Patrick Stewart Dies at 86: A Look Back at His Cards, From Captain Picard to Professor X
His cards follow his career, from Picard base cards printed while The Next Generation was on the air to an autograph Topps put in packs three weeks before he died.
Sir Patrick Stewart died on Oct. 28 at his home in Los Angeles at 86, after living with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, according to the statement his family shared the next day.1 He spent 1966 to 1982 with the Royal Shakespeare Company before most of the world met him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, then a second generation grew up knowing him as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films.
You can follow his whole career on cardboard. Sir Patrick's cards were stuffed into packs from the years The Next Generation was still on the air until three weeks before he died. Collectors noticed fast. On Oct. 29, the day his family announced his passing, his cards sold at least 71 times on eBay after selling only 18 times over the two weeks before.
Picard on the air
Impel and SkyBox printed Picard into their Star Trek sets from 1991 through 1996, which covers the last seasons of the show and the first movies the crew made after it. They were made to be cheap and they still are, with a 1991 Impel selling for $2 the day his family shared the news. No change from the sales prices over the last 6 months.
If I was going to snag any card on this list, it would be one of those $2 Picards, not for the price action, but for the nostalgia.
Card | Sold before the news | Sold Oct. 29 |
|---|---|---|
1991 Impel Star Trek: The Next Generation Patrick Stewart #130, raw | $2 and $1 | |
1992 Impel Star Trek: The Next Generation Picard, raw | $2, June | |
1992 Impel Star Trek: The Next Generation Picard, PSA 7 | $10, April 6 | |
1993 SkyBox Star Trek Master Series Picard #9, raw | $7 | |
1994 SkyBox Star Trek Master Series Picard, raw | $2, July 17 | |
1994 SkyBox Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Picard, raw | $2, May 1 |
Picard Autographs
The autographs are what collectors chase, and he kept signing as Picard for nearly three decades, starting four years after the show ended. SkyBox put his signature in its 1998 Star Trek: Insurrection set and its 1999 Next Generation set before Rittenhouse picked it up with Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 and carried it all the way through the Star Trek: Picard series to this year's Connections set.
Before the news his signed Picard cards were selling for $385 to $625 this year, and on Oct. 29 they sold for $450 to $1,500, with a 2011 Rittenhouse autograph bringing the top price.
Professor X
Then in 2000 a new audience met him as Charles Xavier in the first X-Men film, and Topps made a set to go with it. Collectors call its #2 his Professor X rookie, and raw copies sold for $5-$8 on Oct. 29 while a CGC 9.5 went for $165.
He signed for that set and again for Rittenhouse's 2006 X-Men: The Last Stand, and a PSA 6 of that Last Stand autograph sold for $849 on Oct. 29. His ninth and last turn as Xavier comes in Avengers: Doomsday, which opens Dec. 18.2
The last card
His last new card came out this month, when Topps put him in 2026 Allen & Ginter as one of 59 signers in a mini autograph insert that falls about once in every 150 hobby packs. The first raw copy went for $450 at auction on Oct. 13, and by Oct. 25 and 26, two days before he died, copies were selling for $200 to $232.
Of the 12 signers in the insert listed as actors, only Anne Hathaway's autograph was selling for more, while Megan Fox's prices went from around $380 to $187 and Rob Lowe's from around $148 to $76. Stewart's held second to Hathaway's, at around $322 across his six priced sales against her $638.
Then the news turned it around. On Oct. 29 the base autograph sold for $370, its best price since Oct. 18, and the Red Ink /10 sold for the first time, twice.
Card | Last sale before the news | Sold Oct. 29 |
|---|---|---|
Allen & Ginter mini auto, raw | $232, Oct. 26 | $370 and $300 |
Blue Frame /50 | $284, Oct. 23 | $530 and $440 |
Black Frame /25 | $315, Oct. 20 | |
Red Ink /10 | $900 and $1,000 |
What comes next
We watched Mike Ditka's cards go through this earlier in the month. After his family announced his death on Oct. 9, his cheap card moved on count while his rookie moved on price: his 1990 Pro Set had sold once in the month before and then 29 times in the first week at about the same $2, while a raw 1962 Topps rookie jumped from around $128 to around $317 on the day of the news, held near $303 for the week and cooled to around $175 after Oct. 16.
It's an old pattern. When Jim Brown, Dick Butkus and Pete Rose died, the median sale of their PSA 4 rookies ran 29 to 43 percent above the previous 90 days in the first week, days 0 to 6, and by days 60 to 120 it was back to between even and 5 percent above, as we reported Oct. 12.3
Stewart's first day looked just like Ditka's, with his base cards selling at base-card prices, $2 and $1 for a 1991 Impel and $7 for a 1993 SkyBox, while his autographs moved on price. If his cards keep following that path, the rush of sales fades within a couple of weeks and the autographs will find a new floor into the future. We'll check every day through Nov. 5, then again the week Avengers: Doomsday opens.
