Lou Gehrig
Signed until 1941, so the supply is fixed — nothing new is being added to this market.
By what was signed
| Certified | Listed | Cheapest | Middle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA/DNA Authenticated | 3 | $1,800.00 | $9,999.99 | view |
| Certified | Listed | Cheapest | Middle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA/DNA Authenticated | 1 | $3,749.00 | — |
| Certified | Listed | Cheapest | Middle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA/DNA Authenticated | 1 | $14,999.00 | — |
What has sold
Recorded sales
| Date | What sold | Certified | Price | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-02-28 | Finest known photograph signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Multi-signed | PSA/DNA Type 1 / Auto 9 | $390,000 | auction result |
| 2017-12-10 | 1931 New York Yankees player contract also carrying club signatures Multi-signed | PSA/DNA Auto Mint 9 | $216,000 | auction result |
| 2023-02-26 | Signed 1925 Exhibits rookie | PSA Card Authentic / Auto 8 | $216,000 | auction result |
| 2023-05-13 | Signed 1925 Exhibits rookie | PSA Card Poor 1 / Auto 8 | $174,000 | auction result |
| 2025-10-26 | Signed 1933 Goudey #160 | PSA Card Poor 1 / Auto 8 | $164,700 | auction result |
| 2021-02-28 | Signed 1933 Goudey #92 | PSA Card Fair 1.5 / Auto 8 | $156,000 | auction result |
| 2026-05-17 | Signed 1934 Goudey #61 described as pop two none higher | PSA Card Good 2 / Auto 7 | $140,300 | auction result |
| 2025-02-23 | Signed 1933 Goudey #92 | PSA Card VG 3 / Auto 6 | $91,500 | auction result |
By certification level
These are 8 results this index has recorded from Heritage Auctions between 2017 and 2026, not every sale that happened. They under-represent inexpensive items, which sell constantly and are reported rarely, and they exclude private sales this index has no record of. Read them as documented evidence rather than as a complete market.
About this signature
- Status
- Signed until 1941supply is fixed
- Note
- Very scarce
- Common formats
- cut signatures, other itemsand 1 other type
- On this index
- 5 listedno sales recorded yet
What does a signed Lou Gehrig item cost?
More than any other signer on this index. The six single-signed results recorded here run from about ninety-one thousand dollars to two hundred and sixteen thousand, and every one of them is a card: 1925 Exhibits, 1933 Goudey and 1934 Goudey. Two further results carry a second signature and are kept out of the comparisons: a photograph signed with Babe Ruth and a 1931 Yankees contract, which by its nature carries the club's signatures as well as his.
Why is there no cheap Gehrig autograph?
Because he never had a retirement to sign in. He left the game in 1939 after being diagnosed with ALS and died in June 1941, aged thirty-seven. Compare Ty Cobb, who signed for thirty-three years after he stopped playing, or Jim Thorpe, whose market is built from the banquet circuit decades after his career. Their markets have a broad base of later paper, and a card signed by its own subject stands far above it. Gehrig's has no base. Every signed card is from his own era because there was no later era, which is why the pattern we describe in the piece on signed contemporary cards is not the exception here. It is the whole market.
Does the autograph grade or the card grade matter more?
Two pairs here point in different directions, so read them with care. His 1933 Goudey number 92 sold twice: a card graded Fair 1.5 with the autograph at 8 made $156,000, and a better card, VG 3, with the autograph at 6 made $91,500. The stronger signature won. But the sales were four years apart, so the calendar may be doing some of the work. The cleaner comparison is his 1925 Exhibits rookie, sold twice within three months with the autograph graded 8 both times: the example graded only Authentic on the card made $216,000 against $174,000 for one graded Poor 1. Identical signature grade, and a gap the holder does not explain.
Signatures are reproduced more often than most buyers realise, by outright forgery and also by machines and assistants signing on somebody’s behalf. Every item on this page has been examined by PSA/DNA, JSA, Beckett, SGC or CGC, and this index carries nothing else. That is a deliberate restriction, and the investigation that created the modern authentication industry is worth reading, along with what a certificate actually claims.