It’s all in the (Fight) Cards
Published by Kal Thompson on May 3rd, 2009 in Memorabilia

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Over the past few decades, sports trading cards have become as American as mom and apple pie. While these paste-board treasures were once reserved for the star players of sports such as baseball, basketball, and football, the time has come for the warriors of MMA to have their own rookie cards.

“We produced a set called ‘Donruss Americana,’ which is basically an entertainment pop-culture set featuring people who are famous for who they are and not necessarily for the characters who they’ve portrayed,” shares Scott Prusha, Director of Marketing at Donruss Trading Card Company. “These MMA fighters fit perfectly in our “Americana” line because they are popular for who they are, and not necessarily for what specific organization they fight for.”

Donruss’ inclusion of 30 MMA fighters is part of a unique subset within the “Americana” master set, entitled “Ring Kings” that was released last year. There are various points of unique collectability within this “Ring Kings” set. Collectors who purchase packs of these cards have the opportunity to pull hand-signed versions, as well as cards which have “ring-worn” clothing pieces (or swatches, as they are called in the card collecting world) imbedded within the cardboard, itself.

Georges St. Pierre, Rich Franklin, Gina Carano, Cung Le, Frank Trigg and Matt Lindland are just a few of the fighters who are to be included within this card set. Even MMA personalities such as John McCarthy and Bruce Buffer will have their own card within the line.

While Donruss chose to represent a plethora of fighters, and not limit themselves to a specific MMA organization, Topps has chosen a different route with their UFC-only based trading card product.

Topps, the oldest surviving trading card company, released “UFC: Round 1” this past February. This brand-specific card set features a total of 100 base cards: 90 fighters and 10 UFC personalities such as Dana White and the Octagon ring girls. Each 16 pack box contains an average of 3 hand signed cards and 3 cards which contain event used relics such as pieces of the octagon canvas and fighter-worn t-shirts swatches.

The holy grail of this Topps product is the red ink hand signed cards. Each red ink signature card is limited to just 25 copies.

With certain versions of the certified autographed copies of George St. Pierre’s trading cards already selling for over the $400 mark on the secondary market, “GSP” just might have card collectors asking, “A-Rod who?”