By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: Certified autographs of Brock Lesnar, and C.M. Punk have been trending in opposite directions over the last three months.

Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, and now C.M. Punk have all made the jump from the wrestling ring to the octagon (or something like it), with varying results.

Lesnar made the jump from WWE to UFC and became the biggest pay-per-view draw of his generation. Lashley went from big league pro wrestler to minor league MMA fighter. And Punk? Right now, he’s somewhere in between.

Lesnar and Punk have been key pieces to Topps’s UFC and WWE trading card products over the last several years. Punk’s loyal following of collectors has been well-documented in this column. His Mattel action figures consistently outsell those of every other wrestler, and his trading cards may appeal to more collectors than any other wrestler, with the exception of his wife, A.J. Lee.




Lesnar doesn’t have the same rabid fan base as Punk, but is seen as a legitimate badass and sports star by a large audience of card collectors. Because of this, his trading cards have always been among the most valuable of all UFC cards any time Topps has released a new product.

Punk and Lesnar are very different people, with a very different base of fans and collectors. Punk breaks the Internet, but Lesnar may have more widespread appeal. So how do the two compare in terms of interest with collectors and secondary market value of their autographs?

Keep in mind that an apples-to-apples comparison is impossible, given the difference in collector base and the types of WWE and UFC trading card products. Topps’s WWE products have a little something for everybody. They’re affordable enough for kids, but with valuable autographs for adult collectors to chase. Topps offers similar UFC products, but also produces a wider variety of UFC cards, including higher end products.

On top of that, several factors influence a card’s value more than just the signature on it. Serial numbering, the particular set a card comes from, the scarcity of a card and more can influence secondary market values. So it’s not as simple as declaring Brock Lesnar’s autograph more valuable than C.M. Punk’s signature.




But, looking at the overall market for Lesnar and Punk’s signatures can provide some insight as to how collectors see them - and, quite possibly, how WWE’s treatment of each man has influenced his star power on the secondary market.

The graphic presented in this column shows the total number of completed eBay auctions for Punk, Lesnar and Lashley autographs over a three-month span, from September 12 to December 8, 2014. The red blood splatters represent sales of Lesnar’s autographs, while the blue stars represent sales of Punk’s signatures. This graphic brings to light a few things that are worth discussing.




- Signed cards from Punk and Lesnar have been trending in opposite directions. The red line in the graphic shows that from September to December, sales of Lesnar’s autographed trading cards have trended downward, while sales of Punk’s signed cards have remained steady and even trended slightly upward, as shown by the blue line in the graphic.

This is pretty consistent with what has gone on publicly and how things have played out on television. Lesnar was white hot after basically squashing John Cena at SummerSlam in September. Since then, he has rarely been seen on WWE television and is almost never even mentioned. Perhaps WWE’s handling of Lesnar has cooled fan interest in his collectibles.

Punk, on the other hand, has been the most talked about person in pro wrestling over the last several weeks – without even appearing on a wrestling television show. Punk’s appearances on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast and his recent signing with UFC have drawn mainstream attention. Punk has retained his rabid fan base through all of this, and may have picked up some new fans as well.

- Lesnar has a much wider variety of autographs than Punk, which can be seen in this graphic. Over the last three months, Lesnar’s autographs have sold for as little as $20 and as much as $110. (Note: There was one completed sale of a Lesnar autograph for $280, but that was excluded from this graph as an outlier.) Sales of Lesnar’s UFC autographs are influenced by a variety of factors, including serial numbering, the suggested retail price of the product from which the card came and more.

There is a lot less variation in Punk’s signatures. Most of Punk’s certified autographs come from Topps WWE products released from 2010 to 2013. Most of those cards have a similar value, and there is little variation when it comes to serial numbering or suggested retail price. Over the last three months, Punk’s autographs have pretty regularly sold in the $35-50 range.

- Collectors aren’t willing to spend as much on Brock as they were just a few months ago. The value of Lesnar’s certified autographs hasn’t necessarily decreased. However, higher end autographs don’t appear to be selling as well as they were a few months ago. Collectors still want Lesnar’s signature, but they may be content to settle for a lower end autograph instead of forking over the money for one with a low serial number. Is it possible that WWE’s awful promotion of Lesnar as WWE Champion has hurt him in collectors’ eyes?

- Bobby Lashley is a non-factor. This is really no surprise. Lesnar and Punk have done most of their work on the grand states of WWE and UFC. Lashley, meanwhile, has been exposed to much smaller audiences because of his affiliation with TNA and Bellator. Lashley was arguably TNA’s MVP for much of the year, but he’s just not drawing much interest from collectors. Most of his autographs sell for less than $10 each.

So, what’s next for Punk and Lesnar? Punk’s fan base is fiercely loyal, so his autographs will probably hold their value. If by some chance Punk becomes a UFC success story as a fighter and a draw, there’s plenty of room for his autographs to increase in value. Topps will probably include Punk in future UFC sets, and those cards could be even more valuable than his WWE autographs.

The future of Lesnar’s cards is less clear. Unfortunately, WWE has probably done as much as they are going to with Lesnar. His value with wrestling collectors has probably maxed out. If he does return to UFC as many suspect and regains his spot as a top draw, there is still room for his cards to increase in value with collectors of UFC and other sports cards.

Top Action Figures of 2014

Next week’s PWTorch Collectibles Column will focus on the Top 14 wrestling action figures. If you have any suggestions, email them to michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow PWTorch Collectibles Specialist Michael Moore on Twitter @MMooreWriter.

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