Cardboard Chronology: 50 Years of Pele Cards
Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Edison Arantes do Nascimento are widely considered the greatest athletes to ever play their respective sports. Nascimento may not look familiar, but perhaps the name "Pele" rings a bell.
Pele is widely considered to be the greatest soccer player of all-time, the Brazilian football legend's #10 is worn by players worldwide as a solute to the man who helped turn the game of soccer into the world's biggest sport. Below, we look at handful of high quality Pele cards.
1959 Heinerle German #NNO Pele (NA)
1958-59 Quigol Brazil Pele (NA)
1965 Panini Calciatori Pele ($20-$50)
1979 Venorlandus #11 Pele ($10-$50)
1984 Rotham's #NNO Pele ($10-$20)
2008 Sportkings Autograph Silver #P1-P3 Pele/ 25 ($350)
2008 Sportkings Single Memorabilia Silver #42 Pele ($100)
2009 Sportkings Autograph Silver P4-P6 /20 ($350)
2009 Sportkings Mini #134 Pele ($40)
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Philip | May 27, 2010 | Reply
How can so many Pele collectors claim that their card is the true rookie card when a 1958 PSA 9 Pele Alifabolaget card exists? The Quigol and Heinerle cards are not graded by PSA so something is amiss. If PSA had graded them then maybe some of us would give their claims more credibility. Until you can match up with the PSA 9 Alifabolaget Pele, save your breath.
Brett J. Lewis | May 27, 2010 | Reply
@Philip: Hey, I’m not claiming anything, I was just trying to give Soccer fans something to look into. There aren’t exactly great resources for soccer cards out there. I looked on eBay and saw what cards people consistantly bought. If you would be willing to write an article on Pele cards, I would be more than willing to publish it on the site. America doesn’t know much about Soccer, but tons of people grow up playing it, I was simply trying to do a service to Soccer fans. I am actually looking for a Soccer card writer, my expertise lies in Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey. Let me know if you would have any interest. Thanks, Brett
Ken Brett | Dec 23, 2011 | Reply
Nice acticle. The other comment posted is wrong about PSA. You can search PSA for the Pele registry and see a bunch of his 58/59 rookies that they grade including the Quigol, Heinerle, Alpha and others. All the 58/59 cards came out within a month or two of each other. Heinerle and Alpha (Alifabolaget) cards were produced by real established card. Both companies advertised the cards as 1959 cards on their promotional advertising sheets. In my opinion the Heinerle is the only one that consistently sells for big bucks is because of the size. It’s standard trading card size vs the Alpha and Quigol being about 33% smaller than turn of the century tobacco cards. it’s really a shame they made them so tiny. Who wants to spend over $1000 on a trading card the size of a small postage stamp. They looke ven worse when graded because the grading slab is so big. Regardless, Pele vintage cards are so interesting. There are so many out there that are rare and good looking. Check out the 1966 Tarjeton from Venezuela. It was made by Topps. The same year they made Venzuelan baseball. Really cool and rare card in traditional card size. It might be even more valuable than the Heinerle if you ever see one in nrmt or better condition.