After an impressive college football career with LSU, where he led them to the CFP National Championship in 2019, Joe Burrow was the most coveted player in a quarterback-heavy rookie class.
Burrow went into the 2020 NFL draft as a Heisman award-winning, national champion quarterback, and was selected as the 1st pick by the Cincinnati Bengals – He was selected ahead of fellow rookie quarterbacks, such as Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert.
In the football card hobby, Joe Burrow rookie card interest was high before he’d played his first game in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals. While his rookie season was cut short by a bad knee injury, his rookie cards remained hot property.
There’s a lot of variety and choice for collectors, when it comes to Joe Burrow Rookie Cards, as with any modern marquee rookie. There’s also a variety of price-entry points, with some of his rookies going for just a few dollars, while his most valuable cards fetch thousands.
With the wide range of options, released in football card packs across the 2020 season, I’ve listed the best Joe Burrow rookie cards to collect, both signed and unsigned, with varying values and scarcity, in no particular order.
When Was Joe Burrow’s Rookie Season?
Joe Burrow’s rookie season was the 2020 NFL season – He was selected as the 1st overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft.
The Best Joe Burrow Rookie Cards
2020 Panini Flawless Rookie Gems Joe Burrow #101
First on the list is the rarest Joe Burrow rookie card, the 2020 Panini Flawless card, which is limited to just 20 copies.
The premium release is one of Panini’s most expensive and sought-after products. Despite there being no signature or memorabilia swatch, the card is embedded with a ruby gemstone.
The scarcity of this one is the major driver of its expensive price – There’s also a few, more limited, parallels.
2020 Panini Gold Standard Joe Burrow #101
The 2020 Panini Gold Standard Joe Burrow rookie has a nice, elegant look to it. The holo foil stock, with the gold themed design, as the name suggests, is a big part of the premium look.
Another big draw to this card is the limited print run of just 99 copies for the base card, with a few valuable parallels.
2020 Panini Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Joe Burrow #151
The 2020 Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Joe Burrow card takes the already popular Donruss Rated Rookie design, and adds some optichrome – The set is generally a popular option for NFL card collectors each year.
The base card is a nice, and popular, option for collectors, but there’s also more scarce, numbered parallels, which hold more value.
2020 Panini Prizm Joe Burrow #307
Panini Prizm is one of the most popular yearly football card sets on the market. The set is well-known in the hobby for its wide array of parallel options, and it’s generally a ‘go-to’ for rookie cards.
The 2020 Panini Prizm Joe Burrow base rookie card is a nice chromium option, which is easy to get hold of. The big appeal of the Prizm set, for many, is the numerous different parallels, of varying scarcity – They’re a more valuable, and harder chase for collectors.
2020 Panini Spectra Joe Burrow #136
Panini Spectra is another premium chromium release. The 2020 Panini Spectra Joe Burrow rookie card is on the higher-end of the scale in terms of value for a base card.
The card also has a high-quality feel and finish to it. There are some parallels, which offer a change from the standard colors.
2020 Panini Select Joe Burrow #46
Another popular Joe Burrow rookie card option, the 2020 Panini Select card.
Panini Select works on a tiered system in terms of scarcity, with 4 different base cards for every player. The first, and most common, is the Concourse card (#46), which is pictured above, and is technically the rookie card. There’s also the Premier card (#146), the Club card (#246) and the Field card (#346), which is the rarest and most valuable of the base cards.
All 4 different base cards have differences in design and imagery, and all have their own set of parallel versions, with plenty of options for collectors to choose from.
2020 Panini Mosaic Joe Burrow #201
Panini Mosaic is a chromium release that has many similarities to the popular Panini Prizm set, with an emphasis on parallels – Collectors have a wide choice of refractor parallels to choose from in the Mosaic set.
Mosaic was a new NFL set in 2020, when this Joe Burrow rookie card was released, but the card designs resonate well with collectors, and have proven to be popular. The base card is on the lower end of the value scale for Burrow rookie cards.
2020 Panini Absolute Kaboom! Joe Burrow #KJB1, #KJB2
The 2020 Panini Kaboom! Joe Burrow inserts make for a very highly sought-after option. There’s 2 different Kaboom! cards in the Absolute set for Burrow, with different images used on each.
The bold, comic style designs of Kaboom! Cards have become hugely popular among sports card collectors.
They aren’t easy to get hold of. The inserts were included in Panini Absolute packs and they’re a lot rarer than the base cards, so that makes them some of the more valuable Joe Burrow rookie cards.
2020 Panini Donruss Optic Downtown! Joe Burrow #D-JB
The 2020 Panini Downtown! Joe Burrow card was released as an insert in the Donruss Optic set. It mixes appealing artwork and scarcity to produce a popular, and expensive first-year Burrow card.
This one offers something different in the design to Burrow’s other rookies, with its classy artistic style, and imagery including Bengal Tigers, to reference the Cincinnati Bengals.
A nice option, which is one of the more expensive unsigned Burrow rookie cards.
The Best Autographed Joe Burrow Rookie Cards
2020 Panini Contenders Optic Rookie Ticket Joe Burrow Auto #101
Moving onto the Joe Burrow rookie cards that have high-premium features, and first up is the 2020 Panini Contenders Rookie Ticket Joe Burrow autographed card.
The on-card signature is the big appeal to this card. The set’s ticket theme is well-known, and popular among collectors – The high price tag also comes despite the card not being serial numbered.
There is a variation version of the card, which is limited to 250 copies, and displays a different image of Burrow (one of him in action in the white Bengals uniform) – It can also be identified by a circled “V” on the back of the card.
2020 Panini Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Signatures Joe Burrow Auto #151
A premium version of the popular, and well-known, Rated Rookie design, for collectors with a bigger budget, is this autographed version of the 2020 Panini Donruss Rated Rookie Joe Burrow rookie card.
This autograph has appeal, but does have the slight downside of being a sticker signature, instead of a hard-signed autograph. It’s one of the more valuable Giddey rookies.
This one is limited to 150 copies, which helps drive the value higher.
2020 Panini Flawless Joe Burrow Rookie Patch Auto #1
The 2020 Panini Flawless set included this Joe Burrow RPA card, which is one of the most expensive Burrow rookies.
The jersey patch and signature are a big premium appeal for this card, and it’s serial numbered to just 25 copies, making it also one of the rarest Burrow rookies.
The nice stylish design, which is popular, and the high-quality feel and finish, mixed with the signature and swatch, make it a highly valuable option. There are a few different, and even rarer, parallels for this one as well.
2020 Panini Immaculate Collection Joe Burrow Rookie Patch Auto #101
The 2020 Immaculate Collection Joe Burrow Rookie Card is another one of the most high-quality and premium options on the market.
With 99 copies, it’s hard to find, while also having a hard signature and patch swatch, similar to the Panini Flawless RPA card. It also has a few highly limited, and more valuable parallel versions.
It’s one for collectors with the biggest budgets for a Burrow rookie card.
2020 Panini National Treasures Joe Burrow Rookie Patch Auto #156
The last Burrow rookie on our list of the top Joe Burrow rookie card options is this 2020 National Treasures card.
It’s the most expensive Joe Burrow rookie card on the market, and for good reason – It holds the edge over the Panini Flawless and Immaculate RPA cards, because of the jumbo swatch and also the brand prestige. National Treasures has a long history of being at the top of high-end football cards.
The base card is limited to 99 copies, and the hard-signed autograph, with the jumbo swatch and elegant design, tick all the boxes for a collector looking for the very highest quality of football cards.
What Is A Joe Burrow Rookie Card Worth?
The price of a Joe Burrow rookie card varies depending on which of his rookie cards you buy. The mainstream, and common base Joe Burrow rookie cards sell for less than $100, but the more premium cards, which might include an autograph or memorabilia swatch, sell for thousands of dollars.
What Is The Most Expensive Joe Burrow Rookie Card?
The 2020 Panini National Treasures Joe Burrow rookie card is his most expensive to buy. The on-card signature, jumbo patch swatch, and limited print run of 99 copies are large contributors to the value, but the prestige of the National Treasures brand gives it the edge over similar Burrow rookie cards, like the 2020 Panini Immaculate Collection and the 2020 Panini Flawless RPA cards.
What Is The Rarest Joe Burrow Rookie Card?
The base 2020 Panini Flawless Joe Burrow rookie card is limited to just 20 copies, making it his rarest rookie card.
How Many Rookie Cards Does Joe Burrow Have?
Joe Burrow has more than 35 different base rookie cards.
