MICHAEL PHELPS' AUTOGRAPH IS VALUABLE

Speculators, take notice: now is probably a good time to sell your 2004 Leaf Fans of the Game Michael Phelps Autographed "Rookie" Card. The card, part of a random-insert series that spotlights celebrity fans, featured Phelps as a Raven fan, which is unfortunate given our rooting interests in these parts.

But the card, which was valued at about $25 a few weeks ago, has gone through the roof, with the last example closing on eBay at $720.

Phelps signed about 300 of the cards, and about 5,000 which were unsigned were also inserted into packs. The unsigned versions are selling in the $50 range.

In order to tie this in to Pittsburgh somehow (other than the fact that he's a fan of one of our arch-rivals), I did some research to see what a 2004 Leaf Ben Roethlisberger autographed card was selling for. Ben's version is limited to only 10 copies, and it has a piece of his jersey embedded onto the front. The selling price? $426. It's not $722, but in a rough economy, that's not bad for a shiny piece of cardboard.

UPDATE: Recognizing the soaring popularity of Phelps, the Ravens will be showing his final race of the Olympics at their stadium on Saturday night following the Ravens-Vikings preseason matchup.