One of my favorite football card issues is the Super Bowl Card Show sets issued by Topps each year.  They are neat little sets with superstars, top rookies, and a limited print run.  Topps had issued Super Bowl-related products back to 1992 and Super Bowl XXVI, but I will focus on the small card sets they began issuing in January 2001, with Super Bowl XXXV.

All of these sets have 12-18 cards, feature that year's official Super Bowl logo, and have print runs estimated around 1000 sets.  The 2006 and 2007 sets are serially numbered.  All were in fairly plenty supply right after issue, but seem to dry up after about a few months.  A higher number of the 2001, 2003, and 2004 sets seem to be available, but this can't be scientifically proven.

I have pictured Brett Favre cards from the 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007 sets.

The 2001 Super Bowl XXXV set looks like the 2000 Topps Base Sets cards, except they have a refractor finish.  It has 12 cards total, including Peyton Manning, Faulk, and the rookie of Jamal Lewis.  Expect to pay about $10 for this set.

The 2002 set is the least widely available, and includes a Tomlinson rookie.  It has 18 cards, and looks like the 2001 Finest base set, except it has a unique ridged shimmer background.

The 2003 set (pictured top left) looks like the 2002 Finest base cards, and also has a ridged shimmer background.  It has 18 cards; rookies include David Carr and Clinton Portis.  Also this year, there were separate cards (outside this set) of various Chargers, because this game was played in San Diego.  Expect to pay about $15 for the 18-card set.

The 2004 set looks like the 2003 base Finest set, and is printed on silver foil board.  Beginning this year, there was a short printed parallel for the Super Bowl set- this one was printed on gold foil.  It is a 16-card set that includes rookies of Byron Leftwich and Andre Johnson; there is a total of 3 cards of Houston Texans (as the game was played in Houston)  Estimated price is $10.

The 2005 set's design was derived out of the 2004 Topps Base Set (see top right of the picture).  It is printed on regular white card stock.  A parallel was issued on black stock.  It has 18 cards, and is in somewhat higher demand because it includes rookies of Roethlisberger and Eli Manning.  Estimated price is about $20-25 for the white set, and about $50-70 for the black set.

In 2006, Topps handled their Super Bowl card promotions radically different.  The main 16-card set (pictured lower left) has a design based loosely of the 2005 Topps base set, with heavy gold foil accents.  For the first time, they were serial numbered (to 1000)  A black stock/silver foil parallel was numbered to 199.  Also, there was a 6-card set (taken from the larger 16-card set), a special 3-card set of Detroit Lions (including Barry Sanders), and a 6-card set of the MVPs from games XXXIV-XXXIX.  The 16-card set will cost about $20; the black version will be about $50, and the mini-sets (while rare) can be found under $10.

The 2007 set has its own unique design (bottom right)  It has 18 cards, and is also serially numbered.  It includes rookie cards of Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and Marques Colston, as well as a special Dan Marino card.  The set will cost about $15-20.