1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig #61

Goudey's 1934 baseball set is often nicknamed the “Lou Gehrig set”, and for good reason. As Sports Illustrated's collectibles desk notes, Goudey built that year's marketing around Gehrig rather than Babe Ruth — who does not appear in the set at all. Most fronts carry a blue strip at the bottom with a small Gehrig portrait and the legend “Lou Gehrig says…”, and the backs carry text attributed to him. Gehrig is also the only player with two cards in the set, #37 and #61.

#61 versus #37

PSA's CardFacts calls the two the most popular Gehrig cards in the hobby. Card #61 shows Gehrig from the waist up with his bat; #37 is the other pose, which PSA describes as one of the most attractive cards in the hobby and more difficult to find than #61. On #61 the back invites young fans to join Goudey's Knot Hole League of America and to write to Gehrig with questions about the game, according to Robert Edward Auctions' lot notes.

The 1934 Goudey set

The set runs to 96 cards measuring 2-3/8" by 2-7/8", produced by the Boston confectioner Goudey Gum Company. PSA notes that most high-numbered cards swap Gehrig's blue strip for a red strip featuring Chuck Klein, and that the #73–96 series — and to a lesser degree #49–72 — are much harder to find. Card #61 therefore sits in the moderately tougher middle series. Other key cards include Jimmie Foxx at #1 and Hank Greenberg's rookie card at #62.

The timing matters to collectors: 1934 was Gehrig's Triple Crown season, in which he led the American League with a .363 average and 49 home runs. He was in the middle of his 2,130-consecutive-game streak, which ended in May 1939 after his ALS diagnosis; he was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election in December 1939 and died in 1941.

PSA population snapshot

PSA's report shows no #61 Gehrig at GEM-MT 10. At the PSA 8 level the card is scarce but not unique: 35 examples, with just five above them (four 9s and a single 8.5). When REA sold a PSA 8 in 2022, its listing gave the same “five higher” figure out of 817 examples then graded; the total has since grown, but not at the top. Sports Illustrated, counting PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC together, put the overall graded population at 1,362 in November 2025.

Notable public sales

The spread between those rows — from about $2,000 for an Authentic (no numerical grade) slab to six figures for an 8 or 8.5 — is the whole story of condition-driven pricing in prewar cards. REA's description of its PSA 8 lists what the grade rewarded: four strong corners, bright colors, a clean surface and outstanding centering.