The 1989 Atlanta Falcons were the second-worst team in the NFL, winning only three of their 13 games.
And yet, they are highly collectable.
A graded Starting Lineup figure of Falcons quarterback Chris Miller sold Sunday night for $2,350, believed to be the second-highest price paid for a football figurine at auction.
The sale is only topped by an SLU of his teammate Bill Fralic, whose 1989 figure sold three years ago on eBay for nearly $4,000.
Fralic is the grail. Yes, an offensive lineman, is the most sought-after. At least five sealed Fralic SLUs have topped $1,000 sales in recent years.
How do we make sense of these prices?
Starting Lineup figurines began in 1988 when the brand was owned by Kenner, and featured 124 players in the initial MLB set, 137 in the NFL and 85 NBA players. In the first few years, there were players in these sets who would never be considered marketable enough to make a toy for — Raiders quarterback Marc Wilson, Cardinals utility man Jose Oquendo and Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton come to mind.
Kenner was able to make those players because team sets were available regionally and small runs meant they weren't costing the company too much to produce.
In the 1990s, after Kenner was bought by Hasbro, the names got bigger and so did the production. By 2000, when eBay and the internet revealed the later models were overproduced, the secondary market for Starting Lineup toys crashed.
But in recent years, as toy grading has become popular, the rarest of Starting Lineups have skyrocketed.
Eaton is part of the 1988 Jazz set that contains Karl Malone, John Stockton and Thurl Bailey. Sold primarily in the Utah area, collectors had to call Kenner’s 1-800 number, resulting in very few hitting the market.
As far as football players go, a few emerged as really tough to find. The Marc Wilson (1988), Vikings tight end Steve Jordan (1989) and Broncos linebacker Simon Fletcher (1990) were among the hardest.
Then there's the 1989 Falcons set of Miller, Fralic and running back John Settle.
"No one knows why the Falcons that year are so hard," said Simeon Lipman, who collected the Starting Lineups as a kid and evolved to collecting the rare ones as an adult. "But finding any of them in great condition are nearly impossible."
Looking at population reports from grader AFA alone, Miller is the rarest, with 17 total graded, including one 90 and nine 85s. There are 34 total Fralic SLUs, likely because the real collectors know how hard he is to find, and there are probably few at this point that are ungraded. Then there are the 18 John Settle's (nine 85 grades).
"Just compare that to any toy that was made in the '80s. and it's not close," Lipman said. "Just take the rare 1985 Star Wars Yak Face and even loose, there are 100 of those to a Fralic."
It's hard to know if Sunday's sale is an awakening for rare Starting Lineups, but with 65 bids, it's hard to argue that more aren't taking notice.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.