The Beast....Brock Lesnar...My favorite athlete!

[Dpeck100]

In 2009 the word was out that Brock Lesnar might be making his way to the UFC. I was ecstatic! A good friend was big into going to the events wherever they were and I had been telling him about this guy from the pre determined wrestling world that was a monster and could hurt people. I decided to put my money where my mouth was and went to EBAY to see if he had any football cards from his stent with the Vikings in training camp. He did! I bought two of the Sweet Spot rookies for $25 a piece and was really thinking I was testing the limits of what I would spend. LOL. Little did I know in the process I would find the Wrestling All Stars and the rest is history.


Brock is my favorite athlete and I am working hard on my collection.


Here is a raw one I recently purchased and I plan to keep in the event I can ever get it signed.

[Dpeck100]

I live in Orlando and had to go to WrestleMania 33 to see Brock. I splurged and purchased awesome seats after paying what I thought was good money for my seats at WrestleMania 24 only to realize you are pretty far back.

[Dpeck100]

The Sweet Spot is a pretty tough card condition wise. The top is cut funny on all of these out of the pack and the thick card is easily susceptible to wear.

[Dpeck100]

There are three versions of the 2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Brock Lesnar card. The base numbered to 999, the silver numbered to 100, and the gold numbered to 50.

Still searching for a higher graded copy.

[Dpeck100]

This card is so tough to find. Only 50 exist and I have only seen 4 since 2009.

[Dpeck100]

There are two versions of this card. One to 100 and one to 425. I still need a nice standard copy. Killer looking card of Brock!

[Dpeck100]

This is Brock's rookie card. It comes from the loaded 2002 WWE Fleer Royal Rumble set. The set is packed with rookies and also includes John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista.

[Dpeck100]

Here are the two base cards from the 2004 Leaf Rookies and Stars sets. I am still working on up grading copies of these but seeing how things shake out with the population totals.

[Dpeck100]

There are a handful of the colored longevity cards. I am missing a few. The harder to find copies are not showing up on EBAY very frequently any more. I definitely missed out on a few of the other variations.

[Dpeck100]

It was crazy when Brock came into the UFC! I was so excited for his first fight and was rocked when he lost. So glad he came back and beat Mir's face in!

[Dpeck100]

Only 75 of these. Very tough card to locate.

[Dpeck100]

Lowest print Brock football card that exists and numbered to 25. Only copy I have seen since I began searching in August of 2009 and threw in an offer fast.

[Cozumeleno]

Great cards. I'd love to pick up a PSA 10 from the 2002 set (as well as Orton and Cena). I've seen the football cards of Lesnar, Goldberg, and The Rock. It's weird because I collect football but don't really have much interest in the football cards of the wrestlers. That 2002 set seems like one of the bigger modern day sets in terms of star power with key rookie cards.

There was a PSA 9 of Lesnar's 2002 WWE card that I'd been watching on eBay that just got bought up at $50. I was kind of surprised to see that. An Orton, for example, has been sitting at $25 for a while. Shows a good market for high-grade modern cards, which is nice to see. I've bought a bunch of PSA 10s from the 1980s through present in the last few weeks since jumping into this wrestling card thing.

Ungraded, the 2002 set cards seem to be pretty cheap. I've toyed with the idea of hoping to get lucky with a submission and find a 10 but in between the waiting period and the unlikely nature of that, I'd rather just buy 10s.

[Dpeck100]

I purchased five sealed boxes years ago and busted them all. The first go round I bought three within a few days and killed it on that sub. The second batch of two not so much.

Plenty of 8's, 8.5's, 9's and 10's.

If I were you I would try and find one graded already. These cards are tougher than you would think in top grade.

There are obviously EBAY sellers that are not hip to the grading game and there are plenty of nice raw cards out there from various sets but with all black borders if they are even touched you aren't getting a 10. Most of these sellers generally do not have them stored properly and that is a huge obstacle.

I think the most I ever got for a Brock 9 was $40 so this is a new high. A 10 went for $225 if I recall and I wouldn't sell either of mine for that. I just looked and the Brock is a Pop 5 so not many graded that high so far.

[Cozumeleno]

I'm pretty torn on paying big money for newer graded 10s but I definitely prefer that to subbing and trying to come out ahead there. The biggest question mark I have is that there are so few straight auctions (at least compared to baseball), that the market seems to be all over the place.

I've got much less of a problem buying higher-graded vintage wrestling because I know it's unlikely that a ton of high-grade raw exists. But I get the feeling that there are a bunch of high-grade raw cards out there of the newer sets and people simply aren't bothering to send them in until prices are guaranteed to be higher. For example, several PSA 9 Ortons have been on eBay recently in the $20-$25 range. If I'm a seller with a bunch of raw ones, what's the point in sending them in to be graded, paying for the slab, shipping, waiting, etc. when I know I really need to get a 10 for it to be worthwhile?

I've gone up to $50 for a few RCs that I wanted and the most expensive one I bought was a Rollins 2010 MWR for $125. That was sort of an exception because it's a rarer card that predates his WWE/FCW days and I know that, even raw, there aren't a ton of them out there. I thought that was a good buy just because the pop reports aren't likely to blow up. But I'd be hesitant to spend $200-$300 on a PSA 10 card from the 2000s until there is some more established sales history. I don't really plan on selling the cards, so I am generally fine with overpaying a little. It just seems like such an undetermined market.

Do you get that sense or is it more stable in your mind?

[supplex55]

WWE has largely jumped the shark for me, but Brock has remained one of the few wrestlers that i still follow (even though i subscribe to the WWEnetwork, i rarely watch PPVs that do not feature Brock). I have enjoyed picking up some of the tough Topps Brock autographs the past several years (many of them Walmart exclusives):

[supplex55]

Another of Brock's limited collectible items are his 3 WWE licensed promotional photos (2 from 2002 and his most recent one from 2012)--all are 8x10 and printed on cardstock paper.

[D. Bergin]

Never been a big fan of pro wrestling other then a novelty to me here and there, but I remember Brock making a big impression on me when I just happened to stumble upon one of his earliest TV appearances back in the day.

This big hulking dude, who nobody really knew who he was yet, walked up to the ring during his entrance and did a straight up vertical jump from the floor to the elevated canvas, before he went in and manhandled whatever sacrificial lamb they threw in there with him. I had never seen anyone do that before, let alone a guy as big as him. I'm about 170 lbs and I can barely get 6 inches off the ground.

Steroids or not it was fun to watch, the same way it was fun to watch Barry Bonds hit a baseball from 2001 to 2004. It shows what the human body is capable of, with help or not.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

I'm pretty torn on paying big money for newer graded 10s but I definitely prefer that to subbing and trying to come out ahead there. The biggest question mark I have is that there are so few straight auctions (at least compared to baseball), that the market seems to be all over the place.

I've got much less of a problem buying higher-graded vintage wrestling because I know it's unlikely that a ton of high-grade raw exists. But I get the feeling that there are a bunch of high-grade raw cards out there of the newer sets and people simply aren't bothering to send them in until prices are guaranteed to be higher. For example, several PSA 9 Ortons have been on eBay recently in the $20-$25 range. If I'm a seller with a bunch of raw ones, what's the point in sending them in to be graded, paying for the slab, shipping, waiting, etc. when I know I really need to get a 10 for it to be worthwhile?

I've gone up to $50 for a few RCs that I wanted and the most expensive one I bought was a Rollins 2010 MWR for $125. That was sort of an exception because it's a rarer card that predates his WWE/FCW days and I know that, even raw, there aren't a ton of them out there. I thought that was a good buy just because the pop reports aren't likely to blow up. But I'd be hesitant to spend $200-$300 on a PSA 10 card from the 2000s until there is some more established sales history. I don't really plan on selling the cards, so I am generally fine with overpaying a little. It just seems like such an undetermined market.

Do you get that sense or is it more stable in your mind?

I was the first person to sub any of the WWE Royal Rumble cards to PSA. I had no real idea on value and just thought they had good potential and would be great additions to my collection.

The wrestling card market is all over the place. I am one of the few people who will run straight auctions and unfortunately many of my cards have been flipped shortly there after for two times as much or more in a BIN. There is so little history on many of the cards in graded form that pricing is all over the place and so are sales. The only set with any somewhat established consistent values are the Wrestling All Stars and those too do better in BIN in many cases.

I have self submitted quite a few of my own cards which has been helpful in developing my collection. I love the thrill of finding raw cards and then sending them in and scoring high grades. For a few years from 09 to probably 11 I was buying just about every Wrestling All Stars card that came to market and was fortunate that graded wrestling cards were in their infancy. I hit tons of 8's, 9's and some 10's but finding super nice raw cards that make their way to EBAY now is few and far between.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by supplex55

WWE has largely jumped the shark for me, but Brock has remained one of the few wrestlers that i still follow (even though i subscribe to the WWEnetwork, i rarely watch PPVs that do not feature Brock). I have enjoyed picking up some of the tough Topps Brock autographs the past several years (many of them Walmart exclusives):

Thanks for posting your Brock cards and promo pics. Very nice!

I can't make it through an entire Monday Night Raw and unless Brock is on I might not make it 20 minutes.

Thankfully the Network has expanded significantly and YouTube has so much amazing content. I love watching old wrestling from the 70's and 80's. It was such a great time in the business.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Never been a big fan of pro wrestling other then a novelty to me here and there, but I remember Brock making a big impression on me when I just happened to stumble upon one of his earliest TV appearances back in the day.

This big hulking dude, who nobody really knew who he was yet, walked up to the ring during his entrance and did a straight up vertical jump from the floor to the elevated canvas, before he went in and manhandled whatever sacrificial lamb they threw in there with him. I had never seen anyone do that before, let alone a guy as big as him. I'm about 170 lbs and I can barely get 6 inches off the ground.

Steroids or not it was fun to watch, the same way it was fun to watch Barry Bonds hit a baseball from 2001 to 2004. It shows what the human body is capable of, with help or not.

I tried finding it on YouTube but it isn't there. I missed his first appearance on Raw but saw his first on Smackdown in 2002 and I immediately called my dad and said Holy Sh++ there is a new wrestler Brock Lesnar and this guy is going to be the next champ. He was insane. As you said he jumped on the apron and had a build like I had never seen before in wrestling. There had been plenty of big guys but no one with the size and muscularity of Brock. I was hooked from that minute forward. It was such a huge let down when the rumors of Brock leaving became true. How could this guy that was just a natural for the business and with the fastest climb to the top ever quit??? I continued to follow all of the headlines that surrounded him but not getting to see Brock was disappointing.

I have worked out religiously since I was 14 and you can't get as big as Brock naturally. He has tremendous genetics and so without the assistance of steroids he is a still a very large guy but it isn't remotely possible to achieve the physique he had in his early years without a lot of help. It is easy to pack on some size if you eat a ton and lift frequently but not with definition. I think most people who lift have gone through the phase of trying to get as big as they can but in reality that means a much larger waist for most and it defeats the purpose. Cut muscles look better than large but soft. You can tell currently that Brock is off the juice because that is where he stands now. He is big but a loft softer and this is fueling speculation he is going to make another run in the UFC so he has to stay clean for awhile. I personally have never taking any steroids and don't take any supplements but I just expect it at the professional level. There are so many athletes from all sports that are on stuff. I spoke to a guy who was a lower level MMA fighter and he said 90% or more of the guys are on stuff. It just is what it is. When you know your competition is taking it and the financial rewards and fame are what they are it just fuels the behavior.

In the ring Brock is a machine. People have no idea how much energy it takes to belly to back suplex and 250+ plus human time and time again. He also is a mercenary which I love. Wrestling is a tough sport and yes everyone knows it is predetermined but Brock isn't afraid to take real shots and is more than happy to deliver them. He is just awesome.

In 2014 for Halloween we were downtown Orlando where I live at a nightclub and were in the VIP room by the DJ booth and it had access to the dance floor via these little balcony's. There were a group of large people and it turned out they were working for WWE in NXT. One guy was huge and was dressed as Wonder Woman. We got to chatting and I showed him some cards on my phone and he was super cool. For several years I tried figuring out who it was and it turned out it was none other than Braun Strowman. If anyone questions Brock's toughness all one must do is watch this clip.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oi6yGandaY

[Cozumeleno]

That was my sense of it, too (sort of all over the place), so I understand why others would be hesitant to run straight auctions on eBay. And based on my limited understanding of the various sets, it looks like the 1982-83 set is really the only recent one with much of a track record as far as producing somewhat consistent values.

I can see the market getting more stable with other sets as people that grew up watching it in the 1980s and 1990s boon get a little older. The 1989/90 Classic cards seem to do well when it comes to unopened product and 1985 and 1987 Topps/OPC have somewhat of a following, too. Getting in early on that 2002 set, which you did, seems to be a great idea as it holds several key rookies.

I don't know where the values will go from here and, as I said, I'm mostly a baseball guy. But I'm having a lot of fun with the wrestling cards and am enjoying them regardless of the price right now. I'm a big WWE fan and, for some reason, collecting them never entered my mind until only recently.

Originally Posted by Dpeck100

I was the first person to sub any of the WWE Royal Rumble cards to PSA. I had no real idea on value and just thought they had good potential and would be great additions to my collection.

The wrestling card market is all over the place. I am one of the few people who will run straight auctions and unfortunately many of my cards have been flipped shortly there after for two times as much or more in a BIN. There is so little history on many of the cards in graded form that pricing is all over the place and so are sales. The only set with any somewhat established consistent values are the Wrestling All Stars and those too do better in BIN in many cases.

I have self submitted quite a few of my own cards which has been helpful in developing my collection. I love the thrill of finding raw cards and then sending them in and scoring high grades. For a few years from 09 to probably 11 I was buying just about every Wrestling All Stars card that came to market and was fortunate that graded wrestling cards were in their infancy. I hit tons of 8's, 9's and some 10's but finding super nice raw cards that make their way to EBAY now is few and far between.

[Dpeck100]

With wrestling cards for the most part it is card specific. There are quite a few sets with a few cards that matter and the rest are kind of an after thought. The same with 80's baseball. One of the nice appeals to wrestling cards is the sets are smaller and the number produced is dramatically smaller than traditional sports cards from the same time frame. Interest is really growing and while I don't think anyone thinks they will ever be as heavily collected but because the supply is so much smaller it really helps with holding price. Just Friday I paid good money for the Pop 1 1986 Carnation Ric Flair PSA 10 and will be getting it in hand this week. As much as the last open market sale of the 1982 Wrestling All Stars PSA 10. There are lots of cards that are extremely touch condition wise and make for some nice rarities. A few weeks back I paid very strong prices for two 1976 Yamakatsu cards from Japan. There is some really cool material out there.

[Dpeck100]

I have been trying to get a copy for quite some time.