Even before Saturday night, there was already little doubt Jayden Daniels was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and one of the best young stars in the league.
Then the Commanders cruised past Detroit 45-31 to reach the franchise’s first NFC Championship Game since 1992. Daniels completed 22 of 31 passes for 299 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
But just as the on-field narrative for Daniels was reaching a crescendo, another subplot was building alongside it.
At 9:33 p.m. ET, with Washington leading 24-21 and just moments before the team would take a commanding 31-21 lead into halftime, a perfectly timed auction ended.
Listed by the PSA account on eBay, a 2024 Prizm Daniels base card, graded PSA 10 — considered one of his most important but achievable flagship rookie cards — sold for $2,475 on 80 bids.
The first PSA 10 example to sell publicly, according to data tool Card Ladder, the card fetched a price that stunned collectors across the hobby.
Right place, right time or not, that price represents what will almost certainly be a shocking overpay even for one of the NFL’s most important young QBs.
It was also far from the only shocking purchase made in the wake of Daniels’ second career playoff victory.
According to Card Ladder, there have been 133 sales of $1,000 or more for cards featuring Daniels since Saturday, with the high price the $8,100 paid for a 2024 Prizm Gold Simmer FOTL /10 on Sunday.
A 2024 Absolute Football Kaboom! — arguably Daniels’ most important insert — also sold for $7,259 on Sunday.
A quick comparison to other top-tier quarterbacks across the NFL helps put the sale for Daniels’ Prizm base card into perspective. According to Market Movers, that nearly $2,500 sale easily dwarfs recent auctions for similar cards of Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy.
- 2018 Prizm Lamar Jackson PSA 10: $400 on Jan. 18
- 2018 Prizm Josh Allen PSA 10: $289 on Jan. 19
- 2020 Prizm Joe Burrow PSA 10: $85 on Jan. 19
- 2022 Prizm Brock Purdy PSA 10: $58 on Jan. 19
- 2020 Prizm Jalen Hurts PSA 10: $49 on Jan. 18
Daniels has had an incredible rookie season, but it’s still hard to place him among a group of quarterbacks that have had deep playoff runs multiple times or, in the case of Jackson, won multiple MVPs.
The Daniels sale is also stunning when compared to the flagship Prizm rookie card for Patrick Mahomes.
According to Card Ladder, the most recent sale for Mahomes’ 2017 Prizm Silver PSA 10 is $5,200 — though it should be noted that 2017 Prizm Football only featured short-printed rookie cards, making Mahomes’ Prizm Silver rookie much more rare.
The comparison is far from apples-to-apples, though it’s still surprising to see how Daniels’ Prizm Base PSA 10 compares to a highly-coveted rookie card for the most important football player of the ultra-modern era.
Spending nearly $2,500 for a rookie QB is a dangerous gamble, and it’s even riskier to pay that price for a high-print run card that will almost certainly have a PSA 10 population of 10,000 or more eventually. As of Monday morning, that card had a PSA 10 population of just 11.
Another collector received similar criticism in 2021 after paying $3,000 for a 2021 Donruss Mac Jones Base PSA 10 rookie card. A shocking sale in its own right at the time, that auction also ended when the sports card market was arguably at its strongest.
Another example of that card sold for just $8 earlier this month.
Jayden Daniels isn’t Mac Jones, but the risk when gambling on rookie QBs is very real. Daniels is already considered better than Jones ever was, but injuries or any number of other issues can even the playing field and bring a player’s market crashing.
Beyond shocking sales prices, collectors have also swarmed Daniels’ other rookie cards with extreme volume. According to Market Movers, Daniels’ 2024 Donruss Base Raw has sold nearly 1,000 times over the last seven days, while his 2024 Prizm Base Raw has sold nearly 600 times.
Among graded cards, Daniels’ 2024 Topps NOW No. 5 PSA 10 has been the most popular seller with nearly 140 sales in the last week. His 2024 Topps NOW No. 3 PSA 10, which cllct reported features a photoshopped image of Daniels at LSU, has sold nearly 70 times over that same period.
Printed to demand, Topps NOW cards have largely struggled to maintain long-term value outside of super short-printed parallels, autographs and memorabilia cards. That hasn’t mattered so far — with few graded cards from licensed Panini products available, collectors will simply buy whatever is available at the moment.
To date, the highest public sale for a Daniels card is the $16,500 paid for a 2024 Topps NOW Orange /5 Autograph with a “#2 Pick” inscription on eBay earlier this month.
It’s hard to know where Daniels’ market might settle in the aftermath of the NFL playoffs, though historical data tells us that even a Super Bowl win likely won’t protect his cards from drastic declines over the offseason.
Regardless, a deep playoff run has completely reshaped the landscape for Daniels. Even if his cards slip in price over the coming weeks, it’s likely his market has been changed for good.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.