlie Grimm RC52 Andy Cohen RC53 Babe Ruth RC54 Ray Kremer RC55 Pat Malone RC56 Red Ruffing RC57 Earl Clark RC58 Lefty O’Doul RC59 Bing Miller RC60 Waite Hoyt RC61 Max Bishop RC62 Pepper Martin RC63 Joe Cronin RC64 Burleigh Grimes RC65 Milton Gaston RC66 George Grantham RC67 Guy Bush RC68 Hod Lisenbee RC69 Randy Moore RC70 Pete Scott RC71 Bobby Burke RC72 Ownie Carroll RC73 Jesse Haines RC74 Eppa Rixey RC75 Willie Kamm RC76 Mickey Cochrane RC77 Adam Comorosky RC78 Jack Quinn RC79 Red Faber RC80 Clyde Manion RC81 Sam Jones RC82 Dib Williams RC83 Pete Jablonski RC84 Glenn Spencer RC85 Heinie Sand RC86 Phil Todt RC87 Frank O’Rourke RC88 Russell Rollings RC89 Tris Speaker90 Jess Petty RC91 Tom Zachary RC92 Lou Gehrig RC93 John Welch RC94 Bill Walker RC95 Alvin Crowder RC96 Willis Hudlin RC97 Joe Morrisey RC98 Wally Berger RC99 Tony Cuccinello RC100 George Uhle RC101 Richard Coffman RC102 Travis Jackson RC103 Earle Combs RC104 Fred Marberry RC105 Bernie Friberg RC106 Nap Lajoie SP107 Heinie Manush RC108 Joe Kuhel RC109 Joe Cronin RC110 Goose Goslin RC111 Monte Weaver RC112 Fred Schulte RC113 Ossie Bluege RC114 Luke Sewell RC115 Cliff Heathcote RC116 Eddie Morgan RC117 Rabbit Maranville RC118 Val Picinich RC119 Rogers Hornsby RC120 Carl Reynolds RC121 Lefty Stewart RC122 Alvin Crowder RC123 Jack Russell RC124 Earl Whitehill RC125 Bill Terry RC126 Jo-Jo Moore RC127 Mel Ott RC128 Chuck Klein RC129 Hal Schumacher RC130 Freddie Fitzsimmons RC131 Fred Frankhouse RC132 Jim Elliott RC133 Fred Lindstrom RC134 Sam Rice RC135 Woody English RC136 Flint Rhem RC137 Red Lucas RC138 Herb Pennock RC139 Ben Cantwell RC140 Bump Hadley RC141 Ray Benge RC142 Paul Richards RC143 Glenn Wright RC144 Babe Ruth RC145 Rube Walberg RC146 Lefty Stewart RC147 Leo Durocher RC148 Eddie Farrell RC149 Babe Ruth RC150 Ray Kolp RC151 Jake Flowers RC152 Zack Taylor RC153 Buddy Myer RC154 Jimmie Foxx RC155 Joe Judge RC156 Danny Macfayden RC157 Sammy Byrd RC158 Moe Berg RC159 Ossie Bluege RC160 Lou Gehrig RC161 Al Spohrer RC162 Leo Magnum RC163 Luke Sewell RC164 Lloyd Waner RC165 Joe Sewell RC166 Sam West RC167 Jack Russell RC168 Goose Goslin RC169 Tommy Thomas RC170 Harry McGurdy RC171 Charlie Jamieson RC172 Pinky Hargrave RC173 Roscoe Holm RC174 Curly Ogden RC175 Dan Howley MG RC176 John Ogden RC177 Walter French RC178 Jackie Warner RC179 Fred Leach RC180 Eddie Moore RC181 Babe Ruth RC182 Andy High RC183 Rube Walberg RC184 Charlie Berry RC185 Bob Smith RC186 Johnny Schulte RC187 Heinie Manush RC188 Rogers Hornsby RC189 Joe Cronin RC190 Fred Schulte RC191 Ben Chapman RC192 Walter Brown RC193 Lyn Lary RC194 Earl Averill RC195 Evar Swanson RC196 Roy Mahaffey RC197 Rick Ferrell RC198 Jack Burns RC199 Tommy Bridges RC200 Bill Hallahan RC201 Ernie Orsatti RC202 Gabby Hartnett RC203 Lon Warneke RC204 Riggs Stephenson RC205 Heinie Manush RC206 Gus Suhr RC207 Mel Ott RC208 Bernie James RC209 Dolf Luque RC210 Virgil Davis RC211 Hack Wilson RC212 Billy Urbanski RC213 Sparky Adams RC214 Buddy Kerr RC215 Russ Van Atta RC216 Vernon Gomez RC217 Frankie Crosetti RC218 Wes Ferrell RC219 Mule Haas RC220 Lefty Grove RC221 Dale Alexander RC222 Charlie Gehringer RC223 Dizzy Dean RC224 Frank Demaree RC225 Billy Jurges RC226 Charlie Root RC227 Billy Herman RC228 Tony Piet RC229 Arky Vaughan RC230 Carl Hubbell RC231 Jo-Jo Moore RC232 Lefty O’Doul RC233 Johnny Vergez RC234 Carl Hubbell RC235 Freddie Fitzsimmons RC236 George Davis RC237 Gus Mancuso RC238 Hughie Critz RC239 Leroy Parmalee RC240 Hal Schumacher RC