# Sam Walsh AFL Cards: What Are They Worth? > What are Sam Walsh AFL cards worth in 2026? AUD guide to his 2019 debut-year signatures, Legacy Prime Draft /100 and Footy Stars parallels. Free photo check. Sam Walsh was the number-one pick in the 2018 national draft and won the Rising Star in his first season, which makes his 2019 debut-year cards the ones collectors chase. His market is steady rather than spectacular: signed and low-numbered cards carry real money, while the Footy Stars parallels that fill most collections are single-digit cards. Here is how the tiers stack up in AUD. ## Why do collectors chase Sam Walsh cards? Two things anchor the market. He went pick 1 in the 2018 draft, so there is a clean, well-defined set of debut-year cards from 2019 that everyone agrees are his rookies. And he won the Rising Star in that first season, which gave those cards an immediate reason to be collected rather than sitting in bulk boxes. What his market lacks is a single headline card. Unlike a Daicos or a Harley Reid, Walsh has no card that trades in the thousands — his premium cards sit in the tens to low hundreds. That makes him an accessible player to collect properly: assembling a strong Walsh run costs far less than the equivalent for the players above him in the pecking order. ## What are Sam Walsh's rookie cards? His rookie-year cards come from the 2019 Select releases, the season he debuted for Carlton. The premium one is the 2019 Select Dominance Draft Pick Signature, numbered to /175 — an on-card autograph from his first year, and the card most collectors mean when they say Walsh rookie. Copies have historically been offered around the low hundreds, though public sales are infrequent enough that any given asking price should be checked against current completed listings. Alongside it sit the unsigned 2019 base and draft-pick cards. Those are common, and worth a few dollars at most in typical condition — the signature and the serial numbering are what separate a card worth real money from one worth the postage. ## What are Sam Walsh's premium cards worth? The clearest recent data point is the 2023 Select AFL Legacy Prime Draft, numbered 82/100, listed at A$49.99 by Cherry Collectables and since sold out. That is a fair marker for where his low-numbered non-signature cards sit: a print run of 100 on an established All-Australian-calibre midfielder buys you a card in the tens, not the hundreds. At the other end, ordinary parallels are cheap. A 2025 Select Footy Stars Dragon Scales Refractor Gold numbered 94/399 was listed at A$6.99 by the same retailer. A print run of 399 is scarce enough to be interesting and common enough to stay affordable — which is exactly where most of the Walsh cards in circulation live. ## Which Sam Walsh cards should I pull aside? In rough order from most to least valuable: 1. 2019 Select Dominance Draft Pick Signature (/175): the debut-year on-card autograph, and the card that anchors his market. 2. Any Supremacy, Optimum or Legacy signature or patch card: the premium sets are where his scarcest cards live. 3. Low-numbered Legacy and Optimum parallels (/100 and below): the 2023 Legacy Prime Draft /100 listed at A$49.99 is the reference point. 4. Mid-run Footy Stars parallels (/399 and similar): single-digit dollars, such as the 2025 Dragon Scales Refractor Gold /399 at A$6.99. 5. 2019 unsigned base and draft-pick cards: collectable as rookies, but common — a few dollars. 6. Later Footy Stars base cards: cents. ## Is Sam Walsh a good card to invest in? His cards are a reasonable hold rather than a speculation. The rookie-year supply is fixed, he has been a consistent, durable midfielder since debut, and Carlton has one of the larger supporter bases in the competition — all of which supports steady demand. What would move his market meaningfully is a Brownlow, an All-Australian run or a premiership; without one of those, expect the current levels to hold rather than jump. The usual caution applies more here than for headline players: the Australian market is thin, so a single listing is not a price. Check several completed sales for the exact card and condition before buying or selling. ## How do I value my Sam Walsh cards? Identify the card precisely first — the year, the set, whether it carries a serial number, and whether the autograph is on-card or on a sticker. Those four things account for almost all of the price difference between two Walsh cards that look similar at a glance. Then check eBay Australia completed listings for that exact card. CardLoft identifies AFL cards from a photo and estimates a value, which is the quicker route when you are working through a stack rather than one card. ## FAQ ### What is the most valuable Sam Walsh card? The 2019 Select Dominance Draft Pick Signature, numbered to /175 — his debut-year on-card autograph. Public sales are infrequent, so check current completed eBay Australia listings rather than relying on a single asking price. ### What year are Sam Walsh's rookie cards? 2019, the season he debuted for Carlton after going pick 1 in the 2018 national draft. The 2019 Select releases contain both his unsigned base and draft-pick cards and the signed Dominance Draft Pick Signature (/175). ### Are Sam Walsh base cards worth anything? Not much. Unsigned base and common parallel cards are worth cents to a few dollars. His value concentrates in signed cards and low-numbered parallels — a 2023 Legacy Prime Draft /100 was listed at A$49.99, while a 2025 Footy Stars Dragon Scales Refractor Gold /399 was A$6.99. ### Is Sam Walsh worth collecting? Yes, if you want a genuine number-one pick and Rising Star winner without paying Daicos or Harley Reid prices. His premium cards sit in the tens to low hundreds rather than the thousands, which makes a complete run realistic for an ordinary collector. ## Related guides - [AFL Trading Cards Value Guide](https://cardloft.app/guides/afl-cards-value) — Which AFL cards are worth money — sets, rookies, parallels and a live price table. - [Best AFL Rookie Cards to Watch in 2026](https://cardloft.app/guides/best-afl-rookie-cards-2026) — The draft class whose debut cards are on shelves now. - [Nick Daicos Rookie Card Value Guide](https://cardloft.app/guides/nick-daicos-rookie-card-value) — The benchmark modern AFL rookie market, for comparison. - [The Australian Sports Card Hub](https://cardloft.app/guides/australian-sports-cards) — AFL, NRL and cricket values, sets and safe trading in one place. --- Source: https://cardloft.app/guides/sam-walsh-card-value Author: The CardLoft Team Published: 2026-08-29 · Updated: 2026-08-29