WWE Elite Series Numbers That Are Worth the Most
Series 1 came out in 2010. Some of those figures still sell for more than the day they shipped. Here is why.
Most WWE Elite figures are affordable. Walk down the secondary market and the floor is low — current figures near retail, common names from the last few years trading around retail or below. It is one of the things that makes Elites appealing as a collecting line: you can fill a shelf without a grail budget.
But the floor is not the whole story. In a line that has run for more than a decade and produced over a hundred mainline series plus a sprawling catalog of sublines, there are figures that trade significantly above everything else — and the reasons are specific and learnable. This is what actually drives value in the Elite catalog.
Why the early series matter
The Elite line launched in 2010, and the earliest series have the characteristics that drive collectible value across every line: smaller initial production relative to later series, an established collector base that has been accumulating since the beginning, and a nostalgia pull for collectors who bought them on day one. Series 1 through roughly Series 10 occupy a different pricing tier than series from the 2020s, because the supply of clean, complete examples from those early runs only shrinks as figures get opened, lost, or damaged.
This is not unique to Elites — it is the structural reality of any ongoing line. The first waves of any long-running series typically hold value better than later waves, all else equal, because demand from collectors who want to complete a full set extends back to the start while the supply of early-series examples dwindles. The Elite line has been running long enough that this dynamic is well-established.
Early series value is not just nostalgia. It is a supply reality: a Series 2 figure that was produced in a 2010-era print run has a smaller surviving clean population than a 2023 release that shipped last year. Every year, more of the early supply gets opened, damaged, or dispersed into collections where it does not trade again for years.
Chase variants: the built-in scarcity tier
The Mattel Elite line includes chase variants — short-packed alternate versions of a figure in a wave, produced at a lower ratio than the standard figure. The chase is typically a deco variant: a different paint application, an alternate costume color, occasionally a swap on a smaller element. The exact difference is documented by the community and verified; the premium exists because the supply is structurally lower.
Chase premiums in the Elite line are real and consistent. A chase variant regularly sells above the common version of the same figure, sometimes significantly. The size of the premium depends on the popularity of the wrestler, the appeal of the specific variant, and how thin the supply is — which correlates with how old the wave is. An early-series chase from 2010 to 2015 has had over a decade of supply contraction; a recent chase is easier to find.
- Authenticate the deco — every legitimate Elite chase has a specific, documented difference. Know what it is before paying the premium. A slight paint variation from production drift is not a chase; the community distinguishes between intentional short-packs and accidental variation.
- Condition premium is steeper on chases — a chase pulled and opened loses its sealed premium in a line where the community does track MOC versus loose. For figures that command chase-level prices, condition matters more than on common figures.
- Cross-reference the wave documentation — the Wrestling Figure Database and the collector community have catalogued which waves contain chases and what the specific variant is. This is not a research gap; the information is documented.
Exclusives: the retailer and event tier
Beyond the mainline, the Elite catalog includes a range of exclusives that consistently trade above the common equivalent — Ringside Collectibles exclusives, WWE Shop figures, fan channel releases, and event-specific figures. The value drivers here are the same as any exclusive: lower production relative to demand, a specific audience of completionist collectors, and a secondary market that cannot be satisfied by new retail restock.
Ringside Collectibles in particular has built a significant library of exclusive Elites over the years — wrestlers in specific costumes, entry gear sets, figures that do not appear in the mainline. These trade at premiums that have historically been durable, because Ringside exclusives are a known quantity in the community and the audience for them is consistent.
Exclusives are not all created equal. A figure exclusive to Ringside in a specific costume a wrestler is known for carries a different demand profile than a general shared-exclusive that went wide to multiple channels. The rarer the distribution channel, the more durable the premium tends to be.
The retired superstar factor
One of the most reliable value drivers in the Elite line is the intersection of a retired or deceased superstar with limited figure coverage in the catalog. An active star gets new Elites regularly — which continuously refreshes the supply and caps secondary prices on any specific version. A retired wrestler, or one who passed away, does not get new figures, which means the existing supply is all there is.
This is why figures of specific superstars from the early series trade differently than their series number alone would suggest. A superstar who is still active gets revisited in the catalog; a figure of someone retired or passed means buyers who want that wrestler have a finite set of options, and the best of them command real premiums. The demand is emotional and persistent.
What doesn't hold value in the Elite line
Understanding what is not valuable is as important as knowing what is. Common Elites from recent series of currently active wrestlers — the figures that fill current retail endcaps — tend to trade near or below their retail price on the secondary market. The line produces them at scale, retailers stock them broadly, and the demand does not exceed supply in any lasting way. Buying at full retail on a figure without a specific scarcity reason almost always means buying at the ceiling of its resale value, not the floor.
The exception is a common-appearing figure that turns out to be rarer than expected because a wave was under-distributed or a retailer exclusive hit a tighter print run than the collector community anticipated. Those are real but hard to identify in advance. The safe assumption is that a figure from an active, ongoing line has the resale ceiling of its retail price unless there is a specific, named scarcity reason.
Putting it together
The Elite line has a genuine upper tier — early series figures, chase variants, exclusives, and retired-superstar coverage that do not get refreshed. These trade at premiums that the floor of the line does not suggest, and finding them requires knowing what to look for rather than assuming every Elite trades the same. Pull the sold comps on the specific figure, check whether it carries one of the known value drivers, and price from what the secondary market actually confirmed — not from the listing wall of optimistic sellers.
FigurePinner tracks the real sold comps across the Elite catalog so you can see exactly where the standard figures end and the premium ones begin. Look up the series, find the figure, and know what the market is actually paying before you buy or before you price yours.