Knowing the best Topps baseball cards from each set, each year, is important for card collectors! A common question from sports card collectors, new and old, is what are the best baseball rookie cards by year to get in each Topps Baseball set? That’s what everyone wants, right? The best rookie cards from each Topps flagship set, whether it’s Series 1, Series 2 or Topps Update. (We recently updated this article to show the best rookie cards from several manufacturers, not just Topps, and we went all the way back to 1942.
Over the past couple years, I’ve started to dive deeper into my sports card collection, and something that dawned on me is that I’ve never seen a full page with all the best Topps rookie cards from each year. So I said to myself, “Self, get to writing!”
Here’s the thing – I need you to help me out with this. This is obviously subjective because some people might value some rookie cards more than other rookie cards, and I might consider one player worthy of notation, while others think I omitted some great names.
Please comment which rookie cards I’m missing from these sets – but I’ve gone to great lengths to try to get the best baseball rookie cards by year for each Topps set/series.
I’ve used both CardConnection.com and DACardWorld.com to track down many of the most attractive rookie cards for each series, but there could certainly be some errors.
(One of the reasons I wrote this article is because I’m kind of obsessed with making up for lost time, and I’m backfilling my sports card collection with the best rookie cards over the past couple decades from which I wasn’t collecting. One of the ways I’m doing that, other than just outright buying the singles on eBay, is buying old boxes and packs to rip from sites like DACardWorld.com, BlowoutCards.com and BBCExchange.com. Do you rip old packs or boxes? Let me know!)
While this article is currently only covering the best rookie cards over the past 10 years, I do plan on going all the way back through the 72 years of Topps baseball card series – probably 10 years at a time. So bookmark this article and come back often!
This article will be updated throughout the years as some player’s ascend in value and some decline. The most recent seasons will have a higher number of rookies to collect because we’re still waiting to see if they will fulfill their promise. As the seasons wear on, I’ll remove the rookies that have fallen by the wayside. This is all about the best rookie cards from each year.
This is only including Topps flagship set, not Topps Chrome, not Topps Archives, not Topps Heritage, or any other series.
Most of the best rookie cards images provided by BuySportsCards.com.
Bold listings indicate the three best cards from that year.
There weren’t many cards produced during the war years, and many who would have been great rookies likely went off to fight in the war. Between 1942 and 1947, we didn’t find any great rookie cards of note to share with you.
We listed the 10 Most Valuable 1956 Topps Baseball Cards here!
Here’s my piece on the Top 10 Best Baseball Cards From 1960 Topps Baseball to collect!
We listed the 10 Most Valuable 1978 Topps Baseball Cards here!
Series 1:
Traded:
Traded:
(View single wax pack of 1983 Topps pricing on eBay!)
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(View single wax pack of 1984 Topps pricing on eBay!)
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(View single wax pack of 1985 Topps pricing on eBay!)
(View single wax pack of 1986 Topps pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
(View single wax pack of 1987 Topps pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Here’s a bonus rookie card not from Topps, but essential to any collection:
1989 Topps Traded:
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Here’s another essential non-Topps rookie card for every collection:
Series 2:
Traded:
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Traded:
One more essential rookie card for baseball card collectors:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Traded:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Series 1:
Series 2:
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Series 1:
Series 2:
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Series 1:
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Series 1:
Series 2:
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Series 1:
Series 2:
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Series 1:
Series 2:
Updates and Highlights:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Updates and Highlights:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Updates and Highlights:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Traded:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Updates and Highlights:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1:
Series 2:
Update:
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2022 Topps Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2022 Topps Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2022 Topps Update: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2023 Topps Series 1: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2023 Topps Series 2: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2023 Topps Update Best Rookie Cards: (View hobby box pricing on eBay!)
2024 Topps Series 1:
Here’s my article on the 5 Best Rookies To Target From 2024 Topps Series 1 Baseball!
We hope you enjoyed this list of the best baseball rookie cards from Topps dating back to 1952! Here are a couple similar articles for the other two main sports!
As I mentioned at the start of this article, this is going to be an often updated page. Some rookie cards will be removed as players decline in value to their baseball team, and some rookie cards will be added as they bloom later than we expected. Either way, feel free to comment below and share some of the players you think are the best baseball rookie cards by year from each Topps baseball set.
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