Which Signed Quarterback Jerseys Are Worth the Money

Quarterback is the position people collect. It's the name on the back of half the jerseys in any stadium, and it's the signature that moves first when a shop puts a jersey on the wall.

It's also where collectors overpay most often, because the price of a signed quarterback jersey has less to do with how good he is than most people assume. Here's what actually sets it.

Four things decide the price

• How often he signs. This matters more than the trophies. A player who does two private signings a year puts a few hundred autographs into the world. One who signs at every show floods it. Supply beats résumé.
• Whether he's still playing. An active quarterback can always sign more. A retired one can't, and a player who's gone can never sign again. Supply on a retired legend only shrinks.
• Custom or licensed. The same signature on an official Nike jersey runs a few hundred dollars more than on a custom blank. We broke that down in custom versus licensed signed jerseys.
• The inscription. "SB LIV MVP" or a stat line adds real money on the right player. Your own name on it takes money off, because the next buyer isn't you.

Tier one: retired legends

This is where the money is, and it's the tier that behaves most predictably.

A Tom Brady on an official Nike jersey sits north of $4,000 on our site. John Elway, Joe Montana and Dan Marino are all in the hundreds, and the licensed versions run a couple hundred above the customs. These prices are steady because the supply is finished. Every one of these men signs rarely, at a controlled price, and the number in circulation is only going one direction.

If you're buying a quarterback jersey to keep, this tier is the safest thing on the board. You're not betting on a career. The career already happened.

Tier two: established starters

The quarterbacks who've won something and aren't going anywhere. A Brock Purdy on a Nike jersey runs about $700 with us, which is a useful marker for where a proven active starter sits.

The catch with this tier is that supply can still grow. A player who's signing today may sign a lot more over the next decade, and that puts a ceiling on appreciation. What you're really buying is the jersey of somebody you want on your wall while he's playing, and that's a perfectly good reason.

Tier three: young quarterbacks

A rookie or second-year quarterback's signed jersey is the most exciting thing in the category and the worst investment in it.

Recent first-round quarterbacks run in the $250 to $350 range on customs with us. That's cheap next to a Hall of Famer, and the pitch writes itself: get in before he's a star.

Here's the part nobody selling you one will say. Most of them don't become stars. For every quarterback who turns into a franchise, several are out of the league in four years, and their signed jersey settles to whatever a blank jersey is worth. The rookies who do hit get more expensive, but you had to pick right, and the people who pick right are mostly the people who bought ten and got one.

Buy a rookie's jersey because you like the player and you'd keep it either way. Don't buy it as a position.

Why the biggest names are the hardest to find

If you've gone looking for a signed jersey from the best quarterback in the league right now and come up short, you're not imagining it.

The biggest active stars sign under exclusive agreements, and those contracts route most of their signed output through one channel. Everyone else in the hobby is working from a much smaller pool, which is why current superstars are both scarce and expensive through any dealer, and why a shop's shelves skew toward retired players and younger ones.

It's worth knowing before you conclude a price is unreasonable. Often it's just what's left after an exclusive takes most of the supply.

What we'd tell a friend

Buy the quarterback you'd keep if the piece never appreciated a dollar. That's the only rule that never goes wrong.

After that: go licensed if it's a name you might sell, go custom if you're framing it back-out and keeping it, and get a witnessed certification either way. Our post on what a COA guarantees explains why witnessed matters, and how to tell if an autograph is real covers checking one yourself.

And if the quarterback you want is out of reach, a signed mini helmet from the same player is usually a fraction of the price and looks great on a shelf. Our guide to the types of football helmets covers that side.

Where to look

We carry signed football jerseys across every tier above, custom and licensed, each one authenticated by a third party and labeled so you know which you're buying. Framed jerseys are ready to hang. And our live breaks run every day, which is the cheapest way into a jersey from a name you wouldn't otherwise reach.