McGwire Rookie: As one of the best (and most controversial) home run hitters of all time, the Mark McGwire rookie card has always been in high demand. His first major baseball card appearance is also a bit unusual since he was on the USA Olympic Baseball Team in 1984. Topps had a special series in their 1985 set that featured the olympic team, and card #401 that year was Mark McGwire. This is generally considered to be his true rookie card, and sells at a premium. However, his first Fleer and Donruss cards can also be considered rookie cards and they are also very collectible. McGwire’s first Fleer card was the the 1987 Fleer Update card #U-76. His Donruss rookie is card #46 in their 1987 set, and the card has a “Rated Rookie” notation on it.
Mark McGwire Topps Rookie Card: As mentioned above, his first Topps card was issued in 1985. However, many dealers also sell the 1897 Topps card #366 as the rookie as well, since he was not even playing major league baseball when the olympic card was released. To make matters more confusing, Topps selected McGwire to be on their 1987 All-Star Rookie Team. As a result, his 1988 Topps card is imprinted with a golden trophy symbol in the lower right corner with the words “All-Star Rookie”. This sometimes causes people to refer to his 1988 card as a rookie card, but it should definitely not be considered a rookie card and you should not pay any sort of premium for this card.
McGwire's Topps Olympic rookie.
Donruss Rookies: There are three different Donruss McGwire cards that are considered to be rookies. There is the regular Rated Rookie card from the 1987 Donruss set, the card from “The Rookies” set, and there is also the Donruss Leaf card which is from the Canadian set.
1987 Donruss Mark McGwire from The Rookies set.
Fleer Rookies: There are two different Fleer rookie cards. The Fleer Update card with the blue border and the Fleer Update Glossy card. Both these cards look almost identical and can easily be confused. The Glossy card was a premium product with a very smooth and shiny surface.
This is an example of the 1987 fleer update. Inspect the surface carefully to see if it is the glossy version.
This is the 1987 Classic yellow Mark McGwire rookie card.
If you already have these rookie cards in your collection, you may want to move on to higher end McGwire collectibles. Be sure to take a look at these McGwire autographed jerseys and signed baseballs.