2022 Panini Prizm #382 Brock Purdy Silver Rookie: The Last Pick Who Became a Champion's QB

In the 2022 NFL Draft, Brock Purdy was selected 262nd overall by the San Francisco 49ers. In a draft of 262 players, that made him Mr. Irrelevant, the traditional nickname for the last player selected, the man considered the least likely of all draftees to have a professional career.

By December of that same year, Purdy was the starting quarterback of one of the NFL's premier franchises, leading the 49ers on a postseason run. By February 2023, he had taken San Francisco to the NFC Championship Game. By February 2024, he was playing in Super Bowl LVIII.

The story arc from Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl quarterback is one of the great underdog narratives in recent sports history. And the 2022 Panini Prizm Silver Rookie card bearing his name and number 382 captures that story at its most valuable inflection point.

The Prizm Silver: Understanding the Base Configuration

Panini Prizm is the dominant modern football card product in the hobby market. The Prizm brand, which Panini launched for basketball in 2012-13 before expanding to football, is defined by its chromium-based card stock that produces a distinctive refractor-like shimmer and its rainbow of parallel colors.

The base Prizm card uses the standard chromium finish. The Silver Prizm parallel (sometimes called the Silver Refractor or simply Silver) adds a silver foil treatment that creates the signature rainbow shimmer effect. The Silver is the most common of the Prizm parallels but remains meaningfully scarcer than the base version and is the default "base" that most collectors reference when discussing Prizm rookie values.

For the 2022 Brock Purdy #382, the Silver Prizm is the primary collector target. Rarer parallels exist (Gold, numbered refractors, 1/1 superfractors) but the Silver is where most of the market activity and price discovery happens.

Purdy's Improbable Rise

Brock Purdy arrived at Iowa State as a consensus top prospect in the Big 12. He had an excellent college career, starting all four years and breaking Iowa State school records for passing yards and touchdowns. But NFL scouts had questions about his arm strength, his size, and his ability to elevate his play from good college competition to elite NFL defensive backs.

The 49ers selected him with their final pick as a developmental option behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. No one expected him to start in 2022.

Then Lance got hurt in Week 2. Then Garoppolo got hurt in Week 13. Purdy stepped in and the team went 6-0 in the regular season with him starting. The offense, already one of the league's most sophisticated under Kyle Shanahan, seemed to click at a new level with Purdy's accuracy, decision-making, and command of the scheme.

Purdy suffered a torn UCL in the NFC Championship Game against the Eagles in January 2023. He returned for the 2023 season, was an All-Pro selection, and led the 49ers to Super Bowl LVIII before a narrow loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Card Values and Grade Breakdown

The 2022 Panini Prizm Silver Brock Purdy has seen significant price volatility tied directly to his on-field performance. His injury in early 2023 suppressed prices; his full return and All-Pro season in 2023 drove them back up substantially.

These values reflect the post-2023 season market. The Super Bowl appearance created a spike followed by moderation after the loss. Current values are below the peak but meaningfully above where Purdy's cards traded before his breakout.

Prizm Centering: The PSA 10 Challenge

Chrome and Prizm cards from this era are notoriously difficult to grade at PSA 10 due to centering issues that are widespread in the production process. Panini's printing tolerances produce a high percentage of Silver Prizm cards with centering that does not meet the strict 55/45 or better standard required for PSA 10.

This production reality means that PSA 10 examples are genuinely scarce relative to the overall number of Silver Prizm Purdy cards in circulation. Surface scratches from card-to-card contact in packs are the other primary cause of grades falling below 10.

If you are purchasing a raw (ungraded) Purdy Silver Prizm with the intention of grading, evaluate centering carefully before submission. Off-center cards that miss the PSA 10 threshold may grade 9 at best, and the cost of grading versus the value of a PSA 9 vs PSA 10 must be weighed.

The Mr. Irrelevant Narrative Premium

Beyond pure performance metrics, the Purdy story carries a narrative premium that affects collector demand. The last-pick-to-starter narrative is genuinely unusual in sports history and is the kind of story that sustains long-term interest beyond just winning statistics.

For collectors who also appreciate the storytelling dimension of sports, Purdy's card has a resonance that purely statistical assessments of quarterback efficiency do not capture. The number 382 on his card is permanently associated with his draft position, a reminder built into every copy of the card.

Rarer Parallels

For collectors who want to go deeper on Purdy than the base Silver:

The Gold /10 (numbered to 10 copies) is among the most valuable readily identifiable parallels. The 1/1 Superfractor (one copy in existence) is a trophy-grade card that has traded at significant premium when it has surfaced.

Panini also produces numbered parallel versions in Red, Blue, Green, and other colors at various print runs. The /99 and /49 versions provide entry points to numbered Purdy cards at more accessible prices than the very low-numbered pieces.

Outlook

Brock Purdy's card market is directly tied to his career trajectory. At age 25 with a Super Bowl appearance and an All-Pro season already on his resume, the career ahead of him is potentially very long and very successful. The 49ers organization around him is one of the league's best.

For collectors who believe in Purdy's continued success, the 2022 Prizm Silver at current prices represents a player who has already proven himself at the highest level while his career is still in its early chapters.

Browse all Sports Cards →

Related Items