Football · REFERENCE ENTRY
Barry Sanders
1989 · Score Football · #257
Sanders’s #257 rookie belongs to Score’s first football release.
- Sport
- Football
- Year / season
- 1989
- Set
- Score Football
- Number
- #257
- Format
- Card
- Issue status
- Rookie card
About this card
Barry Sanders’s 1989 Score Football card is number 257 in that release. Score launched in 1988 and put full-color photos on both sides of its cards. Its late-1980s and early-1990s sets hold rookie cards from that era.
The catalog labels this a rookie card, based on the source cited below.
How to identify it
Score printed in large quantities, so condition decides most comparisons. Canadian, supplemental and other versions of the same year are separate issues with their own numbering.
In Barry Sanders’s run
Barry Sanders has 2 entries in this catalog, from 1989 to 1989, and this is the earliest of them. Nearby entries are listed below, so you can compare the releases that sit around this one.
In the 1989 checklist
The catalog’s selected checklist for the 1989 Score Football release also includes Deion Sanders. It is a partial checklist of cataloged cards, not the full release.
What to know about this issue
- PSA identifies #257 as a Barry Sanders rookie.
- The 1989 Score set places its rookie subset at numbers 245–272.
Inspect the source
Source reviewed 2026-10-07. The source describes this issue; it does not verify any item offered by a third party.
No assigned grade, market value or verified offer is supplied by this reference entry.
Read the football collecting guideRaw or graded. Inspect the actual copy.
The issue stays 1989 · Score Football. These are research checks, not a condition assessment of a specimen.
Raw / ungraded
- Match the issue
- Match the full year or season, release, number and named edition to this reference. Ask for readable images of the actual item’s front and back.
- Record visible condition
- Inspect corners, edges, centering and surface in suitable photographs or in person. Record damage or unanswered questions without assigning a predicted professional grade.
- Keep authentication separate
- Ungraded does not establish authenticity or mean “never authenticated.” A protective case alone does not establish a professional condition grade.
Professionally graded
- Read the complete label
- Record the grading company, exact issue, card grade and any qualifiers or designation. Keep an autograph grade separate from the card’s condition grade. An authentication-only designation may have no numeric condition grade.
- Compare the certification record
- Use the company’s official lookup and compare its issue details and available images with the actual item, label and holder. A matching certification number alone does not establish that an offered item is genuine.
- Compare within the stated scale
- Retain the company’s exact grade name and number. Different companies and grade designations are not automatically equivalent; a numeric label does not establish a current price.
A source-linked reference or historical scan does not authenticate the card you are considering. CardRoster supplies no assigned grade, certification or price for it.
