A look at Formula One trading cards and top prices
F1 trading cards have been around for a long time but ever since Topps secured the licensing rights for Formula One in 2020, the collectors market has transformed by opening up to a new collector demographic (arguably even non-F1 and cross-over MLB and NBA fans) that has energised rare card values and moved them into the stratosphere (aided by the new army of F1 fans via Netflix’s Drive to Survive).
Since the 80’s, the mainstay of F1 trading cards were Futera and Panini cards. You can still see these being traded on eBay and specialist collector websites like collectors.com.
Panini F1 Grand Prix Sticker album McLaren page with Alain’s sticker
Alan Prost McLaren Rookie Panini sticker SGC graded
Panini
Panini (Italian publisher) are well known for their football and basketball sticker albums. Panini’s are actually stickers rather than traditional opaque cards. They also produced a F1 card sticker album in the 1980s – the stickers are translucent and do not have any rear content like modern F1 cards. The Panini Supersports series though have a sticker backing with the typical driver bio details. No surprise that the popular Panini stickers are the world champions from that era – Senna, Prost, Lauda, Piquet Snr.
1994 Futera Schumacher (500 pcs)
Futera
Futera (Dubai based publisher) were licensed for F1 trading cards for 1994-1995 season, 2005 season and Michael Schumacher Platinum 2000 season – so late Senna, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso tend to be the more sought after Futera cards. The vast majority of these cards resold on collector websites are ungraded. Lewis Hamilton was GP2 champion in 2006 and Futera did include a Lewis rookie GP2 card in its 2006 collection.
Grid Formula One
Grid produced a 200 set collector card edition for the 1992 F1 season which included a special Gilles Villeneuve card set. The cards were also available in 8 card packs. The highly sought after card in this set is the Michael Schumacher #51. The resale value for a PSA10 graded card seems to fluctuate between USD$800-2000.
Hakkinen rookie card
Protracs
Protracs (Canadian publisher) released a 200 trading card set for the 1991 F1 season which also included subset series of cards for Senna (11), Prost (13) and Mansell (11). While both Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen both debuted in F1 during 1991, the Protracs set only has a rookie card for Mika Häkkinen.
Scanlens
Scanlens were a well known football card publisher in Australia in the 70’s that included a stick of bubble gum with their sealed card packs. They produced a Motor Racing card series for 1986 and some of their F1 cards still attract decent bidding on ebay. The Senna #65 Portrait card fetches good prices for its age.
The Magic Senna
A 162 card set Senna sticker card set was released in Europe in 1995 by PMC featuring a German brochure and album sleeve. The cards for each Senna GP with race statistics for (laps, starts, accidents, fastest lap, pole, winner) are in English on the rear face of the card.
Topps Cards
Like their baseball and basketball counterparts, Topps (www.topps.com) produces different limited sets of F1 cards for each season and also live action cards for each race. For example, you can buy the Lewis 2021 Brazil GP fightback victory card from last weekend’s race for USD9.99 on the Topps NOW section of their site.
Topps produce various different F1 themed card sets:
- Turbo Attax – general entry level. 2020 season had 180 cards in the collection
- Topps Chrome – base set of 200 cards which includes F1 drivers, team principals, F2 drivers, team cars and “parallel” cards that are basically the same image and content of the standard base card with a variation in the background which come in different colours or reflective patterns (including gold, orange, red, purple).
- Topps Chrome Sapphire – Apart from being sold online only, Sapphire edition provide a few different background colour palette cards to the std Chrome cards. The Sapphire edition boxes are priced close to USD2000 mark.
- Topps F1 Lights Out – an annual limited run driver and team card set with fancy neon graphics design.
- Topps Now – this Topps’ in-season cards that are limited run cards marking a major win or milestone following each grand prix race.
- Topps Dynasty – like their baseball cards, these are higher end with smaller production counts in parallel colours (gold, red and black) and feature ‘relic’ cards with driver autograph and actual memorabilia like driver overalls (“patch cards”).
The rear of Topps cards will feature some narrative description or usually driver statistics and the card count e.g. card 10 of 20.
With Topps cards, it’s a bit like Willie Wonka – the dream is to buy a few packs and score a coveted gold autograph card.
Grading
Cards that are professionally graded or ‘certified’ help provide collectors and buyers with some objective criteria over the quality of the card. It’s very similar to the grading system used for comics. Key grading factors include corners, edges and surface with an overall rating out of 10. A professionally graded card will generally command a higher price premium than a ungraded card (note: there is a grading cost – for example, PSA have variable grading charge based on underlying valuation of the card).
A reputable grading company is PSA (www.psacard.com). You can often see their PSA stickers on graded cards for sale. Their website even provides market values on various Topps cards. One feature on the PSA site is their grading database which is PSA’s record of the known graded cards in circulation – for rarer cards it offers more visibility to how many other similarly graded cards are out there. Other well respected grading companies include SGC and PSI.
Refractor cards
Refractor cards are technically exclusively associated with Topps cards. Refactor cards have metallic rainbow hue backgrounds. Included within the Topps Chrome sets, refractor cards have a limited production and aside from the colour pop, command higher resell prices. Each refractor type are produced in different circulation numbers so this has a big bearing on their resell price. In 2020 Topps Chrome set production run, according to Topps there were only 399 purple, 50 gold, 50 gold wave, 25 orange, 25 orange wave, 5 red, 5 red wave refractors and only 1 superfractor and 1 printing plate.
Max’s base card which typically goes for USD40+
one of Max’s red refractor recently trades for nearly $USD11k on ebay
Rookie cards
Just like basketball trading card values, rookie cards for future champions are valuable across all card brands. Recent sales include:
- 4.5 grade Panini Senna 1984 Toleman rookie sticker for an incredible USD8999!
- 5.5 grade Panini Lauda 1974 rookie sticker for USD999.
- 10 grade Grid Schumacher 1992 Benetton rookie card went for USD2600.
Old Panini trading card of Senna in his rookie year – sold for $8999USD
It is important that a rookie card is actually a card of the driver’s debut season. For example , a Panini Senna Lotus advertised as a “rookie card” is not a really a rookie card when he debuted with Toleman. Similarly, the only Lewis Hamilton rookie card is from older sets like Pro 2.0 card set and Futera, not Topps Chrome.
Of the current F1 grid, card collectors are clearly investing in George Russell (with his move up to Mercedes works team) and Lando Norris (on the cusp of F1 victories) rookie cards for the future.
Ever since GuanYu Zhou was confirmed for the Alfa Romeo drive next year, his Topps Chrome card values have risen sharply. An autographed gold refractor rookie card of Zhou sold for USD2500 just this week and his standard rookie cards are definitely selling for much higher prices. Interestingly Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda rookie cards values are still very accessible. A speculative investment bet at the moment might be an Oscar Piastri rookie card.
Lewis’ 2006 Futera Next McLaren GP2 rookie card goes for USD$312k!!
[March 2022 update: A PSA9 graded Lewis Hamilton 2006 Futera rookie card just smashed through USD$300k barrier at auction! ]
Autographed cards
Topps autographed cards with a holographic background are certified by Topps themselves as authentically witnessed. Its difficult to say whether an autographed card signed during a GP weekend will be worth more than an original Topps autographed card, but its easy to see there will be more of these types of fan autographed cards being offered for sale on eBay and the like.
Printing Plates
2021 George Russell printing plate autograph card
Printing plate cards are the original plate cards used to product the coloured cards for that card design. Naturally, there is only 1 plate card per colour card e.g. Yellow print plate. It’s analogous to the old 35mm film negative and the front of the plate card even resembles a monochrome photo negative.
Because there is only 1 plate per printed card, plate cards also fetch high prices for popular driver cards (although not as high as the colour print card). You have to hand it to the Topps marketing team, they can even turn the card plate into a valuable collectable!
Topps Dynasty Leclerc autographed card (USD2.5k)
Prices
Just like on track, Lewis Hamilton is clearly the king in terms of prized trading cards. His variation cards typically trade over USD1k and the rarer ones over USD$10k – it’s clear his appeal to the North American fanbase aligns with the biggest trading card collectors market. Max Verstappen cards also attract decent prices and if he takes out the 2021 championship, expect his cards to increase. At the moment the most popular driver cards are clearly Lewis by some margin, Max, George, Lando and then Charles. Depending on the new 2022 season, the order of popularity may shuffle around. [Ed note: Have done a followup post on high value F1 card sales in 2022 here.]
Traded price over $US20k!
The future
To a traditional F1 memorabilia collector, recent prices for these cards seem incredible compared to the value of an autographed diecast model, mode helmet, cap or racing gloves. Like any collectable – scarcity and sentimental fan value are both critical price influencing factors.
That said, Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen F1 card values are clearly nowhere near the astronomical prices that NBA rookie cards can fetch. Earlier this year, a 10 grade Kobe Bryant Topps chrome rookie card was bought for close to US$1.8m!
Hopeful George Russell fans may want to store away their GR rookie cards in the bottom drawer for the next decade or two….
