He made it official Monday, announcing his retirement with emotion and good humor. “18 is a good number,” said the man who spent that many seasons largely re-writing the NFL record book. It didn’t take long to find evidence of Peyton Manning signing autographs with final career notations. He’ll be doing so soon through the company with which he has a signature deal.
About the time Manning was telling reporters in Denver that he was walking away as a player, Fanatics Authentic and its partner site, SportsMemorabilia.com were launching a new line of Peyton paraphernalia commemorating his career numbers. Manning has an exclusive autographed memorabilia deal with the company and his items sell better than any other athlete on its roster.
Inscribed with his touchdown total (539), career yardage (71,940) and MVP awards (5), the signed memorabilia being offered on pre-order now will include helmets, mini-helmets, jerseys, photos and footballs. Some will depict Manning as a Colt and others as a member of the Broncos. There’s even a helmet that’s half Broncos and half Colts and some memorabilia with a new official Peyton Manning retirement logo that will adorn other merchandise commemorating his career.
Prices for Manning autographs start at $300 for a simple 8×10 photo with no inscriptions to over $1,000 for some items.
“We’ve seen incredible demand for his memorabilia the last few weeks and expect that demand to dramatically increase,” said Fanatics’ President Ross Tannenbaum.
Tannenbaum says his company saw a 1,200% spike in his memorabilia during the week following the Super Bowl and demand hasn’t slowed down.
Manning did a private signing for the company late last month where he included “Super Bowl Champs” inscriptions and that work is continuing according to company spokesman Taylor Lang. The future Hall of Famer will do another signing where he’ll add those new career notations within the next 30-60 days.
Manning signed autographs during a rare card show autograph appearance about a year ago in Chicago and Lang says they’re trying to schedule him for another event.
“Peyton appreciates and understands how the memorabilia industry works and reacts very quickly to fans and collectors to help us commemorate his success by making himself available to us for autograph signings,” Lang said.
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