The Just Collect Blog

Autographed 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth From Uncle Jimmy Collection At Auction

Written by Monte Jennings | Feb 19, 2021 12:27:09 AM

Imagine having a rare autographed baseball card from Babe Ruth in your attic; that's stuff dreams are made of for you and I.  When a WWII Veteran passed away at the age of 97 back in March, that's exactly what the family of James "Uncle Jimmy" Micioni stumbled upon.  You can now bid on (or drool over) that very 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth signed card.

Back in March we told you a story about James Micioni, a WWII veteran that was HUGE into card collecting.  When "Uncle Jimmy" left us at the age of 97, he also left a massive collection to his nieces and nephews.  What was in Jimmy's attic?  A collection that would leave the Baseball Hall of Fame curators speechless. Now one of those INCREDIBLE cards is at auction.

This blog is sponsored by JUST COLLECT where we specialize in buying vintage cards, autographs, and collections. If you have any Babe Ruth cards, we'd be interested in buying!  We also have THESE cards are on our BUY LIST if you're interested in selling, too.

1933 Goudey Babe Ruth AUTOGRAPHED

  • 1933 Goudey #149
  • Card graded by PSA with a 4 (out of 10)
  • Autograph graded an 8 (out of 10)

How rare is this card?  Only FOUR copies are known to exist that have The Bambino's signature on it.  Of those four copies, none are graded higher than Uncle Jimmy's!  

Why is a card like this so rare? The Goudey cards (that you can read more about here) are now 88 years old.   Babe Ruth passed away 73 years ago.  For a collector to hold onto or pass down a signed Babe Ruth card like this after all of those years are slim. Kids didn't usually take care of their cards back in the 30's (or 40's ...50's...60's...)  Look at how bold that Babe signature is - it's almost as if Ruth signed this card today rather than almost a century ago!

THE AUCTION

CURRNENT BID PRICE

  • $435,000

👀

This is the current high bid as this blog is published.  There are still three days left for the bidding to increase that price, too!  The estimate is set at $350,000 to $600,000!

If you can't bid on the card (who has a half million dollars laying around?) at least check out the card and see history before this is locked away in someone's vault for years to come.

UNCLE JIMMY'S OTHER BABE RUTH CARDS

If you read the story we published last August, you know that Uncle Jimmy had more than one autographed Babe Ruth card!  This card #149 is the final card to become available for purchase at the auction house.  Jimmy had SIX ... SIX signed Babe Ruth Goudey cards.  

When we told you earlier that only four cards exist for card # 149 - Uncle Jimmy owned two of them.

The remainder of Uncle Jimmy's collection has been sold or divvied up.  The Babe Ruth you can bid on now is the LAST of Uncle Jimmy's historic collection.  To read all of what Jimmy kept in his attic, read his story HERE.

Do you have a cool story about a card passed down to you?  Even if you aren't interested in selling, we're always down to hear a good story about cards :) 

Plenty of ways to reach out to us: