Metropolitan New York hosted two major sports collectible events the weekend of August 16-18, the first such collision for any area: the East Coast National at the Westchester County Center in White Plains (a close suburb of New York City) and Fanatics Fest in Manhattan at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
On paper, the two events could not be more different. The promoters of the East Coast National, JP’s Sports/Rock Solid Promotions Inc., are the ultimate “establishment” group: promoters Jim Ryan and Brian Coppola are part of JBJ Corporation, which produced the 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention. Their show model gives primacy to dealer tables, with an advertised 500 booths at the show, plus an autograph line-up of mostly local retired players and a few bigger names who work the circuit like Walt Frazier, Mike Tyson and Pete Rose. The autograph and photo offerings follow the now-standard formula of signings and grip and grin meetings.
Fanatics Fest NYC is promoted by sports marketing heavyweight Fanatics, which in recent years has acquired Topps, PWCC, and card-manufacturing licenses from MLB, the NFL and the NBA, and their players’ unions, in the process scuttling both Topps’ and Panini’s efforts to go public. Fanatics founder and executive chairman, Michael Rubin, also is one of the minority owners of CGC.
Rubin was able to bring in dozens of current and former athletes who appeared on panels, chatted with fans and collectors, appeared on panels and gave the event its star power.
All of the major pro sports entities had a presence, most with interactive activities, all spread out over 400,000 square-feet.
A museum display of some of the world’s rarest cards and sports memorabilia was sponsored by Sports Illustrated. There were live breaks conducted through Fanatics Live platform, a retail superstore and exclusive Fanatics Fest Topps boxes available for purchase.
Who else is on the @Topps exclusive hobby/value box line?!? @Fanatics @fanaticsfest #Fanaticsfest pic.twitter.com/pX1SlAvF9G
— Mabagsik57 Cards (@mabagsik57) August 17, 2024
The big draw at Fanatics Fest NYC was an unparalleled lineup of guests, but the biggest names are set for theatrical presentations rather than autographs: Derek Jeter, Tom Brady and Kevin Durant, celebrities like Ben Stiller, Michael Strahan and Spike Lee, and sports executives including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA Commission Adam Silver, Dana White of the WWF, and even New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft all showed up The format is familiar to attendees of ComicCon, which specializes in high profile celebrity panel presentations without an autograph or meet and greet component.
There was also a major interactive component to the fest, with hands-on activity activities and museum-style displays from all the major sports leagues and many product makers.
While it’s not accurate to call Fanatics Fest a “card show,” one are was reserved for just that: a 350-table show along the lines of what a larger regional event might look like.
The very different formats of each event were reflected in the ticket prices. Admission costs for the East Coast National were modest: $15 per day for general admission, $25 for the Friday afternoon “sneak peek” two-hour head start, and $99 for a three-day VIP pass.
At Fanatics Fest NYC, adult tickets started at $50 per day for general admission, $130 for a three-day pass, and $400 for the VIP pass. Children’s tickets started at $30 each day for Friday and Saturday and $20 for Sunday. That is a level of pricing not seen in any card show. Even the National is cheaper than Fanatics Fest NYC: in Cleveland last month, attending the show set collectors back $30 for a daily general admission ticket, and kids under 12 were admitted for free all week.
So, what was each event like?
Friday, White Plains, East Coast National
As always, the East Coast National was held at the Westchester County Center, a sports arena that hosts the New York Knicks D-League team. The facility is a short walk from the White Plains train station, and easily reached by Metro North trains that run throughout the day. By 12:45 PM on Friday, there were approximately 100 collectors lined up outside the facility waiting to purchase $25 sneak peek tickets for the 1:00-3:00 early session. The waiting crowd was genial and patient, with many friends reconvening in line at a show that they have been visiting for years. A flurry of lantern flies, a colorful invasive species that New York authorities have requested that citizens help eradicate, descended on the waiting collectors and some of those waiting in line made a sport of hunting down the surprisingly quick insects.
The show itself has a true old-school vibe. The focus is on dealers, most of whom offer exclusively vintage cards.
This year’s version of the show was divided into two full floors of dealer tables, with a small space carved out at the back of the lower-level convention hall for autograph guests and photo opportunities.
The split-level show floor was not an issue for attendees; everyone was pleased with an additional level of dealers to visit and happily trundled down the stairs or took the elevator to the lower level.
There were no sitting areas, not even near the snack bar, and no presentations or other distractions from the dealers. Hourly door prizes were drawn from entrants who provided their names and contact information on small slips of paper.
There were also no museum-style displays of auction items. Robert Edward Auctions and Goldin Auctions were in attendance accepting consignments. SGC and PSA were present to accept materials for take-home grading, and JSA was on-site certifying autographs.
The heart and soul of the East Coast National is cards. Approximately 2/3 of the dealers specialized in vintage cards, and most of their inventories were dominated by baseball. There were at least half a dozen 1952 Topps Mantle cards offered throughout the two rooms, plus a tremendous array of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and other pre-and-post-war superstars. A high number of tables, relatively speaking, offered set collectors the opportunity to fill out their vintage sets, and many collectors spent their time working on their want lists, patiently thumbing through albums and boxes of commons.
Multiple dealers focused on memorabilia as well, offering autographed material, publications, pennants, and all sorts of ephemera. If a collector wanted a ticket to an old NFL game or a printed roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 1940 Spring Training team, it could be found.
After the initial two-hour window, the show opened to general admission tickets and was busy but not uncomfortably crowded for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
The issue of the Fanatics Fest came up repeatedly. Longtime dealer Stan Loch of Stan’s Vintage Sports Cards said that he had been setting up at the ECN for many years and would happily continue to do so rather than consider the Fanatics Fest. He considers the promoters of the show to be long-time business partners and expressed his loyalty to their show. His perception was that Fanatics was offering a different product, one that catered to sports fans rather than hardcore card collectors.
Dealer Alex Tymchuk drove up from Georgia for the show, his second. He sets up regularly at the National and had a breathtaking array of 19th century obscurities on display, from presidential CDVs to rare non-sport tobacco cards and trade cards. He cited the high cost of Fanatics Fest as a deterrent; with a week of hotel costs on top of table fees, the East Coast National is a better fit. Massachusetts dealer and card show promoter Fred Borelli was set up at the ECN for the first time. He brought thousands of cards in picking boxes and told us he was very pleased with the show promotion and facilities.
Saturday, Fanatics Fest
Perhaps the best way to describe Fanatics Fest is that it’s an amusement park with a sports theme. The initial impression on approaching the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan for the Fanatics Fest NYC is of a large, very modern and well-run facility. The Fest itself was generally well organized. On Friday, there had been issues with ticket buyers getting shut out of some of the autographs they’d paid for but Fanatics was attempting to resolve the matter.
Security was visible and abundant, and included event security as well as NYPD and New York State Police. Officers patrolled the show throughout the day. There were plenty of staff members to assist visitors, guiding them to a series of well-marked areas.
The fest itself is enormous. It has fan experiences, museum displays and similar exhibitions at one end of a giant hall, and the card and memorabilia dealers at the other end, with a corporate island and stage for live talks in the center. There are also smaller stages throughout the floor for various corporate experiences and presentations.
One of the nicest things for attendees was that the waiting area for show admission was inside the building rather than outside in the weather, in a gigantic holding facility downstairs. People were lined up in block-long Disneyland style cues. The security and staff on hand were unable to estimate the number of people that was standing in the line, but it appeared that the line had thousands by 9:00 and doubled essentially between 9:15 and 9:45 in the morning.
The VIPs were held in an entirely different area on the other side of the building directly across the entrance to the actual show itself. The VIP area at the start of the Saturday session appeared to hold several hundred people.
Speaking of Disneyland, that is perhaps the best analogy to describe the Fanatics Fest. The participatory experiences and performative events were the heart of the fest. The former consisted of skills test, games and audience participation events and were very well attended and heavily utilized. Lots of fans, kids especially, throwing, catching, kicking and even punching (courtesy of UFC).
WWE held a cosplay event with large numbers of attendees dressed as their favorite wrestlers. The boldest of them marched down a runway to the cheers and hoots of a very lively crowd.
Every event funneled into a merchandising area for purchases. Even PSA had a merchandise store adjacent to its submissions center.
Another Disney-esque aspect of the fest was the sheer number of opportunities to purchase additional ‘upgraded’ experiences. This includes amenities such as the 40/40 Club, which was a bar and sports club established right in the middle of the floor, complete with tall privacy panels and a red carpet area with exclusive entry.
Finally, it must be noted that many of the biggest name celebrities attending this event were there solely for non-participatory events in the theater, not to sign any autographs or meet the attendees. It was literally a celebrity gawking opportunity.
The presentation-style spectator events that were held on the actual floor of the facility itself were not successful, primarily because the audio was so muddled. With large scale, very loud events going on simultaneously across the large hall and most of them pumping music, the speaking engagements were almost drowned out entirely. Consequently, the audiences for many of those events were sparse.
One unique element of the show was the continual entry of new customers throughout the day. Hours after the show opened to the general public there was a steady flow of people purchasing tickets and entering the event. This too is consistent with the amusement park nature of it all.
In terms of shopping, the fest is not a card show and in all fairness was not billed as such. The obvious focus of the fest was to induce attendees to purchase Fanatics merchandise and fan gear, and similar merch from manufacturers, leagues, and sponsors with their own merchandise areas.
It was a big sports marketing event and most attendees appeared to be there to purchase merchandise and experience sponsored events, rather than for the card show.
The promoters also pushed new product sales and pack breaking to such an extent that there were card pack vending machines, pack wars, and Topps even offered a free pack to those willing to break it right then and there.
The sports card and memorabilia show within the fest was billed at 350 tables. It was situated at the far end of the facility. All vendors had three-table u-shaped booths, some multiple. Display cases were provided and the show had a very uniform look.
Nearly all of the of the material on display at the card show tables was modern graded cards, something on the order of 90% of what was available.
A small minority of dealers had vintage cards, and they were heavily weighted towards post war mainstream Topps and Bowman issues.
I spoke with Jerry Erckert of A.J. Sports Cards from Baton Rouge Louisiana. He told me that his basic booth for the show cost $3,200, which was the lowest tier of table fee. He said that his business was slow on Friday. Erckert blamed the mix of cards he brought with him to the show. His table was approximately 50% vintage cards, which he said were not moving, with the balance being modern cards obtained from breaks he runs under the name 225 Breakers. I asked him how he competed with all the others selling essentially the same materials all over the show. His answer was one word: price. The vast majority of cards were priced very high relative to what they could be obtained for on eBay or at auction. This is similar what some collectors felt about pricing at the 2024 National in Cleveland.
What would a modern card show be without a trade night? Fanatics Fest had that, too.
The contrast between the East Coast National and Fanatics Fest could not be more stark. If a collector is primarily interested in cards and memorabilia and minimally interested in autographs, seeing athletes in person and other experiences, the East Coast National is the clear choice. If you like to be entertained and still want the chance to view some cards and collectibles with a more modern vibe, Fanatics Fest is a great opportunity. Considering the amount of people who made their way to both events, it seems there is space in the hobby for both experiences.
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