A 1914 Babe Ruth "pre-rookie" card has been valued at $6 million, making it the most expensive sports trading card of all time.
What's next: The privately-owned card will be partially sold on Collectable, a fractional investing platform where users can buy shares of sports memorabilia.
- This card depicts a 19-year-old Ruth, then a pitcher with the minor league Baltimore Orioles before the Red Sox bought his contract on July 4, 1914. He made his MLB debut a week later.
- Collectable will offer 20,000 shares at $3 each, with the total offering equaling 1% of the card's equity. Once that IPO is complete (i.e. once all shares are sold), this will officially be the most valuable card ever.
The big picture: The trading card boom that exploded early in the pandemic and evolved with the influx of NFTs has only gotten bigger.
- When we ran this similar story in March, seven of the 10 most expensive cards ever had been sold in the previous eight months.
- Since then, four more cards have entered the top 10, including three in the past two weeks.
Final numbers: For the first time ever, the 10 most valuable trading cards of all time are each worth over $3 million.