Sports card collectors need to know what the best football rookie cards are, so they can improve their collection, and make it one of the greatest NFL huddles ever made!
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As you might know, we’ve already looked back over the past 70-plus years to track down the top cards from the other sports:
Those two articles rank among my most popular on this site, as collectors understand what a tremendous sports card collecting tool these bookmarked articles can be! I use each of these articles myself, as I try to upgrade my sports card collection. I’ll be using this one, too, as I still need many of the best football rookie cards from Topps and Panini (and more), so that my collection can become something I’m even more proud of.
One of the reasons I make these articles is because I want to help sports card collectors who have recently gotten back into the hobby, like myself! I wanted to go back and collect the the best football rookie cards I missed out on back when I wasn’t collecting!
What I really love doing is buying old blasters and hobby boxes of older products from DACardWorld.com, hoping to pull these cards myself! But you need to know which years you should buy to track down the best football rookie cards you want to pull!
I used PSA’s card values, along with the listings on both CardboardConnection.com and DACardWorld.com to find the best football rookie cards worth owning. I also try to denote whether that person is already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame or not.
Starting All the Way Back In 1956!
I will update this article frequently, as some player’s ascend in value and some decline. The most recent seasons will have a higher number of rookies to collect because we’re still waiting to see if they will fulfill their promise. As the seasons wear on, I’ll remove the rookies that have fallen by the wayside.
This only includes flagship sets, like Topps, Prizm and Upper Deck. I won’t be referring to Topps Chrome, Finest, Fleer Ultra, Mosaic or any series like that. (Prizm became the flagship of Panini in 2012, so there are a few years when they weren’t the top set in football, despite Panini owning the license.)
Most card images provided by BuySportsCards.com.
Topps produced “Tall Boys” for this specific football season, measuring 2-1/2” by 5 inches, which makes them difficult to get raw in good grades because they don’t fit normal card-collecting boxes from the past 60 years. They’re absolutely beautiful cards, but you’ll want to buy these graded if possible.
There aren’t really any notable rookie cards from this set.
(There were no great rookie cards among the regular Topps issue, so we went with Topps Stadium Club instead.)
There aren’t really any notable rookie cards from this set.
Here’s a non-Topps card that is essential to any football card collection:
Panini got the league and player union licenses to make trading cards for the NFL in 2009. But Topps was still making football cards too, at this point. Both card manufacturers would own NFL licenses from 2009 to 2016, so we’re going to stay with Topps for our rookie card choices for a few more years.
While both Topps and Panini were still creating cards, 2012 was the first year Panini produced what would become their flagship set: Panini Prizm. But we’re sticking with Topps for this list through 2016.
Panini got the sole license to produce football cards with NFL logos and player names in 2016, which meant Topps wouldn’t have a football product for the first time since 1955. Prizm is a chromium card that feels like a Topps Chrome card. When we refer to Prizm cards, we’re only referring to base cards, like the rest of this article, but the Prizm Silver cards are more desirable, and they have the same card number.
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View blaster box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Those are the best football rookie cards in all the land! Don’t forget to check out these other articles, too:
If I missed one of the best football rookie cards, please let me know by tweeting at me @DavidGonos, or by mentioning it in one of my YouTube videos!
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