Peyton Manning (born 1976) was one of the best quarterbacks in football history. He played for the Indianapolis Colts from 1998-2011, where he won a Super Bowl in 2007, and later with the Denver Broncos where he won Super Bowl 50.
His career NFL statistics are impressive. He had 6,125 completions over 9,380 attempts for a 65.3 completion percentage and 71,940 passing yards. He had 539 touchdown passes to 251 interceptions. His passer rating was a 96.5 over his career. Clearly, he is one of the best quarterbacks ever.
Manning’s father was a successful quarterback with the New Orleans Saints. Peyton and his brother Eli were committed to football from an early age, and Eli also won two Super Bowls. The two played each other in three regular season games (Peyton won all three), but they never
faced each other in the playoffs.
The national Player of the Year as a senior, Manning committed to the University of Tennessee where he excelled for four years. He was the consensus first overall pick, and he was chosen by the Colts in 1998.
Manning quickly began winning MVPs and other awards and records. Manning’s reputation, however, soon came into doubt. Many saw him as a regular season standout, but critics claimed that he lacked the ability to win in the postseason.
The critics were hushed in 2007 with a Super Bowl win, and Manning eventually left the Colts on good terms. The Colts cut him in 2012 to save money and begin rebuilding.
During his tenure with the Broncos, Manning, quickly aging, had a bit of a last hurrah. Over four seasons with the Broncos, he won his fifth and final MVP, and he led the Broncos to two Super Bowls, winning one.
Following the Super Bowl 50 victory, Manning retired on top on March 7, 2016. The final words of his retirement speech are, “I’ve fought a good fight. I’ve finished my football race and after 18 years, it’s time. God bless all of you and God bless football.”
Peyton Manning was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the summer of 2021, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest NFL players in history. His No. 18 is retired by the Colts and Broncos. To have your number retired by two teams is rare for any sport. In fact, no quarterback had appeared in multiple Super Bowls with multiple teams until Peyton Manning, who won one with each!
Peyton Manning is a recent player, so the value of his cards is going to heavily favor his best rookie cards, so his later cards will be inexpensive. This article will take you through a few rookies, and we will forgo any later cards (sorry Broncos fans).
1998 SP Authentic Peyton Manning Rookie Card
This is one of the best Peyton Manning rookie cards available. The set has 126 cards, and they are standard size. Other key rookies on the set
include Fred Taylor, Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, and Ahman Green. Manning’s card sits at #14.
The first 42 cards in the set (including Manning) are short prints. They have serial numbers up to 2,000. Overall, this card has maintained its value from the short print, the value of the brand, and it is simply a well designed card.
Despite the limited printing, this is the kind of card that you know to preserve well. PSA has well over 1000 cards registered, and nearly all of them are at a PSA 8 or higher.
Prices on a Gem Mint copy somewhat bubbled during the covid-19 pandemic They started at about $3,000 before the lockdowns, bubbled up to $15,000, but maintained around $10,000 at the end of 2020. Copies of this card in low grade are less common, so prices stay fairly high in lower grades. You would need to drop to a PSA 6 or 7 to find a card for under $1,000.
1998 Topps Chrome Peyton Manning Rookie Card
Topps Chrome is another brand that has kept a Manning rookie card valuable. This set was immediately popular. Manning’s card comes with a refractor copy as well. Manning’s card sits at #165.
There are many high grade copies floating around, ready for you to grab. PSA alone has over 5,500 cards registered. 3,700 are Mint copies, and 1,200 are Gem Mint. The refractor has about 350 cards registered by PSA.
A standard PSA 10 copy sold for about $2,000 or so in 2020. You should be able to find a Mint copy for less than $500.
For the refractor, expect a massive jump in price. Prices were scattered for a PSA 10 in 2020. In early 2020 and late 2019, this card sold for about $2,000 for a PSA 10. However, the final two sales of 2020 for PSA 10’s were $24,999 and $15,100, so prices might take some time to settle. Meanwhile, Mint copies soared from about $750 at the beginning of 2020 to $2,000-$5,000 throughout the rest of the year.
1998 Bowman Chrome Peyton Manning Rookie Card
Bowman was trying to build on the popularity of Topps Chrome with this brand. Bowman Chrome is similar to the standard Bowman set, but
the Chrome brand is generally more valuable, and it has a refractor parallel. Bowman featured Peyton Manning’s rookie at #1.
There are over 4,500 Manning cards registered by PSA, and there are an additional 360 refractor cards registered.
The base card had a huge percentage price increase from 2019 to 2020. In 2019, this card was selling for about $100 for a PSA Gem Mint 10. The price soared to about $1,500 in August of 2020, and then it dropped back down and steadied out at about $750.
The refractor had similar price inconsistencies in 2020. There are fewer sales, so it is harder to have a clear picture on prices. The most recent sale was from December of 2020 for $5,500.
1998 Bowman’s Best Peyton Manning Rookie Card
Peyton Manning comes in at a card #112 on this set, and he is featured on the base, refractor, and atomic refractor copies.
While the base card has over 1800 cards registered by PSA, the refractor has about 100 because only 400 cards were printed, and the Atomic Refractor has about 40 cards registered because only 100 Atomic Refractor cards were printed.
For a PSA Gem Mint 10, the base card sells for a couple hundred, the refractor sells for about $1,000-$2,000, and the rarely sold Atomic Refractor went for $5,306 in August of 2020.
Conclusion
Seeing as we are talking about Peyton Manning, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, there are about a dozen more rookie cards worth talking about. However, we covered a few of the very best Manning cards available.