Cards that anchor the hobby

Every collecting era has the one or two cards that everyone recognises. These ten are the cross-era anchors — the cards a non-collector will still half-recognise from a magazine cover or auction headline.

1. 1909 T206 Honus Wagner — the most famous baseball card, period.
2. 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #53 — the yellow-background swing.
3. 1933 Goudey Ty Cobb — the green-background portrait.
4. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 — the post-war anchor card.
5. 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky Rookie — hockey’s undisputed rookie king.
6. 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie — the basketball rookie that built modern card collecting.
7. 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr Rookie — the modern era’s symbolic first card.
8. 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Rookie Auto — modern football’s most-traded rookie.
9. 2003-04 Topps Chrome LeBron James Refractor — the modern grail rookie.
10. 2018 Topps Update Shohei Ohtani Rookie — the most recent card to enter the iconic tier.