By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: Collectors are spending hundreds of dollars on rare FCW cards of A.J. Lee, Paige, and The Shield.

Card Show #10: FCW Summer Slamarama Trading Cards

Since breaking out as a star in mid-2012, A.J. Lee has been one of the most popular subjects for collectors of wrestling trading cards. Her 2011 WWE Classics Autograph was her lone signature when she got hot. Late last year, Topps capitalized on A.J.’s popularity by creating a special memorabilia card, which contained a piece of a teddy bear A.J. hacked up with a pair of scissors.

But A.J. Lee’s most valuable card predates both of those cards. It isn’t signed or serial numbered, and doesn’t include any sort of memorabilia. It’s just a basic trading card – and collectors are paying as much as $200 for a raw, ungraded copy.




A.J. is just one of several current top stars who made their trading card debuts in the FCW Summer Slamarama sets issued from 2010 to 2012. The cards were given away at various FCW live events. A card of Savannah is the only documented card from 2010; the 2011 set included 23 cards, and 13 more were given away in 2012.

The cards feature many of today’s top stars as they appeared in the pre-NXT FCW. The 2011 set includes such notable names as A.J., Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Hunico, Titus O’Neill, Brodus Clay, Xavier Woods, Brad Maddox, and Aksana.

The 2011 set also includes an unrecognizable Damien Sandow without a beard, and a few guys who have since undergone name changes and become big stars: Roman Leakee (Roman Reigns), Husky Harris (Bray Wyatt), and Bo Rotundo (current NXT Champ Bo Dallas).




The 2012 set features updated cards of Bo Dallas and Brad Maddox, along with the first cards of Summer Rae and NXT Women’s champion Paige.

These cards are incredibly scarce, and collectors are forking over major cash to get a hold of them. The hottest card of all is the Paige card from 2012. A raw, ungraded copy recently sold for a whopping $350. A lot of all three cards of the Shield sold in October for $197. A lot of 20 cards – which did NOT include the three Shield members – sold for $1,250 in October.

Not only are the cards incredibly scarce, they’re also very condition sensitive. As a result, several extremely low grades (BGS 4 to BGS 5) have shown up on eBay. Cards with a grade of BGS 7.5 (near mint +) are selling at a premium.

For most modern era sports cards, a grade of 7.5 would likely hurt the value of the card and cause it to sell for less than an ungraded copy. But these cards are so scarce - and sensitive - that collectors are even willing to spend big bucks on cards with poor to below average grades.




Full checklists for all three sets are available from WrestlingTradingCards.com HERE.

PWTorch Collectibles specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com.

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt