1986 Topps Football Cards

By Patrick MondoutThe 1986 McDonalds Football cards were distributed one at a time (usually - wink, wink) at "participating" restaurants. Collectors went nuts for them and they were far more collectable for a time than any of the Awesome80s Topps sets.

The cards were available for all 28 teams but only in the local area for that team. In other words, you could get the Dallas Cowboys cards in Texas, but not in Philadelphia where you'd happily receive Eagles cards instead. Restaurants in areas without a team received the national set of "McDonald's All-Stars."

At the bottom of each oversized card was a tab, which could be scratched for a possible prize. Each week for four weeks the tabs changed colors. The blue colored tabs were released the first week and the are usually the scarcest thought for some teams it is black. Cards with the tabs removed or scratched have greatly diminished value.

The backs of the cards include statistics, career highlights and a section featuring 1985 highlights.

When you add up all the cards in each set, plus each tab variation, there are over 2,800 different cards in the set! That easily made them the largest set of cards for a single season ever produced. The bubble burst on these cards after a few years and most are less expensive now than in late '86, though one wonders why McDonalds didn't try again in 1987.

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