How to Sell Your Football Cards

For the first time in a decade, Topps holds the NFL license. Here's what that means for the football cards you already own, and how to sell old and new football cards this season.

Former Heisman Trophy winner and aspiring personal finance influencer Fernando Mendoza is the cover star of Topps Flagship Football 2026. The Las Vegas Raiders quarterback has yet to take the field during a regular season game, as Kirk Cousins continues to be…pretty, pretty good!…but that hasn’t stopped fans from collecting the number one overall draft pick from the 2026 NFL Draft.

As the latest NFL season charges along, pigskin fans are settling in for a fall filled with armchair quarterback takes, Al Michaels refusing to eat vegetables, and memories of famous (and infamous) plays like the Minnesota Miracle and the Butt Fumble alike. While some are chasing Mendoza, Jeremiyah Love, and Caleb Downs, others are still collecting Tom Brady, Edgerrin James, and Ed Reed. If you’re selling football cards, you’ve got to be prepared to meet demand wherever it’s at—and at Mascot, we’re here to help you do just that.

While we can’t tell you what the best football cards are—or how to get them—we can tell you the best way to sell them: scan, sort, price, and list, all with intent and purpose so you can scale your operation. You can take your pick of quotes from Any Given Sunday , but the message stays the same: You need to be ready to play your part in order to help your cards—and your business—win.

With Topps back as the NFL's licensee, with multiple drops under their belt since the start of the season, football collectors are paying close attention to what’s happening on the gridiron. Are you? Don’t worry, Mascot’s got you covered like a left tackle.

Set…hike!

Why This Season Is Different:

Topps is back: Fanatics Collectibles announced a multi-year exclusive deal with the NFL and NFLPA back in April. Then, this summer, Topps released 2026 Topps Flagship Football, its first flagship NFL set since 2015, when Panini took over the license. While we’re not here to be the judge of which company makes better cards, we can say that Topps’ marketing arm is strong, and they’re doing everything they can to turn NFL fans into NFL collectors. Act accordingly.

The rookies are arriving: Mendoza leads a class that also includes quarterbacks Ty Simpson, Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar, and Carson Beck—but the early season rookie standouts aren’t QBs:

• KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston (Cleveland Browns): The rookie wide receivers combined for 153 yards against Pittsburgh in Week 3, with Boston entering the week leading all rookies in receiving yards. The Browns are 3-1, which might be a sign of the apocalypse, but don’t sleep on the city by the lake’s passion for pigskin—or Texas A&M/University of Washington alum, who might be searching for cards from their school’s former stars.
• Hezekiah Masses and Zakee Wheatley (Las Vegas Raiders and Carolina Panthers): Masses wasn’t selected by the Raiders until the fifth-round, but through just a handful of weeks he’s already got a trio of interceptions to his name. Meanwhile, Zakee Wheatley has a forced fumble and plenty of tackles. When it comes to cards, defensive standouts don’t always get the same love offensive players do, but these two are lighting up the field, and fans are sure to take notice.

Panini cards still count. Panini’s tenure as the NFL licensee had its ups and downs, but it also had plenty of star power. Both Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen debuted between 2016 and 2024, and j Topps holding the license this year doesn’t make cards from past years any less valuable. As Topps works to get new collectors into the game, your old cards will benefit, too.

Football Moves Weekly:

While fall sports like basketball and hockey feature games every night, football plays on Sundays (and Mondays, and Thursdays, and Wednesday, and Christmas, but who’s counting!). That often means that buyers come in waves, giving you time to prepare.

A big Sunday sends buyers searching on Monday. An injury changes the depth chart overnight. Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, for example, is out with a hamstring strain, and the sellers who had their cards listed before kickoff often do better than those that list them after the highlights.

How to Sell Your Football Cards:

1. Scan everything: A football card scanner identifies the player, year, and set straight from a photo, saving you time and effort. Mascot's AI scanner comes with unlimited scans on every plan so you can tackle your full inventory without having to wait for a new monthly quota. It also allows you to scan more than one card at once, which is a huge help for those logging inventories numbered in the thousands, not hundreds. Plus, for those with higher end inventory, graded cards from PSA, CGC, SGC, and more import by cert number.

2. Concentrate on the headlines. Rookies and stars are a given, but make sure you’re paying attention to the headlines, too. If a player goes down with an injury, you want to be able to move faster than the market. For just about everyone else, you’ll be selling lots. Don’t worry, we’ve got a guide to selling in bulk, too.

3. Price from sold comps: Some sellers log onto eBay, see a base card listed for $100, and play copy cat with their own inventory. That’s a big no-bo. Instead, check for recent sales for your exact card. Ditto for graded cards, because a PSA 8 doesn’t carry the same weight as a PSA 10. Mascot's Pricing Rules help you set a floor for your inventory, and also allow you to establish a markdown schedule so cards that don't move after a few weeks drop in price on their own without going below your minimum. One click, and you can get your inventory moving.

4. List everywhere at once: This is a major key. Mascot's multi-channel listing publishes each of your cards to eBay, Whatnot, TikTok Shop, Shopify, and more, all with the click of a button. No more remembering five different passwords or re-listing the same card five times; Mascot does the work for you. Better yet, it saves you the headache of accidentally selling the same card across numerous platforms by delisting any sold cards across all other marketplaces. Looking to reach even more buyers? The Mascot Network adds more buyers at a 3% fee, with no extra seller account.

5. Save on shopping: For cards that sell for $20 or less, the eBay Standard Envelope ships with tracking starting at $0.60. When you’re working on tight margins, every dollar counts. That said, make sure you package your cards safely, because you don’t want to skimp on shipping only to have to offer a refund later.

Are You rReady For Some Football?

The Raiders might be good. Same with the Browns. Is the world ending? We don’t know.

While you can’t control what happens on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays, you can control how you manage your inventory. Keep an eye on the football news around the clock, price your cards to sell, and make sure you don’t get caught selling the same card twice.

The NFL season is one giant two-minute drill, and by using Mascot, you can lead your team to victory.