1981 Topps Joe Montana #216 RC

A rookie card two years late

Topps' 1981 football set runs 528 standard-size cards. Each front has a pennant-like banner at the bottom with the player's name and team, with his position printed outside it. Subsets include league leaders (#1-6), record breakers (#331-336) and playoff cards (#492-494). Wax boxes held 36 packs of 15 cards, plus a stick of gum in each.

Topps showed no team logos on the cards. A set guide calls 1981 the last year Topps had to airbrush logos off helmets and uniforms, which is why Montana's card shows no 49ers or NFL marks. The design is plain enough that one auction description praised the card's 'elegant simplicity.'

The card arrived late. Montana was drafted in 1979, but his first card came in the 1981 set, his third pro season. Terry Bradshaw (#375) and Walter Payton (#400) anchor the set, and its rookie class also includes Billy Sims, Kellen Winslow, Art Monk, Dan Hampton and Montana's own receiver Dwight Clark (#422).

From Monongahela to the end of the third round

Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. was born June 11, 1956, in New Eagle, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Monongahela, a coal town 25 miles south of Pittsburgh. At Ringgold High School he was a Parade All-American quarterback and an all-state basketball player good enough to get a basketball scholarship offer from North Carolina State.

He went to Notre Dame, where he was buried on the depth chart. When the 1977 season began he was third string. He came off the bench to beat Purdue, took over the job, and the Irish won their last nine games and the national championship with a 38-10 Cotton Bowl win over top-ranked Texas. In the 1979 Cotton Bowl, the 'Chicken Soup Game,' he fought off hypothermia, was fed chicken soup in the locker room, and returned to lead three touchdowns in the last eight minutes for a 35-34 win over Houston.

San Francisco drafted him at the end of the third round in 1979, 82nd overall and the fourth quarterback taken. He spent most of his rookie year behind Steve DeBerg and took over as the starter midway through 1980, going 2-5 in those starts. That is the player on card #216: a third-round pick with seven NFL starts and a losing record.

1981: the season the card predicted

Montana opened 1981 as the starter, started all 16 games and led the 49ers to a 13-3 record, the best in the NFL. He completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 3,565 yards and made his first Pro Bowl.

On January 10, 1982, in the NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park, San Francisco trailed Dallas 27-21 and took over at its own 11 with 4:54 left. On third down from the Dallas 6, Montana rolled right and threw off balance to the back of the end zone, where Dwight Clark leapt for the tying touchdown with 51 seconds left. The extra point won it 28-27. The play is known simply as 'The Catch.'

Two weeks later, on January 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, the 49ers beat Cincinnati 26-21 in Super Bowl XVI for the franchise's first title. Montana completed 14 of 22 passes for 157 yards, threw one touchdown and ran for another, and was named MVP. That made him, along with his boyhood idol Joe Namath, one of only two quarterbacks to win both a college national title and a Super Bowl.

Joe Cool

Montana won four Super Bowls with the 49ers (XVI, XIX, XXIII and XXIV) and was the first player named Super Bowl MVP three times. In four Super Bowls he threw 122 passes without an interception and posted a passer rating of 127.8, both career records for the game. He was NFL MVP in 1989 and 1990. His 92-yard drive to beat Cincinnati in Super Bowl XXIII is a staple of NFL highlight films.

He was traded to Kansas City in 1993, played two seasons there, and announced his retirement on April 18, 1995, at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. He finished with 40,551 passing yards, 273 touchdowns and a 92.3 rating, and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. The 49ers retired his No. 16.

Findable, but not in a perfect 10

This is not a scarce card. A price guide notes that it is easy to find, even in high grade, and that demand, not supply, drives its price. The 1981 set was known for centering problems, print defects, chipping and wear, so perfect copies are a small share of the total. PSA's census counts 113 at GEM MT 10 and 2,197 at MINT 9. A spring 2025 auction listing gave 112 PSA 10s out of 29,490 graded. A collector magazine counted 115 PSA 10s in August 2025.

A BGS Pristine 10 is rarer still. A February 2024 auction description called its copy one of four Pristine 10s from more than ten thousand submissions, with no Black Label 10; a 2025 report counted five. That copy received 10s for centering, corners and edges and a 9.5 for surface, the half point that kept it from a Black Label. It sold for $102,000 with buyer's premium to a collector from Hawaii, who bought it a few days after seeing Montana in a box seat at Super Bowl LVIII.

Montana has since opened a full 36-pack wax box of 1981 Topps on camera, hunting for his own rookie card.

How the PSA 10 price moved

From 2013 through 2018, PSA 10 copies sold at auction for $9,600 to $14,340, including $11,352.50 in November 2013 and $14,340 in November 2016. Prices then jumped: $72,000 in February 2021 and $69,000 in May 2021. One sold online for $95,000 in March 2022, the highest PSA 10 price in the records reviewed.

Prices then cooled. A PSA 10 brought $45,600 at auction in summer 2023, and two others sold for $40,800 and $37,200 in March and April 2024. In 2026, recorded PSA 10 sales ran from $43,920 to $65,000, including $62,220 in January and $65,000 in February.

The numbers

1979 season (rookie)

16 G, 1 GS, 13 of 23, 96 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT

1980 season

15 G, 7 GS, 2-5 as starter, 176 of 273 (64.5%, NFL best), 1,795 yds, 15 TD, 9 INT, 87.8 rating

1981 season (card year)

16 G, 16 GS, 13-3, 311 of 488 (63.7%, NFL best), 3,565 yds, 19 TD, 12 INT, 88.4 rating. Pro Bowl; second-team All-Pro.

1981 playoffs

3-0, 56 of 88, 747 yds, 6 TD, 4 INT. Super Bowl XVI: 14 of 22, 157 yds, 1 TD passing, 1 TD rushing; MVP.

Career (1979-1994)

15 seasons played, 192 G, 117-47 as starter, 3,409 of 5,391 (63.2%), 40,551 yds, 273 TD, 139 INT, 92.3 rating

Honors

4 Super Bowl titles; 3 Super Bowl MVPs; NFL MVP 1989, 1990; 8 Pro Bowls; Hall of Fame 2000

Timeline

1. Jun 11, 1956

   Joe Montana is born in New Eagle, Pennsylvania.

2. 1977

   Starting the season third on the depth chart, Montana leads Notre Dame to the national championship.

3. Jan 1, 1979

   Montana rallies Notre Dame past Houston 35-34 in the 'Chicken Soup Game' at the Cotton Bowl.

4. 1979

   The 49ers draft Montana 82nd overall, at the end of the third round.

5. 1980

   Montana replaces Steve DeBerg as the 49ers' starter midway through the season.

6. 1981

   Topps issues its 528-card set with Montana's rookie card at #216, his first card in his third season.

7. Jan 10, 1982

   Montana throws to Dwight Clark for 'The Catch,' beating Dallas 28-27 in the NFC Championship Game.

8. Jan 24, 1982

   The 49ers win Super Bowl XVI 26-21; Montana is MVP.

9. 1993

   The 49ers trade Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs.

10. Apr 18, 1995

    Montana announces his retirement in San Francisco.

11. 2000

    Montana is elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

12. Nov 7, 2013

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $11,352.50.

13. Feb 6, 2021

    A PSA 10 sells for $72,000.

14. Mar 15, 2022

    A PSA 10 sells online for $95,000.

15. Feb 24, 2024

    A BGS Pristine 10 with subgrades sells at auction for $102,000.

16. Feb 28, 2026

    A PSA 10 sells online for $65,000.

The world in 1981

• Jan 20, 1981

  Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president; minutes later Iran releases 52 American hostages after 444 days.

• Mar 30, 1981

  President Reagan is shot outside a Washington hotel by John Hinckley Jr.

• Apr 12, 1981

  Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-1, the first shuttle mission.

• Jun 5, 1981

  The CDC reports five cases of a rare pneumonia in Los Angeles, the first reported cases of what became known as AIDS.

• Jul 7, 1981

  President Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman named to the Supreme Court.

• Jul 9, 1981

  Donkey Kong is released, the debut of Mario.

• Aug 1, 1981

  MTV launches on cable television.

• Aug 12, 1981

  The IBM PC goes on sale at a base price of $1,565.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 10 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1981 Topps Joe Montana #216 RC is number 30 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (56 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Montana's rookie card was not issued until his third NFL season.
• There are no 49ers or NFL logos on the card; a set guide calls 1981 the last year Topps had to airbrush logos away.
• Montana was third on Notre Dame's depth chart when the 1977 season began; the Irish won the national title that year.
• In the 1979 Cotton Bowl, Montana was fed chicken soup in the locker room to fight hypothermia, then led a 35-34 comeback.
• Montana's top receiver on 'The Catch,' Dwight Clark, also has his rookie card in the 1981 Topps set.
• Montana was 25 years, 227 days old at Super Bowl XVI, one day older than Joe Namath had been at his first Super Bowl.
• Only one of the BGS Pristine 10 Montana rookies carries published subgrades, and one 9.5 kept it from a Black Label.