How ‘Bout Them Cowboys
With the release of a new Netflix series about arguably the most famous NFL team of all-time (the 1990s Cowboys), one can’t help but wonder if this will drive collectors to snap up cards of Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, and other Cowboys stars.
The Last Dance documentary added fuel to an already red-hot hobby on fire during the pandemic. Collectors flocked to Michael Jordan cards, but also rushed to grab cards of other Bulls players and players from that era. Now, it’s the Cowboys' turn.
Other recent docs haven’t had the same impact as The Last Dance. It was kind of a perfect storm after all, but the Cowboys doc has some similarities to The Last Dance that make one wonder if the future is bright for Cowboys stars for the first time in 30 years.
First of all, the series is good. As a lifelong Commanders fan, I thought I might enjoy hate-watching the doc, but I got sucked into the story and found myself cheering for some of my most-hated players from my childhood.
Second, the doc hits the same era of nostalgia that The Last Dance did. The era right before the Internet revolution is ripe for nostalgia. There’s a fondness for the early to mid-1990s, before we all got hooked on the web. Teams and players from this era get cast with some of that rosy, nostalgic glow.
Finally, the football market is primed for a rebound. The market corrected itself pretty severely, but has been crawling upward for a year now. Collectors might be pleasantly surprised to see how affordable the cards of Cowboys stars are.
The Results
So, let’s see if we’ve seen any uptick yet. Card Ladder’s Player Indices are great at getting a snapshot of a player’s market. They track the sales of certain key cards for star players and aggregate the average sales price data into a Player Index.
Troy Aikman (+8%) is the big winner here. It’s not surprising, as the doc reminds folks of the fact that at one point, Aikman was considered the top of the heap for NFL QBs. These days, he normally only shows up online or in conversation when people are comparing his stats to modern QBs in an attempt to talk up whatever the hot QB of the day is.
Aikman gets a nice legacy bump, but the rest of the Boys haven’t. Emmitt Smith’s Index is actually down 11% over the last month. Smith does get overshadowed by the bigger characters in the doc, but his skill and importance to the three Super Bowl wins are on full display. I’m a bit surprised by the dip, but the doc did the unthinkable and made me want a Smith rookie, which is something of a shock.
Players might not have seen a significant increase, but Jimmy Johnson autos are starting to sell more frequently and for higher prices. Some completed sales are double what the same card sold for a month ago. After watching the series, this isn’t a big surprise. Jimmy is one of the clear heroes here, and comes off looking like the winner in the battle of Jimmy vs. Jerry for credit for the Cowboys’ success.
Wrap Up
I think most collectors have realized that documentaries don’t automatically equate to a large increase in card prices. If the superb Cowboys doc didn’t move the market much, I doubt many future docs will be able to either. Just something to remember when random folks are saying that so-and-so’s cards will jump once a doc comes out. Still, this one was good enough for me to put a couple of Cowboys cards on my wantlist. My twelve-year-old self wants to kick me in the shins. How ‘bout them Cowboys indeed.