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Working pick#010
Rookie research

Wanderlei Silva
Rookie Card Case

The candidates, the evidence for each, and which card FightCardboard treats as the working pick.

  • Working pick2006 PRIDE FC #010
  • SubjectWanderlei Silva
  • Year2006
  • ManufacturerDSE (Dream Stage Entertainment)
  • ConfidenceHigh confidence
  • Print runUnknown — not estimated
Verified×1High confidence×1Uncertain×1View sources & research

Why this is the working pick

His first licensed card of any kind is in the 2006 Pride FC set (DSE, Japan), issued while he held the PRIDE middleweight title. Within that set, base #010 is the card the market treats as the rookie: Collectibles.com lists '2006 Pride FC #010 RC' as his rookie and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2006'; Combat Kingdom's dealer listing for the same card describes it as 'representing his MMA Rookie Card'; and Sports Card Investor's Wanderlei Silva index shows 2006 Pride FC #10 Base as the earliest card it tracks for him. No Topps or Panini card of Silva carries a manufacturer RC logo — the UFC licence did not exist until 2009, eleven years after his UFC debut and ten after his PRIDE debut — so 'rookie' here is database and market convention rather than a printed designation.

The Wanderlei rookie, and one of the few solo cards of him made while he was PRIDE middleweight champion. It came out of a Japanese-market box product that was never distributed at retail in the West, which is why clean copies are scarce outside Japan despite the set itself not being especially short-printed.

The dispute

The set year and product are not in dispute — every source that indexes him puts his earliest card in the 2006 DSE Pride FC release. What is soft is (a) that 'rookie' is a database convention, since no Silva card carries a printed RC logo, and (b) which 2006 Pride card is 'the' rookie: #010 is the market pick, but dealers also sell the Best Bouts head-to-head cards as his rookie. A separate, weaker claim appears in eBay titles calling the 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #21 Gold a 'Rookie RC'; that is seller shorthand, not a catalogue designation.

Identifying it

  • Card number printed as three digits, 010; price guides and graders shorten it to #10
  • Part of the 142-card base run of the 2006 Pride FC set (427 cards across the whole product per Cardbase)
  • Solo portrait card — do not confuse with the Best Bouts head-to-head cards in the same numbering run
  • Parallel versions carry a 'g' (Gold Foil Signature) or 's' (Silver Foil Signature) suffix in dealer listings; a Holographic version also exists
  • Dealer product wording: '2006 DSE Pride Fighting Championships Trading Card - #010 Wanderlei Silva'

Parallels

Base
—
Unnumbered
Gold Foil Signature
—
Probable
Silver Foil Signature
—
Probable
Holographic
—
Probable

Grading & population

Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.

Sources & research Verified×1High confidence×1Uncertain×1

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

High confidence

Wanderlei Silva's rookie card: 2006 PRIDE FC #010 — Wanderlei Silva.

His first licensed card of any kind is in the 2006 Pride FC set (DSE, Japan), issued while he held the PRIDE middleweight title. Within that set, base #010 is the card the market treats as the rookie: Collectibles.com lists '2006 Pride FC #010 RC' as his rookie and his most valuable card and states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2006'; Combat Kingdom's dealer listing for the same card describes it as 'representing his MMA Rookie Card'; and Sports Card Investor's Wanderlei Silva index shows 2006 Pride FC #10 Base as the earliest card it tracks for him. No Topps or Panini card of Silva carries a manufacturer RC logo — the UFC licence did not exist until 2009, eleven years after his UFC debut and ten after his PRIDE debut — so 'rookie' here is database and market convention rather than a printed designation.

Verified

2006 PRIDE FC #010 — Wanderlei Silva.

Uncertain

Set naming varies by source: 'Pride FC' (Cardbase, Sports Card Investor, Collectibles.com), '2006 DSE Pride Fighting Championships' (Combat Kingdom), '2006 DSE Pride FC Card Collection' (eBay/COMC), and PSA slabs it as 'Pride Card Collection Grand Prix'. Number printed 010 vs quoted #10. The Gold Foil Signature, Silver Foil Signature and Holographic parallels are documented at set level by Cardbase (141/141/140 cards each) but no reachable source confirms the #010 parallels individually.

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