COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The Rise of Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss meets all the criteria that typically drive up secondary market prices of collectibles.

Star power? Check.

Hot girl? Check.

Nice signature? Check.

Limited number of action figures? Check.

Over the last year, WWE fans have watched Bliss evolve from a mid-card valet in NXT to a surprisingly good promo on SmackDown to WWE Raw Women’s Champion.

Bliss has always had a connection with collectors since arriving in WWE. Her first trading card appeared in 2015 Topps WWE Slam Attax: Then Now Forever, a UK-exclusive trading card game. The Attax brand is a lower-end retail product that appeals to kids and gamers, but often includes a WWE wrestler’s first trading cards. When Bliss’ card first came out in 2015, it regularly sold for $5-$10, which is impressive considering most cards in the set sell for under $1 each. It’s tough to put a price on this card today because they so rarely surface for sale.

Bliss’ other early cards were included in the NXT Prospects insert set in 2015 Topps WWE and 2015 Topps WWE Chrome. The Chrome set also included Bliss’ first certified autograph, which introduced collectors to her quality signature, in which every letter was visible. It was a welcome change from the lazy initials offered up by the likes of Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, among others. Bliss’ autograph has since appeared in other Topps products, including 2016 Topps WWE Divas Revolution and 2016 Topps NXT. Her signature today isn’t quite as crisp as it was in 2015, but it’s still one of the better signatures in all of WWE.

One easy way to get a sense of Bliss’ value to collectors is to look at base blue autographs from 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed, a high end trading card product that was released last week. Because these cards are new, trade relatively frequently and are all serial numbered to 199, it’s fair to directly compare sales of Bliss’ autograph with those of other top stars.

Based on a couple weeks’ worth of sales, the median sale price for Bliss’ base blue 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed Autograph from completed eBay listings was $76.02 – more than double the median sale price of the next highest seller, AJ Styles ($32.95). The next closest sellers were Shinsuke Nakamura ($31.00), Finn Balor ($28.94) and Charlotte Flair ($24.50). The median price for an autograph of WWE Smackdown Women’s Champ Naomi from this product was $10.50 – $65.52 less than the median price for Bliss’ signature.

It should be noted that top stars like John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker don’t have base blue autographs in the set, and are only featured on more limited serial numbered parallels of different colors. It’s still a good bet that Bliss’s signature would fetch a higher price than each of those top stars, with the exception of Undertaker.

Bliss’ lone action figure – a Mattel WWE Basic figure from Series 68B – was the hottest Mattel Basic figure earlier in the year. The figure retails for around $9.99, but was regularly selling in the $35-$40 range in the spring, with a rare chase variant with a Slammy Award selling closer to $60. Sales have cooled off since then as Bliss’ figure has become more plentiful, but it’s still very difficult to find in retail stores, and will probably run you close to $20 on eBay or Amazon.

Figure collectors have been clamoring for an Elite Bliss toy for quite some time, and last week Mattel unveiled images that had the collectors’ community buzzing. At San Diego Comic Con, Mattel showed off a prototype for Bliss’ first Elite figure, which captures every detail of her current WWE look. A release date for the figure was not announced, but look for it at the end of 2017 or early 2018. Early buzz around this figure seems to indicate that it will be the most eagerly anticipated figure since Mattel unveiled images of Finn Balor’s first Elite toy two years ago.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PRIOR COLUMN: COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: Tracking Down Cards of Mae Young Classic Stars

PWTorch Collectibles Specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter.