For people who are purely collectors, the right answer is…whatever you love!
However, let’s talk investments today. In general, the best cards to buy for the future have these qualities:
- Good Players – I don’t play the game of buying 10-cent rookie cards and hoping for the 1% chance of a breakout.
- Bottom of Market – I’m not buying guys who have seen massive spikes recently (I’m looking at you, Tua). I usually ask myself “What else would this player have to do to continue to increase?” In many cases, it’s an MVP or a Super Bowl, which is out of reach for most guys.
- Reason Card Can Increase – This could be that you expect a player to do better (Justin Fields), it’s a rare card, or just that it’s a cemented player whose value will rise simply as the card gets older.
- PSA Graded – I’m not a PSA fanboy, but it’s impossible to deny values. There’s such a robust market for PSA that it’s easier to value cards and then easier to move when the time comes. Buying raw cards (especially online) is a crapshoot.
- Good Brands – In general, better brands hold value better. For newer stuff, I’m usually looking at Prizm.
Let’s talk more about picking the right brands.
Most Reliable Football Brands to Purchase
More than one investor has realized (too late) that they simply bought the wrong card.
Let me illustrate with a basketball card I purchased.
When I first got back into cards around 2021, I identified LaMelo Ball as the basketball player I wanted to buy. So, I went and bough the first rookie I could find. A Prizm Draft Picks base card.
I spent $25 on this sucker. It was the height of the card collecting boom.
What I didn’t know, being relatively new, was just how much these cards drop in value when the pro uni cards come out! (Wemby’s Draft Picks rookie has been selling for $50-$75…run away!)
Now, I have this card sitting in a box, valued at about $10…for a PSA 10! It’s pretty much kindling at this point.
My point? Buying Draft Picks was not an investment purchase. There are so many brands out there nowadays that it can be hard to figure out.
Big 4 Football Brands
Of the mainstream brands, there are 4 that are usually considered the best and highest quality:
- Prizm
- Optic
- Mosaic
- Select
Some collectors will quibble, but that’s a pretty common order for those. If you pull a base rookie, Prizm will always take the cake, and then it’s usually Optic after that.
If you want a deep dive into a bunch of different football brands along with rankings and prices, check out this post:
=> 6 Best Football Card Packs to Buy
Whose Football Players’ Cards Should You Buy?
These are subject to change, of course, depending on performance, the market, and other factors. However, this year, these are the players that I’d be targeting for investment purposes.
Low Cost Division
These are players/cards that I’m looking at that cost pennies compared to the true hobby stars.
2020 Panini Prizm Jonathan Taylor #332 PSA 10
Current Value: $23
Here’s a quick look at his pricing over the past 6 months:
He’s had a rocky start to the season, with both a holdout and then poor play when he returned. However, he’s not long removed from being the premier back in the league.
With plenty of his pricing found in the $35-$40 range from just a few months ago, $22 right now seems like a steal.
For comparison sake, here’s a Saquon Barkley sale that recently happened:
Saquon’s never had anything remotely close to Jonathan Taylor’s 2021 season.
2020 Prizm Justin Herbert #325 PSA 10
Current Value: $90
Yes, many hobbyists will tell you not to invest in base rookies…but this is Prizm, famous for holding values! Here’s a comparison of Herbert vs Tua:
So yes, Prizm base can still see massive spikes when the player justifies it…like Tua has!
Just in the last 6 months, Herbert has seen consistent sales in the $140 – $160 range. Did we decide that he was bad? Unfortunately, his team (and his coach) stink, but I’m banking on a return for some of his pricing after a few big outings. We’ve seen the awesome price hikes for the robot-armed Herbert.
1989 Topps Traded Barry Sanders #83T PSA 10
Current Value: $105
This certainly isn’t a quick-flip card, but we’re talking about (perhaps) the greatest running back of all time. He’s someone who’s reached almost mythical status, and I’m confident that one day his prices will rebound hard in the right direction.
Plus, for you nostalgic collectors, it’s also just fun to have this card as part of your collection!
If you want to invest for even less, pick up the PSA 9 for around $25.
Millionaire Division
If you’ve got money to burn, and you’re looking for a “401(k)-type” investment…here you go.
2017 Panini Contenders Patrick Mahomes Auto
Current PSA 10 Value: $30,000
Contenders always will be a massive name in the world of football rookie autos! The cards don’t always seem to be of super high quality, but the clean auto at the bottom sure helps.
Plus, Tom Brady’s rookie Contenders auto sells for $1 million+, so that value carries over to today’s Contender auto rookies as well.
Plus, we’re talking Mahomes here. Rarely would I recommend this type of investment for someone who’s not even 30, but he’s he’s perhaps the best player of all time at the most important, highly valued, and respected position in all of sports.
His cards might see some ups an downs because he’s still playing, but these puppies should go up for the long haul.
1958 Topps Jim Brown #62 PSA 5
Current Value: $1,500
I mentioned earlier about Barry being maybe the GOAT running back…well, it’s really probably this guy.
Until a certain TB12 came along, most football historians would tell you he was the best player, period. So with a true vintage card of someone with his resume is likely to be a good buy for the long run.
Here are his prices for the past year:
I know, I know, I just said that he’ll go up over the long run, but here he is dropping!
This is still market correction from the crazy 2021-2022 that saw all cards jump to unsustainable highs. You can see this now as a great buying opportunity. A card like this for $1,500 is going to a steal in the long run.
Plus, the vintage market as a whole kind of goes up and down, so this kind of card you just hold onto and see the price double over the next 5 years.
Any Kobe Autograph
Value: $1k – $10k+
Okay fine…we’ll do one non-football, because it’s my favorite investment in the entire hobby.
Perhaps my favorite long-term invest is anything that Kobe signed. As (almost certainly) the second-most popular basketball player ever, I can’t imagine a scenario where he isn’t a beloved and highly collected player.
I mean, no one in LA is going to forget him.
Here’s an ugly card…but seriously, he signed it with LeBron, a future Laker and the second-best player of all time.
Or, here’s a more affordable auto of his on a nicer-looking card:
$1k is the low-end for a Kobe auto these days, but you could do much worse than this clean-looking card. It is a cheap brand, and it’s not numbered, but it’s still a Kobe and they’re going to get rarer over time.