With the MLB trade season heating up (see Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for six prospects – including Cameron Maybin, as well as the hunt for Johan Santana,) it makes me wonder about the impact of a trade on a players card value. For example, would Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card in his Seattle Mariners uniform, be worth more if he had remained in Seattle his entire career, and if so, how much more?
How about a player like Derek Jeter? How much more valuable is his rookie card, than if he was traded, say, to the Chicago White Sox? Certainly, the cache of playing for one team, especially the New York Yankees of all teams, increases the value of his rookie card. But by how much?
And for a player like Craig Biggio, who had a Hall of Fame career by many standards, but does not quite have the star power of a player like Derek Jeter or Ken Griffey Jr., what value does his rookie card (or any card of his for that matter,) hold because he played his entire career for the Astros? (And what if the Astros had won a World Series or two during his tenure? A question for another day.)
Just some thoughts about the impact on card value of a player remaining with one team his entire career (a rarity in the game, as we see with the Willis/Cabrera deal.) If I ever get the time, maybe I’ll figure out the trend in card values of marquee players pre and post trade dates. Yeah, right.
That would make for a great study. I think it matters a lot when the player experiences most of his production with the team that is not pictured on his Rookie.