In updating the market data page recently, I started thinking about which cards have gained the most in book value since I started the blog. These are the ones that came to mind.
DEION SANDERS
Oh, I wish I had jumped when that reader offered me the whole nine-card set of “Prime Time” for $60. Being an analyist on “The NFL Today” and “NFL GameDay” drove up his prices some after his baseball and football playing days were done, but it wasn’t until he transitioned from “Neon Deion” to “Prime Time” to “Coach Prime” that prices really took off. Ten years ago, you could buy his autographed Pro Line Portrait or Profiles cards in the $15 to $20 range. Now they’re reach $50 to $80.
BILL BELICHICK
The Pro Line cards of the former Patriots coach (that sounds weird) probably have gained the most in the past decade. This card is widely recognized as his rookie card, and to have 1,000 signed ones inserted into packs in 1991 makes this a holy grail for New England Patriots collectors. Any time there’s crossover between collectors of different things (like when you have Elvis collectors and stamp collectors both champing at the bit for U.S. Postal service Elvis stamps), there’s an increase in value. Here you have fans appreciative of his six Super Bowl titles competing with fans of the Pro Line set. You used to be able to buy this for less than 10 bucks. Now you’d be lucky to get it for $200. They seem to be selling in the $300 to $350 range consistently.
DON MATTINGLY
Here’s another example of crossover collecting driving higher prices for a collectible. New York Yankees fans had this card in the $20 to $30 range shortly after the 1992 Pro Line set was released. Now we’re routinely seeing prices twice that high, or more. Although Donnie Baseball never won a World Series, he’s still a giant in pinstripes history. His autographed card in this set will rise steadily because of that alone. But when he became a manager, he added more collector interest. He’s led the Dodgers and the Marlins in the dugout, and now we add Los Angeles fans to the mix.
JIM HARBAUGH
We’re seeing an increase in prices now that he’s won the national championship as the University of Michigan’s football coach. The days of finding his cards in the single digits are long gone. Now we’re looking at prices in the $20 to $30 range. And prices are climbing. If he finds success at the helm of the Los Angeles Chargers (out of habit I initially typed “San Diego Chargers” there before I corrected myself), the book value of his Pro Lines will go up more.
So what do these four have in common? Coaching! One of these cards is a coach card, and the other three players became coaches after their careers on the field were over. Harbaugh, for example, had a decent career but other than being a quarterback wasn’t a big star. He had one season where his passer rating topped 100, and he made his only appearance on a Pro Bowl roster that year. UPI named him its offensive player of the year in 1985, when the Colts when 7-5 with Harbaugh as a starter. He was not Montana, Brady or Mahomes. But the values of his cards increased as he found success on the sidelines.
Will any other cards from the Pro Line sets rise in value because a player finds success as a coach? My guess is time is running out. Some of the players in the sets were in their 20s when the cards were produced, which puts them in their 50s now. If they haven’t been involved in coaching before now, they’re unlikely to start. There are three notable former University of Colorado players in the set: Kanavis McGhee, Alfred Williams and Mike Pritchard. But Eric Bieniemy, who didn’t have a card, is a one-time Buffaloes player who is high in the coaching ranks in the NFL and could get a shot at a head-coaching job at some point. There probably are others in the set who are involved in NFL or college coaching that I’m not aware of. Best of luck to them. And if you know who they are, maybe it would be wise to buy their cards now, before the prices go up.
Certified Pro Line Autographs 