AFL Card Values & Grading Guide 2026

Are AFL cards worth anything?

Yes, but only a thin slice of them. AFL card values are concentrated in four things: low-numbered signature and patch cards, rookie-year cards of players who became stars, award predictor and redemption cards, and vintage Scanlens in high grade. Everything else, including the base card in every pack and the common Teamcoach insert, is worth between about one and twenty Australian dollars.

The ceiling is genuinely high. A 2021 Select Supremacy quad-signature card of Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall, Doug Wade and Gary Ablett Sr, numbered to 25, saw its first copy sell back to Select for A$50,000 in January 2022. Below that, the best 2026 Footy Stars predictor cards have published medians from about A$399 to A$1,505 across three to nineteen sales.

The floor is a dollar. If a card has no serial number, no signature, no rookie status and no vintage scarcity, grading it is a guaranteed loss. The rest of this guide is about telling the two ends apart with numbers rather than hope.

Values and fees checked November 2026. Medians are published market readings, not appraisals.

Select, Teamcoach and vintage Scanlens

Three makers explain almost the entire AFL market, and each one produces a different kind of card.

Select. Select holds the AFL licence and produces the hobby tier: Footy Stars, Optimum, Supremacy and the numbered inserts inside them. The top of the Select ladder is where the record prices live, including Draft Pick Signatures, Brownlow and Coleman predictors, and multi-signature booklet cards.

Teamcoach. The mainstream, retail-priced line. The 2026 release landed on 31 March 2026 with 36 packs of nine cards and base parallels in Common, Silver and Gold. Its insert series are Star Powers, Wildcards, Card Craft, Best and Fairest, Future Legends, Footy Flix and a Scanlens throwback.

Vintage Scanlens. Produced from 1963 to 1987, Scanlens is the vintage backbone of the hobby. The cards are simple, the print runs were modest by modern standards, and survival in clean condition is the scarcity. Legend rookies are the standout.

Two smaller categories matter at the edges. Older tobacco and trade issues predate Scanlens and are rare enough to be auction material. Modern retail-only inserts sit between Teamcoach and Select in value and are usually not worth grading unless they are signed or numbered.

Values by card type: base, insert, parallel, signature, numbered

Published medians by card type are the fastest way to see where value actually sits. The table below uses market medians for ungraded cards in typical condition.

Those numbers describe the middle of the market, not the top. A signature card of a star in a premium set is a different object from a signature card of a squad player in a retail set, and the median hides that. At the very top, the 2026 Footy Stars predictor cards give a better picture of what a good pull can be worth.

The chart is the honest summary of the hobby: the median AFL card is a few dollars, and the cards that pay for grading sit far above it.

Grade premiums: raw vs 9 vs 10

The grade premium on AFL cards is real but selective, and the published data includes cases in both directions.

Where grading adds value. Rookie cards of players who became stars, low-numbered signatures and vintage Scanlens. A slab certifies authenticity and condition for a buyer who cannot inspect the card, and on a thin market that can be worth more than the grade itself.

Where it does not. Modern base and common inserts. The card is worth a dollar, the slab costs A$50 or more, and no grade creates demand that was not there. The same applies to most Teamcoach inserts unless they are signed or serial-numbered.

The data is not uniform. Published tracking in 2026 showed a Harley Reid rookie at about A$14.66 raw and A$268.95 graded, which is a huge premium, and a Nick Daicos rookie at about A$1,350 raw against A$832.30 graded, which is a discount. The difference is which grade the slab holds and how thin the raw comp set is. A high raw price already reflects quality; slabbing it can narrow the buyer pool rather than widen it.

Practical rule. Grade the raw card that is worth A$10 to A$150 and looks like a 9 or 10, not the card that is already expensive raw. The upside is in the gap between raw and gem, and that gap closes as the raw price rises.

AFL-specific condition issues

AFL cards pick up a specific set of flaws, and the vintage cards fail differently from the modern ones.

Corners and edges on vintage Scanlens. The stock is soft and the cards were handled in schoolyards. Whitening, soft corners and edge chipping are the standard vintage problems, and a Scanlens that survived flat is genuinely unusual.

Surface on foil and chromium. Modern Select and Teamcoach inserts use foil and metallic finishes that scratch and show print lines. A card that looks clean under a ceiling light can be covered in hairlines under raking light, and graders see the latter.

Centering on die-cuts. The die-cut inserts in modern Teamcoach and Select sets have no clean rectangular border, so centering is judged against the artwork frame. Miscut and damaged die-cuts are common.

Autograph condition. On-card signatures can smudge or fade, and a signature that has been retouched is a rejection. The card condition guide explains what each grade step tolerates, and the centering guide covers the border measurement.

Population and gem rates

AFL population data is thin, and the thinness is the most useful thing about it.

Low submission volume. Far fewer AFL cards are graded than American sports cards or Pokémon, so the census for any given card is small. A card with twenty submissions and eight 10s is not a common card, it is an under-submitted one.

Gem rates are self-selected. People submit the cards they think will grade well, so the gem rate describes the submitted cards, not the print run. A 40% gem rate on a modern insert does not mean 40% of the print run is gem, and it does not mean your card will grade a 10.

Vintage is the exception. Scanlens submissions are rare and the survivors are usually the better copies, so the high-grade population is genuinely small. A vintage card that grades well enters a thinner field than the raw supply suggests, which is exactly where the premium comes from.

Use it as a tie-breaker. Between two similar cards, the one with the smaller high-grade population has more upside. Population is not a price guide, and no grader's census tells you what a buyer will pay.

The AFL cards worth grading

Shortlist to these categories before you spend a dollar on a slab.

1. Draft Pick Signatures and low-numbered Select autographs of players who became stars, especially numbered to 50 or fewer.
2. Award predictor and redemption cards that hit, such as Brownlow, Coleman and Norm Smith signatures numbered to 220.
3. Rookie-year cards where the raw price is low but the graded comp set exists, and the card looks like a 9 or 10.
4. Vintage Scanlens rookies of legends, in clean condition, where survival is the scarcity.
5. Numbered parallels with premium serials. Card 001 and the player's jumper number carry a documented premium, and single-digit serials sit above the rest.

Everything else stays raw. A base card, a common Teamcoach insert or an unnumbered parallel is not a grading candidate, and the cost stack from Australia is A$50 to A$200 per card once freight, GST and customs are counted.

How and where to grade AFL cards

There is no PSA or CGC office in Australia, and PSA has not accepted direct individual international submissions since April 2025. Australian collectors use a middleman.

PSA through a middleman. Published starting rates run from about A$110 to A$172 per card for Standard before GST, with round trips of roughly 90 to 110 business days. PSA has the deepest resale market for AFL cards, which is why most submissions go there.

CGC or BGS through a middleman. Cheaper per card, from about A$40 for CGC and A$55 for BGS as starting rates, and a sensible option for mid-value AFL cards where the international premium is small. The Beckett subgrade detail appeals to collectors who keep cards rather than sell them.

Domestic Australian graders. From about A$30 per card with a one to three week turnaround. The slab is cheap and fast, and it sells to Australian buyers; it does not carry the international premium.

Before any of them, run a pre-grade. A free AI card check returns centering, corner, edge and surface sub-scores plus a photo-quality signal, and the Australia costs and routes guide has the full landed-cost model. The AFL cards hub lists the sets to check.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Further Reading

• CardLoft: most expensive AFL cards ever sold
• CardLoft: AFL cards worth money, price guide by type
• CardPop: 2026 AFL Teamcoach buying guide and chase cards
• Footy Card Guide: Select price guide and condition standards
• Graded Cards Australia: most valuable AFL cards
• Card Revive: Australian submission pricing
• JToys: PSA submission service pricing (AUD)
• PSA pricing and service levels

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