For the longest time, Joe Montana's rookie card has beenthefootball card to own.
The 1981 Topps card, with its white border and flag name banner, shows "Joe Cool" preparing to throw a pass.
The Montana rookie card was released during a special season. That was the season of "The Catch," Montana's historic touchdown to Dwight Clark in the NFC championship game. San Francisco capped the season with a win over the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.
Across the years, the Montana rookie has remained among the most iconic cards.
PSA 10 copies of the card have increased in value quite a bit, from$12,000 a decade agoto around $60,000 today. But in most other grades, you could buy a copy today for less than the price of a new box of cards.
It's a gem of the junk wax era.
Many iconic 1980s football cards like the Montana rookie card were produced in large quantities, keeping them affordable for most collectors. But at the same time, printing defects, and centering and packaging issues — and gum in packs — have restricted the number of gem mint copies, creating a notable price divide between grades.
If you want to chase high-end and low-end copies of the same card, you can.
That pattern applies for another iconic rookie card from the decade, the 1986 Topps RC of Montana's frequent target, receiving legend Jerry Rice.
More than 60,000 copies of Rice's first pro card have been graded from all the grading companies, making it the most frequently graded football card.
Of all of those cards graded, only 125 have received a gem mint grade.
The card is especially tough to find in top grades due to chipping on the card's green edges.
A Rice PSA 10 goes for around $75,000 these days.
A grade of 9.0 drops the price to under $2,500. There are more than 2,100 of his cards that have received a 9.0 grade when including the big four grading companies.
The price dips to about $200 for an 8.0 and under $100 for a grade of 7.0.
Rice's RC isn't even the most valuable card in the set.
The rookie card of Rice's eventual 49ers teammate, Steve Young, is nearly impossible to find in top grades, and only 23 of the 20,000-plus copies of the card graded have received a gem mint grade. The last time a PSA 10 copy of the card sold, according to Card Ladder, was in March 2022 when it sold for $120,000.
Raw ungraded copies of the same card sell for about $10.
Here are some of the most coveted 1980s football cards in gem mint condition. And luckily, due to the junk wax era, all of the cards are easy to find and affordable in lower grades.
(Data provided by GemRate's Universal Pop Report, and includes CGC, PSA, BGS and SGC.)
Lawrence Taylor
1982 Topps #434Gem mint grades: 434Total graded: 15,246Last sold price: $7,500
Taylor is arguably the most fearsome defensive player in NFL history, and the Giants linebacker's rookie card remains a favorite among collectors.
John Elway
1984 Topps #63Gem mint grades: 520Total graded: 46,823Last sold price: $11,000
Dan Marino
1984 Topps #123Gem mint grades: 784Total graded: 50,574Last sold price: $5,200
It's interesting to see the gap between sales prices for Marino and Elway's RCs, given that both of the signal-callers had incredible careers, but the fact remains that Elway's card is much harder to find in top grades.
Richard Dent
1985 Topps #24Gem mint grades: 23Total graded: 2,299Last sold price: $31,200
Dent was a great defensive player and the MVP of Super Bowl XX on his journey to enshrinement in Canton. In addition, his RC happens to appear in a condition-sensitive set with black borders that are prone to chipping. A gem mint version of the card recently sold for an eye-popping $31,200.
Warren Moon
1985 Topps #251Gem mint grades: 115Total graded: 8,154Last sold price: $3,600
There was something special about seeing Moon under center for the Houston Oilers. The powder blue jerseys offered the perfect presence for Moon's aerial exploits. Moon became a Canadian Football League star before shifting to the NFL and becoming a top quarterback in a second country.
Bruce Smith
1986 Topps #389Gem mint grades: 52Total graded: 6,585Last sold price: $4,995
Reggie White
1986 Topps #275Gem mint grades: 59Total graded: 10,525Last sold price: $7,500
Smith and White were both known for harassing opponents and racking up lots of sacks. So it's only fitting that their NFL rookie cards both appeared in the condition-sensitive 1986 Topps set and that both are highly coveted in top grades.
Notably, this isn't even White's most valuable card from the decade. His 1984 Topps USFL card of him on the Memphis Showboats (PSA 10 has a population of eight) has sold for over $20,000.
Bo Jackson
1988 Topps #327Gem mint grades: 691Total graded: 22,280Last sold price: $1,920
Bo knows hobby popularity. What the Raiders running back's career lacked in longevity, it more than made up for in mystique.
Barry Sanders
1989 Score #257Gem mint grades: 4,144Total graded: 50,421Last sold price: $1,770
One of the most famous cards of one of the game's most prolific runners. Prices for Sanders' iconic Score rookie card suffer a bit from the sheer quantity of the cards in top grades … but at the same time, it means the card remains a little bit more affordable than some of the decade's other favorite cards.