If you're just starting your football card collection or interested in beginning one, it pays to understand what makes a card valuable. Below, we'll explain how to determine the value of football cards you find to separate the studs from the duds.

Online Price Guides

One of the benefits of being a trading card collector in modern times is the wealth of online resources available. If you have an uncertain value card, there are plenty of online trading card price guides, like MAVIN, that can give you at least a ballpark figure. Just enter the year of the card, the brand, the player's name, and the card number, and the price guide will give you an estimate.

Consult a Card Shop

While online resources are convenient, it's often best to get the opinion of a seasoned and experienced card collector and grader. Consider taking the card to a local trading card store or a convention to have a professional look it over and give their opinion.

Factors That Decide a Football Card's Worth

If you want to determine the value of football cards before you buy or trade for them, we can help you with that, too!

The Featured Player

Obviously, a football card with a more popular or famous player will be worth more than an otherwise unknown one. The ideal cards feature great and historic players before they became famous, and their cards were valuable, like a rookie Tom Brady card.

Rarity

Next, the card's rarity is also a key factor in its value. These are the basic principles of supply and demand at work—the more copies of a card there are on the market, the less valuable the individual card is. In the 1980s and ’90s, there was an overproduction of football trading cards, which led to a downturn in their market and the value of sports cards. With the recent explosion of trading card popularity, collectors and manufacturers must be wary of making the same mistake and upending the market.

Condition

Of course, an extremely rare card of a famous football player isn't worth much if the card is in tatters. When assessing the condition of an unknown card, the biggest factors are the corners, edges, centering (symmetry of borders and design print), and surface (imperfections and color fading).

Signature or Patch

Lastly, a card's value can be significantly boosted with a signature or a memorabilia patch like a piece of jersey. Of course, you'll want to ensure it's an authentic signature, but even a somewhat common card can become a collector's item if it has a signature or patch.

Find Great Value for Football Cards at JRI Cards

If you're hunting for high-value football cards, the place to look is JRI Cards, and our football box breaks! Buy a slot in one of our breaks, and we'll unbox them for you on our live broadcasts. Whatever era of football you're interested in, we got them, as JRI has the world's largest selection of grade pack breaks!