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davidcyclebackI would submit that Cobb's memorabilia is the most popular with collectors (I don't so much mean love versus hate, but in demand). However, as price is determined by both supply and demand, Jackson's memorabilia is more expensive as it is rarer.
In an unfettered market, price is the representation of scarcity, scarcity being determined by the supply versus the demand for it. This means that price alone is not itself a representation of popularity. Due to differences in items' populations, something can be more popular yet be less expensive (or less scarce).
It should be noted for clarity sake that 'rarity' is strictly a representation of the population of an item ('There are only 3? That's rare!'). Scarcity is not. As scarcity is determined by supply versus demand, something can be rare yet not scarce and something can scarce but not rare.
One-person-one-vote polls of popularty ('Okay, everyone gets to vote once for their favorite player') also don't exactly represent popularity or demand. This is because the one-vote-one-person identifies what a person likes or dislikes, but not the intensity of his like or dislike. And anyone who watches eBay bidding knows that unusually intense desire in only two bidders can create a substantially high price than bidding between fifteen bidders.