I was just thinking about autographed cards and why actors' characters seem to be sometimes more important in cards than the actors who play them. I think its because people tend to equate a role they like with the person playing the part and become a fan of the actor, when all they really admire is their fictional alter-ego.

We see this often represented in the difference in value between an autograph of an actor on a personal picture and one of the same actor pictured as a well known character. For example autograph cards of RDJ as Tony Stark/Ironman, SMG as Buffy, or Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, all would likely cost more than the same auto on a Pop Century generic signature card, if there was one.

Some actors barely have any demand at all apart from their iconic role. Does anyone even want Daniel Radcliffe's autograph if he's not shown as Harry Potter? Anyone want Rupert Grint to sign anything not Potter related? You get the idea.

So just for fun, let's see how many people can come up with some more actors who have pretty high hobby values as certain characters, but not so much as themselves.

You can look at anyone that way. Gillian Anderson's has a pop century card that have an image that looks like she was caught off guard by the cameraman. It's just a weird shot and it is a lot cheaper then her X-files Autos but if it was a better image would that change the value of the price?

I will use another example, several Smallville autos in the Inkworks run were fairly common to find and in the Cryptozoic run they were short print. Every day of the week I can find the Kidder auto from Inkworks in the 10 to 20 range but the Cryptozic one is 40+. Same actress, same character on the same series but the people "know" that the Cryptozic one is scare compared to the Inkworks one.

So, it is all relative to the the collector.
But we are here to play the game.

Erica Durance who was Lois on Smallville. Her Smallville auto is in the 40+ range. I bought her Stargate auto for 10. I have seen it a few more times in the 10 to 20 range.

Arnie's Terminator auto compared to Batman & Robin?

Not sure if this is because of how the release wasn't well received but how about Martin Freeman? Hobbit autos go for more than Black Panther ones.

Harrison Ford was going to be my first guess and the Star Wars autographs are still worth more but the gap is not as large any more since there are so many more SW autos of his in circulation than a few years ago.

If they ever make an authorized Spongebob set a Tom Kenny auto in that would be worth way more than a Rick and Morty auto.

There are several really cheap certified autograph cards out there for James Earl Jones, as long as they don't have anything to do with Vader.

It was strongly rumored that RA went on a shopping spree buying up Emilia Clarke's early 258 West Authentics' cards to provide genuine signatures for her Game of Thrones cuts.

RA certainly did. I sold one of my Emilia Clarke 258 West autograph card to RA's owner a year ago.

There are a lot of factors (many already named), but I think mainly in these examples the question is who is the core collector. For Grint it's going to be Harry Potter collectors so his Potter cards would be worth more.

I'd bet if Martin Sheen and Mick Fleetwood signed for Pop Century their Pop Century cards would sell for more than their Babylon 5 and Star Trek cards do because their main collector base isn't Babylon 5 or Star Trek and are likely less interested in the celebrities in these particular roles.

When collectors of the celebrity are outsized compared to the brand the prices skyrocket compared to the brand -- i.e. Megan Markle (Fringe) and Donald Trump (Apprentice, Pop Century, Ali)