If you’re looking for a set top-heavy with Hall of Fame rookies, you won’t do much better than 1986 Topps football cards.
(OK, so maybe 1984 Topps football cards would have something to say about the matter, but …)
Heck, even if you’re more interested in rookie cards of guys who were superstars for awhile, or superstars who just haven’t quite made the Canton cut yet … well, 1986 Topps football has you covered there, too.
And mid-career cards of Hall of Famers? Yep, those are here, too.
So, now that you’re properly frothed up for some classic gridiron cardboard …
… here is a list of the most valuable 1986 Topps football cards, as culled from the PSA Sports Market Report Price Guide (PSA 9 condition).
Let’s dig in!
1986 Topps Jerry Rice Rookie Card (#161)
Who is the greatest receiver in NFL history?
By most objective standards, you’d have to go with Jerry Rice.
And, for most fans, Rice would pass the more subjective “eye tests” as the greatest, too.
Rice wasn’t the absolute fastest man on the field, but he was always where he needed to be — at the ball.
In the end, after a 21-year stay in The League, Rice held most meaningful career marks … and he still does.
(Those marks include receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, in case you’re wondering.)
And, while he doesn’t hold many single-season marks, he’s near the top for those, as well.
Throw in three Super Bowl rings, a Hall of Famer bust, and mad dancing skills, and you have a guy who has been at the top of collector want lists for decades.
That goes double for the 1986 Topps Jerry Rice rookie card, which sells for $450 or more in PSA 9 condition these days.
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1986 Topps Steve Young Rookie Card (#374)
It’s kind of ironic that Rice and Young appear on this list, in this order.
While the 49ers selected Rice in the first round (16th overall) of the 1985 NFL Draft, he wasn’t a big name to most fans.
Young, on the other hand, was a hotshot quarterback from Brigham Young who had already signed with the Los Angeles Express of the USFL when the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft rolled around.
That draft allowed NFL teams to claim first rights to college seniors who had committed to the USFL (or the Canadian Football League) in the case anything happened to the upstart league.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Young with the first pick in that supplemental round, and they were there waiting when the USFL folded in 1985.
After a couple of ugly seasons in Tampa, the Bucs shipped Young off to San Fran for some draft picks and cash.
With Joe Montana in front of him, Young was destined to be a backup. And he was … until 1991, when he played well enough at age 30 to convince the Niners to move on from their legendary QB.
Within a few years, Young-to-Rice had the team back in the Super Bowl and Young on a path to Canton.
Today, his 1986 Topps rookie card — showing him with Tampa Bay — sells for around $300 in PSA 9.
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1986 Topps William Perry Rookie Card (#20)
No one was bigger than William Perry when it came to pure size as the 1985 Chicago Bears romped to the Super Bowl title.
And no one was bigger than The Fridge when it came to personality and fan love, either.
Dude could move mountains with his body and light up a room with his smile, all of which made him a collector favorite.
Much of that glow still gloms to his rookie card, which today goes $150 or so in PSA 9 condition.
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1986 Topps Reggie White Rookie Card (#275)
The Minister of Defense made an immediate impact after coming over to the Philadelphia Eagles from the Memphis Showboats of the USFL in 1985.
That season, White recorded 13 sacks and started building the legend that would feed perfectly into the NFL’s first free agent class in 1993.
Signing with the Green Bay Packers for a huge sum, Reggie lived up to his hype, continuing to rack up double-digit sacks and helping Title Town find its old Super Bowl-winning ways in 1996.
This 1986 Topps rookie card reflects White’s status as one of the game’s all-time great defensive lineman with a $65 price tag for PSA 9 copies.
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1986 Topps Jay Hilgenberg Rookie Card (#17)
You may not think center is a very glamorous position, especially for a list like this, and you’d be right.
But the thing about Jay Hilgenberg is that he provided one of the missing pieces for the Walter Payton Bears and allowed them to finally break through.
For years, Payton and his QBs struggled behind unsteady offensive lines that heaped a load of extra work on Sweetness just to get his yards.
By 1985, though, Hilgenberg had been on the job for four years, and he turned in his first Pro-Bowl performance that season as Payton,