This site includes the top rookie baseball and sports cards featured in detailed page listings including rookies from vintage and modern superstars and hall of famers from baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Some of the rookie baseball card selection here includes modern and vintage years, as well as rookies spanning Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr, Don Mattingly, and many more superstar and hall of famers such as Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson. Also, there will be basketball rookie cards from the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and many others. Football rookies will include Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Joe Montana and top hockey rookies will include Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman.
This page is a compilation top rookie card selections and every link will lead you to detailed product listings, descriptions, and reviews on various major sports rookie cards, and will focus almost 100% on true rookies, which this site is devoted to. If you want to find other sports cards and articles on various topics related to other sports cards, the related sites are listed on this page as well. Traded Sets are great for having extended rookies that are not in the regular issue set for that particular year. That link will take you to a site specifically geared toward those.
Joe Montana and Art Monk have rookie cards in the 1981 Topps football card set. The Joe Montana rookie card is a classic and is highly sought after in top condition.
Michael Jordan has his rookie card first in 1984-85 Star Company basketball, while his 1986-87 Fleer is also considered to be a rookie card as the 1984-85 is an xrc (such as in traded sets). Walter Payton rookie cards are in 1976 Topps football, #148 in the set. Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, and Dwayne Wade all have great autographed, jersey, and regular rookie cards in 2003-04 basketball cards. Wayne Gretzky rookie cards are in 1979-80 Topps and O-Pee-Chee hockey, #18 in both sets, and those are highly popular, though there are many counterfeits out there especially of the O-Pee-Chee card. Steve Yzerman has rookies in 1984-85 Topps and O-Pee-Chee, #49 and #67 in each set, respectively. O-Pee-Chee cards are noted as having counterfeits out there in the valuable hockey variety, so please beware. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle have their best cards in 1951 and 1952 card sets.
To begin with, Mickey Mantle rookie cards from 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps are among the most famous baseball rookie cards in existence, as well as among the rarest and most valuable. 1952 Topps Baseball Cards are featured at this page (click the highlighted link for the article). That year of cards includes the rare high number Mickey Mantle rookie card.Technically, 1951 Bowman has his rookie card, though the 1952 Topps one is more valuable. Here is an article for his 1951 Bowman rookie card. Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card listings are noted here.
For more modern baseball rookie cards, Ken Griffey Jr. took the hobby by storm in his rookie year of 1989. That was the year that Upper Deck began selling baseball cards, and the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card from 1989 Upper Deck remains his most popular and valuable mainsteam rookie card. Here is a pictorial article summary and product detailed listing of the 1989 Bowman rookie card of Ken Griffey Jr., a popular card and a decent investment if you ask me.
When considering other great first year cards from the 1980's in baseball, a 1984 Topps Don Mattingly rookie card is a great choice. The former New York Yankees great had many great years and although he may not make the hall of fame, his rookie card is very popular with collectors. Darryl Strawberry rookie cards are also included in 1984 baseball card sets.
Here is a quick list of cards you should check for in the 1980's.
Baseball - 1980 Rickey Henderson rookie card (Topps), 1982 Cal Ripken, 1983 Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Julio Franco 1984 Don Mattingly, Joe Carter (Donruss) 1985 Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Mark Mcgwire (Topps) 1986 Jose Canseco (Donruss, Fleer) Fred McGriff (Donruss) 1987 Greg Maddux (Donruss), Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Larkin 1988 Mark Grace, Tom Glavine, Roberto Alomar 1989 Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Gary Sheffield, Craig Biggio
Basketball - Any 1980's rookies (basketball from Star Company 1983-86 and Fleer 1986-89 is rare and highly sought after)
Football - 1981 Joe Montana, 1982 Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott 1983 Marcus Allen, Jim McMahon, Mike Singletary 1984 (big year) Dan Marino, John Elway, Howie Long, Darrell Green, Jackie Slater, Eric Dickerson 1985 Warren Moon, Richard Dent, Irving Fryar 1986 (big year) Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Bruce Smith, Boomer Esiason, Reggie White 1987 Doug Flutie, Randall Cunningham, Jim Kelly 1988 Vinny Testaverde, Bo Jackson 1989 (Score is rare this year and highly valued) Barry Sanders, Troy Aikman, Cris Carter, Sterling Sharpe, Michael Irvin, Thurman Thomas
While searching for great autographed and game worn jersey rookie cards, as well as famous T206 vintage rookies, this page of valuable sports cards is a great comprehensive list with more articles.