Sam Darnold, the former No. 3 overall pick turned NFL journeyman, has finally bucked the bust narrative with an improbable career revival, and his sports card market has followed suit.
Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots and Drake Maye in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8, delivering a matchup of a former collector favorite with a current hobby darling.
Maye has been arguably the NFL's most collectible player during his historic sophomore season — his nearly 42,000 sales tracked data tool Market Movers over the last 30 days and the more than 208,000 sales over the last 365 days both rank No. 1 among football players over those respective periods.
Darnold’s market has orchestrated its own surge, particularly over the last week, after collectors more or less abandoned hope for a turnaround when the USC product bounced from the Jets to the Panthers and 49ers before finally breaking out with Minnesota in 2024.
Market Movers has tracked more than 5,900 sales for Darnold over the last year, with more than 1,100 of those finalizing in the last seven days.
Of the football players tracked by Market Movers, those 5,900 sales for Darnold rank just 87th over the last year. Over the last week, which included a 346-yard, three-touchdown performance in a victory over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game, Darnold’s 1,100 sales ranks seventh.
Overall, Darnold’s cards tracked by Market Movers are up 110% in price collectively over the last 365 days and nearly 14% over the last week.
At the low end, the recent price bump has been driven largely by his 2018 Donruss Base Raw, which has risen from roughly $7.50 to about $10 across more than 300 sales.
Darnold’s most popular graded card over the last seven days, a 2018 Prizm Base PSA 9, has increased in price from about $6 to nearly $25 across 27 sales.
Narrowing Darnold’s market to the high end, the most activity has occurred since his record sale in 2021.
According to Card Ladder, two of Darnold’s five most expensive card sales landed in November, including the $10,081 paid for a 2018 Panini National Treasures Stars & Stripes RPA /15 at Fanatics Collect and the $8,460 paid for a 2018 Panini Kaboom Gold /10 at Alt.
Whether Darnold’s market continues to grow following a Super Bowl appearance will be worth monitoring, especially with many of his key cards featuring a Jets uniform.
Prior to 2024, Darnold had never won more than seven games in a single season. He now has won 14 in back-to-back campaigns with two Pro Bowl selections, so anything is possible.
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Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the collectibles editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.