Are Barry Bonds Rookie Cards A Good Investment?

My thoughts are that writers are crazy for excluding Bonds (and Clemens) -- I have to think that he gets one final push of support in 2022. 

A Closer Look At Barry Bonds Rookie Cards

Even if he doesn't make the HOF next year, I would still warrant that Bonds' rookie cards are still worthy of a look.  There will still be a massive amount of support from baseball card collectors even without the Hall nomination, although it would really, really help in the case of prices going higher.  

Here we go through each of Bonds' rookie cards--note his 1986 cards are technically his rookie cards since they were the first, although nearly all were issued in Traded/Update sets.  Remember this is the junk era, so for many the investment potential is limited, but we discuss each one in detail below. 

Note that we also provide an 'Investment Potential' score from zero to ten. This is meant to be just a relative ranking among all of Bonds rookie cards and not any indication that we believe the card is going to increase in value. 

1986 Donruss Rookies #11 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 7.5 out of 10

If you were a collector in the 1980's you might remember these small boxed Donruss Rookies sets which were super popular at the time.  The set featured Bonds, Jose Canseco and Bo Jackson among others.  Yes, Donruss made a lot of these sets.  I have no idea of the final print runs, but if you see an 80's collection for sale, there is bound to be one of these sets included.

PSA has graded over 12,000 Donruss Bonds rookie cards, with nearly 1500 graded a PSA 10.  Who knows how many more boxed sets will get graded in the coming years.  If buying this card, I would only invest in the PSA 10 copy, which as of this writing is selling for around $200+.  

1986 Fleer Update #14 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 8.5 out of 10

1986 Sportflics #13 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 5.5 out of 10

1986 Topps Traded #11T - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 7 out of 10

1986 Topps Traded Tiffany #11T - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 8 out of 10

Here's where things get interesting.  The 1986 Tiffany Topps card is much much harder to find...not rare by any means, but 1/20 of the entire Topps Traded population.  PSA has graded ~2400 copies with only 440 PSA 10's.  Thus this makes it a much more valuable card as well. 

PSA 10 Traded Tiffany Bonds cards are selling at around $4000, and for good reason, they are rarer than any other Bonds rookie card by a long shot.  Even the PSA 9 population is at 1350+ copies, which is about par with the existing supply for the Donruss Rookies and Fleer Update Bonds cards--hence the reason that the PSA 9 on its own sells for over $1000.  

1987 Classic Travel #113 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 5 out of 10

An oddball insert set, these Classic cards were part of a board game yet they produced some super cool cards, including this Barry Bonds card.  There are two variations--based on the color of the back of the card, with the Green back a lot harder to find.  Note that there are only 31 PSA 10 Green Back Classic cards, and nearly 400 of the Yellow Back PSA 10's. 

Yellow backs can be found for around $100, whereas Green Backs are nearly 10x that amount.  It's a cool card, but I think I would rather a collector steer towards more of the mainstream issues. 

1987 Donruss #361 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 6.5 out of 10

Not quite the graded population of the 86 Topps Traded, but it's quite a huge sum, with nearly 25K cards graded by PSA!  Of that total however only around 1700 have earned a PSA 10 grade, owning to the black borders on the cards which turn white quite easily.  

PSA 10 copies have been increasing in value of late and selling for around $150.  It will be interesting to see if this card and his others fall of due to his lack of HOF election this year.

1987 Donruss Opening Day #163 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 4.5 out of 10

A Donruss subset that wasn't all that popular, the issue had lower production than the normal 87 Donruss set and PSA had graded only a fraction of the cards--2600+ copies with 237 PSA 10's, thus a much lower population than many, but still an oddball set.  Note there was a much rarer error card that featured an image of Johnny Ray-but I wouldn't be looking at that one as an investment. 

1987 Fleer #604 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 7 out of 10

An almost identical population to his '87 Donruss rookie card...PSA has graded roughly 1250 PSA 10's, lower than the Donruss card.  PSA 10's have been selling for around $250, which I think is a pretty good investment if looking for a Bonds rookie card to hold onto for a while.

1987 Fleer Glossy #604 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 8.5 out of 10

1987 Topps #320 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 6 out of 10

1987 Topps Tiffany #320 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 7 out of 10

1987 Toysrus #4 - Bonds (RC)

Investment Potential: 5.5 out of 10

Another oddball set, with some cool looking cards that has some popularity with Bonds collectors.  It is rarer than most of the major issues--PSA has graded roughly 2100 cards with 336 PSA 10's---which are now selling at around $200.  If you want rarer oddball subsets, it's a cool one to have. 

Final Rankings - Barry Bonds Rookie Card Investment Potential

Note these investment rankings are primarily centered on our thoughts on the PSA 10 graded cards from each issue.  There may be some pullback due to Bonds not reaching the HOF in 2021, so I'd be patient if trying to build out a Bonds rookie portfolio. 

1.  1986 Fleer Update Bonds - 8.5 out of 10
2.  1987 Fleer Glossy - 8.5 out of 10
3.  1986 Topps Traded Tiffany - 8 out of 10
4.  1986 Donruss Rookies - 7.5 out of 10
5.  1986 Topps Traded - 7 out of 10
6.  1987 Topps Tiffany - 7 out of 10
7.   1987 Fleer - 7 out of 10
8.   1987 Donruss - 6.5 out of 10
9.   1987 Topps - 6 out of 10
10.  1986 Sportflics - 5.5 out of 10
11.  1987 Toysrus - 5.5 out of 10
12.  1987 Classic - 5 out of 10
13.  1987 Opening Day - 4.5 out of 10

oh and one last thing....

Fun Exercise--Comparing Barry Bonds PSA 10 Rookies To Michael Jordan 86 Fleer Rookie

This might be completely insane, but since the cards came out of the same exact time frame in sports, and the two players (despite the steroid stuff with Bonds) were basically the best among their peer group..maybe we should well compare values?  

Of course it's slightly insane--one, (aside from his Star cards) there really is only one accepted Jordan rookie card.   Bonds has many, and most trounced the production of the 86 Fleer set.  Although some didn't and some have much lower populations.  

We can see in the comparison below that many of Bonds harder to find PSA 10's--notably the 86 Topps Tiffany, 87 Topps Tiffany and 87 Fleer Glossy cards are quite near the graded population for Jordan and at tiny fraction of the value.

Yep, we get it...Bonds has the stain...Jordan is well the GOAT and really can do no wrong.  What do you think?  Should the Bonds rookies be worth more?  Let us know in the comments section!