Josh Allen Joins the Million Dollar Card Club, First for NFL Since 2023
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Josh Allen has brought the Bills to the playoffs multiple times, won an MVP in 2024, and is now just the fifth football player to ever have a $1+ million card sale. It's the first seven-figure sale of a football card since 2023.
Josh Allen's 1-of-1 Gold NFL Shield Autograph card sold for $1,350,000 on @FanaticsCollect last night, smashing the record for the most expensive Josh Allen card of all time
— Topps (@Topps) May 22, 2026
It's the first million-dollar football card sale in 3 years 🤯 pic.twitter.com/lvUJy0T3m7
The Allen card didn't just set a record for Allen; it is the most expensive Bills card ever and the most expensive NFL card produced in the last five years.
NFL Players with $1+ Million Card Sales
As mentioned in the opening, Josh Allen joins an exclusive club with just four other members. While other sports and TCG markets have seen dozens of $1+ million dollar sales, there has just the second such sale of an NFL card since 2023. Allen joins two of the best quarterbacks of all-time and two of the best of the younger generation of NFL stars.
Joe Burrow (1): The Bengals QB, like Allen, has just one seven-figure sale to his name. At $1.7M, his 1/1 2020 National Treasures Platinum NFL Shield RPA sits just above Allen's record sale.
Justin Herbert (2): Herbert has two sales above $1 million. First, his 2020 Panini Prizm RC Black Finite 1/1, graded BGS 9, sold for $1.1 million in September of 2022. Herbert's top sale is the 1/1 2020 National Treasures Platinum NFL Shield RPA, the same card as the Burrow seven-figure sale, except his sold for $1.8 million the day before Burrow's.
Patrick Mahomes (2): Mahomes has proven to be one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, and, through this portion of his career, one of the best we have ever seen in the NFL. It's no surprise he has two monster sales that dwarf all of the other active quarterbacks. His first seven-figure sale was a 2017 National Treasures Gold RPA /10 that sold for $1.08 million in 2021. The top Mahomes sale was also from 2017 National Treasures, and like Burrow and Herbert, was his BGS 8.5 1/1 Platinum NFL Shield RPA that sold for $4.3 million in 2021.
Tom Brady (21): Yes, you read that right. Twenty-one (21) $1+ million card sales from Tom Brady. They are all sales of his 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket Autograph /100. The top sale was for $3.8 million in a BGS 9 back in 2021, but the most recent sale was in 2023 for the same grade but at just $1.2 million.
Million Dollar Cards in Other Sports and TCG
There have been 64 seven-figure sales since the last NFL sale. In that span, there have been 26 in baseball, 25 in basketball, 7 from Pokémon, 4 from soccer, and 2 from Magic: The Gathering.
We've seen new entrants to the million dollar card club recently, and not just Josh Allen, as Cristiano Ronaldo, Nikola Jokic, and Aaron Judge all joined the million dollar club in 2026.
Given the popularity of football in America, it is quite stunning that we went almost three years between million-dollar sales.
NFL Licensing Holding Back the NFL Card Market?
It is also worth remembering that for the last three years, we have not had all the rookies under contract to sign with the brand holding the NFL license. It's quite possible that had Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, or Caleb Williams had licensed autographs with Panini as rookies, we could have seen more seven-figure sales.
I do think it speaks to the damage done to the NFL market over that time, but, more importantly, it speaks to the market resurgence from NFL cards now that everything is mostly under one umbrella. While I'm not sure we will see a million-dollar card from Fernando Mendoza, it should be especially exciting for those waiting to prospect the QB-rich 2027 NFL Draft class.
Josh Allen became the fifth NFL player with a million-dollar card, but he won't be the last.
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Brendan has worked for various platforms, including The Washington Post, SB Nation, NBC Sports Washington, and more, covering everything from college basketball to fantasy football and betting. An avid collector as a kid, he got back into collecting in 2021 and is a dedicated soccer, football, and basketball collector.
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