A Babe Ruth rookie baseball card from 1914 is due to be auctioned off by Robert Edward Auctions on Friday and is expected to fetch millions of dollars.
In 1914, Ruth played for his hometown Baltimore Orioles, a minor league team, but was only on the team for a short time. He started his first game in Baltimore in March 1914, but financial trouble soon led to Ruth’s sale to the Boston Red Sox, with the slugger joining them in July 1914.
The now-defunct Baltimore News newspaper produced the Ruth card being auctioned and is one of ten copies of the card confirmed to exist, according to the item’s auction listing.
“We believe the Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card is the most significant baseball card ever produced. Its sheer existence is amazing. … For the Baltimore News to capture Ruth in this short window is miraculous,” the auction house wrote in the card’s listing.
The current MLB team carrying the Orioles moniker was still the St. Louis Browns in 1914, only moving to Baltimore and taking the name in 1953.
The opening bid is $2.5 million, but the auction house expects to sell it for more.
Auction house president Brian Dwyer told Fox Business, “We believe that this card will sell for upward of $10 million or more,” adding that the card stands a chance of breaking the current baseball card auction record, a $12.6 million sum paid for a 1952 Topps card of Mickey Mantle.
For members of the public interested in seeing the card, it will be displayed publicly at the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum in Baltimore from 2-4 p.m. on Wednesday.
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