Inside a packed San Antonio Shrine Auditorium during the last weekend of June, a multi-generational crowd of collectors gathered for the San Antonio Collectors Expo with a mission: to buy, sell and showcase their prized cardboard investments.
People of all ages swarmed the floor. Young kids dressed in suits carried briefcases full of sports cards to sell. College-age browsers and grandparents perused dealers’ tables stacked with trading cards bearing images ranging from Pokémon to legendary athletes across a variety of sports.
For San Antonio collectors, trading cards aren’t just a hobby. They’re a big business.
“The world of collecting has changed drastically. It went from just one or two sets a year with all base cards to high-end, numbered and autographed [cards] — and relics. And grading has kind of exploded in that time frame,” said Mike Medeiros, a collector of baseball and WWE cards, who came to the Collectors Expo to wheel and deal.
The local enthusiasm mirrors a nationwide shift happening in an industry that’s existed since the 1860s and almost died out. It’s revived itself over the past decades, and has been booming since the pandemic.
San Francisco-based consultancy Grand View Research estimates the sports card business will hit $14.5 billion this year and explode to $24.7 billion by 2033.
Digital marketplaces, card grading services and social media communities have played key roles, making transactions and trading more accessible and transparent, according to Grand View’s analysis. Additionally, sports card companies such as Fanatics have invested in limited-edition releases, autographed cards and special artifacts to boost demand.
Those special items were all over the Collectors Expo. One of the vendors showed off an autographed card for soccer legend Lionel Messi valued at $25,000. Autographed cards for Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama also were priced in the thousands.
“I’ve been here since ’83, and before that, I used to do card shows. So, I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs, but it’s never been this big,” said Charlie Dipietro, owner of San Antonio’s Sports Cards Plus. “There was a big difference in money back then. I could get a Mickey Mantle rookie card from 1952. I could buy it for $800. That same card is about $100,000 [now].”
Traffic is constant at Dipietro’s Lockhill Village shop. He’s not just getting heavy traffic on weekends but even during the workweek.
To some degree, the increasing value of sports cards is driven by the current crop of rookies who quickly achieve star status, according to Dipietro. In 2017, waves of collectors chased the Patrick Mahomes rookie card, followed by Shohei Ohtani the next year.
Today, Alamo City hoops fans find themselves in a similar situation.
“Right now, it’s the Spurs and Wemby that are generating the interest,” Dipietro added.
Brien Metzger, who co-founded San Antonio Collectors Expo, has watched the city’s card culture evolve over the decades. He once operated six card shops in San Antonio and jumped back into the business in 2020 after a 25-year break.
While vendors in Dallas and Houston may pull a larger cash flow due to the multiple sports franchises in each metro, San Antonio does plenty of business based on loyalty to its one pro team.
“Because we only have the Spurs, collectors are mainly passionate about the Spurs, and that’s why more basketball sales are here in San Antonio,” Metzger said.
Although rising prices for rare cards capture headlines, that’s not the only reason the hobby has grown. For many, it’s a family tradition.
Maverick Rhodes, a young collector at the Collectors Expo, first got into the hobby at age 8, driven by curiosity about his dad’s childhood collection. Such stories show that even in a high-value, star-driven market, personal connections often drive the passion.
Rhodes remembers sharing the thrill with his dad after pulling a rare 1 out of 10 Wembanyama card from a new pack he’d purchased.
“I screamed a couple times, ‘Dad, Dad, I pulled a Wemby,’” he said.
Kristi Ng, a staff member at the Collectors Expo, has seen parents and their children connect over the hobby.
“You see kids come in here who learn the value of a dollar, and learn to barter with some of these guys,” Ng said. “You get parents coming in here that have no idea what I’m doing, and the kid does, and he’s 8 years old, and it’s becoming a family tradition that dads do with their kids.”
San Antonio vendors are happy to lean on that sense of family and community. For Pepe Esquivel, president of the Baseline Bums Spurs fan group, card collecting is an extension of a lifelong sports obsession.
“You know, being in the sports community, it’s great because you meet so many kinds of people,” he said while selling cards at last month’s expo. “I’ve met brain surgeons, dentists, doctors, people that work in the Spurs community, and then you’ve got the normal everyday person.”
For Esquivel, those interactions at card events are most rewarding.
“You know this doesn’t even feel like work. Honestly, I could be here and not make money, and I’m fine with it. I’m here for the community to talk to people first, and then of course, the money will come.”
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