10 Most Valuable 1958 Topps Football Cards
The 1958 season was when pro football finally seemed to break through.
That December, the Colts and Giants played the overtime championship game that people still call the greatest game ever played.
And with that, the NFL stopped being such a regional curiosity.
And the 1958 Topps football set rests right at that hinge point.
While it may not be as iconic as Topps’ landmark 1957 set, its successor is no slouch.
Boasting Hall of Fame rookies of Jim Brown and Sonny Jurgenson, the colorful set is loaded with legendary stars of the era.
And in this guide, we look at the 10 most valuable.
Let’s jump right in!
1958 Topps Football Set Snapshot
SET DETAILS
132
Jim Brown, Sonny Jurgenson
Johnny Units, Bart Starr, Raymond Berry, Chuck Bednarik
GRADING ANALYSIS
44,017
TOTAL GRADED BY PSA
8,320
18.9%
MOST GRADED CARDS
1
#62 Jim Brown
13.9%
6,133
2
#66 Bart Starr
5.0%
2,185
3
#22 John Unitas
4.4%
1,917
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Ross Uitts – Owner
- #1
1958 Topps #62 Jim Brown Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 8 Value $23,500Total PSA Population 6,133PSA 8 Population 199PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.2% (Set Avg: 0.0%)The man who rewrote the NFL’s history books had his pen out early and often.
Cleveland Browns running back/fullback Jim Brown set the single-season rushing yardage record not once but twice in his storied career, the first coming in 1958.
Brown, then just 22 years old, was coming off one of the greatest rookie years in NFL history, complete with a First-Team All-Pro designation and an NFL MVP award.
Brown wasn’t just better on the second go-around.
He was legendary.
The first-ballot Hall-of-Famer set the tone right away, gashing the Los Angeles Rams for 171 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1.
Brown followed that up with five more 100-yard outings in a row.
Overall, the GOAT hit triple digits nine times in twelve regular-season games to rack up a new single-season record of 1,527.
That crushed Steve Van Buren’s previous high-water mark (1,146 yards, 1949) and announced Brown as a generation-defining superstar.
Because of his legacy, Brown’s rookie card remains one of the most iconic sports cards in the hobby.
- #2
1958 Topps #22 Johnny Unitas
PSA 8 Value $1,800Total PSA Population 1,917PSA 8 Population 75PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.9% (Set Avg: 0.0%)The Johnny Unitas Era began in earnest in 1958.
The Baltimore Colts quarterback won his first passing title the year before and finished third in the league MVP race.
However, the sophomore quarterback didn’t have enough help on defense to capitalize on his heroics and secure a division or NFL championship.
In ’58, the Colts revamped their D and received career years from several holdovers.
Now, all the tools were in place, and it was up to Unitas to wield them and bring home a trophy.
And that’s just what Unitas did.
The 25-year-old started nine regular-season games, winning eight.
He passed for over 2,000 yards (2,007) and paced the NFL in touchdown passes (19) and passer rating (90.0).
Most importantly, he was clutch, orchestrating a league-best three 4th-quarter comebacks to inch past Cleveland for the NFL West title.
He also saved his most clutch performance for last, a last-second comeback to tie the NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants, followed by the title-winning drive in OT.
- #3
1958 Topps #66 Bart Starr
PSA 8 Value $800Total PSA Population 2,185PSA 8 Population 156PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.1% (Set Avg: 0.0%)The 1958 Green Bay Packers were an absolute wreck.
Not only did the Packers sport the worst scoring defense in the 12-team NFL (31.8 ppg), but they also featured the league’s most anemic scoring offense (16.1 ppg).
They were basically doubled up in nearly every game they played by opponents that were much deeper at nearly every position.
That’s the unenviable spot Bart Starr found himself in during his age-24 campaign.
Starr was the feature quarterback of a three-headed rotation, starting seven of the team’s 12 regular-season contests.
He went 0-6-1 in those starts, with the only non-loss coming thanks to a bizarre set of late screw-ups by the Detroit Lions.
Overall, Starr completed 49.7% of his passes for 875 yards with three touchdowns against twelve interceptions.
The future Hall-of-Famer rushed his reads constantly, attempting to make something out of a nothing talent pool.
Turnovers, stalled drives, and losses unsurprisingly followed.
- #4
1958 Topps #90 Sonny Jurgensen Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 8 Value $750Total PSA Population 1,767PSA 8 Population 189PSA 8 Grade Rate 10.7% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Sonny Jurgensen learned his Hall-of-Fame craft from the best, even if it didn’t come with a lot of wins sometimes.
In 1958, a 24-year-old Jurgensen rode the pine behind fellow Canton inductee Norm Van Brocklin in Philadelphia, playing in all twelve regular-season games but sparingly.
Van Brocklin was the most prolific passer in the league, leading all passers in completions and attempts.
Even with no discernible running game and a bad defense, Van Brocklin made his seventh Pro Bowl in nine tries.
The Eagles went just 2-9-1 regardless, but it was clear that the former Los Angeles Rams star held the keys to a potential franchise turnaround.
That turnaround would last longer because Jurgensen was around, taking notes.
The former fourth-round pick threw just 22 passes in 1958, completing twelve for 259 yards.
It was when he was on the sidelines, though, when progress really was made, a set of on-field lessons courtesy of a veteran Van Brocklin in his finest form.
- #5
1958 Topps #120 Raymond Berry
PSA 8 Value $165Total PSA Population 624PSA 8 Population 111PSA 8 Grade Rate 17.8% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Baltimore Colts legend Johnny Unitas had Hall-of-Fame help in reaching his own Canton potential.
The left end who unlocked a young Unitas in 1957, Raymond Berry, worked tirelessly to vault Johnny U to superstardom the following year.
Berry was on the come-up himself; in fact, he was the same age as Unitas.
When he won the league receiving title in ’57, Unitas unsurprisingly leaped into the MVP conversation.
And when Unitas made his first All-Pro First Team in ’58, it was Berry who provided his own All-Pro touch as football’s most reliable and dynamic pass catcher.
ABerry amassed 794 receiving yards and topped the NFL in receptions (56) and receiving touchdowns (9).
When Unitas needed a gritty completion to move the sticks, Berry was there.
If he needed an over-the-top bomb to break things open, that was Berry’s job too.
The partnership broke the league, set new TV ratings records, and hitched the rest of the Colts en route to the franchise’s first-ever NFL Championship.
- #6
1958 Topps #35 Chuck Bednarik
PSA 8 Value $130Total PSA Population 363PSA 8 Population 55PSA 8 Grade Rate 15.2% (Set Avg: 0.0%)In the heyday of the 5-2 defense, there wasn’t a more consistent (and dangerous) plug-and-play option than Philadelphia Eagles legend Chuck Bednarik.
Bednarik shifted all over Philadelphia’s front seven during his 14 years in an Eagles uniform, including a sustained stint at defensive “center” in the late 1950s.
After pulling down three interceptions and wreaking general havoc as a primary left linebacker in 1957, “Concrete Charlie” shifted with the needs of the team’s roster construction, slotting into the middle of the D-line for the 1958 campaign.
It was out of necessity and little else.
Philly’s defense was compromised by age, injury, and general underperformance, slipping from fifth in points allowed in 1957 to ninth.
Bednarik was the anchor that kept the whole operation from slipping into complete, unrecognizable chaos.
In the longer view, new Eagles head coach Buck Shaw was onto something.
The defense evolved quickly into an NFL Championship-caliber unit, and Bednarik functioned fantastically in what was basically a quarterbacking capacity.
- #7
1958 Topps #2 Bobby Layne
PSA 8 Value $130Total PSA Population 614PSA 8 Population 103PSA 8 Grade Rate 16.8% (Set Avg: 0.0%)Did Bobby Layne curse the Detroit Lions?
Whatever happened during the 1958 season sure didn’t bode well for the Lions organization going forward.
After three division titles, back-to-back NFL championships (1952-53), multiple All-Pro nods, and multiple Pro Bowls, you’d think Layne’s place with the Lions was forever.
Before he arrived in Motown for the ’50 season, Detroit had posted losing seasons in seven of its previous nine campaigns.
By the end of the decade, they were an established franchise with a championship pedigree.
And Layne was the catalyst for all of it.
So, when the Lions shocked everyone and traded a veteran Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers two games into the 1958 NFL season, it came like a thunderous slap to the face.
He had lifted the Lions from irrelevance, and now he was summarily discarded.
The fallout was swift.
Layne allegedly cursed the team and its front office in private, and the Lions made just three postseason appearances over the next three-plus decades.
- #8
1958 Topps #42 Emlen Tunnell
PSA 8 Value $100Total PSA Population 330PSA 8 Population 103PSA 8 Grade Rate 31.2% (Set Avg: 0.0%)When Vince Lombardi left his post as New York Giants offensive coordinator to take the job of his life after the 1958 season, it was no surprise that he brought Hall-of-Fame safety Emlen Tunnell along with him.
After all, the duo had immense success together in NY (albeit on different sides of the ball), winning an NFL Championship in 1956 and following that up with a title game appearance after the ’58 campaign.
At that point, Tunnell was at a different stage in his career.
Once the most feared punt returner in the NFL, the 33-year-old Tunnell posted the fewest returns (six) of his career thus far.
He also saw his interception count drop drastically on defense (one) as he transitioned into a role more akin to an on-field coach.
When Lombardi left to take over his trademark post with the Green Bay Packers after the NFL Championship Game, he made a point to snatch Tunnell from the Giants as one of his first (and most impactful) personnel moves.
- #9
1958 Topps #86 Y.A. Tittle
PSA 8 Value $100Total PSA Population 666PSA 8 Population 100PSA 8 Grade Rate 15.0% (Set Avg: 0.0%)San Francisco 49ers head coach Frankie Albert made a hasty decision before the 1958 season, benching popular veteran starting quarterback Y.A.
Tittle for the team’s first-round pick from the previous year’s draft, John Brodie.
The Niners were looking for an excuse to get Brodie in, considering the draft capital they spent to lock him down.
So, when a 32-year-old Tittle turned into an interception magnet during the ’58 preseason, Albert dumped Tittle down the depth chart all too quickly in favor of the 23-year-old.
It didn’t pan out.
Under center for a much more run-oriented 49ers offense, Brodie was not the same big-play threat that Tittle was.
He was exceedingly accurate from a macro standpoint, but still cost the Niners games with an array of young, rash throws.
By midseason, Niners fans were visibly restless.
When the team handed the reins back to Tittle at that point, it was too little too late in what turned out to be a lost .500 campaign.
- #10
1958 Topps #122 Hugh McElhenny
PSA 8 Value $75Total PSA Population 354PSA 8 Population 97PSA 8 Grade Rate 27.4% (Set Avg: 0.0%)As the 1958 San Francisco 49ers struggled to find an identity in their passing attack, they leaned heavily on a duo of Hall-of-Fame backs to stay competitive.
49ers head coach Frankie Albert played hot potato with the starting quarterback job, first inserting former first-round pick John Brodie into the spot before going back to veteran Y.A.
Tittle before the season’s end.
Both QBs struggled in Albert’s new offensive system, a conservative attack that limited big plays and pushed physicality above everything else.
One positive to Albert’s throwback philosophy is how it fed the two-pronged rushing monster of fullback Joe Perry and left halfback Hugh McElhenny.
Perry placed third in the NFL in rushing (758) and third in yards per attempt (6.1), doing damage where the QBs couldn’t.
McElhenny was the man who set him loose, alternating great blocking and crucial clutch carries (451 yards, 6 TDs) on his way to a third consecutive Pro Bowl appearance.
Ross’s Take
As I mentioned in the opener, the 1958 Topps football set is largely overshadowed by the 1957 Topps set.
And it may not have quite the following of its 1958 Topps baseball counterpart.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s a slouch.
At 132 cards, this is a buildable set loaded with major rookie cards and many other Hall of Famers.
Honestly, this set may fly under the radar a bit too much.
Aside from the Jim Brown rookie, one of the most iconic cards in the entire hobby, a collector with patience can assemble a nice, mid-grade run for relatively reasonable prices.
Overall, I’d still say this set is overlooked, and it should hold its value for years to come.
