1987 Topps Baseball Cards Worth Collecting

If you are one of the 400 million people who have a box of 1987 Topps baseball cards in your basement, you’re probably wondering what they are worth. I have some good news and some bad news for you.

The good news is, there are a few cards that could be lurking in your ’87 Topps that might bring some joy and could be worth a few bucks. The bad news is a box of ’87 Topps “commons” will bring you pain, agony, and sadness as you realize there’s more value in the box than the cards themselves.

I write this from personal experience, as I have recently flipped through an old box of 1987 Topps baseball cards that haven’t been touched in 30 years. Afterward, as I placed the box back in the closet, I thought, “well, there’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back.”

1980s Topps Baseball Cards

There were some really great 1980s Topps baseball cards, and I mean great. Some of my favorites were the early 80s, of course. The ’84 Don Mattingly rookie, the ’80 Rickey Henderson rookie, and the ’82 Cal Ripken future stars card. Early 1980s Topps baseball cards were not over-produced and included the rookie years of many Hall-of-Famers.

Then there were the late 1980s Topps cards. My estimate is over one trillion of these cards were produced. A kid in 1989 could hardly turn around without knocking over a stack of late 80’s Topps baseball cards. They were everywhere.

1987 Topps

Baseball card collectors love to speculate on the production numbers of 1987 Topps cards. I’ve heard estimates of anywhere from one million prints of each card all the way up to over seven million copies of each card printed.

From what I’ve read, the card producers of the 1980s did not release production numbers. This leads me to my next obvious question. Why didn’t they ever release production amounts? It’s because nobody was counting. The printers were running at full speed. Maybe they were printing too fast to count.

Kids wanted to buy them and Topps was sure to print enough for anyone and everyone to have plenty of late 80s cards. No tracking of production necessary.

If nobody counted the actual production of the 1980s and 1990s baseball cards, it might be because they didn’t think anyone would ever ask how many were actually made. Maybe, the baseball card producers never thought the production amounts would ever interest anyone.

This might give a little insight into the mindset at the time. Produce as many baseball cards as possible; nobody would ever stop to ask how many were actually created.

1987 Topps Baseball Cards Value

If every man, woman, and child in America own at least one box of 1987 Topps baseball cards, what’s the value of each box? Of course, it depends.

From personal experience, I can say it’s possible to flip through an entire box of ’87 Topps cards and not recognize one single name.

If it’s possible for something to have negative value, these unrecognizable faces on the 1987 Topps cards qualify. A negative value would be something that costs you more to own than it’s actually worth.

The space the object occupies in the universe costs more than the value the object delivers. That’s the 1987 Topps baseball “common” card.

It might sound harsh, but start flipping through a box of picked-over, cleaned-out, common cards from the 1987 Topps set, and you will most likely agree.

To make my point crystal clear, I tried to give away a box of 1987 Topps baseball cards to my nephew, and he wanted ten bucks to go with them, just to take them off my hands.

But there are 1987 Topps baseball cards with some value. Especially if you have Topps Traded or Tiffany cards. These limited edition cards were produced in much lower production numbers, making them hard to find and valuable. A few 1987 Topps Traded Tiffany rookie cards do have some value.

The Least Valuable Baseball Cards of All-Time – My collection of 1987 Topps Baseball Cards.

Topps 1987 Complete Set Values

Complete sets of the 1987 Topps Baseball Tiffany cards are currently selling for over $1,000 on eBay. These are factory-sealed sets with the original sticker and are in great condition.

The complete set in the photo below features the ‘collectors edition’ tiffany cards along with the limited edition Topps ‘traded’ cards, 1-T through 132-T. This was recently sold on eBay for $1,500. From the photos, the boxes look to be in excellent condition.

1987 topps complete set — ***1978 Topps Baseball Tiffany complete set with Topps Traded cards. If you’re into 1987 Topps, this would be one of the best examples of the complete set you’ll find. Recently sold for $1,500.***

Topps ‘Tiffany’ and ‘Traded’ Cards

Topps offered different versions of their cards from 1984 to 1991. If you flip the card over, you can easily tell the difference by the white backs on the Tiffany cards. They will also appear glossy on the front.

Donruss had ‘Rated Rookies’ and Fleer had their ‘Update’ cards, but Topps went all out with ‘Traded Tiffany’ premium cards.

There are also Topps Traded cards, which look very similar to the Tiffany cards from 1987. Values for the Tiffany cards are much higher than the regular Topps cards because only 30,000 cards were produced.

The 1987 Topps “Tiffany” cards are currently reselling on eBay with impressive price gains over the last few months. You can search eBay and view all the recent sales in order of dollar value, date of sale, or even closest sale to your location. It’s a great way to see month-over-month price changes for certain cards.

This guy breaks open a sealed set of Tiffany 1987 Topps baseball cards. It’s pretty cool to see the difference between the glossy Tiffany cards up close.

1987 Topps Barry Bonds

1987 Topps Barry Bonds, PSA 10 Tiffany, sold for $4,500 on an eBay auction. PSA 9 Barry Bonds Tiffany is valued at $170 at the PSA website price guide.

1987 Topps Bo Jackson

1987 Topps Roger Clemens

Barry Larkin Rookie Cards

**1987 Topps Barry Larkin PSA 10 Tiffany, sold for $521 on eBay.**

1987 Topps Jose Canseco

jose canseco topps — **1987 Topps Jose Canseco PSA 10 Tiffany sold for $1,150 on eBay**

1987 Topps Nolan Ryan

This is a great video breaking down every great rookie card from the 1980s, by year. Starting in 1980, he covers them all. Great work by this dedicated and knowledgeable baseball card collector.

1987 Topps Mark McGwire, Oakland Athletics

1987 Topps Rafael Palmeiro Rookie Card, Chicago Cubs

1987 Topps Pete Rose, Cincinnati Reds

1987 Topps Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres

1987 Topps Bobby Bonilla, Pittsburg Pirates

1987 Topps Cal Ripken Jr., Baltimore Orioles

The 1987 Topps baseball card set is still an affordable collectible. You can find complete sets selling on eBay for almost nothing. And that might be too much.

But when you consider the list of great players from the 1987 season, buying a complete set might make sense. I’m not sure if this is a typo – but a factory set just sold recently for Twenty Dollars!

topps complete set — ***What a beauty! Look at this complete set of 1987 Topps baseball cards. For 25 bucks you can own baseball card history.***

More Baseball Legends of the 1987 Topps Set

Consider this for a minute, the entire sealed 1987 Topps set for 20 bucks. Here’s a list of amazing MLB players included in the set, in addition to the players featured above.

There are Hall of Fame pitchers, World Series Champions, and hitters famous for some of the most iconic home runs of the 1980s and 90s included in this set. If you remember the 1987 Topps baseball cards, chances are your favorite player was on this list.

Greg Maddux Rookie Card, Chicago Cubs

Dwight Gooden, New York Mets

Dave Stewart, Oakland Athletics

Kirby Puckett, Minnesota Twins

Tom Seaver, Boston Red Sox

Reggie Jackson, California Angels

Darryl Strawberry, New York Mets

Will Clark, San Francisco Giants

Ozzie Smith, St. Louis Cardinals

Tim Raines, Montreal Expos

Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia Phillies

Andre Dawson, Montreral Expos

George Brett, Kansas City Royals

Wally Joyner Rookie Card, California Angels

Ken Griffey, Atlanta Braves

Keith Hernandez, New York Mets

Gary Carter, New York Mets

Rickey Henderson, New York Yankees

Carlton Fisk, Chicago White Sox

Ruben Sierra Rookie Card, Texas Rangers

1987 Topps Baseball Card Box

And if the entire Topps set doesn’t excite you, maybe you would be interested in a box of 1987 sealed packs. Each box contains 36 wax packs, with 17 cards per pack. Inside each pack is the possibility of several subsets.

1987 topps cards box wax packs — ***If you were alive in the 1980s, chances are pretty good you opened a few packs inside a box like this.***

1987 Topps Wax Packs

Record Breakers, All-Star Selections, Team Leaders, and Turn Back the Clock cards are included in the 1987 set. Some of the first Topps sports cards you can remember opening as a kid were these very same wax packs.

While the 1987 Topps baseball cards get a bad rap, the front of the card was a pretty remarkable design. The last of a plain cardboard era, before Upper Deck, and others began printing premium trading cards.

And although the most valuable card isn’t included in the ’87 Topps, a great find is always around the corner.

Whether it’s the higher-quality card fronts from the Topps Tiffany set, or just a few notable rookies, the junk wax era will forever be remembered by all who experienced it.

10 Most Amazing Facts from the 1987 Topps Baseball Card Backs

I take this for granted, but some of you might not understand the wealth of information on the back side of baseball cards.

The front of the card hopefully has a great action shot or close-up photo of your favorite player. The back side, stats, player bios, and some of the most amazing and incredible facts you will ever read.

Who researched and wrote the facts found on the back of 1987 Topps baseball cards? I’d love to meet them. If you are out there, please reach out, I have many questions for you.

So let’s take a look at a few of the most amazing facts found on the back of 1987 Topps baseball cards. Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments below.