They’re the engine by which the sports card hobby runs. Rookie cards are sought by collectors, dealers and investors and buying those that have been authenticated eliminates a lot of the worry about whether that sometimes expensive card is real–and unaltered. eBay remains the go-to source to find graded rookie cards for sale. There are tens of thousands for sale on any given day.
Football is the most popular sport to watch these days but when it comes to cards, baseball is still tops–at least in terms of the number of rookie cards. Over one-third of the rookies offered are baseball (60,000+ as of this writing). Of those, 25,000 are from 2005 and up, indicating the strong interest in current player rookies and the high-end products that have fueled the process.
There are currently over 43,000 football rookie cards on eBay and while over half are from the last dozen years, there are also a lot of 1998s (hello, Peyton Manning).
Below you’ll find the 100 ‘most watched’ graded rookie cards for sale on eBay in all four major sports.
