The Beckett Blog

The latest special issue of WWE Magazine focuses on all things trivia about World Wrestling Entertainment and its form of professional wrestling.

Beckett Media’s Chris Olds penned nearly two pages of wrestling card and memorabilia trivia for the special issue, which arrives on newsstands this week as “The Hobby’s Most Reliable and Relied-upon Source” reaches out to the WWE Universe.

We’re not going to ruin the surprise of what’s inside the magazine, but here’s a look at seven items that just weren’t tough enough to make the cut for the issue …

Oh, Mickie!
A Topps Heritage IV autograph card of WWE Diva Mickie James sold for $207.50 on eBay in mid-April. Her card, along with John Cena’s, is a short-print found only in packs available at Walmart stores. Cena’s card only sold for $76 that same day.

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Game time
Triple H has appeared on only 171 trading cards since his debut, but none of them are as cool as his 2001 Fleer All-Access Off the Mat card, which is autographed on a piece of authentic match-used WWE ring mat. The Game reportedly signed only 100, and you may have to battle it out in a steel cage with other bidders to own one. They go for as much as $250.

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Go figure!
Many of us who grew up during the Rock and Wrestling days remember the Wrestling Superstars figures made by LJN. What you might not know? How valuable they can be if they’re not Hulk Hogan or Roddy Piper (everybody had those) and are still in the original packaging. We’ve seen prices as high as $630 for Warlord and $450 for “Ravishing” Rick Rude. (If they had only made a Brooklyn Brawler…)

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Whisper in the wind?
Many collectors always jockey to have something more unusual than the other and one thing’s for certain — any serious Shawn Michaels fan needs at least one WCW card in the ol’ collection. What? Yes, we know Michaels never worked for WCW — but his wife, Rebecca, did as a Nitro Girl and she, too has an autographed card that was found in the 1998 Topps WCW/ nWo set. It’s worth $35.

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MemorabiliaMania
While other sports have memorabilia cards where jerseys are cut up and embedded into them, it seems everything has appeared on a WWE memorabilia card. Ring mat? No-brainer. Steel chair? Duh. Garbage can? Yep. Tables? Uh-huh. Kurt Angle’s milk cartons? Yep. The rarest might be Ron Simmons’ knee brace card from the 2001 Fleer WWF Championship Clash Piece of the Champion set. It reportedly was limited to fewer than 10 copies. (That’s good because Fleer also misspelled “Farooq.” As he would say… damn!)

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Jakked up!
For several years now, Jakks Pacific has produced some of the most popular WWE figures ever made. While many a collector has spent countless hours searching toy aisles, it’s the rare show-exclusive figures that often get the most love in the hobby. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan in a weasel suit? Yep. Ric Flair in his WrestleMania XXIV robe? Yep. Or how about this glow in the dark Undertaker figure, limited to just 100 copies, which was made for Wizard World Texas. You had to buy it as part of a $400 ticket package to the show. These days, they sell for $800. Go figure.

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Wooooo!
“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair had never signed any trading cards for inclusion in packs until Panini America recently landed him to an autograph deal. His first certified autograph card, a promotional card made exclusively for a contest through Beckett Media, was limited to only 15 copies, while his actual debut card appears in packs of 2009 Donruss Americana. Those cards have been consistently selling for more than $100.