49ers’ Star Quarterback Quickly Turning Into Hobby Darling For Collectors
The last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft is setting the collecting world on fire. In just his second season, Brock Purdy has led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl as they face the vaunted Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Purdy’s rise has correlated with his popularity with football card collectors, as three of his rookie cards have sold for more than $120,000, including one card selling for a whopping $186,000!
The craze began last October when Goldin Auctions sold Purdy’s 2022 Panini National Treasures Rookie Patch Autograph Platinum NFL Shield 1/1, with a grade of BGS 8.5, for $122,000.
Last month, a 2022 Prizm Black Finite 1/1 Brock Purdy PSA 10 rookie card sold for $125,723 during an auction through ALT. Air Force veteran Steve Garman bought one pack of 2022 Prizm Football cards online early one morning, leading him to this life-altering moment. Garman held the card for ten months before putting it up for auction.
“So they had a brand new case of boxes. And so they opened up the case, said, hey, pick the box from the case. I said, I want the bottom right one — and then pick the pack from the case. So first pack, first box from a case, and then they opened the pack,” Garman told ALT. “At that point, we’re going through the cards. And the first card that came out, I think, was a snakeskin Darren Waller. And so we were like, oh, awesome. Like, I got a great card. And then the cards started moving a little bit and they realized it was a black finite behind it. And then all hell broke loose.”
Last year, a lifelong 49ers fan and US Air Force veteran decided to buy a single pack of 2022 Prizm Football…
The pack set him back exactly $41.
Sure enough, he pulled the product hit…the Brock Purdy Black Prizm 1/1 rookie.
He ultimately made the tough decision to sell the… pic.twitter.com/vbmoqeZBW6
— The Collectibles Guru 🧠 (@ericwhiteback) January 21, 2024
Despite those two cards selling for over $120,000, it doesn’t come close to what Purdy’s 1/1 2022 National Treasures Stars and Stripes Platinum NFL Shield PSA 10 autograph rookie card went for in December. PWCC Marketplace sold that monster for $186,000 — making it the highest-selling card of a 49ers player, even over legends like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.
“Collectors clamor for First Off The Line editions of Panini products for their exclusive parallels. Each FOTL box of 2022 National Treasures included one Stars & Stripes RPA (or one of four S&S RPA parallels),” writes PWCC Marketplace. “The NFL Shield RPAs are one of three 1/1 S&S parallels from 2022 NT, but they carry more weight with collectors than the 1/1 Brand Logo or Laundry Tag RPAs. As the most prominent rookie on the checklist, many collectors would argue that this card is the crowning jewel of NT’s 2022 FOTL edition, and its dual PSA 10/Auto 10 designation adds more allure.”
Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday, several high-end Purdy rookie cards are going for tens of thousands of dollars on eBay, including one seller trying to get $99,999 for a 2022 National Treasures Rookie Patch Autograph 1/1.
If Purdy defeats the Chiefs and leads the 49ers to their sixth-overall Super Bowl title, expect his rookie cards to continue to skyrocket and reach stratospheres previously unheard of for seventh-round draft picks. However, the second-year quarterback still has a ways to go before having the most-expensive football card ever, which belongs to Purdy’s Super Bowl opponent Patrick Mahomes. His 2017 Panini National Treasures Platinum NFL Shield Rookie Autograph 1/1 sold for $4.3 million in 2021.