Babe Ruth's Historic 1932 World Series Jersey Becomes Most Valuable Sports Collectible After $24.12 Million Auction

Mar. 15, 2025

Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series jersey sold for $24.12 million on Aug. 24, 2024.Photo:CORBIS/Corbis via Getty;Heritage Auctions

CORBIS/Corbis via Getty;Heritage Auctions

Babe Ruthjust hit another one out of the park!

A 91-year-old jersey belonging to the Yankees legend just sold at auction for a record-smashing $24.12 million, becoming what Heritage Auctions is now calling the single most valuable sports collectible in the world.

On Saturday, Aug. 24, Heritage sold Ruth’s historic “called shot” jersey — the one he woreduring game 3 of the 1932 World Serieswhen he famously gestured with his bat and hit a home run into center field at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series jersey, which sold at auction for $24.12 million.Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auctions

The $24.12 million sale price surpasses the previous record holder,a mint 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps cardthat Heritage sold at an auction in August 2022 for $12.6 million.

The sale followed a six-hour bidding war during its Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, of which the Ruth jersey was its centerpiece, per a release from the auctioneer,

Heritage’s Director of Sports, Chris Ivy, called the Ruth jersey “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction.”

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“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this incredible piece of American history, and I am proud that it will now be part of one of the finest private collections in the world,” Ivy said in the release.

As for how the jersey got into the hands of Heritage, the auctioneer noted that Ruth gifted the jersey to a golfing friend in Florida in the 1940s, before the friend’s daughter sold it for six figures to a sports auction pioneer, who later sold it to an anonymous collector. That person then consigned the jersey to auction in 2005 when it last sold for $940,000.

The Ruth jersey marks the most anyone has ever paid for a game-used jersey at auction. The previous record holder on that front, perESPN, wasMichael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals game 1 jersey, which sold for $10.1 million in 2022.

“This is essentially the Mona Lisa. It’s a very mythical moment that crosses over not only in baseball history, but American history, pop culture history,” Ivy told the outlet.

source: people.com