What will be the most valuable Rugby League Card

I often wonder what is the most valuable rugby league card. Is it the 2004 signature card, the 2009 signature card or something older such as 1963 or before.

we dont seem to have anything of the magnitude of the Honus Wagner which sold for $2.8mil last year.

T206 Honus Wagner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personally I think the older cards are more valuable as there would be less of them however this does not correlate with ebay sales showing the highest priced cards being the recent signature cards.

Do you ever think we will get to the same magnitude as the sports cards in the USA?

What cards do you tihnk will appreciate the most over the next 10 years?

I would have to say either a Raper or a Gasnier from a 1963 set in excellent condition would be my vote. A 1963 afl set sold last year for around $25,000 which is massive. I cant begin to think what a rugby league set would sell for.

Modern era i think the 2000 Gasnier is probably the most expensive. St George fans are crazy........[

I would also have to say for a single card it would be the 2000 Gasnier. Maybe the 2009 Captains Sig - Darren Lockyer

Nah i think Johns and Fittler from 2004 are worth more than the Lockyer.
If there are any mint Gasniers or Rapers from 63, I think they would set records.

Anything EELS

specially the cards i need to sell of urgently as i need the money, i am moving house so buy my eels cards please

from a select perspective id say the captain signatures of lockyer johns fittler etc. and possibly even the 03 lockyer jersey. the jersey cards will never happen again knowing select so id say down the track that would have to be up there in terms of value.

At the moment I believe the most expensive cards would be the ones everybody has given up in looking for, everybody giving up is good for us to snap them up whilst they're cheap.

• 1995 Series 1 Mega Force Five redemption card... only 50 made, 37 redeemed, 13 unredeemed. Gets you all 5 signatures numbered under 50.
• PNG cigarette cards from the around 1990-93 (NSWRL), almost impossible to get a full set as I think there was well over 100+ to the set.
• 1994 Gold Signature cards (series 1)... complete with official COA (dated 1994) from Dynamic Marketing, these were issued to those who complained to Dynamic Marketing & sent their cards back, Dynamic sent the cards back to the owners with the COA confirming the signatures were real.
• 1996 (Signature Gold series) MasterCel (in box) numbered & complete with official COA (these were rare as they went bankrupt within a few months of its release)
• 1995 series 1, Kmart $100 voucher redemption card. Only 100 made, only sold in Kmart stores.
• 1996 series 2, MVP signature plus COA (numbered) mainly the unpopular players as nobody requested them
• 2002 NRL Extreme Treasure Redemption card (only 10 made)
• 1996 Signature Gold series, autographed cel cards with COA (200 made) I would imagine these were hard to redeem so close to bankruptcy too.

The captain signatures should have a steady high value, I brought a handful of them (even got doubles) from 2004 series ranging from $150-$450 each (in 2005 when most collectors gave up on collecting). I believe the 2001 All Star Andrew Johns card should be worth a lot (but unfortunately it isn't so), it was signed during the height of his career, all the other cards Andrew Johns signed after that was when he was injured or retired. Eg. 2004 Andrew Johns captain Signature card is a joke... he was injured most of that season therefore couldn't really call him a captain of 2004. Obviously collectors don't feel the same way as I do, judging by the current values on some cards. If Australia does go nuts over signatures like the Americans (signing periods) we may see a price differ.

In my opinion the Gasnier card of 2000 is overpriced, its hard to get coz in 2000 was the first time in 2yrs RL cards were in production again, people who usually didn't buy cards brought cards, and they probably were lucky enough get one, and now just sitting on it. In saying that, I believe people who usually don't buy cards also went after the 2008 Centenary series too.

Now this is just my opinion on why the 1963/64 cards don't sell as high as the current redemption cards of today. Redemption cards come with COA, or they're number, and they're hard to make fakes. If somebody was to fork out big $$ on a footy card I would imagine they want a guarantee its the real deal. In saying that, in the USA they have a bunch of experts who can valuate a card to be a original eg. Beckett Grading Service. Until there's a reliable source as them to give a thumbs-up on a particular card... that's the time I believe the 63/64 cards will leap-frog over the redemption cards of today.

If I had to make quick money in today's market on footy cards, it'll be the Darren Lockyer captain signature, Andrew Johns Captain Signature, and Wally Lewis Legend signatures. Not just because they're special, or hard to get. Its because right now there's a demand for them, people of today have short memories, Wally/Johns repeatedly being hammered as being the best ever for QLD/NSW. Being an immortal obviously makes the buyer feel safe the card price will stay high, and once the media forgets them, the card prices for them will go down. And media/commentators obviously still speaks highly of Lockyer everytime there's a live Broncos match on a Friday night, and who has the biggest cashed-up fan base??

Oh I forgot to mention... in my opinion the most under-rated rugby league cards go to....

Arthur Beetson 1969 pop-up (rookie)
Wally Lewis 1982 SCANLENS QLD (rookie)
Mal Meninga 1982 SCANLENS QLD (rookie)

You can still pick these up really cheap. I would have thought the 1982 SCANLENS QLD cards would be worth more as I would imagine the print run would've been small & only sold in QLD, obviously they didn't sell good as that was the first and last time QRL was done & unsold packets could have been destroyed. And we know the story of trying to find an 'un-popped' pop-up card

John L said:

Until there's a reliable source as them to give a thumbs-up on a particular card... that's the time I believe the 63/64 cards will leap-frog over the redemption cards of today.

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Card Grading Australia???

And seriously the problem with that Dynamic stuff is that a) no one hardly collects it b) its overproduced c) even with COA's they still pulled off dodgy stuff with the numbering.

I think you have missed THE Dynamic card that belongs in the conversation - the 1994 Johnny Raper signature legend card.

For starters, I believe the 1994 Johnny raper signature Legend card is a fake. It never appeared in any checklists, and never promoted in 1994, and never seen one. The signature maybe real, but it was never an 'official' release which you could get when purchasing the packets.
Obviously there were a lot of people who originally collected Dynamic, they, just like your Select collectors of 2000, just suddenly dropped off after a few years.
Card Grading Australia, I don't know of them, they must be new or haven't built up a reliable reputation yet. But thanks I learnt something new.
Also it is overproduced, which made getting the redemption card a lot harder.
And the dodgy numbering... I actually pay for 'some' of those as they're even rarer, as I've seen some people trying to change the numbers to increase the value. Mainly the dodgy number can be confirmed to be an in-house mistake with number on the Signature card, number on redemption, and number on COA. And the numbering was done better than Select where you could choose the numbers you wanted.

John L said:

For starters, I believe the 1994 Johnny raper signature Legend card is a fake.

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Just because you dont know does not make it so. These were released officially and came with corresponding COA's.

John L said:

Obviously there were a lot of people who originally collected Dynamic, they, just like your Select collectors of 2000, just suddenly dropped off after a few years.

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The difference is that Dynamic shit all over collectors and dealers and Select did not. The majority or Dynamic collectors walked away after the value of their collections dived in value in 1996/7. Most of the Select collectors are still around and finishing their collections because Select cards are holding their value for the most part.

John L said:

And the dodgy numbering... And the numbering was done better than Select where you could choose the numbers you wanted.

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Not really true since you used to be able to choose numbers with Select.

And yeah - Dynamic would do that but they would not think twice about releasing the same number of a card to collectors. I have 2 Terry Lamb supporter choice signatures - both with the same number and both with COA's.....but thats not dodgy hey?? Plenty of other example out there of that happening.

That's a first I heard about the Supporter's Choice numbering being the same? Did you have the redemption card with the same number? Both my Support's Choice signatures came back with both COA & redemption card, those are the ones I believe go up in value rather than the.... COA & signed card only.

I know Dynamic Marketing had really crap service... but they were strict, which made getting redemption cards so much harder as there for a small window of time (usually 6-12 months) to get some redemption cards redeemed. I don't believe most of the Select collectors are around, but that's personally, as I know about 95% of collectors from my area gave up after 2005-6 (too many sets to collect) about 2009 as the Heritage was just too expensive to complete. But in saying that, what makes Select better than Dynamic is that you can still redeem your redemption cards.

Hey O'niel.... I am really keen to know if this Johnny Raper card is an official release. Provide me some proof through it marketed anywhere... through and old footy card wrapper, Promo signs/posters, on the card box, anything. Because I own almost every piece of promo material that ever came out of Dynamic Marketing, as a collector I made it my mission to own everything Dynamic Market ever 'officially' released on the ARL cards. That's why I was very surprised when you (a collector) brought it up. Just because a shop/dealer says its so, don't make it so, keep in mind, most of these shops/dealers didn't exist when Dynamic were around and might have accidentally got the wool pulled over their eyes and got themselves ripped off, and trying to get their money back from the next poor bugger.

Better yet.... if there's anybody out there who have that actual 'redemption' card? I doubt all of them were redeemed... gosh I have a unreedemed & redeemed 'Mega Force Five' redemption 50 made, and they were easier to get than this Raper card, and they had a massive print run.

Here you go. The Raper card was a give away through the magazine/Dynamic card club. They were give out from 1994-early 1996. There is a picture of the "Congratulations you won" letter in Dan's NRL card bible but here is the card and COA.

Hi O'neil.... I hear there was a Dynamic Marketing club, I'll have to verify that with some promo material from that era some time. As it'll take a bit of research as its time I don't have.

http://www.asccmag.com/asccs-ultimate-dynamic-marketing-signature-card-guide/

These Raper cards were not part of the original run, they were part of a club. Thank you O'Neil for taking the time to answer my questions.

Also what has me stoked on this card is that the COA is dated 1996, I would prefer one made in the same year of 1994. I wouldn't say this was a part of the 'official' print run though. But still this is part of the Dynamic empire era so it has my interest

Back at work now, I'll have to continue my research over the next weekend.

Hey, if you find any other weird, wonderful ARL things from the Dynamic era, please let me know

Hey, its been wonderful chatting to you O'Neill, haven't been this excited chatting about cards in years. Its awesome to talk to another who knows there stuff... unfortunately most of them are from NSW now lol. Love to chat all day about other cards but I gotta work

John L said:

Hey, its been wonderful chatting to you O'Neill, haven't been this excited chatting about cards in years. Its awesome to talk to another who knows there stuff... unfortunately most of them are from NSW now lol. Love to chat all day about other cards but I gotta work

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John, there are a few of us there that collect cards, also dynamic and cards going back to 1908. the hardest cards to get would be the top hat and football shape cards from the 1920s newcastle comp.
Owen, I sold an unopened box of 1964 afl a few years ago for 60,000.00 and they are now only valued at around 150 a card.

Yeah you might be generous at $150!!

Those AFL 1964 cards are a pretty easy find at the moment. I know Dave a footycards has picked up a ton of them over the past 12 months.

ooneil said:

Yeah you might be generous at $150!!

Those AFL 1964 cards are a pretty easy find at the moment. I know Dave a footycards has picked up a ton of them over the past 12 months.

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yeah, a lot of those cards and newspaper cards have dropped shit loads in the last few years, I suppose we can blame the www. for that as they are more readily available.
I still rate the much older cards as they were more paper related and perish a lot more than the modern protective coated cards.

PS I know the owner of that 1994 signature Raper card. Why did you use his picture of the card without even asking the owner 1st?