Barry Bonds is a record-breaking monolith in the game of baseball, so of course his trading cards would follow suit. See which of the most expensive Barry Bonds cards knock your expectations out of the park.
6 Most Valuable Barry Bonds Cards
With a three-decade-long career and a two-time home run record-breaking feather in his baseball cap, Barry Bonds is the kind of player you don’t forget about. While his game bats and jerseys bring in six figures at auction, there are also a handful of his trading cards that pull in quite a profit.
| Most Valuable Barry Bonds Cards | Recent Sales Prices |
|---|---|
| 1986 Topps Traded Rookie #11 | $36,000 |
| 1987 O-Pee-Chee #320 | $23,350 |
| 1987 Topps #320 With Errors | $12,000 |
| 1987 Donruss #163 With Errors | $5,400 |
| 2000 Fleer Focus #218M | $2,640 |
| 1991 Topps Desert Shield #570 | $2,400 |
1986 Topps Traded Rookie #11
Barry Bonds's MLB debut season with the Pittsburg Pirates kicked off in 1986. Topps commemorated his rookie season with their ’86 #11 Barry Bonds rookie card. It’s stereotypical of most 1980s baseball cards with a simple low-resolution portrait of Bonds in his uniform splashed across the front.
An unassuming card when it was first released, Bonds’s rookie has grown in value exponentially since his record-setting career came to an end. Today, in top-notch condition it can go for thousands at auction. Recently, one gem mint 10 (aka perfect condition) #11 rookie sold at a Goldin Auctions for $36,000.
Looking to sell your old baseball cards? Consider getting their condition graded by one of the big three assessors in the game: PSA, BGS, and SGC.
1987 O-Pee-Chee #320
Much like Wayne Gretzky’s O-Pee-Chee rookie, one of Barry Bonds's most valuable cards is a rare O-Pee-Chee issue. O-Pee-Chee was a Canadian card manufacturer that was closely linked with Topps and grew a reputation with collectors for putting out some of the best holy grail cards for their collections.
Considering baseball is America’s favorite pastime — at least, at one point — there wasn’t the audience for large print runs in the Canadian market. So, if you can snag Bonds’s 1987 O-Pee-Chee #320, grab it and run. You might just be like one lucky seller who parted with their perfect condition #320 for $23,350 in 2021.
Related: 10 Most Valuable Topps Baseball Cards That Sell for Top Dollar
1987 Topps #320 With Errors
One Barry Bonds trading card that’s infamous for being riddled with valuable errors is the 1987 Topps #320. From accidental ink deposits to half-printed numbers, the errors on these cards are endless. Yet, what might’ve been a huge bummer for kids tearing into their card packs on a bright late-80s afternoon is a great boon for opportunistic collectors.
Despite this card having a higher error-to-non-error ratio than most, they’re still not the gold standard. Which means they’re uncommon enough to pique interest at auction. In fact, one #320 recently sold on eBay for $12,000.
1987 Donruss #163 With Errors
Another Barry Bonds card from 1987 with significant enough errors to draw a crowd comes from the lesser-known brand Donruss. Error cards from high-profile players like Barry Bonds always do well at auction, even if they’re one-offs from less big names in the business.
The Donruss card to look out for is #163. It has all the trappings of a Barry Bonds trading card save for the portrait of his teammate Johnny Ray splashed across the front. Even in great condition, this card does perform less spectacularly than others on this list with one selling in 2023 for only $5,400.
2000 Fleer Focus #218M
While you won’t be finding Barry Bonds’s 2000 Fleer Focus #218M card in the wild anytime soon, you can keep your eyes peeled for others of its ilk. This card — that sold for $2,640 on Heritage Auctions in 2023 — is a rare 1 of 1. Which means only one of these cards was even made.
These 1-of-1s amount to some of the most valuable sports cards in the world, so it’s always good to look at the fine print on all the old cards you flip through.
1991 Topps Desert Sheild #570
In some cases, common cards can become best-sellers. Over time, even the most prolific cards start to dwindle in number. That’s because cards get used as bookmarks, traded for better ones, and forgotten about.
Such is the case for Barry Bonds’s 1991 Topps Desert Shield #570 card. It might not be that striking at the outset, but according to Heritage Auctions, only 29 of these cards have been assessed and given a perfect condition score. The fewer examples of perfect condition cards you have, the more those will be worth at auction.
One of these came up for sale in 2022, and it went for $2,400.
We’ve Got Baseball Diamonds in Our Eyes
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend… or in this case, baseball diamonds. You don’t have to be a baseball diehard fan to know Barry Bonds's name. And it's this worldwide recognition that makes some of his trading cards so impressively expensive.
