The Eli Manning 5-Card Lot That Giants Fans Are Paying Three Times Face Value to Own

Football trading cards move silently between collectors who are well-versed in what they’re looking at in a section of eBay that most people never visit. One listing has been gaining attention lately: a five-card lot of Eli Manning cards from his time at Ole Miss. Originally priced at about $1.99, the lot is now selling for almost three times that amount. Not money that can change your life. However, the pattern is intriguing and provides insight into how Giants supporters are interpreting Manning’s peculiar midlife.

The cards are not uncommon in and of themselves. Manning’s college cards were printed in large quantities while he was a player at Mississippi from 2000 to 2003. The majority are only worth a few pennies each. However, they are selling for prices that collectors would have laughed at five years ago when they are bundled into small lots—five cards, sometimes fourteen—and tagged with the appropriate keywords. Listings in the New York metro area close in a matter of hours, according to sellers. It’s a little thing, but noteworthy.

Timing plays a part in this. Manning publicly withdrew from a bid to purchase a 10% share in the Giants in July, telling CNBC that the numbers had just gotten too high. He stated, “Basically, it’s too expensive for me,” pointing out that a 1% stake in a $10 billion franchise quickly becomes a very significant amount. He also talked about the conflicts between his high school camp, his work as an ESPN broadcaster, and his coaching of the Pro Bowl. Observing the news cycle surrounding it gave the impression that fans took the announcement personally. Manning was expected to return. He wasn’t now.

The cards are useful in this situation. Longtime Giants fans believe that ownership was the final means of keeping Eli inside the building, and that something smaller had to take its place when it closed. A 10% stake is not equivalent to a two-dollar card lot. However, it is a part of him, it is stored on a shelf, and it doesn’t involve negotiating a Mara-Tisch family arrangement that dates back to 1925, when Tim Mara paid $500 to start the team. The math between then and now is nearly absurd.

It’s difficult to ignore how fans’ true emotions are reflected in the secondary market rather than what the league office wants them to feel. According to reports, Michael Strahan and Marc Lasry are still pursuing the ownership stake, and that could ultimately succeed. The Raiders’ current owner, Tom Brady, whom Manning defeated twice in Super Bowls, appears unfazed by the conflict-of-interest issues that Manning claimed disqualified him. Different choices, different temperaments.

Specifically, the Ole Miss cards have a feature that the NFL cards do not. Before the Super Bowl, the retired jersey ceremony, and two decades of being the quiet face of a team that hasn’t been quiet about much else, they depict a younger Manning. That earlier version appears to be sought after by collectors. The one before everything became pricey.

Another question is whether the prices will hold. Particularly for players whose value is based more on sentiment than scarcity, card markets can change drastically overnight. However, for the time being, tiny cardboard rectangles featuring a college quarterback’s face are discreetly trading hands in living rooms throughout Long Island and New Jersey for three times their actual value. You can infer something from that. Perhaps not in relation to Eli Manning. Perhaps about those who are still unwilling to let him go.