The Price Of UFC Trading Cards Explained

When people talk about UFC cards, most of the time you’d be correct to assume they’re talking about fight cards which is another way to describe the schedule and names on a specific event. However, there is a very different type of UFC card too. Specifically, we’re talking about UFC trading cards.

Although UFC trading cards aren’t the most common part of MMA culture, they do have a cult following with those that love MMA and trading card culture. In this sense, collectors are no different from those who collect and trade baseball cards. Whilst UFC trading cards aren’t as popular or expensive as MLB cards, you’d still be surprised at some of the prices for certain UFC cards.

Where to buy UFC trading cards

UFC trading cards can be purchased from supermarkets such as Walmart and Target. They’re typically sold in blister packs or larger boxes whereby you don’t know what cards you’ll get. For some people, this is part of the fun as it’s completely random. You could potentially get a pack of duds that are worthless. However, like Pokemon cards and other collectible cards, certain types will be worth more than others.

Another way of buying them is online, with websites such as Amazon selling them. If you want to buy individual cards then you’d have to buy from sites such as eBay. Generally, individual cards tend to cost more as you know what you’re getting. This is especially the case for those that are more desirable.

The difference between Topps and Panini UFC trading cards

The first official partner with the UFC to make trading cards was Topps, who made them until 2020. Then, the UFC partnered with Panini in 2021. It’s not known why this happened, but the outcome is that you can no longer buy Topps cards after 2020. Generally speaking, there isn’t much difference between the two in terms of their designs, and some have holographic backgrounds whereas others don’t. These days, the Panini Prizm series is very popular though.

One thing worth mentioning is that as Topps no longer produces UFC trading cards, some have speculated that their value will rise over time due to scarcity. Whether this is a legitimate prediction or just speculation remains to be seen as it’s still too early to say. As always with trading cards, there are always bound to be market predictions for the future that could make people very wealthy or lose a lot of money!

How much is the most expensive UFC trading card?

The most expensive ever UFC trading card is a 2017 Topps Conor McGregor card that sold for $73,800 at auction. Interestingly, the second most expensive card of all time is a 2021 Panini Prizm Conor McGregor card that sold for $26,400. As you may have figured, there’s a theme here and everything that McGregor touches seems to turn into commercial gold.

In fact, most of the cards that dominate the listings above $5,000 in value are either Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov. Whilst there are a few other fighter cards that can sell for over $5,000 – this is quite rare and generally, those two are the main cards to look out for. At the same time, this doesn’t mean that any McGregor or Khabib card is guaranteed to be valuable. In fact, there are plenty available on eBay for under $5. Like all trading cards, it’s certain ones that hold value and for the most part, they’re just not worth that much money. Often, in depends on luck in terms of what you’re card is going to be worth.

How much your UFC cards are worth

As mentioned, most of the UFC trading cards are worth below $5. With this said, there isn’t much of an active market for them, and there certainly isn’t the same demand as MLB cards. At the same time, you could argue that UFC trading cards will grow in popularity in the future as the popularity of MMA continues to grow. Although this could happen, it still remains to be seen whether this will be the case.

Getting UFC cards PSA graded

When valuing UFC cards though, there are a few ways to get extra money for them. Firstly, if you’ve researched your card and know that it’s of higher value, you should get it sent off to the PSA company. In the card industry, PSA stands for Professional Sports Authenticator who look at sports merchandise and value to condition. You may have seen certain Pokemon cards that are in see-through cases with a grading out of ten on them. The closer to ten, the better the condition of the card. As a result, you could transform a card’s value overnight if it gets a high PSA grading. For example, a 9/10 Khamzat Chimaev card could be transformed from $100 to $500 after a $25 grading fee. Sometimes, it’s worth the investment and even if the grading is lower, it’s still likely to add value.

Getting UFC cards signed by fighters

One of the oldest methods in the merchandise industry is to get things signed by the sportsman associated with it. For instance, if you could get a golf club or photograph signed by Tiger Woods then it would instantly rocket in value. Ths same goes with UFC trading cards. If you could get Conor McGregor to sign one of his cards then it could easily add hundreds or thousands worth of value. Of course, the difficult part is actually getting the card signed in the first place.

Conclusion

For most people, collecting and trading UFC cards still remains a hobby. In other words, there isn’t really much industry involved, unless you’re at the top and know exactly what you’re doing. Because of this, it’s fair to say that lots of card collectors do it out of fun rather than for profit. Nonetheless, with this sort of thing, there are always people involved who try to profit from this.

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this, it can sometimes be quite unclear as to whether the person actually knows what they’re doing, or whether it’s blind speculation. In summary, if you want to get into collecting UFC trading cards then buying packs is the best place to begin. At the same time, your chance of becoming a trading card millionaire is pretty slim unless you have prior experience in the industry.