Tom Brady

Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history — famously drafted 199th overall in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, then building a dynasty that produced six Super Bowl titles in New England (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, LIII) before winning a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LV). Seven rings, five Super Bowl MVPs, three NFL MVP awards (2007, 2010, 2017) and the career records for quarterback wins, passing yards and passing touchdowns across 23 seasons before retiring after the 2022 season: he is the most collected football player in the entire hobby. (Draft position, titles, awards and records per his Wikipedia biography, read 24 August 2026.)

One consequence of that retirement inverts the old rule of thumb, so it is worth knowing before you shop. For his whole playing career every certified Brady autograph was a Panini card, because Panini held the exclusive NFL licence from 2016 through the 2025 season. He signs for Topps now. Published checklists put Brady signature cards in 2023 Topps Composite, 2023 Topps Motif, 2024 Topps Chrome (Base Auto BA-TBR, base #120), the licensed 2025 Topps Chrome (Chrome Legends Autographs CLA-TB, base #401) and the licensed 2026 Topps Flagship (Ring of Honor Signatures, Super Bowl Champion Signatures, Island Ink). A Topps Brady auto is not automatically a fake — the autographs list has the full table and flags which years are licensed.

Collecting Brady: the eras of his cardboard

• 2000 rookies — the foundation of any Brady collection, spanning Playoff Contenders, Bowman Chrome, SP Authentic, Fleer Tradition, and Bowman.
• The crown jewel — the 2000 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph, the single most iconic and valuable modern football rookie card, ranking among the most valuable modern sports cards in the hobby once graded.
• Modern Panini — Prizm, Select, Mosaic, National Treasures, Optic, and other current-era products carry Brady inserts, tributes, and autos. His Prizm parallels are the most-chased modern color rainbow, Panini Select stacks him across its Concourse-to-Field-Level tiers, Donruss Optic is the affordable chromed-Donruss color chase, and Panini Mosaic is its tiled-foil, mosaic-pattern cousin.
• Championship-era — the cards tied to his seven Super Bowl rings: title-season issues, five Super Bowl MVP subsets, and ring-themed inserts. See the championship-era collector cut.

Brady wore #12, played college ball at Michigan, and retired as the NFL’s all-time leader in wins, passing yards, and touchdowns. Demand across every era of his cardboard has stayed exceptionally strong.

Where to start

If you’re new to collecting Brady, begin with a graded 2000 rookie in your budget, lean on live eBay comps to price everything, and buy graded for anything valuable — his cards are heavily counterfeited. Use the eBay rails above to jump into live listings for his rookies, autographs, and graded slabs.