Two quarterbacks finished level at the summit of a high-end football card sales week: a 2025 Topps Chrome NFL Honors Gold Shield Josh Allen numbered to three and a 2017 Panini National Treasures Stars & Stripes Patrick Mahomes, each at $97,600. Both transactions were recorded on November 14, 2026 through Goldin.
The shared lead is notable not only because of the total, but because the cards take very different routes to scarcity and collector interest. Allen’s card is a modern issue with a stated print run of three, while Mahomes’ is described as a rookie-year National Treasures Patch Auto with a Beckett Gem Mint 9.5 grade. Behind them, two Tom Brady cards and a PSA 10 Jerry Rice rookie card made up a top five packed with established NFL names.
For collectors, this is the kind of weekly snapshot that rewards close reading. The sale price alone is only one part of the story. Year, set, serial numbering, autograph or memorabilia elements, grading company, and the particular grade all help distinguish one copy from another. A card bearing the same player name can occupy a completely different collecting lane depending on those details.
The five reported sales
- 2025 Topps Chrome NFL Honors Gold Shield /3 Josh Allen, Topps Encased — $97,600. Sold November 14, 2026 through Goldin.
- 2017 Panini National Treasures Stars & Stripes Patrick Mahomes, BGS 9.5 — $97,600. Sold November 14, 2026 through Goldin.
- 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic Tom Brady, PSA 10 — $91,500. Listed as sold through Goldin.
- 1986 Topps #161 Jerry Rice, PSA 10 — $85,000. Sold November 10, 2026 through Fanatics Buy Now.
- 2008 Topps Finest Moments Superfractor /1 Tom Brady, PSA 10 with MBA Silver Diamond certification — $84,180. Sold November 14, 2026 through Goldin.
Why Allen and Mahomes tied at the top
Allen’s card carries an immediately legible scarcity marker: /3. That notation means this Gold Shield parallel is numbered out of three copies. In practical collecting terms, it tells a buyer there are only three cards in that specific numbered version, rather than simply suggesting it is rare through a color, foil treatment, or insert label.
The listing also identifies it as Topps Encased. “Encased” means the card is presented in a sealed holder by the manufacturer rather than loose in a pack. That is distinct from third-party grading. The supplied record does not state a third-party numerical grade for the Allen card, so it should not be treated as equivalent to a PSA 10 or BGS 9.5 simply because it is encased.
Mahomes’ card has another familiar blueprint for premium modern football collecting: a rookie-year issue from National Treasures, described as a Patch Auto. A Patch Auto combines an autograph with a piece of material presented as a patch. The supplied details identify this particular Stars & Stripes card as a 2017 rookie and give it a BGS 9.5 grade. BGS is shorthand for Beckett Grading Services, and 9.5 is commonly labeled Gem Mint by that grader.
Neither card needs to be declared the “better” one to understand the tie. Their $97,600 results show that high-end demand can concentrate around separate forms of desirability: a tiny serial-numbered modern Allen parallel on one hand, and a graded Mahomes rookie Patch Auto on the other. The comparable price does not make the cards interchangeable; it shows two distinct collecting propositions reaching the same result in this set of reported sales.
Brady supplied both variety and a reminder about card-level details
Tom Brady occupied two positions in the top five, but the cards could scarcely be more different in profile. The higher sale was a 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic PSA 10 at $91,500. The second was a 2008 Topps Finest Moments Superfractor /1 PSA 10, accompanied by an MBA Silver Diamond certification, at $84,180.
Related coverage includes Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes Tie at $97,600 in Football Card Sales.
The distinction begins with the years. The 2000 card comes from Brady’s rookie season, while the 2008 Finest Moments is a later-career issue. The latter has the appeal of a stated one-of-one designation: Superfractor /1. A “1/1” is a serial-numbered card with a stated print quantity of one for that exact version. It is an important scarcity signal, but it does not eliminate the need to identify the card precisely. Different sets, parallels, players, and card conditions create different markets; “one of one” alone is not a universal price guide.
Both Brady cards were graded PSA 10. PSA is a third-party card grading company, and a 10 is its top numerical grade. The grade indicates the company’s assessment of the card under its standards. That makes the grade part of the object being sold, not merely a description a seller can casually attach. The source material also reports MBA Silver Diamond certification on the Finest Moments Superfractor, but provides no further information on what that certification evaluates. Collectors should avoid inferring qualities beyond the certification label itself without examining documentation and the listing.
There is one recordkeeping wrinkle with the SP Authentic result: it is presented within a 2026 weekly sales list, yet its sale information gives the date as November 14, 2025. Without more documentation, the safest approach is to preserve that reported date rather than silently “correct” it. For anyone researching a comp, that mismatch is a cue to verify the auction record, card identification, and sale date before using the $91,500 figure as a comparable transaction.
Jerry Rice’s PSA 10 rookie sits close behind
The No. 4 result was an 1986 Topps #161 Jerry Rice PSA 10, sold for $85,000 on November 10, 2026 through Fanatics Buy Now. It is identified as Rice’s rookie card and adds a vintage entry to an otherwise quarterback-heavy, largely modern group.
That matters because the Rice sale is driven by a different combination of attributes from the Allen and Mahomes cards. It is neither presented as a low-numbered recent parallel nor described as an autograph-and-patch card. Instead, the central details are its 1986 Topps issue, rookie-card status, and PSA 10 grade. Condition can become especially significant when collectors are considering older cards, and the listing’s PSA 10 label is therefore a critical part of how this individual copy should be described.
The $85,000 result also sits only $12,600 below the joint lead. That narrow spread across the five sales is a reminder that a weekly leaderboard can contain multiple kinds of demand at once: current stars, an all-time receiving great, rookie-era cards, later-career cards, ultra-low serial numbering, and condition-sensitive vintage examples.
How to read results like these without overreaching
Top-sale lists are useful references, but they are not automatic appraisals for every card with a similar name. A useful way to parse them is to separate player, card identity, condition, and sale context.
- Player: Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Jerry Rice bring their own collector bases, but player recognition is just the starting point.
- Card identity: Confirm the year, manufacturer, set, card number where available, parallel, and serial numbering. “Topps Chrome,” “National Treasures,” and “Topps” are not interchangeable designations.
- Condition and authentication: Note the grading company and exact grade. PSA 10 and BGS 9.5 are specific third-party assessments, not generic labels for a card that looks clean.
- Features: An autograph, patch, one-of-one serial number, or manufacturer-encased presentation should be stated accurately, without assuming an unlisted feature exists.
- Sale context: Record the date and platform, then double-check unusual details, such as the reported year discrepancy on the Brady SP Authentic sale.
The broader card market regularly produces results where rarity and grade combine in different proportions. This football group is a compact example: Allen’s card is explicitly numbered to three; Mahomes’ is a graded rookie Patch Auto; Brady’s two cards show the parallel paths of rookie-year prestige and one-of-one scarcity; Rice’s rookie card emphasizes vintage condition. For another recent look at how wildly different player and card profiles can lead a sales leaderboard, see this Pokémon card sales roundup.
At the very top this week, Allen and Mahomes finish with the same $97,600 number. The tie is the headline, but the more useful takeaway is the contrast underneath it. The two cards arrived there by different collecting routes, while Brady and Rice ensured the rest of the board remained close enough to make the entire five-sale stretch worth tracking.
