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
1985 Topps Pete Rose Record Breaker (#6)
Pete Rose set his share of records over the course of his 123-year major league career, and he thus garnered his share of Record Breaker baseball cards.
Here in the 1985 Topps set, Charlie Hustle was celebrating his newly-christened mark as the all-time leader for singles, en route to surpassing Ty Cobb as the all-time Hit King late in the 1985 season.
Not surprisingly, just about every Rose card was a hit back in those days, including this one. Not much has changed on that front.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Pete Rose Manager (#547)
Yes, Pete Rose is a pariah.
Yes, he bet on baseball.
No, it doesn’t look like he’ll get into the Hall of Fame anytime soon.
But the fact remains that Charlie Hustle was one of the most iconic — and best — players in the game from his debut in 1963 right up until the bitter end.
And in 1985, he broke Ty Cobb‘s career base hit record.
Rose has a few cards in the ’85 Topps set, but this manager issue tends to bring a bit more than the others in graded condition.
Value: $15-20
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1985 Topps Pete Rose (#600)
If there was a king of 1985 Topps baseball cards, it was probably the Hit King himself, as evidenced by this third entry in a row here on our list. Technically, this is Rose’s base card in the set, as it lists his 1B-MGR designation as a nod to his ongoing pursuit of Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record.
This was probably the plum of the Rose run once upon a time, but it’s just another part of the Charlie Hustle lineup these days.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Bret Saberhagen Rookie Card (#23)
I was in the seventh grade the first time I pulled a Bret Saberhagen rookie card from a wax pack of 1985 Topps baseball cards. My first impression — likely — was that he had a strange name I’d never heard or seen before.
I’m sure I flipped the card over on that spring day and, seeing his scant major league record, surmised that this was a rookie card. Into the RC pile it went, for later perusal.
When I came back to that Sabes rookie later in the year, I was stoked to have found it because he had turned into a phenom while I slept and frittered away my balmy, carefree days.
And it also made me feel sort of uneasy because Saberhagen looked like the pack of senior boys who hung out in, yes, The Senior Hallway of our combined junior/senior high school. It was always a bad day when you inadvertently wandered into that den of iniquity while pondering an algebra problem or the exotic configuration of Mary Sue Parsons’ new braid.
The hobby at large apparently harbored no such apprehensions, though, and Saberhagen still holds a vaunted place in 1980s cardboard lore.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Darryl Strawberry (#570)
After a rookie season for the ages in 1983, Strawberry sort of got lost in the glare of Dwight Gooden’s 1984 rookie season for the multiverse-eternity. But Darryl was an All-Star for the first time in ’84, enough to keep his rookie cards perking along, and to make his new issues exquisite pulls any time you were so honored.
A Mets World Series title in 1986, multiple MVP-caliber, and personal turmoil, frailties, and triumphs followed. It was all enough to take the shine of Strawberry’s Hall of Fame credentials, but also enough to keep him on the “love him forever” list for many hobbyists.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Darryl Strawberry #1 Pick (#278)
Topps experimented quite a bit with their base sets in the 1980s, always looking for another angle to include MORE of super popular players and thus entice more collector dollars to fall in their direction.
In 1985, those machinations manifested most prominently in the Team USA Olympic cards (see our overall winner below), but also in a run of former number-one-overall draft picks.
Strawberry held that honor in 1980, and it netted him — and collectors — another 1985 Topps card … one that remains pretty popular today.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps Robin Yount (#340)
When this card was issued, Yount was a couple of years removed from his breakout 1982 campaign that yielded a pennant for the Milwaukee Brewers and an American League MVP for their shorstop. He was also four years shy of his second MVP award, which he won as a centerfielder in 1989.
In between, Yount continued to build his baseball resume, which would ultimate include 3000+ hits and a plaque in Cooperstown, not to mention two decades of hobby favorites.
Value: $15-20
1985 Topps George Brett (#100)
Brett and Yount were in lock step for much of their careers as the darlings of the midwest piled up hit after hit and accolade after accolade. Brett’s tended to be of the more visible and dramatic variety, including a gaudy .390 batting average in 1980, the infamous Pine Tar Home Run in 1983, and a World Series title with the Royals in October of 1985.
This card is a classic for all those reasons and stands as a continued symbol of that magical summer in Kansas City.
Value: $20-25
1985 Topps Tony Gwynn (#660)
Like Ryne Sandberg, Gwynn entered 1984 as relative unknown to most baseball fans and exited as one of the biggest names in the game. In Mr. Padre’s case, that fame came on the back of an amazing .351 batting average that captured the N.L. crown and helped San Diego capture their first division title and National League pennant.
No surprise this 1985 Topps “shades” shot was a hot pull right out of the pack, and all those hits and batting titles that followed have kept all of Gwynn’s cards nice and warm in the decades that followed.
Value: $20-25
1985 Topps Orel Hershiser Rookie Card (#493)
The summer of 1985 was a magical time in the hobby and the game, especially if you liked breakout pitchers.
There was Gooden, of course, who we already knew about from his 1984 ROY performance but who broke out even more in ’85.
And then there was Bret Saberhagen, who looked like your friendly neighborhood farm boy and who seemed determined to win every game he pitched for the Kansas City Royals.
And then you had Orel Hershiser, who was supposedly almost 27, but who you knew was either a choir boy, a bat boy, or some Doogie Howser brainiac prodigy.
All Hershiser managed to do was go 19-3 with a 2.03 ERA as his Los Angeles Dodgers took the division flag in the old NL West. That was good enough to net Bulldog a third-place finish in the Cy Young vote and a Topps rookie card that quickly climbed into the $3 range.
Value: $20-25
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1985 Topps Mike Schmidt (#500)
Three years removed from his second consecutive MVP award in 1981, an “aging” Schmidt nonetheless managed to lead the National League with 36 home runs in 1984, his seventh (of eight) National League home crowns.
Ironically, then, Topps graced us with a shot of Schmitty on the basepaths for his 1985 base card, though, to be fair, the man did have wheels enough earlier in his career to steal 29 bases in 1975. He also legged out 11 triples in 1977.
Back to the 1980s …
By the time this card hit the wild, Schmidt’s place in Cooperstown was a foregone conclusion, but milestones like his 500th home run and third N.L. MVP award (in 1986) still lay ahead.
Value: $20-25
1985 Topps Ozzie Smith (#605)
By the time the 1985 season dawned, Ozzie Smith had five Gold Gloves and four All-Star appearances under his belt. He was also building a reputation as perhaps the greatest fielding shortstop of all time.
That summer only built on the legend of The Wizard of Oz, and Smith and his Cardinals teammates pushed the Royals all the way to game seven of one of the most exciting and controversial World Series ever.
Subsequent seaons saw Ozzie add a bit more offensive depth to his game as his paged his own Yellow Brick Road directly to the Hall of Fame.
Value: $20-25
1985 Topps Don Mattingly (#665)
Fresh off a breathtaking, down-to-the-wire batting race with teammate Dave Winfield in 1984, Mattingly entered the new season as the hottest player on the field and the hottest name in the hobby.
His encore?
A .324/35 HR/145 RBI/48 double season that left fan’s mouths agape and colloctor’s wallets open as we poured money into Mattingly’s rookie cards and second-year issues like they were going out of style.
For anyone who experienced the Donnie Baseball phenomenon in the moment, this card still brings the chills.
Value: $25-30
1985 Topps Dale Murphy (#320)
Murphy failed to win the National League MVP award in 1984, marking the first time since 1981 the trophy had not borne his name. Instead, he had to settle for his first home run crown, courtesy of 36 dingers.
It was more than enough to keep Mr. Nice Guy perking along in the hobby, and all these years later, his cards still draw plenty of interest as the collecting world waits to see if he’ll ever get the call from the Hall.
Value: $25-30
1985 Topps Tom Seaver (#670)
At first blush, seeing Tom Terrific in a White Sox uniform looked about as off-kilter as those Pete-Rose-Expos monstrosities, but Seaver made the most of his time on the south side, going 31-22 in his age-39 and -40 seasons to push to the brink of 300 wins.
He’d inch past that milestone early in 1986 before ending his career with the Red Sox.
These days, every Seaver card is a masterpiece in nostalgia, and this one is no different.
Value: $25-30
1985 Topps Eric Davis Rookie Card (#627)
Eric Davis was one of those guys who didn’t look like he could do all the things he could do on the baseball diamond.
Built like a fawn, Davis could run, field, and hit for power like few in the game.
But like buddy Darryl Strawberry, Davis fell short of the lofty expectations that a 1986 breakout set up for him.
Unlike Straw, though, Davis didn’t really self-destruct. Instead, his body just broke down under the stresses of Major League Baseball play.
Still, he managed to hang on for parts of 17 seasons and put together a solid career.
This rookie card doesn’t have the swagger it once did, but it’s still a thrill to stumble on one in a box or at a show.
Value: $25-35
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1985 Topps Dwight Gooden Rookie Card (#620)
If you’re wondering how the card of a guy who fell off the Hall of Fame ballot after one try in 2006 can make a list like this, see the above discussion about Gooden’s Record Breaker card.
I’ll just add here that if you can gaze upon this hobby icon, with its ambiguous blue sky background — is it sunny or stormy? — and the serious young man who could have been king in the foreground, without experiencing a hitch of excitement in your chest …
Well, then, you’ll never truly understand what the hobby was like during the boom years of the 1980s.
Today’s cards owe a lot to forgotten treasures like this Gooden RC, and plenty of collectors remember.
That’s why, even today after all those years and all those stumbles, the ’85 Gooden is still a hobby legend. It’s arguably the most iconic of all 1985 Topps baseball cards.
Value: $25-35
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1985 Topps Cal Ripken (#30)
After winning the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 1982 and the MVP Award in 1983 (along with a World Series title), Cal Ripken failed to do anything truly remarkable for the first time in 1984.
You know, aside from accumulating an MLB-leading 10 WAR.
Oh well, collectors still loved him enough to make this a top-shelf card in 1985, and it’s still among the frontrunners all these years later.
Value: $30-35
1985 Topps Rickey Henderson (#115)
Henderson’s last base Topps card from his first go-round in Oakland may not be as exciting as some of his earlier issues, where he was frequently seen sprinting, sneaking, or sliding around the bases.
But this one does offer a solid, well-cropped side profile of the game’s greatest leadoff hitter, and the Green and Gold are on full display.
Like all Henderson cards, this one only grew in popularity — and price — as Rickey continued to rack up the honors over his long, long career.
Value: $30-35
1985 Topps Nolan Ryan Record Breaker (#7)
You can’t have a “most valuable” list of 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s baseball cards without at least one Nolan Ryan, and The Express breaks the seal here with a Record Breaker card.
This one is pretty interesting, too.
See, in 1983, Steve Carlton, Gaylord Perry, and Ryan all powered past Walter Johnson on the all-time strikeout list. Perry retired immediately after, and then Ryan pretty much swallowed Lefty to claim the K title for his own.
And, of course, he’d take that sucker to the moon, out of the reach of any mere mortal, over the next nine seasons.
Value: $30-40
1985 Topps Dwight Gooden Record Breaker (#3)
Who was the hottest rookie card — and probably the hottest player — heading into 1985?
You could make a strong argument it was Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, but Donnie Baseball had to share the spotlight with crosstown youngsters Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden of the Mets.
And, while Strawberry drove the hobby frenzy with his Rookie of the Year campaign in 1983, Gooden became an almost mythical figure in 1984.
Part of it was that he was just a teenager, and part of it was that he was simply dominating batters, based on the statistics we saw in our Sunday newspapers.
But a lot of us struggled to get even a glimpse of the young man, and that only added to his mystique.
By the time Gooden appeared in the 1984 Topps Traded and Fleer Update sets, collectors were fairly frothing to get a hunk of his cardboard.
And that fervor only heightened over the winter and into the spring when we finally got a look at his first widely distributed baseball cards.
The 1985 Topps Gooden rookie card (below) became an immediate smash and climbed to $3, $5, and beyond as Dr. K mowed down hitters at an even more astonishing rate that summer.
This Record Breaker rode the RC’s coattails to some extent, and the two are roughly equal in value these days.
Because, while Gooden sort of flamed out in the 1990s, he still fashioned a career that was better than some Hall of Famers.
And his cards still thrill your belly if you were there to experience the Gooden phenomenon in the moment, especially ones like this — perhaps the most powerful of all 1985 Topps baseball cards.
Value: $40-45
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1985 Topps Nolan Ryan (#760)
What can you say about Nolan Ryan that hasn’t been said millions of times, including hundreds right here on this blog.
The man is a legend, and he has been for decades.
You can bet, too, that any Ryan card will be near the top of the value chain in whatever set it appears in.
This 1985 Topps issue, showing The Ryan Express with the Houston Astros, is no exception.
Value: $45-50
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1985 Topps Kirby Puckett Rookie Card (#536)
Like Clemens and McGwire, Kirby Puckett was something of a dark horse among 1985 Topps rookies, just one of dozens of youngsters who might someday be the “next” somebody.
So we set him aside and waited … until 1986, when Puck smacked 31 home runs and hit .328.
And especially in 1986, when his Minnesota Twins shocked the world with an amazing run to a World Series title.
Thanks to various ailments, Kirby only lasted 12 years in the Majors, but that was long enough to make him a legend and secure his place in the Hall of Fame.
It was also enough to keep his rookie card in good stead more than a decade after his untimely death.
Value: $55-60
(If you like your Kirby Puckett rookie cards a little more, uh, unusual … check out this beauty.)
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1985 Topps Roger Clemens Rookie Card (#181)
See that stuff I said about Mark McGwire above? Yeah, a lot of it applies to Roger Clemens, too.
Except, you know, Rocket was actually a much better player than Big Mac. Like an all-time great.
Like … top five starting pitcher great.
Right, I know, PEDs. I get it.
But from a baseball card perspective, Clemens was the second pitcher to really capture the hobby’s imagination in the 1980s, right after Dwight Gooden.
When Clemens broke out in 1986 with a 20-strikeout game en route to the American League MVP and Cy Young Awards, he sent us clamoring to pull his rookies from our “Maybe Someday” bins and into our “Road to the Hall” showcases.
This card ebbed and flowed along with Clemens’ performances into the early 1990s before rocketing through the steroid decade right along with him.
Today, even with the backlash against the muscle-y guys from those years, the Clemens rookie is plenty popular, and it always sits near the top of the pecking order among 1985 Topps baseball cards.
Value: $55-65
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1985 Topps Mark McGwire Rookie Card (#401)
Say what you will about Big Mac and his bulging biceps and whatever he took to make them bulge so, but I’ll bet once upon a time you thought he was amazing.
Like in 1987, when he set the rookie home run record with 49.
Or in 1998, when he hit 70 bombs to outpace Sammy Sosa as they both passed Roger Maris for the single-season mark (and set up Barry Bonds‘ run a few seasons later).
Or when you walked onto a card show floor in the late 1980s or the 1990s and saw that McGwire’s 1985 Topps rookie card — the one showing him as a member of the Team USA Olympic squad — was climbing in price again.
How high could it go? $50? $100? $200?
Yes, yes, yes, and more!
Until … the cardboard bust … and the PED taint … and our collective grasp of Sabermetrics, which sort of softened McGwire’s overall impact.
Then things sort of got ugly.
Still, this is a seminal card in the evolution of the hobby, and the allure of big boppers never really goes away. Among all 1985 Topps baseball cards, this is the one with the most checkered history, but also the one with heftiest price tag … depending on the time of day and which way the winds are blowing.
Value: $80-85
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—
Of course, no discussion of the most valuable 1985 Topps baseball cards would be complete without mentioning the super glossy Tiffany set from that year. Issued only as factory sets, it’s estimated that about 5000 complete parallel runs were made — pretty darn tiny numbers for the era.
Couple that stingy distribution with premium, creamy white cardstock and that super gloss, and you have the recipe for some valuable cards. Indeed, the Tiffany versions of the priciest 1985 Topps baseball cards listed above generally sell for 8-12 times the going rate for the corresponding base cards.
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