Sports card collectors love their rookie cards. They particularly love those rookie cards when it coms to the players that the greatest of all-time, or the GOATs. In professional football, Tom Brady has become the undeniable GOAT for quarterbacks whether you count it up for Super Bowls, MVPs, touchdowns, or other metrics. But in passing yardage, Drew Brees is actually the quarterback with the highest passing yardage at 80,358 yards. With Tom Brady already seeing millions of dollars in card sales, what happens to football card prices after Tom Brady breaks Drew Brees passing record?

When Drew Brees announced his retirement from the NFL in 2021, that record-smashing 80,358 passing yards was accompanies by 7,142 completed passes and 571 touchdowns. Brees racked up just 243 interceptions over the course of 287 games. That was all over 19 full years playing (and 1 additional game in 2001). Two other key stats tracked are a career 67.69% completion rate and an average of 7.6 yards per pass.

Sports cards collectors now have to pay up handily for anything that is rare and in great condition tied to Tom Brady. His multi-million football card sales (see below) should say enough. Drew Brees’ football card sales would be impressive enough, but they have currently just not fetched the command prices that Brady has seen. There may be two words that sum this up and those words are “Super Bowls.” Tom Brady has played in 10 Super Bowl games. Brady’s record smashing 7 Super Bowl victories is handily above the 4 wins for Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw.

Tom Brady’s career has seen statistics that are nothing short of amazing. At age 44. he is still a starting quarterback heading into the 2021 NFL season. here are some of the heads-up direct quarterback statistical comparisons for Tom Brady versus Drew Brees:

• Brady has accumulated a 79,204 passing yards (1,104 short of Brees).
• Brady has had 6,778 completed passes (364 short of Brees).
• Brady did pass up Brees record on touchdowns (581 vs. 571) in 2021 with his 40 TDs versus just 24 for Brees in 2021.
• Brady has a lower number of interceptions (191 for Brady and 243 for Brees).
• Brady has played in 301 games (versus 287 games for Brees).
• Brady had a full career since 2001 outside of just 1 game in 2008 and 1 game in 2000, which comes very close to Brees 19 full years playing plus his 1 additional game in 2001).
• Brady’s percentage rate is 63.96% (under Brees’ 67.69% rate).
• Brady’s average passing yards of 7.5 is just under Drew Bree’s 7.6 yards per pass.

Drew Brees holds another record that requires a quarterback’s health and persistence. Brees holds an amazing streak of 54 consecutive games throwing at least one touchdown. The prior record he broke in 2012, which had been held by Johnny Unitas’ 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass and a record that held for 52 years.

According to the NFL.com’s retirement announcement, Brees had several other key milestones. These included the following:

• 13 trips to the Pro Bowl,
• 2 AP Offensive Player of the Year,
• a 2006 Walter Payton Man of The Year honor,
• 2009 Saints only Super Bowl appearance and victory (and the Super Bowl MVP).

Drew Brees’ March 14 retirement announcement went into effect in per the league’s transaction wire and official retirement filing in June. By the sound of Brees’ own words and notes on his arm condition he isn’t going to come out of retirement if another team needs him.

As of now, whatever Brady needs for passing up Brees can all be handled in a few games as long he is healthy and as long as he lives up to historical performance. And as for those 40 TDs in 2020 with the Buccaneers, that was second only to his 50 TD passes with the Patriots in 2007.

So while Brady gets to go out and claim that all-time passing yard record, what about the value of the highest-selling Drew Brees cards? Collectors Dashboard has tracked multiple sales from multiple sources for this analysis and not all are rookie cards. (Drew Brees rookie card image below from PWCC Marketplace) Here are some of those sales:

• Heritage Auctions – 2001 Playoff Contenders Drew Brees (Auto) #124 PSA Gem Mint 10, Auto 10 – Population 3 sold for $40.800 on December 11, 2020.
• Heritage Auctions – 2001 Fleer E-X Drew Brees (Essential Credentials Future) #95 PSA Gem Mint 10 #24/29 – Population 1sold for $12,600 on February 28, 2021.
• Heritage Auctions – 2001 Topps Chrome Rookie Refractor Drew Brees #229 PSA Gem Mint 10 (#305/999) sold for $11,100.00 on December 11, 2020.
• Heritage Auctions – 2001 Bowman Chrome Autograph Drew Brees #BC-DB BGS Mint 9 sold for $8.700 on July 23, 2021.
• Goldin Auctions – 2019 Panini Immaculate Collection Immaculate Trios Autographs #1 Drew Brees/Peyton Manning/Tom Brady signed card (#5/5) BGS MINT 9/BGS 10 sold for $14,400.00 in May 2021.
• Goldin Auctions – 2001 Quantum Leaf #202 Drew Brees Signed Rookie Card (12/20) PSA GEM MT 10 (1 of 2) sold for $9,225.00 on February 22, 2020.
• Goldin Auctions – 2001 Playoff Contenders #124 Drew Brees Signed Rookie Card (/500) BGS MINT 9/BGS 10 sold for $5,700.00 on 10/31-11/1. 2020.
• Goldin Auctions – 2009 Topps Unique “Triple Threat Jersey Autos” #BBM Drew Brees/Tom Brady/Peyton Manning Signed Game-Used Jersey Card (3/5) BGS GEM MINT 9.5/BGS 10 sold for $5,400.00 on May22/23, 2021.
• eBay (PWCC Auctions) – 2001 Playoff Contenders Drew Brees Rookie RC AUTO #124 PSA 10 GEM MINT sold for $35,300.00 on May 31, 2021.
• eBay (PWCC Vault) – 2001 SP Authentic Gold Drew Brees ROOKIE RC /100 #101 PSA 10 GEM MINT (Pop. 1 of 6) sold on July 25, 2021. That price was listed as $15,000.00, but it also came with the “or Best Offer” designation which means it could much lower.
• PWCC – 2001 Topps Chrome Black Refractor Drew Brees Rookie (/100) #229 PSA 10 sold for $9,588.00 on August 21, 2019.
• PWCC – 2001 Topps Chrome Refractor Drew Brees Rookie (/999) #229 PSA 10 sold for $9,075.00 on September 24, 2018.

Several other cards also were seen on the PWCC sales history, and these were the cards we saw from high price to low price. All of these cards were variations of the 2001 Playoff Contenders Drew Brees Rookie Auto #24 and each one is listed by price, date and grade. These were not sorted by grading serial number to determine if the same exact card was sold more than once, but these sales were recorded as follows:

• $40,347.00 – Feb 17, 2021 – PSA 10
• $35,300.00 – May 31, 2021 – PSA 10
• $35,100.00 – May 25, 2021 – PSA 10
• $24,400.00 – Sep 24, 2018 – PSA 10
• $16,477.00 – Jan 24, 2019 – PSA 10
• $15,000.00 – Dec 11, 2018 – PSA 10

While the focus has been about Drew Brees sales here, Tom Brady cards (image below from PWCC Marketplace) have already seen major record-smashing sales for football cards. Collectors Dashboard outlined just a few days earlier about the record-shattering prices, and here are some of those prices without detail:

• $3,107,372.40
• $2.88 million
• $2,252,854.80
• $1.68 million
• $1.59 million
• $1.02 million
• $1.08 million

Now let’s put these quarterback greats against two vintage iconic greats who also came up side-by-side in the 1950s and who played into the 1970s. Collectors Dashboard outlined which of these stars has a better shine today, and it is not even deterred by a handily lower population in one versus the other:

• Bart Starr led the Packers from 1956 to 1971 to six division titles, five NFL titles and two Super Bowl titles. Bart Starr played in 196 games and ended with 24,718 yards passing. He had 152 touchdowns credited and a 57.4% percentage completion rate.
• Johnny Unitas had over 40,000 passing yards after a 211 game career, spanning from 1956 to 1973. Unitas ended with 290 touchdown passes, with 40,239 passing yards and a 54.6% completion rate. Unitas managed to win four championship titles; three pre-merger era and one Super Bowl.