Five iconic football rookie cards tell history of Cowboys-Packers NFL rivalry
The latest chapter in the storied rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers will take place on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”
From NFL Championship showdowns between teams coached by Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry to a “Sunday Night Football” duel between Jordan Love and Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers have engaged in epic battles. Five iconic football rookie cards help tell the story of one of the most historically significant rivalries in NFL history.
The Sunday prime time game on the Week 4 schedule of the 2025 NFL season could move the needle within the football card market beyond the game’s two quarterbacks.
Dak Prescott of the Cowboys and Jordan Love of the Packers are under the microscope every time they take the field. According to Card Ladder, Prescott’s football card market is up 10.35% over the last three months, with Love’s market up 4.08% since late June.
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The card values of Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens are on the rise as CeeDee Lamb deals with an ankle injury. A PSA 10-graded copy of Pickens’ 2022 Panini Prizm Football (#329) Silver rookie card (population of 139) sold for $62 on Wednesday, marking the highest Card Ladder-verified sale of the card since a $72 sale on eBay on July 26.
The Card Ladder index of All-Pro defensive end Micah Parsons, traded to Green Bay from Dallas in late August, is up 38.79 percent over the last three months. The three-month trend on Parsons’ 2021 Panini Prizm Football (#382) Silver rookie card as a PSA 10 (population of 224) is even better, with the card up 42.67 percent.
While the players on the field at AT&T Stadium on Sunday will look to make their mark on a rivalry between two franchises with nine Super Bowl wins between them, five iconic rookie cards help tell the story of why modern-day meetings between the Cowboys and Packers are special.
Bart Starr, 1957 Topps (#119)
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Starr quarterbacked Vince Lombardi’s Packers to five NFL championships in his nine seasons with the franchise, including a pair of last-second, memorable wins over the Cowboys in 1966 and 1967.
Green Bay’s 34-27 triumph at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Jan. 1, 1967 punched the Packers’ ticket to Super Bowl I. The return bout at Lambeau Field, known in NFL lore as the “Ice Bowl” because of the sub-zero temperatures in which the game was played, was also won by Green Bay, 21-17, with Starr’s 1-yard touchdown run with 13 seconds to play clinching a Packers victory.
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Football card sets don’t get more iconic than 1957 Topps. Seven rookie cards of eventual Pro Football Hall of Fame selections headline the set, with Starr making his Topps debut alongside football legends including Dick “Night Train” Lane (#85), Raymond Berry (#94), Johnny Unitas (#138) and Paul Hornung (#151).
Starr’s rookie card, a short print in the set, according to Trading Card Database, has only been graded 2,196 times. The card’s rarity, combined with Starr’s legendary status (he was named MVP of the Packers’ wins in the first two Super Bowls), enhances its perception as a grail for football card collectors.
The most recent PSA-graded Starr rookie card to sell was a PSA 1, which went for a winning bid of $406 in an eBay auction on Friday. While there are no PSA 10s in existence, the PSA 9 population of Starr’s rookie card is three, the most recent of which sold for $288,000 on Feb. 24, 2017.
Troy Aikman, 1989 Score (#270)
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The Packers won their last game of the 1988 season, wrapping up a 4-12 campaign with a 26-17 victory over the Cardinals. While winning the battle ensured Green Bay wouldn’t own the NFL’s worst record, the Cowboys, who went 3-13 in Tom Landry’s final season on the sideline, won the war, ending up with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft.
Aikman quarterbacked Dallas to three Super Bowl wins in his Hall of Fame career, recording an 11-4 record in 15 playoff starts. Three of those 11 wins came at the expense of the Packers, including a 38-27 victory in the 1995 NFC Championship Game.
Score’s 1989 football set includes 11 Hall of Fame rookie cards. Aikman is one of five first-round picks from the 1989 draft to have a base rookie card in Score’s inaugural football set, along with Deion Sanders (#246), Barry Sanders (#257), Derrick Thomas (#258) and Steve Atwater (#263).
A PSA 10 (population of 1,897) Aikman Score rookie card last sold for $575 on Saturday. For collectors wanting to pick up arguably Aikman’s most notable rookie card at a lower price point, an eBay auction for a PSA 9 (population of 8,156) ended on Friday with a $40 winning bid.
Emmitt Smith 1990 Score Supplemental (#101T)
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If the Packers had held onto the No. 1 overall pick in 1989 and the Cowboys hadn’t traded one spot ahead of Green Bay in the 1990 NFL Draft, Smith, Aikman and Sterling Sharpe might’ve flourished as a different version of what the triplets (Aikman, Smith and Michael Irvin) became in Dallas.
Regardless, the Cowboys snagged Smith, the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing yards (18,355), with the No. 17 overall pick in 1990, while the Packers took linebacker Tony Bennett with the No. 18 overall selection. Smith saved one of his best playoff performances for the 1995 NFC Championship Game, rushing for 150 yards and three touchdowns, eliminating Green Bay from the playoffs and putting Dallas on a path toward the franchise’s third Super Bowl in four years.
Smith’s 1990 Score Supplemental rookie card hit the market in the midst of the sports card hobby’s junk wax era. Still, the product’s release as a boxed set exclusive to hobby dealers could be why the PSA total population (11,591 graded), and the number of PSA 10 copies in existence (796) doesn’t speak to an era of mass production, which has significantly hampered the long-term value of cards from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Goldin Auctions is responsible for the most recent sale of a PSA 10 Smith Score Supplemental; an auction closed on Wednesday with a winning bid of $1,586. ALT sold a PSA 9 copy of the card (a transaction verified by Card Ladder) on Thursday for $102.
Brett Favre, 1991 Topps Stadium Club (#94)
When Favre led the Packers to a win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, it capped a stretch in which Green Bay and the Cowboys combined to win four Super Bowl titles in five years (1992-96).
A winner of three consecutive NFL MVP awards (1995-97), Favre’s epic battles against Dallas occurred while he was helping Green Bay reclaim the “Titletown” moniker. Arguably the most popular Packer in the franchise’s storied history, Favre’s selection by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft means his licensed NFL rookie cards feature him in a Falcons uniform.
Favre’s Topps Stadium Club rookie card, however, shows him in action as a college quarterback during his days as a Southern Miss quarterback.
Stadium Club was Topps’ answer to Upper Deck’s highly successful entry into the hobby, with the set focused on high-gloss cards and noted for exceptional photography. One of Favre’s PSA 10 (population of 2,085) Stadium Club rookie cards sold for $209.50 in an eBay auction on Tuesday.
A PSA 9-graded copy of the card, on which Favre’s last name is misspelled, went for $23.77 in an eBay auction on Friday.
Aaron Rodgers, 2005 Topps (#431)
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Favre’s successor in Green Bay, Rodgers has played a role in the Cowboys’ failure to reach the NFC Championship Game since their win over the Packers on Jan. 14, 1996.
Dallas had its 2014 and 2016 seasons end with losses to Rodgers and the Packers, the former in controversial fashion with the Dez Bryant fourth-down catch eventually ruled an incomplete pass after a review. Including the playoffs, Rodgers has won eight of his 11 starts against the Cowboys in his decorated career.
The No. 24 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, Rodgers is four-time NFL MVP (all won while with Green Bay) and quarterbacked the Packers to the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl in 2010. Rodgers has more rookie cards for collectors to choose from than the four aforementioned players, but his Topps flagship base card checks a lot of boxes.
The PSA 10 population closing in on 4,000 (3,957) makes it more accessible to collectors of all budgets. The most recent Card Ladder-verified sale is an eBay auction, which ended on Saturday with a winning bid of $153.50.
Football card enthusiasts who want to level up for a Rodgers rookie card can do so with his Topps Chrome (#190) base card.
A PSA 10 (population of 282) sold for $1,291.99 in an eBay auction on Thursday, Sept. 18. According to Card Ladder, the most recent verified sale of a PSA 9 (population of 881) Rodgers Topps Chrome base card was an eBay sale of $140.50 on Wednesday.