In the wake of actor Patrick Stewart's death on Wednesday, Oct. 28, fans across the globe have paid tribute to the legendary "Star Trek" and "X-Men" star by sharing clips and quoting his famous lines. And some seem ready to load up on valuable memorabilia.
A particularly unique opportunity to do so: Placing a pre-order for a Star Trek-themed Magic: The Gathering (MTG) booster pack that could include a rare card that was signed by Stewart months before his passing. The day after news of Stewart's passing had spread, pre-sales jumped 800 percent.
In July, it was announced that the collectible card game widely played by sci-fi and fantasy aficionados was collaborating with Star Trek on a "Universes Beyond" expansion set featuring characters from
multiple iterations of the iconic series, including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, portrayed by Stewart. He and six other "headliner" actors from the series signed a limited number of their characters' cards – fewer than 250 each – which were randomly placed into "collector booster packs."
Though the Star Trek set won't be widely available for purchase until Nov. 13, many eager players have already placed pre-sale orders in the hopes of landing one of the rare "headliner" cards, which also feature signatures from stars William Shatner and Kate Mulgrew, among others.
And since Stewart's death, interest in these collector packs has spiked. According to the collectible trading card marketplace TCGPlayer (which sets its pricing by aggregating users' sales across its platform), just 63 of these packs had been sold by Oct. 28, at a cost of $495.34 each. The day after news of Stewart's passing had spread, sales jumped – and so did the price, to $576.02. As of Nov. 2, 1437 packs had been sold, with a most recent price of $537.53. The game's suggested retail price, per Wizards of the Coast (which publishes MTG)? $37.99.
USA TODAY has reached out to Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, for comment.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a celebrity's signed items rose in popularity and financial value after their passing. Shortly after basketball star Kobe Bryant's fatal 2020 plane crash, for instance, numerous items reportedly signed by the Lakers legend, like a basketball and jersey, were listed on sites like eBay for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And it's not only signatures that grow in demand; a dress worn by late Fleetwood Mac musician Christine McVie on the back cover of the band's album Rumours was auctioned off in 2022 for five times its original cost a month after she died.
There's no way to know yet if signed Picard cards from the unreleased Star Trek booster packs might resell for even higher prices, but some MTG fans aren't pleased that interest will jack up prices for all the packs.
Just had a horrible realization that the Patrick Stewart signed cards in the new Magic The Gathering Star Trek set are gonna be insanely overvalued now
— Your Local Dingus (@Dinkalus) October 30, 2026
Now that Patrick Stewart has died all the vultures are swooping down on the latest Star Trek x Magic The Gathering set because it has his signature on some of the cards
— Snail Anon 🐌 (@snailanon_TWT) October 29, 2026
Grim.
The increased prices and potential for resell pose murky questions, according to ethicist Dr. Bruce Weinstein (also known as "The Ethics Guy"). "It may be legal to drive up the cost of, say, a signed album or book on eBay, but that doesn’t make it ethical," he tells USA Today, adding that it can feel like "exploiting" the celebrity's death and "sullying" their memory.
"The counterargument is that in a capitalist society, the only relevant standard for evaluating practices like this is the law of supply and demand," Weinstein continues. "When there is a greater demand for X and a short supply of X, we are entitled to change what the market will bear."
Of course, re-sale isn't the only option for those lucky enough to land a signed card. Some MTG players intend to keep the item for their own personal collections, especially those in possession of the game's Federation Fleet Star Trek Commander Deck themed around Picard.
Patrick Stewart signed fewer than 250 Picard cards for the new Star Trek Magic set. Probably some of the last autographs he ever signed.
— Dale the Magnificent (@MagnificentDale) October 30, 2026
If I ever pull one, it's not getting sold. It's going in my Commander deck.
Make it so, Captain. 🖖
Holding onto signed cards and similar memorabilia can be a way to honor a beloved late figure's memory. "Creating art may be the closest a person can come to being immortal; the works live on years beyond the artist’s time on Earth," Weinstein explains. "A powerful way to sustain that immortality, or at least to maintain the illusion, is to own an artist’s work oneself."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Patrick Stewart, a signed Magic: The Gathering card, and how we remember those we lose
