Peyton Manning’s Rookie Ticket, #87 in 1998 Playoff Contenders, comes from the first year of the Rookie Ticket, and he signed it on the card itself.
Contenders that year was built from a group of insert sets, and the Ticket set had 99 cards: veterans through #80, then the autographed rookies from #81, Andre Wadsworth, in team order. Manning is the seventh of them. Fred Taylor is #89, Randy Moss #92, Hines Ward #94 and Ryan Leaf #95. The cards were not numbered, but Playoff later stated a print run of 200 for Manning’s, and the cards were brought to him for signing before they went into packs.
The front is laid out like a ticket. 1998 PLAYOFF sits at the top over ROOKIE TICKET, with Autograph written across it in script, then INDIANAPOLIS COLTS in blue and a Colts helmet. Manning, in the white jersey with blue stripes and the number 18, drops back with the ball in both hands, and MANNING runs down the right edge in tall pale letters. SECTION 12, ROW D, SEAT 5 is printed at the bottom, and his signature crosses the lower half of the card.
Section 12, Row D, Seat 5, signed in his rookie year.
There were parallels: Gold and Red versions of the Ticket, and a Registered Exchange set, sent to collectors who returned a complete Ticket set and stamped on the back in the order received. Some unsigned Red copies were signed later, outside the packs, and Beckett says they should not be treated like the originals.
Indianapolis made him the first pick of the draft that April, out of Tennessee, one place ahead of Leaf. As a rookie he started all sixteen games, threw for 3,739 yards and 26 touchdowns, and the Colts went 3–13. He went on to five Most Valuable Player awards and two Super Bowl championships, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2021.
The card’s glossy surface did not always take the ink. Some signatures beaded or skipped when they were written, and some have faded since.