Sports Cards: 10 Most Valuable Baseball Rookie Cards of the 1990s (2024)

Let's say you did some baseball card collecting during the 1990s, and now you're revisiting your old collection and wondering if anything you have is valuable.

We've got you covered!

Ahead, we've taken a closer look at the 10 most valuable rookie cards of the 1990s. A few important parameters for our list before we get started:

Off we go!

Raw: $15
PSA 9: $50
PSA 10: $300

The No. 1 prospect in baseball at the start of the 1996 and 1997 seasons, Andruw Jones is one of the most hyped minor leaguers of all time, and homering twice in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series when he was only 19 years old only fueled the fire.

When he burst onto the scene, his rookie cards were among the hottest sellers in the entire hobby. The fact that there are only two of them has helped increase demand, with the 1995 Bowman and 1995 Bowman's Best sets containing his only rookies.

While both cards sell for a similar price ungraded, the shiny foil nature of the Bowman's Best card makes it extremely difficult to find them in gem mint condition. Only 373 of the 3,125 submitted to PSA have come back with a PSA 10 grade.

Total Rookie Cards: 2

Raw: $20
PSA 9: $50
PSA 10: $250

The 1990 Leaf set is one of the iconic releases of the Junk Wax Era, produced by Donruss as a premium product to compete with Upper Deck. The product was only available to hobby dealers and a few select retail outlets, and the result was a smaller print-run than the massively overproduced counterparts of the era.

The checklist includes rookies of Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, David Justice and John Olerud, along with a second-year card of Ken Griffey Jr., but the most sought-after card in the set without question is the Frank Thomas rookie card.

With 10,886 PSA 9 and 3,857 PSA 10 in circulation, it's not hard to find a high-grade version, but they still sell for a premium as an iconic card of one of the decade's biggest stars.

Total Rookie Cards: 6

Raw: $15
PSA 9: $100
PSA 10: $1,000

The No. 17 overall pick in the 1995 draft, Roy Halladay debuted in 1998 and pitched well in a swingman role the following year, but he was shelled to the tune of a 10.64 ERA in 67.2 innings in 2000. Two years later, he was an All-Star for the first time, and the year after that he won his first of two Cy Young awards.

He would finish in the top five in Cy Young balloting a total of seven times in his career, and he was undoubtedly one of the elite pitchers of his generation.

Despite being a first-round pick in '95, he did not appear on his first MLB licensed card until 1997 when he was included in the Bowman, Bowman Chrome and Bowman's Best sets. His first Topps card didn't come until the 1998 flagship set.

Total Rookie Cards: 3

Raw: $20
PSA 9: $100
PSA 10: $900

One of the most popular players of his era, Vladimir Guerrero was the No. 2 prospect in baseball at the start of the 1997 season after hitting .360/.431/.618 with 72 extra-base hits, 19 steals and more walks (54) than strikeouts (52) between High-A and Double-A as a 22-year-old.

A dynamic power-speed threat early in his career, he eventually settled in as more of a middle-of-the-order run producer. In 16 seasons, he hit .318/.379/.553 for a 140 OPS+ with 449 home runs, 1,496 RBI and 59.5 WAR, and he earned Hall of Fame induction in 2018.

His only rookie cards are in the 1995 Bowman and Bowman's Best sets, as Bowman Chrome would not be introduced until two years later. Similar to the Andruw Jones cards in the same set, high-grade versions of the Bowman's Best card command a premium price.

Total Rookie Cards: 2

Raw: $60
PSA 9: $100
PSA 10: $400

Drafted in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft as a favor to Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who was a family friend and the godfather of his younger brother, Mike Piazza went on to become the greatest offensive catcher in MLB history.

After a slow start to his minor league career, he put together a breakout season at High-A in 1991, hitting .277/.344/.540 with 27 doubles, 29 home runs and 80 RBI in 117 games. He made his MLB debut the following year after continuing to rake in the upper levels of the minors and then took the league by storm with one of the best rookie seasons of all time in 1993.

While his 1992 Bowman rookie is one of the iconic cards of the 1990s, it's actually his 1992 Fleer Update card that earns a spot on this most valuable list. Due to poor sales of the previous Fleer Update sets, the print run was slashed for the 1992 release, making it one of the few hard-to-find sets of the Junk Wax Era. The checklist also contains rookie cards of Jeff Kent and Tim Wakefield.

Raw: $35
PSA 9: $120
PSA 10: $500

The 1997 Bowman set was one of the most popular of the late 1990s.

The hype surrounding Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Travis Lee and Chicago Cubs phenom Kerry Wood helped drive interest initially, but it's Adrian Beltre who wound up having the most valuable rookie card in a set that also contains first-year cards of Roy Halladay, Aramis Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman, Eric Chavez, Vernon Wells and many other notable 2000s standouts.

Beltre is viewedas a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer when he is eligible for the first time in 2024, andthis is a card that still has some room to grow in value.

His other rookie cards are in the 1997 Bowman and 1997 Bowman's Best sets, while his first Topps card was in the 1998 flagship set where he's pictured alongside fellow third base prospect Aaron Boone.

Total Rookie Cards: 3

Raw: $80
PSA 9: $185
PSA 10: $900

The New York Yankees signed 20-year-old Mariano Rivera out of Panama on Feb. 17, 1990, and he allowed just 17 hits and one earned run with 58 strikeouts in 52 innings in his pro debut at the rookie ball level later that year.

He continued to impress at Single-A the following year, and that was enough to earn him a spot on the 1992 Bowman checklist. A vast improvement over previous Bowman releases, the set has held its value better than most of its contemporaries thanks largely to the fact that it was printed to dealer order, meaning a much lower print run than the rest of the market that year.

His enduring popularity for a major market team, legendary career, and the fact that it's his only true rookie card have helped make this one of the most valuable raw cards of the 1990s, with ungraded versions regularly topping $100. He didn't appear on his first Topps card until the 1995 Topps Traded set, following his MLB debut.

Total Rookie Cards: 1

Raw: $20
PSA 9: $380
PSA 10: $7,500

Hyped as a generational talent and future superstar from the moment he was taken No. 1 overall in the 1993 draft, Alex Rodriguez debuted the following year and then set the card market ablaze when he hit .358/.414/.631 with 54 doubles, 36 home runs, 123 RBI and 141 runs scored in his age-20 season to finish runner-up in MVP voting and win the AL batting title.

At his peak, ungraded versions of his 1994 SP rookie card regularly sold for hundreds of dollars, though his eventual PED suspension and subsequent fall from grace took a significant bite out of their value.

That said, the condition-sensitive nature of the 1994 SP set's foil design makes high-grade versions difficult to find and therefore valuable. To that point, only 59 of 16,753 that have been graded by PSA have come back with a PSA 10 grade.

Total Rookie Cards: 6

Raw: $120
PSA 9: $400
PSA 10: $2,000

Despite hitting .322/.390/.511 with 34 doubles, 18 home runs and 93 RBI at Single-A in 1996, only the Fleer company had the foresight to put David Ortiz in its 1997 products, meaning the 1997 Fleer and premium 1997 Ultra sets contain the only two rookie cards of one of the marquee players of his generation.

Ortiz spent six seasons with the Minnesota Twins before joining the Boston Red Sox in 2003, and he immediately broke out as one of the game's premier run producers. He went on to rack up 541 home runs, 1,769 RBI and three World Series rings on his way to first-ballot Hall of Famer status.

Still known as David Arias when his rookie cards were printed, it wasn't until he made his MLB debut late in the 1997 season that he informed the Twins that he preferred David Ortiz. Both of his rookies eclipsed $100 raw following his Hall of Fame announcement, but it's the Ultra version that sells for slightly higher in high-grade condition.

Total Rookie Cards: 2

Raw: $300
PSA 9: $8,500
PSA 10: N/A

This is the holy grail of 1990s baseball cards.

Upper Deck released its super-premium SP product line during the same year that Topps (Finest) and Fleer (Flair) unveiled their own high-end set, but SP is the only one that contains a rookie card of New York Yankees superstar Derek Jeter.

Add to that the fact that the 20-card "Premiere Prospects" subset that Jeter is included in has a foil design that shows any and all imperfections, and it's virtually impossible to find a gem mint version of the card.

How impossible?

Of the 19,386 submitted to PSA to date, only 621 have even received a PSA 9 grade, with a mere 21 coming back with the vaunted PSA 10 gem mint grade. Clean-looking raw versions regularly sell for over $1,000 on eBay, with buyers hoping to strike gold by getting it graded.

Total Rookie Cards: 8

All card images courtesy of TCDB, while pricing data is pulled from recent eBay sales as of Thursday morning. Stats via Baseball Reference.