You could make an argument that 1985 Topps baseball cards are the perfect physical representations of the hobby boom.
I mean, here you have a set that is typical 1980s Topps, with all its mushy brown card stock and thick white borders and subsets and so-so card design …
… but that’s also loaded with rookie cards that still make your mouth water if you lived through their glory years.
Of course, like most sets from that era, much of the promise of the ’85s have gone by the wayside. That doesn’t mean they’re all just fodder for the commons bins, however.
In fact, several still hold a decent bit of value, especially in graded form.
Here, then, are the most valuable 1985 Topps baseball cards, as ranked by PSA 9 values from the PSA Sports Market Report Price Guide. We’ll start at the bottom of the list and work our way up.
(Note: The following sections contain affiliate links to eBay and Amazon links for the cards being discussed.)
1985 Topps Steve Carlton (#360)
This would be the last Topps card featuring Carlton as a Phillie issued while he was actually still with Philadelphia. By the time his 1986 Topps base card — also showing him with the Phils — hit the streets, so had Lefty … he was with the San Francisco Giants in the first stop of what would become a sad and dizzying career-ending, hang-on-way-too-long tour.
Value: $10-15
1985 Topps Ryne Sandberg (#460)
This was the first Ryno Topps card issued after he had established himself as a superstar, that on the back of a breakout 1984 season that landed him the National League MVP award and the Cubs their first-ever division title. As such, there remains an aura about this pasteboard that persists through the decades.
Value: $10-15
1985 Topps Alan Trammell (#690)
Like Sandberg, Trammell enjoyed a great season in 1984, culminating with World Series MVP honors as his juggernaut Tigers team fulfilled the fate that had seemed theirs since Opening Day. The only difference was, Tram was already a star entering that ’84 campaign. He exited a household name and a budding hobby star.
Value: $10-20
1985 Topps Wade Boggs (#350)
After a breakout season in 1983 that included a gaudy .361 batting average to win his first hitting crown, Boggs “slumped” to .325 and didn’t figure in the battle waged by Yankees teammates Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield for the 1984 crown. Still, Chicken Man’s rookie cards are alreay hobby burners by that point, and even his new 1985 cards were coveted items.
Still are.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Rickey Henderson All-Star (#706)
After six inimitable seasons with Henderson at the top of their lineup, the A’s traded Rickey to the Yankees in December of 1984, setting the stage for some of his best seasons and the expansion of his Hot Dog Fan Club.
But Henderson graced the Oakland faithful with one more All-Star performance before he departed (for the first time), and Topps captured the moment in cardboard … as usual.
Consider this our 1985 Topps baseball cards team All-Star representative.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Eddie Murray (#700)
Eddie Murray probably isn’t really angry with you, peering out there from the confines of his 1985 Topps baseball card.
I mean, he’s not looking directly at you — that glare seems to be direct off to his right. Probably just eyeing the pitcher he’s going to victimize for one of the 29 home runs and/or 110 runs batted in he delivered in 1984.
Tell yourself whatever you need to get some sleep tonight.
Value: $15-20