Does a Championship Increase Card Values for All-Time Greats?
Last week, a member of the Puck Junk Facebook Group asked me if a Connor McDavid printing plate card that he pulled on ePack would increase in value if the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup.
After thinking about it for a moment, I told him that his particular card would most likely not increase in value if the Oilers won the Cup because McDavid is a popular enough player – and one of the all-time greats – that his high-dollar cards will still be high-dollar cards regardless of team success.
However, that made me wonder…whose cards do go up in value if they win a Stanley Cup? Usually, it tends to be a player on a Cup-winning team that wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP – but isn’t the team’s biggest superstar.
For example, when Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby won the Conn Smythe Trophy, it didn’t necessarily spike the value of their high-end cards because those players’ best cards were already expensive.
Of course, this was prior to 2020 – and as we know, the game of sports card collecting has changed dramatically since then.
So, how about more recent winners of the Conn Smythe? In 2023, Jonathan Marchessault was named the playoffs MVP when he led the Vegas Golden Knights to its first Stanley Cup Championship. That summer, more people were seeking his cards. Suddenly, a $20 autographed jersey card was now a $100 card, while his lower-end cards that would normally be overlooked were hot sellers.
The same thing happened with cards of Andrei Vasilevskiy in 2021 and Cale Makar in 2022. Even low-dollar cards that would normally be $5 were easily selling for $10.
Granted, both of those players are superstars, but there are arguably bigger names on their teams that are collected more, such as Steven Stamkos on the Lightning or Nathan MacKinnon on the Avalanche.
I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that when a less-obvious player wins the Conn Smythe, it tends to increase his card values. But if the player like McDavid wins the Stanley Cup – and maybe is named MVP – it may not really have an effect because his cards were already valuable to begin with.
But what do you think? I’d love to know your opinion on this. Leave a comment with your thoughts or hit me up on social media and let me know.
Note: This article is an updated version of an editorial that originally appeared in Volume 2 – Issue 22 of the Puck Junk Newsletter. For stories like these, plus news and updates about hockey cards and collectibles, subscribe to the newsletter here.
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