Rangers Brand Is Brighter

The Rangers have a lot to celebrate -- on the field and off.

"Winning brings money,” said Brian Fleischer, of Beckett Media in Dallas.

Rangers merchandise is flying off the shelves as the team wins more fans with every game.

"Four or five years ago, I'm sure that the Rangers didn't move an awful lot of licensed merchandise," said Beckett’s Mark Anderson. “They moved some to local fans, but now you've got a much wider fan base."

A Harris Interactive poll taken earlier this season named the Rangers the eighth most popular team in baseball. Just three years ago, they were 16 spots lower.

Experts at Beckett Media, a leading sports collectible grading service, say Rangers baseball cards are rapidly increasing in value -- some even overnight.

"As the team gets more popular [and] more valuable, and they sell more jerseys and more hats and more licensed apparel, that translates into cardboard, into trading cards," Fleischer said.

With two consecutive World Series appearances, the Rangers may now be on their way to becoming one of the country's more valuable sports teams -- less than a year and a half after the previous owners filed for bankruptcy,

"That's true for the last two years and, you know, you need to sustain that," said Mike Ozanian, Forbes.com executive editor Mike Ozanian, who tracks the business of sports franchises. “I don't think that two postseason appearances in a row do that for you, but i would say that's it's certainly a franchise that's turned around. That's clear."

During spring training, Forbes put Texas as the eighth most valuable franchise, up 25 percent over last season.

Ozanian said it takes several years for all of the success on the field to show up on a team’s bottom line.

But when it does, the Rangers will be in a much better position to remain competitive well into the future.

"I think we're going to be at the top echelon of baseball teams and hopefully there for a long time to stay," Anderson said.