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PaulPaulPaulWhen a player unexpectedly gets in, like McPhee, the value of his card skyrockets for the reasons Barry said. This is especially so when his cards are scarce, like McPhee's cards. Vic Willis and George Davis cards certainly went up dramatically when they were elected. But both players are in the common T206 set, so these cards didn't rise as crazily as McPhee.
Where the election is expected, like Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan or Mike Schmidt, there is almost no effect on value. The market has already taken into account their inevitable election.
There are also a few borderline players who were priced as HOFers before their election. Phil Rizzuto is a good example. Because his prices were already at Hall of Fame levels before he was elected, there wasn't much of a change after his election. I think the same will be true of Gil Hodges if he was ever elected.
On the other hand, if Dummy Hoy were elected someday, his prices would go up a lot. He is already priced like a Hall of Famer. But his cards are very scarce (compared to Rizzuto and Hodges). I suspect I am not alone among collectors in passing up Hoy's cards because they are expensive, but already having a few Hodges cards because they are cheap. If Hoy got elected, I'd want one of his cards, and I wouldn't be alone. Increased demand plus scarcity would drive up the price.