1952–1979 Football Card Hot Auctions

Topps and Bowman defined vintage football. Key rookies include the 1957 Topps Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr, the 1958 Topps Jim Brown, the oversized 1965 Topps Joe Namath and the 1976 Topps Walter Payton. Fleer and Philadelphia also issued sets in the 1960s, including the AFL.

Dark borders and fragile card stock make many of these sets hard to find in high grade. Centering and corners matter a great deal, and graded copies from PSA or SGC are the standard for valuable cards.