Once upon a time, Barry Bonds rookie cards were on their way to becoming hobby royalty — maybe even hobby kings.

But, as Bonds’ own star began to dim during the PED scandal of the late 2000s and 2010s, his cards slid slowly from favor, too.

These days, Bonds remains outside of Cooperstown looking in, so far denied the Hall of Fame plaque that seemed his birthright for so long.

Even so, the hobby boom of the 2020s has carried Barry’s collectibles right along with it, and today his rookie cards enjoy strong popularity with collectors.

Hard to shake off those huge numbers completely, it seems, especially when they include the all-time records for single-season home runs, career home runs, and walks.

There are plenty of fans who still credit Roger Maris and Hank Aaron with those marks, of course, but enough collectors still love Bonds to keep him hobby-hot … he certainly seems to be faring better in that regard than Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa.

Here, then, is a complete guide (and pricing) to all Barry Bonds rookie cards — defined loosely here as any cards issued in 1986 or 1987. Prices are based on actual selling prices for PSA 10 copies of the cards, which you can track through the various PSA price guides.

Play ball!

(Note: The following sections contain affiliate links to eBay and Amazon listings for the cards being discussed.)

1) 1986 Donruss The Rookies Barry Bonds (#11)

1986 Donruss The Rookies Barry Bonds

Bonds was not the main impetus for Donruss’ entry into the year-end set fray — the 1986 exploits of Wally Joyner and Jose Canseco and, to a lesser extent, Bo Jackson gave rise to “The Rookies.”

All these years later, though, it’s Bonds duking it out with Bo for price supremacy in this debut set that was bold enough to tell the world it existed merely to capitalize on the rookie card craze sweeping the hobby.

Value: $200-250

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2) 1986 Fleer Update Barry Bonds (#U-14)

1986 Fleer Update Barry Bonds

Most of Bonds’ early cards feature the Pirates’ young star in a headshot, sometimes even gracing us with a smile.

His first Fleer issue, though, shows Bonds in his “office,” giving us all a preview of the batting stance that would come to fuel pitchers’ nightmares for the next two decades.

As with other year-end sets in 1986, Bonds was sort of an afterthought for most, a nice-to-have thrown in as window dressing for the Cansecos and Joyners we were really after. Even then, though, it was always neat to have another batting cage card.

Value: $375-400

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3) 1986 Topps Traded Barry Bonds (#11T)

1986 Topps Traded Barry Bonds

Even though it took collectors awhile to warm up to Bonds and his talents, and even though that relationship has always been rocky thanks to his controversies and not-so-warm-and-fuzzy personality, this 1986 Topps Traded card has become a hobby classic.

The initial big attractions in this set, of course, were the first Topps cards of Wally Joyner, Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson, and other headline rookies of the day.

Meanwhile, Bonds had the family name that generated some buzz, but it took a few years for his stats to catch up with his “tools.” Once they did, though, this was the card to grab, and it stands today with Bo as the top cards in the set.

(As with other Topps issues of the day, the 1986 Topps Traded – and the Bonds XRC – was also issued in a glossy “Tiffany” version. You can expect prices for the Bonds Tiffany to run 20-30X those of the non-glossy version.)

Value: $375-450

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4) 1986 Sportflics Rookies Barry Bonds (#13)

1986 Sportflics Rookies Barry Bonds

Sportflics wasted zero time diving into the year-end market, issuing their own “Rookies” set in 1986, their first year in the game.

And who could blame them?

With the whole hobby ablaze in rookie card mania, there was gold in them thar RCs!

Imagine how much this Bonds card might be worth today if only you could actually see him through all the Lenticular Magic Motion goodness and innovation that Sportflics unleashed on collectors.

Value: $45-65

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5) 1987 Donruss Barry Bonds Rookie Card (#361)

1987 Donruss Barry Bonds

Bonds didn’t warrant the Rated Rookies treatment for 1987 in Donruss’ eyes, but he still got the head-and-shoulders treatment, wearing a black jersey.

At the time, this card made a pretty nifty complement to the Bobby Bonilla rookie card from the same set, which featured a similar pose and proportion, with Bobby Bo in a white jersey.

What could have been better for Bucs fans, or for RC collectors?

Today, of course, these cards are in different leagues, as are the final stats of the two sluggers.

Value: $180-200

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6) 1987 Fleer Barry Bonds Rookie Card (#604)

1987 Fleer Barry Bonds

Like most other cards on this list, Bonds’ first base card from Fleer was a simple head-and-shoulders affair, with this one giving us a preview of the scowl that would become part of Barry’s stock-in-trade.

And, like most other cards on this list, the Fleer RC took awhile to capture collector hearts and wallets, but it does just fine for itself today, with or without Bonds having that Hall of Fame plaque.

There is also a glossy version of this card, which sells for about the same price as the base version.

Value: $250-275

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7) 1987 Topps Barry Bonds Rookie Card (#320)

1987 Topps Barry Bonds

After the bright white themes of Bonds’ 1986 Traded card, Topps featured the budding star in Bucs road grays — and in action! – on his 1987 woodie rookie card.

There are probably millions of these cards out there on the market today, but the 1987 Topps Bonds is an instantly recognizable classic.

As with the 1986 Topps Traded, this 1987 RC has a Tiffany counterpart, which generally sells for 8-10X the base issue prices.

Value: $225-250

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8) 1987 O-Pee-Chee Barry Bonds Rookie Card (#320)

1987 O-Pee-Chee Barry Bonds

The Canadian version of the Bonds rookie card seems to be *much* less plentiful than its Topps counterpart, with PSA having graded only about 1100 of the O-Pee-Chees as of February 2022 (compared to more than 17,000 of the Topps version).

Market prices tend to reflect this relative scarcity, making the OPC a key if you’re goal is to collect ALL of Bonds’ rookie cards.

The good news is, that while the PSA 10 prices are foreboding to mere mortals, prices fall to more earthly levels at lower grades (and raw).

Value: $18000-20000

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9) 1987 Leaf Barry Bonds (#219)

1987 Leaf Barry Bonds

As with the OPC-Topps pairing, the Canadian version of Bonds’ Donruss RC is much scarcer than the American version. Indeed, as of February 2022, PSA has graded nearly 27,000 of the Donruss Bonds cards, but fewer than 1700 copies of his Leaf rookie.

Accordingly, the Leaf version carries a significant price premium in most grades.

Value: $2000-3000

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10) 1987 Classic Yellow Update Barry Bonds (#113)

1987 Classic Yellow Update Barry Bonds

Part of a 50-card update to the original Classic set that was issued in conjunction with a board game, this Bonds card pretty much went unnoticed for much of its existence.

But it’s a nice looking issue that turns out to be limited by the standards of the day, with an announced print run of 150,000 sets.

Of those, about a third were mistakenly issued with green backs, while the other 100,000 feature the “corrected” yellow backs.

High-grade copies of the green-back Bonds sell for about 10X the value of the yellow-back version (prices below reflect the yellow version).

Value: $150-200

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11) 1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds Error (Johnny Ray) (#163)

1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds Error (Johnny Ray)

To show you how much Bonds *wasn’t* among the most hyped rookies of his day, Donruss issued the first batch of their Opening Day set with Barry wearing a black jersey – and looking JUST like Johnny Ray.

Donruss quickly corrected course, leaving us with one of the most scarce and valuable error cards of the 1980s.

Value: $3000-5000

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12) 1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds Corrected (#163)

1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds Corrected

This white-jersey version of the Bonds card – which actually does show Bonds – is a bit anomalous in its own right, seeing as how it shows Barry with that big old smile plastered across his face.

Nowhere near as scarce as the error version, this is nevertheless a popular early card of one of the game’s greatest hitters.

Value: $275-300

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13) 1987 Fleer Hottest Stars Barry Bonds (#5)

1987 Fleer Hottest Stars Barry Bonds

Distributed at Revco stores in 1987, Baseball’s Hottest Stars was one of about a bazillion box sets issued in the mid-1980s. And, to help the set live up to its name, Fleer included standouts like Scott Garrelts, Reggie Williams, and Bruce Ruffin in their 44-card checklist.

Truth be told, that group might have been a tad more impressive in 1987 than it reads now, but Barry himself doesn’t look all that enthused at being included in such a lineup.

Still, it’s an early Bonds card, and that makes it hobby gold … or at least, like, hobby aluminum foil.

Value: $400-500

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14) 1987 Sportflics Team Preview Barry Bonds Pittsburgh Pirates (#18)

1987 Sportflics Team Preview Barry Bonds Pittsburgh Pirates

As if having three indecipherable images on each card weren’t enough, Sportflics did us one (actually, eleven!) better in 1987 with their Team Preview set.

Featuring one card for each of the 26 MLB teams, Team Preview cut every card into quadrants, hammed a picture in each, and then didn their Magic Motion thing.

The result was 12 players per card, and a dramatic uptick in Dramamine sales.

Legend has it that a young Barry Bonds lurks somewhere in the Bucs melee, and you just might catch a glimpse of him … if you have the stomach for it.

Value: $20-30

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15) 1987 Topps All-Star Glossy Barry Bonds (#30)

1987 Topps All-Star Glossy Barry Bonds

Topps Send-In Glossies were the type of card that 1980s collectors clamored for every year – clean design, premium stock, great photography, super glossy.

And, while we would eventually get most of that in the premium sets of the 1990s, we could scratch at least some of our aesthetic itch with these babies.

All we had to do was collect six Spring Fever Baseball contest cards from Topps wax packs, send them in with a buck, and we’d get ten cards.

Do it five more times, and we’d have the whole set.

Young Barry was among those included, and he looks quite picturesque in his Pirates pillbox hat against a perfect baseball sky.

Value: $65-90

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16) 1987 Topps (Panini) Stickers Barry Bonds Neil Allen (#131)

1987 Topps (Panini) Stickers Barry Bonds Neil Allen

“Nothing too much to this “card,” which is just a standard two-player Topps sticker from the era.

As such, Bonds appears on a tiny, near-stamp-size swath of paper real estate, sharing space with Neil Allen, who crafted a fairly nondescript 11-year big league career as a reliever and swingman.

Of note, though, there are a couple of parallel versions of this one …

First, there is an O-Pee-Chee sticker, which sells for about the same as the Topps/Panino version.

And then there is a much more scarce Topps test issue that plopped the same sticker down on ‘hard” cardstock. It seldom shows up on the market, and when it does, prices are all over the place – expect to pay 2-10X the price of the base version for this one. “

Value: $300-400

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17) 1987 Toys R US Rookies Barry Bonds (#4)

1987 Toys R US Rookies Barry Bonds

Bonds looks quite pleased with himself on this one, part of a 33-card box set issued by Topps in conjunction with – you guessed it – Toys “R” Us.

Like a few other entries on this list, this card, and the entire set it was part of, was a nod to the raging rookie card mania in the hobby, and an attempt to capitalize on the same.

While collectors enjoyed these sets for the most part, they sort of got swallowed up in the Junk Wax glut for decades.

Today, though, you gotta have this card if you’re building out a Bonds master set, and it’s plenty popular in the modern hobby.

Value: $375-450

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1987 Donruss - #361 Barry Bonds (RC) SGC 8 Pirates

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End Date: Friday 12/13/2024 17:54:37 EST
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