Fanatics Buying Card Shows?
 

I was reading this post from early September, which mentions Fanatics Events starting up new card shows in 2024:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...light=fanatics

Curious if anyone has heard if Fanatics will create new ones or if they will just buy existing ones? They seem to be buying everything else up this year :rolleyes:

My guess is that it begins as a new endeavor for them but, before long, includes buyout of some of the existing biggies. National anyone? I would sum it up as “Money talks, everything else (to put it nicely) walks”

I can see it happening. That might be the next frontier for them...

If Fanatics wanted to compete with the National, they certainly could. And, if they started having large shows in different parts of the country and if major dealers started doing these Fanatics shows, the current National as we know it would be history.

A whole network of shows with athletes charging 4x what their signature is worth -- awesome.

Fanatics planned to follow the “fan fest” they had in NYC with one in Orlando in mid October. NYC had card dealers, among many other events and exhibits. They cancelled Orlando and blamed the hurricane but there was a lot skepticism about that being the real reason.

They certainly appear to have unlimited capital.

They’re failing miserably at this so far.

The NYC fanatics fest seemed to be ok. Except insane costs for dealers (if they had to pay for a booth, not to mention lodging — a lot got a friendly deal to set up)

Pittsburgh the next month was cancelled.

Orlando last month was cancelled.

They arent even close to competing with the National. They can’t even put on ONE regional card show successfully.

From my blog post on it:

I am a Fanatics Fest hater. Yup, I said it. I found the whole event depressing and will not get within ten miles of the planned Los Angeles version (I saw a sign advertising it on the top of a Slurpee truck on the show floor). Let’s be clear about this: the fest is NOT a collector’s event. It is really about marketing professional sports and celebrity culture as a tool for separating people from as much money as humanly possible as quickly as humanly possible. The admissions costs alone prove it. A family of four would have been out $160 just walking in the door on Saturday. It also felt like every activity or display at the show ended with a merchandiser ready to insert its blood funnel into the participants to suck out a little more juice. Then there were the enhancements (extras) to the experience. Wanna shake hands with an athlete? Bust out the Benjamins.

Now, if you are impressed by seeing sports icons in a theater, watching other people toss balls in skills competitions, or shaking hands with a celebrity for pay, hey, knock yourself out and open your wallet for the fest. No judgment here; we’re all freaks. But if your hobby is collecting and a show means you try to work on your collection, skip the fest. The acreage of slabbed shiny crap at the show and the smattering of vintage cards in the mix there were mundane, mainstream commodity cards that you can pick up every day of the week on eBay or at auction. Perhaps it is me, but I do not like to waste money buying overpriced cards. I went to the fest with four figures in cash ready to go and I walked out of there with the most significant purchase being the $5.80 I spent on the subway ride to and from the show. The people I really feel sorry for are the vintage dealers who set up at the fest. At a minimum of $3,200 per booth, they really got hosed, especially the vintage guys who could have set up in White Plains for a fraction of the cost and made more. Again, the event was not about the collector.

Adam may not have been able to find bargains on the show floor, but to be honest from all the legit reviews I read and heard about the vendor area, most of the dealers did just fine. However, at the cost for the tables, yes you are not going to be able to do a lot of bargain hunting. Most of the vendors who were there would be very happy to return in 2025

Rich

The Orlando convention center held massive conventions in October and has plenty of events scheduled in November and December

Fanatics used a lame excuse

No EFFING WAY
 

I don't think a business is going to buy away the die hard National collectors. I, for one, don't see myself ever going to a show LIKE Fanfest. For those that go, I hope they enjoy it. It's totally opposite of how, and why, I collect. To each their own. But, then again, I barely like any of todays Pro athletes, so I wouldn't even be a potential customer of it.
.

My son and his three childen went to the NY Fanatics Show
 

at the Javits Center, but they were given free entry passes. My twin granddaughers (age 12) and grandson (age 7) are all unusually experienced baseball fans and collectors. They have been in person to All Star games, World Series games and numerous stadiums where they see players they like and can buy relatively cheap cards. We have a local Fanatics outlet in our home town on Long Island where the management is headed by extremely competent people. Of course, that doesn't mean you can go into the store and shop for anything vintage or worthwhile. But it does provide a source of seeing where our hobby is likely to end up. For example, I bought Poppy a box of "College Players." I think about seventy bucks. I'm wincing, but I'm seeing a kid going through each one, not to see if how valuable it might be, but to read the stats on each one. Gave me hope and discouragement at the same time.

Don't hold back, Adam. Tell us how you really feel.

Having unlimited funds to throw at something won't replace expertise.

If they threw their unlimited funds at bringing in people who really knew what they were doing as promoters that would probably make them much more threatening to the status quo.

I think they may have learned that lesson. Word is they lost a TON of money on the first Fanatics Fest. They probably quickly realized doing that still won't kill the National or other large shows.

Fanatics is a shallow, soulless, empty husk of a company. My office is ten mins from the Javits Center and I had zero interest in going. It just smelled of hucksterism and shiny modern stuff. As everything else they do does.

"We" which means most of the people on this message board are not the Fanatics audience. And as Leon has pointed out, we are a very small but influential part of the hobby but not in the world Fanatics operates in. We operate more in the world of the NSCC or the East Coast National or the Philly shows or the Strongsville show, etc.

We on this board are not the target audience for Fanatics.

Rich

Well put. I could see the ghost of P.T. Barnum darting around from pillar to pillar.

Rich, I am a "legit" reviewer of the show; i was there on a press pass from SCDaily. I just did not happen to have the same opinion as some others. The 'Hobby' is multifaceted. There are many perspectives from which to view things. How much money was made overall is one metric. It is not one I focus on. From my perspective as a collector/dealer/writer of and about vintage cards and memorabilia, the show was a big, expensive nothing-burger. Had I been interested in ultra modern cards and 'experiences' like watching Tom Brady's security team shove its way through the crowd so He could buy a few cards on air from a lucky vendor, the show would have fulfilled my expectations.

Fanatics is swallowing an alarming amount of the sports community.

They're pretty much a venture capital firm that's swallowing the general concept of sports fandom in almost every broad area of reach.

I'm actually a bit shocked they haven't quickly ruined Topps since buying them considering the terrible stripping down of quality they've done in pretty much every other area they've bought themselves into.

That's like going to the grocery store and complaining they don't sell auto parts. Fanatics has one goal, and one goal only: to sell ultra-modern sports cards. That event was designed for sports fans who don't collect cards, with the intent to try to get them to start collecting cards. So reviewing the event based on criteria it had no intention of satisfying seems like a waste. Fanatics Fest is not for me. At least I recognize that and don't expect it to be.

"350+ booths featuring the best dealers from around the country": I must've missed the part where they said that vintage collectors were not welcome.

Your analogy is not accurate. I don't expect a Kroger to have an AutoZone but I expect a Kroger to have fresh veg.

No one said vintage collectors weren't welcome. That's in your head. But also, no one ever said there would be vintage cards. Kroger advertises fresh veg. Fanatics never advetised it as a vintage show, or even a show for everyone. If you expected anything besides a modern focus from the company who literally is in the business of selling current manufactured cards, that's on you. Most of us knew what to expect. It appears you missed the memo.

Hey Leon,

What's your price for N54 when these guys come a knocking? To a lot of us it's priceless and a labor of love for you, even though sometimes it would be less of a headache not having to deal with some of us... :p

Blowout and their forums are more Fanatics speed than Net 54. Relax, they are not coming for this board