With six gold medals under his belt these Beijing Olympics, and with two events still to go (the 100M Butterfly final tonight and the 400M Medley Relay Saturday night), all indications are pointing to Phelps breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in one Olympics. That’s not to mention that he’s already established himself as the greatest Olympian of all time.

That said, it should come as no surprise that his one trading card, the Fans of the Game insert out of 2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars (and its autographed parallel with a print run of 300), has seen an incredible rise in sales.

The most recent sale on eBay saw the autographed card end at auction for a whopping $720.22.  This is a card that could be had prior to all the Olympics hype for $50 at most.

Other recent auctions have seen the card sell for $499 and $449.  The non-auto’d version of the Fans of the Game insert has recently seen sales for $98.60 and $90.  Even his SI for Kids cards have been selling upwards of $20.

Are cards of the lesser sports such as swimming making their way into the mainstream?  Not likely.  But, with historical performances such as this, a little bit of foresight could certainly have provided for one hell of a flip.  What will be interesting to see is what kind of prices his cards will fetch if and when he does break Spitz’s record.  $1,000 or more may not be out of the question.

Popularity: 57% [?]