John Cena has shared his mixed feelings after one of his WWE trading cards sold for an incredible $329,400.
A WrestleMania 41 patch autograph card featuring the WWE legend was recently auctioned through Goldin, reaching a hammer price of $270,000 before ultimately selling for $329,400.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Cena was asked for his reaction to the record-breaking sale and admitted that it was difficult to comprehend someone spending that much money on one of his cards.
“My indication of that is there’s a lot of expendable income out there,” Cena said. “I think collectibles might be overvalued at some point, and man, it’s really hard to put that into rational thought of excitement when a price like that for a card.”
Cena is an avid automobile enthusiast and collector himself, and acknowledged that he understands why someone might be willing to spend significant money on something they are genuinely passionate about.
“But also being an auto enthusiast, I understand how man, if you want it and you’re passionate about it and you’ve got the resources for it, it deems a price. I get that.”
When asked directly whether he had mixed feelings about the massive sale, Cena confirmed that he did. He also expressed hope that whoever purchased the card did so because of its personal significance rather than viewing it purely as an investment opportunity.
“Goodness, yeah. It’s weird. It’s weird, and I don’t know. I want to choose my words carefully and I want to reflect on it,” Cena said. “I hope the person that used their resources to acquire that card has a lot of joy and connection to whatever they acquired, and is not using it as a commodity to possibly flip for future gain.”
Drawing from his own experience collecting automobiles, Cena warned that purchasing collectibles solely with the expectation of making a future profit can be a risky approach.
“Because in my experience with autos, that’s a fool’s chase,” he said. “But when you look at something, I always say material things are just material things, right? But we can give them meaning, and as long as we have connection and meaning to the material thing, that’s important.”
Cena ultimately said the personal meaning attached to an item can sometimes be more important than its financial value.
“Sometimes you can’t put a price on that. So whoever you are who’s got the card, I just hope your material meaning is as strong as this rubber hoop.”
