Why Cale Makar’s Cards Are Worth Watching
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Move over, Macklin Celebrini.
Roughly a month after the Sharks’ third-year phenom inked the richest contract in NHL history, the hockey world has its first $20 million player: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.
NHL fans already know the 27-year-old superstar is one of the best at his position to ever lace up a pair of skates and deserves every penny. But do his production and popularity translate to the hockey-card market, which has traditionally gravitated to guys who put the puck in the back of the net?
The league’s premier scorers, including Celebrini, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, have long ruled the hobby, in no small part because lamp-lighting heroics, down-to-the-wire scoring races and highlight-reel plays capture the eye of casual viewers and collectors alike.
Blueliners, even elite ones, have rarely cracked that hierarchy. But Makar, the consensus best two-way player among a new generation of defensemen who excel in every facet of the game, is proving to be the exception.
Makar has the on-ice stats, with 507 points in 470 career games, and he has the hardware, with two Norris Trophies, a Conn Smythe, a Stanley Cup, and a Calder. He’s on a team that’s penciled in as a Final favorite, and he has the kind of all-around game that dictates play at both ends, capable of creating offense with the puck on his stick and influencing play without it.
Put that all together and Makar lands in rarefied air, as not just one of the hobby’s most compelling defensemen, but one of the most collectible stars across the entire league.
Cole Makar’s NHL Shield Topped $20K
The two highest public sales of Makar's cards to date both feature the hockey hobby’s ultimate flex: the NHL logo pulled directly from his jersey and topped with his signature.
His rookie-year Upper Deck Exquisite Collection NHL Shield, graded BGS 7.5, closed at $22,800 on April 30, 2022, two months before Makar would win playoff-MVP honors for the champion Avalanche.
It’s tough to top a one-of-one rookie patch auto as the centerpiece of a Makar collection, but there may only be one card in his catalog that comes close. A 2019 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Rookie Tandem Shields pairs Colorado’s defensive cornerstone with his Avs superstar running mate, Nathan MacKinnon. At least one of those guys knows what to do with a wide-open net (too soon?).
As Colorado marched toward the Stanley Cup in June 2022, one of the two dual-shield cards, in a PSA Authentic slab, hit the market and reached $16,800 at auction.
Flagship Young Guns Trending Upward
Although Young Guns are neither the rarest nor the most valuable, they’ve been the traditional, de facto rookie cards of Upper Deck’s flagship product. If you’ve picked up a box or sweated through a break, you know that pulling one of the big names is by no means easy.
For decades, the short-printed yet widely available releases have served as the hobby’s measuring stick for a player’s star power, and even though Makar has over two dozen base rookie cards, his Young Guns #493 is far and away his most popular. His top five cards by volume are all either raw or graded copies of his 2019 flagship rookie, according to Card Ladder.
The biggest mover, a BGS 9.5, sold for $415 on August 30, its highest recorded price over the last two years and 25.26% higher over the last 12 months.
Across the last 90 days, a PSA 10 is up 4.94% to $674.50; over the past year, it’s climbed 46.27%. During Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, a PSA 10 brought in as much as $1,022, suggesting that if the Avs, last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, return to the Stanley Cup stage, Makar’s ceiling could be as high as anyone’s in the league.
Rookie Patches and Autos Carry a Premium
While the Young Guns is Makar's most actively traded rookie card, his defining first-year autograph from SP Authentic commands a substantially higher price tag in a high grade. Card Ladder estimates the current value of a PSA 10 Future Watch Auto, numbered to 999, at $3,160, based on the last two sales of $2,951 and $3,120. Although that figure falls shy of the card’s all-time peak of $4,275 in 2022, it represents a 68.60% increase over the last two years.
Makar’s true RPA from The Cup, Upper Deck’s luxury annual hockey release, is limited to 99 copies, but of course, not all jersey swatches are created equal. The most recent three-color version in a PSA 9 slab sold for $8,460, the fifth-highest public sale, per Card Ladder.
The Name Game
There are endless parallels and low-numbered Makar rookie cards to chase, but the most intriguing are his 2019 SP Game Used Draft Day Marks, a five-card scavenger hunt for every letter in the defenseman’s last name. There are 35 signed copies of each letter (technically 70 “A” cards), making it a fun, frustrating, and comparatively speaking, affordable chase. Raw cards have gone for as low as $500 apiece while graded versions have sold for roughly double.
And at least it’s easier (and cheaper) to spell out “Makar” rather than “Celebrini.”
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Alex Kramers is a Florida-based sportswriter who has covered the NBA and NFL since 2009. He served as a Sacramento Kings reporter and digital media coordinator from 2012-2014 and has written regular feature stories for the team's website. He has also covered the Miami Dolphins for DolfansNYC, and has produced content for publications including HOOP Magazine and Orangetheory Fitness. An avid sports-card collector since childhood, he has amassed one of the biggest Mitch Richmond collections in the world, and seeks out Florida Panthers cards and memorabilia with his son.