2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady #144 RC Auto

A ticket nobody wanted yet

The 2000 Playoff Contenders football set has 200 cards, each 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. Cards 1 through 100 are base cards of established players such as Emmitt Smith, John Elway, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. Cards 101 through 150 are NFL Rookie Ticket autographs, 151 through 190 are NFL Europe rookie autographs, and 191 through 200 are veteran Playoff Ticket autographs of players like Jim Kelly and Kurt Warner.

The design gives every card a ticket. Base cards carry a silver-foil ticket bearing the player's name. The signed cards add an embossed 'Playoff Authentic Signature' stamp on the front and a gold-foil ticket along the right side. Four players in the signed series, including Thomas Jones and Fred Taylor, never signed their cards.

Playoff Corporation released the set in January 2001. Card #144 showed a little-known Michigan quarterback who had thrown three passes in the NFL. Among that year's rookie autographs, collectors would have recognized Brian Urlacher, Plaxico Burress and Chad Pennington far sooner.

The Championship Ticket is the premium parallel of the Rookie Ticket autograph, serial numbered to 100. Its ticket stub shifts to gold, and like the standard version it prints Brady's draft position, a reminder of how long the odds once were.

Pick 199

Tom Brady was born August 3, 1977, in San Mateo, California. He played high school football at Junipero Serra and college football at Michigan. He was a lightly regarded prospect, and an unimpressive showing at the NFL Scouting Combine did not help. He and his family expected a second- or third-round call and instead watched six other quarterbacks go before him.

New England took him in the sixth round, 199th overall, with a compensatory pick the team had received for losing punter Tom Tupa. He was the seventh quarterback drafted. Patriots quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein had studied his Michigan film and pushed for him. Rehbein died on August 6, 2001, at 45, two months before Brady became the starter. Brady later wrote that he was sitting in his parents' house in San Mateo, 'growing less and less confident that the phone would ring,' when the call finally came late in the draft.

He opened the 2000 season as the fourth-string quarterback behind Drew Bledsoe, John Friesz and Michael Bishop, and finished it second on the depth chart. His whole rookie line was one completion in three attempts for six yards, on November 23, 2000, in a 34-9 loss at Detroit. Tight end Rod Rutledge caught the pass.

Brady was not a big name in the 2000 card market either. He appears in 11 mainstream autograph sets from that year, and only four of his rookie autographs show him in a Patriots uniform. Brady recalled his agent offering a deal to sign 1,000 cards for about 20 cents a card, and said his reaction was, 'I'm gonna be rich.'

The season that changed everything

The cards reached packs in January 2001. On September 23, 2001, in the second game of the season, Bledsoe took a fourth-quarter hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis that caused internal bleeding. Brady played the final series of a 10-3 loss and started the next week, a 44-13 win over Indianapolis.

New England won 11 of the 14 games he started, including the last six. He threw his first NFL touchdown pass on October 14, 2001, a 21-yard score to Terry Glenn in a home win over San Diego. In the playoffs he rallied the Patriots from 10 points down against Oakland in the game remembered for the tuck rule, then led the drive that set up Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal as time expired to beat the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, in Super Bowl XXXVI. At 24 he was the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and he was named its MVP.

He went on to play 23 seasons, 20 in New England and three in Tampa Bay, starting 333 regular-season games with a 251-82 record. He retired for good on February 1, 2023, as the career leader in completions, attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes, with seven Super Bowl titles, five Super Bowl MVP awards and three league MVP awards.

From $400,100 to $3.1 million

In February 2019 a BGS 9 copy with a 10 autograph sold for $400,100, at the time the highest auction price recorded for any football card. Brady won his seventh Super Bowl, his first with Tampa Bay, in February 2021, and the market for his cards moved fast.

On March 4, 2021, a Championship Ticket graded BGS 8 with a 10 autograph sold in an online auction for $1.32 million to James Park, the Fitbit co-founder and a Boston-based Brady fan. On April 2, 2021, a BGS 8.5 copy sold at auction for $2,252,854. The seller said it had been bought online more than a decade earlier and kept in a private collection, and the buyer asked to remain anonymous.

On June 4, 2021, copy #8 of 100, graded BGS 9, sold for $3,107,372, then the most paid for a football card at public auction. More than 30 bidders took part. The auction's director of acquisitions called it 'The Holy Grail' of Brady rookies and said the other six BGS 9 copies were probably never going to be sold publicly. The ball from Brady's first touchdown pass sold for $428,842 in the same sale.

Prices did not climb in a straight line. Copy #99, a BGS 8.5 with a 9 autograph, opened at $250,000 in an auction that closed in late January 2022 and sold for $1,234,843, below its published estimate. On October 21, 2022, another BGS 9 copy brought $2,400,000 with buyer's premium after 41 bids. In August 2026 copy #54, graded BGS 8.5 with a 10 autograph, sold at auction, but the price was not shown publicly. As of October 2026 a BGS 8.5 copy was listed at a fixed asking price of $5,000,000.

The standard Rookie Ticket autograph, which is not numbered to 100, has its own market. A PSA 10 copy of that version sold for $555,988 in January 2021, a football-card record at the time.

How to identify it

The card is #144 in the 2000 Playoff Contenders set. A Championship Ticket shows Brady in a Patriots uniform, carries the embossed Playoff Authentic Signature stamp at the lower left of the front, and has a ticket stub that shifts to gold. It is serial numbered out of 100, and the number is part of each copy's identity: the record copy is #8, the January 2022 copy is #99 and the August 2026 copy is #54.

Grade drives the price. Auction descriptions in 2021 and 2022 put seven copies at BGS 9 and none higher, and copies graded BGS 8 and 8.5 have sold for well below the 9s. The autograph gets its own grade, so a listing such as 'BGS 8.5, Auto 10' means an 8.5 card with a 10 signature.

Do not confuse the Championship Ticket with the base Rookie Ticket autograph. It has the same card number and photograph but is not numbered to 100.

The numbers

2000 rookie season

1 G, 0 starts, 1 of 3 passing, 6 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 42.4 passer rating

2001 season

15 G, 14 starts, 11-3 record, 264 of 413, 2,843 yards, 18 TD, 12 INT, 86.5 rating. Pro Bowl

Super Bowl XXXVI

16 of 27, 145 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT. Super Bowl MVP

2007 season

16-0 record, 398 of 578, 4,806 yards, 50 TD, 8 INT, 117.2 rating. AP MVP

Career (2000-2022, 23 seasons)

335 G, 333 starts, 251-82 record, 7,753 of 12,050, 89,214 yards, 649 TD, 212 INT, 97.2 rating

Titles and awards

7 Super Bowl titles, 5 Super Bowl MVPs, AP MVP 2007, 2010 and 2017, AP Comeback Player of the Year 2009

Timeline

1. Aug 3, 1977

   Tom Brady is born in San Mateo, California.

2. Apr 2000

   New England drafts Brady in the sixth round, 199th overall, the seventh quarterback taken.

3. Nov 23, 2000

   Brady throws the only three passes of his rookie season, completing one for six yards, in a 34-9 loss at Detroit.

4. Jan 2001

   Playoff Corporation releases the 2000 Playoff Contenders set, with Brady's Rookie Ticket autograph as card #144.

5. Aug 6, 2001

   Patriots quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein, who pushed to draft Brady, dies at 45.

6. Sep 23, 2001

   Drew Bledsoe is injured against the Jets and Brady finishes the game. He starts the next week.

7. Oct 14, 2001

   Brady throws his first NFL touchdown pass, 21 yards to Terry Glenn.

8. Feb 3, 2002

   Brady wins Super Bowl XXXVI over the Rams and is named Super Bowl MVP.

9. Feb 2019

   A BGS 9 Championship Ticket sells for $400,100, then the highest auction price for a football card.

10. Mar 20, 2020

    Brady signs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

11. Mar 4, 2021

    A BGS 8 Championship Ticket sells for $1.32 million to collector James Park.

12. Apr 2, 2021

    A BGS 8.5 copy sells at auction for $2,252,854.

13. Jun 4, 2021

    Copy #8/100, BGS 9, sells at auction for $3,107,372, the football-card auction record.

14. Jan 2022

    Copy #99/100, BGS 8.5, sells at auction for $1,234,843.

15. Oct 21, 2022

    A BGS 9 copy sells at auction for $2,400,000 with buyer's premium.

16. Feb 1, 2023

    Brady announces his retirement 'for good.'

17. Jun 12, 2024

    Massachusetts declares Tom Brady Day ahead of his Patriots Hall of Fame induction.

18. Aug 21, 2026

    Copy #54/100, BGS 8.5 with a 10 autograph, sells at auction.

The world in 2000

• Jan 14, 2000

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 11,722.98, at the peak of the dot-com bubble.

• Jan 30, 2000

  The St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.

• Mar 10, 2000

  The Nasdaq Composite reaches an all-time high of 5,048.

• Apr 15, 2000

  The two-day NFL draft opens at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Cleveland takes Courtney Brown first overall.

• Oct 26, 2000

  The Yankees beat the Mets in Game 5 to win the World Series, the first Subway Series between the two crosstown rivals.

• Nov 7, 2000

  The presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore goes unresolved for more than a month over disputed Florida votes.

• Dec 13, 2000

  The contest over the election ends with George W. Bush elected president.

• 2000

  Rams running back Marshall Faulk is named NFL MVP after scoring 26 touchdowns.

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, 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady #144 RC Auto is number 2 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 (49 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Brady's entire rookie season was one completed pass, for six yards, caught by tight end Rod Rutledge.
• The pick New England used on Brady was a compensatory choice the team received for losing its punter, Tom Tupa.
• Brady recalled being offered about 20 cents a card to sign 1,000 rookie cards, and thinking he was going to be rich.
• Only four of Brady's 2000 rookie autographs show him in a Patriots uniform.
• The football from Brady's first NFL touchdown pass sold for $428,842 in the same auction as the $3.1 million card.
• The Championship Ticket set the football-card record three times in four months of 2021: $1.32 million in March, $2.25 million in April and $3.1 million in June.
• At 24, Brady was the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl when he won his first.