Welcome to The Athletic Collectibles Staff’s Sports Card of the Week! Here we highlight a notable, interesting, or just plain fun sports card. With the NFL season kicking off this week, we go back to the early ‘80s and spotlight one of the most cherished football cards of the era.
The 1981 Topps Football set contains 528 cards and includes one of the most significant football cards of the decade — Joe Montana’s rookie card. Key Hall of Famers in the set include Terry Bradshaw and Walter Payton, as well as rookie cards of Art Monk, Dan Hampton, and Kellen Winslow. Although Montana’s rookie season was in 1979, his first NFLPA-licensed card wasn’t issued until 1981, his first full season as the San Francisco 49ers’ starting quarterback.
Montana’s 1981 Topps #216 rookie card showcases a classic action shot of him throwing a pass, framed by a white border with colorful banners along the bottom highlighting his team and name. I’m particularly fond of the Topps logo in the top right corner and how the T and S curve around the image, giving it a nostalgic flair that reflects sports card designs of the early ‘80s. Note that the card doesn’t include the 49ers or NFL logos anywhere on it because Topps only had the NFLPA license, allowing them to produce individual player cards, but not the NFL license, which belonged to Fleer at the time (allowing Fleer to make NFL team cards that didn’t feature individual players).
Why it matters
Before Tom Brady’s Super Bowl dominance, Montana was widely considered the GOAT of NFL quarterbacks because of his pinpoint accuracy, composure, and winning legacy. Leading the 49ers to four Super Bowl titles in the 1980s, Montana earned three Super Bowl MVPs and committed zero turnovers in any of those championship games. No wonder they called him “Joe Cool” — he was just that smooth under pressure.
Although Montana’s 1981 Topps rookie card was released over 40 years ago, his legendary status as one of the best quarterbacks of all time continues to keep it in high demand. Its rarity in top condition makes PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) 10 “Gem Mint” graded copies one of the holy grails of classic football cards.
PSA graded population and current market value
Of the nearly 35,000 examples of Montana’s 1981 Topps rookie card graded by PSA, only 115 have received a Gem Mint 10 grade. That’s a gem rate of less than one percent, making PSA 10s exceptionally rare and highly valued by collectors. A specific card’s ‘gem rate’ is the percentage of cards submitted for grading to achieve the top grade, with lower rates signifying a greater rarity, often due to print imperfections, and higher value for Gem Mint graded examples.
Its popularity compared to his other cards is evident in the number of examples graded by PSA, where it tops the list, with the second most PSA graded Montana card trailing by over 25,000. The most common grade for his rookie card is PSA 8 (9,813 copies) and currently sells on eBay for around #350-$400 (ungraded examples of the card sell for around $100). With a population of nearly 2,200, PSA 9s are currently valued at over $2,000, up more than 30 percent over the last 12 months according to card sales database CardLadder.
Since PSA 10 examples are so scarce, there have been roughly 10 recorded online sales per year, with recent prices in the $75,000-$80,000 range. In October 2023, it was selling for around $40,000. As of this writing, there’s only one PSA 10 1981 Topps Joe Montana rookie card available on eBay for purchase.
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(Card images: eBay)