- Drawn to Cards
- Posts
- Moving Over to PSA Graded Football Cards of the 1970s
Moving Over to PSA Graded Football Cards of the 1970s
Plus My First T206 Ever
Marc From Vintage Card Voyage
September 29, 2025
This week’s newsletter is a bit abbreviated, since I’ve been busy with the family, but I did have the opportunity to do two things this weekend that, four years ago, I would’ve never thought I would look forward to: running more than 10 miles (much less a mile …) and going antiquing.
I’m at the tail-end of training for a half marathon, my second one in four-and-a-half months, as I aim to improve considerably upon my last race, along with getting me ready to eventually run my first full marathon. As far as mid-life crises go, running isn’t a terrible one, even though my kids continue to be baffled by why I would run without someone forcing me to. Honestly, I do enjoy it (something my feet might disagree with), as it’s nice to challenge myself and it feels good, both mentally and physically.
Meanwhile, antiquing seems like the natural progression from garage sales, with the assumption being that I’d have a higher likelihood of finding vintage cards at antique stores/malls. Unfortunately, not everyone’s definitions of vintage cards is the same.
In this issue you'll find:
The NFL’s most graded cards of the 1970s
Antiquing adventures
News in the hobby
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos
Let’s get into it.
Hobby Thoughts: The Most PSA-Graded 1970s Football Cards
I thought about tabulating the number of graded baseball cards in the 1940s but figured there wouldn’t be enough to provide any sort of valuable information, and the same is presumably true for the previous decades, thus the move to football cards.
Here’s the list of the most graded Topps card each year:
Year | Player | Total Graded |
|---|---|---|
1970 | O.J. Simpson | 6,084 |
1971 | Terry Bradshaw | 6,427 |
1972 | Roger Staubach | 6,205 |
1973 | Franco Harris | 3,615 |
1974 | Roger Staubach | 1,101 |
1975 | Dan Fouts | 3,212 |
1976 | Walter Payton | 16,921 |
1977 | Steve Largent | 5,095 |
1978 | Tony Dorsett | 5,848 |
1979 | Earl Campbell | 7,314 |
Not surprisingly, it’s rookie galore, with the only year that’s not the case being 1974, when the most graded rookie, John Hannah, finished fifth (with Ray Guy’s rookie card one card behind in sixth). Since I think it’s fair to say that the 1970s were dominated by popular quarterbacks and running backs, it’s easy to understand why a HOF guard and punter might not be the most sought-after cards to get graded, and that may also explain why the grading totals were so low that year (only two cards - Staubach and Terry Bradshaw - have been graded more than 1,000 times so far).
It’s also notable how much Walter Payton’s graded total is comparatively, as it’s more than the next two highest combined. It makes sense, as it’s likely the most iconic card of the decade. Sweetness is one of five running backs to lead the list, with three quarterbacks (Staubach twice) and one wide receiver.
And here’s the top 10 list by total graded:
Year | Player | Total Graded |
|---|---|---|
1976 | Walter Payton | 16,921 |
1979 | Earl Campbell | 7,314 |
1971 | Terry Bradshaw | 6,427 |
1972 | Roger Staubach | 6,205 |
1970 | O.J. Simpson | 6,084 |
1978 | Tony Dorsett | 5,848 |
1977 | Steve Largent | 5,095 |
1977 | Walter Payton | 3,689 |
1973 | Franco Harris | 3,615 |
1978 | Walter Payton | 3,401 |
If you had given me ten guesses, I don’t think I would’ve come up with Earl Campbell’s rookie card being the second-most-graded card of the decade. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Campbell was an awesome running back, but I just didn’t realize he was that well-loved relative to other legends of the decade - and him beating out a contemporary running back like Dorsett is especially surprising. I’d be curious to know if others have thoughts as to why that is.
Some other observations:
Even though Walter Payton only had cards for four of the 10 years in the decade, he still managed to have the most graded cards with nearly 27,000 total, finishing second each year that wasn’t his rookie year. Terry Bradshaw, who had cards in nine different years, finished second with more than 17,500 graded cards.
The highest ranked defensive players were Joe Greene and Jack Lambert, who both finished second in their respective rookie years. And, not surprisingly, the decade was filled with their fellow Pittsburgh Steelers, who placed 23 different graded cards within the 100 cards that made up the top 10. Next was the Chicago Bears with 15 and the Dallas Cowboys with 13. (Editor’s Note: No Detroit Lions?!?! This is an outrage.)
Along with Walter Payton, there were a number of other players who showed up every year they had a base card in the 1970s: Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Gale Sayers, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Joe Namath and Dick Butkus. No one, though, managed to make the list every year during the decade.
Nine non-Hall of Famers made the lists, and five of them were quarterbacks. Can you name the quarterbacks? Hint: Every card was their rookie card - two in 1972, one in 1973, one in 1975, and one in 1979.
Antiquing Adventures
I visited nearly 10 antique stores over the weekend. First off, I have to thank to my wife and kids for allowing me the opportunity. They went above and beyond.
Overall, it was a lot of fun to search through each of them, ever hoping to find something cool, but I wasn’t as successful as I thought I’d be. Sure, a lot of the places had sports cards, but most of them were junk wax era cards (which is apparently considered “vintage” to many people) and, generally speaking, the pricing was a bit ridiculous. Here’s an extreme example: At one antique mall, I saw a 1990s Michael Jordan card, raw, priced at $200! And, no, it wasn’t an insert or anything of note. The guy working there admitted he wasn’t sure what the person selling the card was thinking by listing it at that price. Many others felt like they had been priced at the Covid peak and never updated.
All that said, I did buy a few things, including my first T206:
It’s a 1909-11 T206 Doc Casey Sweet Caporal. There’s nothing notable about it, per se, other than it’s my first T206 card. In fact, it’s my first tobacco card, and my first baseball card older than 1948. And while it has an obvious crease and dinged corners, I thought the centering and color made it look pretty outstanding, especially for a card that’s over a century old. And, as I found out, Casey once played with the Detroit Tigers and, per this Wikipedia article, he was also briefly a scout for the team and spent most of his post-baseball life in Detroit, so clearly I was meant to have this card.
News Briefs
Vintage Card Voyage: Recent Videos
Thanks for reading. Subscribe for future issues, share with those you think would enjoy the newsletter, and please also check out and subscribe to Vintage Card Voyage.
Reply