If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know my affinity for Topps Chrome. Ive mentioned it multiple times that it is my favorite product and my go to set for acquiring my target PC subjects. The brand loyalty I have to Chrome is deep rooted in my childhood, with the set driving many trips to the local shop when I was growing up. Its also been one of the things that has driven some of the largest purchases I have made in sports cards.

Chrome is a legacy brand for a number of reasons, but most of it stems from the longevity of the product’s brand within the hobby, and its hulking values that have driven enormous sales volumes and secondary market values for decades. Collectors know what they are getting with Chrome, each and every time. Its a landmark product that has spanned multiple sports, non-sport, WWE, MMA, and everything in between.

The pinnacle of the brand has always been the refractor, but within the last 15 years, the true top of the mountain has been the 1/1 parallel of those, labeled a SUPERFRACTOR early on by Topps. Being that its the most important parallel in all of cards, it features a similar stock pattern that has spread to almost every trading card company on the planet. Yes, the superfractors are such a big deal, Panini, Leaf, and all the others have used the “Small Engine Turn” stock and made their own 1/1 parallels. That’s when its clear that everyone wants a piece of the magic.

In terms of WWE, the Superfractor has been around for a while, but its history is a bit more complicated. Because the products were built around the ideas of baseball sets, but configured in their own way, the Superfractors werent always the same as they were in other sports. In fact, some of the original examples had a print run of 25 from the first Heritage Chrome WWE sets, making them some of the highest numbered supers ever produced. Like many of the other older WWE cards, the bigger names in this set have skyrocketed in value over the last year.

All that being said, nothing has prepared the market for what happened to the Superfractors in the first standalone Topps Chrome branded set, first released in 2014. Ive mentioned in previous posts that 2014 Topps Chrome WWE had a minuscule print run. One of the smallest hobby configurations produced in the history of Topps Chrome as a mainstream brand. As part of that set, Superfractor parallels of the base cards, numbered 1/1, were included for the first time ever. The set featured two of the top tier WWE targets of 2022, with Roman Reigns and the Rock both having mega cards as part of the checklist. If I had to predict a six figure sale in WWE, I talked about one of the candidates yesterday in the Rock’s 1/1 Prizm black. The other candidate is the Rock’s 2014 Superfractor.

Back at the end of 2021, leading into 2022, a group of major sports collectors joined the WWE card niche ahead of the announcement of Panini obtaining the WWE license. Immediately, sets like 2014 and 2015 Topps Chrome became targets for them – more specifically the sister cards to the Prizm parallels that had dominated the hobby boom coming out of 2020. The gold refractors /50 and the Superfractor 1/1s exploded in value, with some $10 dollar pickups from months earlier becoming $1000 cards overnight. Remember, no supply and high demand kicks basic economics into high gear.

Within a few weeks, a 2014 Roman Reigns Superfractor Auto 1/1 had sold for $15,000, setting a record for modern WWE in the process. To that point, no public sale of a modern WWE card had ever broken the 5 figure mark, with only another Superfractor coming close. That card was from 2021 Transcendent WWE, which featured 1/1 autographed supers for the first time and last time in the product. Like others from previous Chrome sets, huge values were expected and received for the major 1 per box hits, leading to some of the largest sales in WWE card history.

To me, the Transcendent superfractor autos were the next step in the evolutionary process for the WWE market and remain my favorite wrestling cards Topps produced in their 20 year run with the license. They continue to be highly sought after by many WWE and non-WWE collectors, a chase that has been exacerbated by the increase in value for the 2014, 2015, 2020 and 2021 Chrome sets overall. Adding in 2020 and 2021 Finest, WWE has a treasure trove of shiny gold cards that have increased wax to dizzying heights on the products, with the older boxes capping out at 1200-1500 a box now. Collectors have seen this new market evolve into a monster, with most of the Chrome color reaching heights considered laughable only a few months ago.

Now that Prizm has entered the fold, more shiny goodness has brought huge prices to the market, and has fueled a continued spike for the shiny Topps products all around. Even the lowest tier superfractors available on the market cannot be had for less than a few hundred dollars, something that is driving many supercollectors insane. For those of us who were lucky enough to get our hands on some of the major examples early on in the Chrome lifecycle, those prices seem like we were paying for sticks of chewing gum by comparison.

I wholeheartedly believe there is no more safe harbor for anyone looking to add some of these gems to their PC. The secret of the WWE niche is out, and now that the dark corner has been illuminated, the major hits will start to climb to the values that are exemplified in the major sports. I fully believe a six figure WWE card is on the horizon, especially with insane auction results for people like Lewis Hamilton and other alternative cards. Hopefully we all get to flourish in the light of the flames, billowing from the market on fire with interest.