The 1987 Topps baseball card set is one of the most iconic issues of the vintage era. While it may not bring in as much money as some of the rarer sets from the 1950s or 1960s, it remains highly collected and the cards have retained much of their value over the past 35 years.
The 1987 set was issued during a period of growth for baseball card collecting. Many who started amassing cards as children in the 1970s and early 80s were now young adults with disposable income to invest back into the hobby. Topps capitalized on this collecting momentum by increasing the base set size to include over 700 cards for the first time.
Rookies and stars of the day like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Greg Maddux had popular rookie cards in the 1987 set that still excite collectors. Topps also included memorable traded and team-change subsets that provided narrative context for the seasons’ biggest transactions. Parallel and oddball inserts added collecting complexity.
To determine a card’s value in the 1987 Topps set, there are several key factors to consider:
Card number: Lower numbered basic commons cards such as #1 will be worth more due to their iconic status within the set.
Player/Hall of Famer: Cards featuring players who went on to stardom and the Hall of Fame such as McGwire, Bonds, and Maddux hold stronger appeal and value.
Autograph/patch: Any 1987 Topps card that has been signed or contains on-card memorabilia will increase exponentially in value.
Grading: Professionally graded 1987 Topps cards in high Mint or Gem grades will demand big premiums above raw condition copies.
Parallel/insert: Rarer specialty parallels and inserts beyond the base 702 card checklist can be quite valuable depending on specific design and print run scarcity.
To provide a snapshot of typical prices across different categories of 1987 Topps cards:
Common stars/Hall of Famers (PSA 8): $10-30
Common rookies of future stars (PSA 8): $15-50
Parallel/insert subsets: $20-100+ depending on specific card design and condition.
#1 Barry Bonds: $60-100 PSA 8
#1 Mark McGwire rookie: $100-150 PSA 8
#1 Greg Maddux rookie: $75-125 PSA 8
Hall of Famers autographs/relics: $150-1000+
Low-numbered parallels of stars: $50-200
Premium condition and particularly rare parallel copies of star and rookie cards can exceed $1000 each for truly pristine PSA 10 specimens. But for most common 1987 set cards in average VG-EX condition, values will fall in the $3-10 range.
The condition of the card is always a critical assessment, as higher grade copies will appreciate much more significantly over time. But even well-loved, played-with 1987 Topps can retain $1-3 of value based on the depicted player decades later.
Some specific cards to watch out for include the #1 Duke Snider “last card” which routinely fetches $50-150 in top grades, or the scarce Mark McGwire Topps Fire parallel rookie around $500 PSA 10. Key traded players like Frank Viola and Rickey Henderson in their new uniforms are also keenly sought after.
While not quite in the same investment class as ultra-premium oddball refractors from modern issues, slick 1980s cardboard like 1987 Topps maintains a healthy collector interest level. For those who came of collecting age during the junk wax era, it fuefully provides that nostalgic connection to carefree summertime adventures chasing down new stars at the local card shop. Professional set builders still prize high-grade 1987s in their registries too.
The 1987 Topps baseball card set illustrates why vintage cardboard endures – through memorable photography, an iconic design sensibility, andsubjects that trigger powerful memories of summer afternoons scoring the box scores. Condition-sensitive holders of this classic issue can feel secure that prices will remain buoyant thanks to its resilient nostalgia-fueled appeal.
