Fredericksburg’s sports card and memorabilia market continues to boom (2025)

Spotsylvania resident Brian Eastlake was sifting through bargain boxes inside Dulles Expo Center on Sunday with a piece of paper in his hand.

Listed on the paper were some of the top prospects among Major League Baseball teams, specifically players in organizations represented in the Carolina League. The list contained those who are expected to return and those who are expected to join those teams in 2025.

“We help each other out a lot,” Ryan Hall, a friend of Eastlake’s and co-worker at Courtland High School, said.

Local residents now know this Single-A league well as the Fredericksburg Nationals began play in 2021 at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.

Just over a month ago, the FredNats won their first-ever league title since making the move from Woodbridge to Fredericksburg, bringing with them added buzz to the franchise.

Many flock to games, but a select few, including Eastlake and Hall, try to secure autographs of some of what they hope are the future stars of MLB, of which many have come through Fredericksburg just over the past four years.

The art of prospecting in baseball is part of what’s more broadly known as sports card collecting, a booming market since COVID and an integral part of sports culture and the overall sports landscape.

“This area is just like everywhere; it’s growing,” Hall said. “COVID helped everyone go through their old collections and they’re finding all of the stuff they collected when they were kids. It piques that interest.”

Ideal location

Fredericksburg has quite literally been in the center of that sports card boom locally as markets have continued to grow in town, an hour south in Richmond and an hour north in the Washington D.C. metro area.

Last weekend was a great example of that, the third and final weekend show in Chantilly, known as The Chantilly Show, for 2024.

This show has grown to be one of the biggest on the East Coast, with people traveling as far away as Florida in some cases to be part of it.

“I’ve only been a couple of times, but in the shows since COVID, it’s been crazy,” Bart Goldman, owner of The Card Cellar in downtown Fredericksburg, said.

While the biggest in the region, it’s far from the only show in the area, with sports card shows being put on in the Richmond area and locally at the American Legion Post 320 in Spotsylvania.

Goldman’s shop downtown has seen immense success and growth over the years, with a local following frequenting the shop.

Those same customers often travel to local shows, hoping to find rookie cards of their favorite players, big-dollar cards of superstars and legends or signed jerseys, helmets, balls and more.

“It’s exciting,” Hall said. “It’s cool for me because I’ve been doing this since I was little and now, it’s blowing up. I get people that know I collect and they come to me and we start going through each other’s collections. I love looking at what other people have.”

As much as people like Eastlake and Hall enjoy the side of finding big names or hidden gems in boxes, many come to shows looking to procure autographs and photos with some of their sports and celebrity heroes.

“Before COVID, sports card shows still had good attendance,” Lucas Ayers, owner/president of The Philadelphia Connection said. “It was common for collectors and fans to go to them, but the pandemic gave it some adrenaline.”

Ayers, a native of the Philadelphia area and current Stafford resident, represents the other side of the sports card and memorabilia business.

Celebrities at shows

Shows like The National Sports Card Convention, the largest sports collectors show in the country annually, have massive autograph and photo lineups with some of the biggest names, past and present, in sports.

That doesn’t even take into account actors and actresses from famous sports movies or just big films and television shows, like the cast of “The Sandlot”, who were at Chantilly.

“It’s very cool that a lot of these actors and athletes come out and they get to meet their fans,” Ayers said. “At baseball games, there are lines of people trying to get to meet a player for two seconds and get their autograph. These shows give these opportunities to meet their favorite stars.”

A government worker and former member of the U.S. military, Ayers got into the autograph business on a whim around two decades ago and quickly became an agent, representing some of the most notable names in the sports world.

That quickly transitioned into celebrities and movie/television stars, though his love for sports hasn’t wavered one bit.

Hall is his right-hand man during these shows and events, alongside a cavalcade of employees that help at events across the country.

At shows, things get busy quickly, with millions of dollars being tossed around behind the scenes at times, but the chaos is what keeps people going and gets others sucked in, even those looking to make a quick buck.

“Everyone is trying to cash in on that rise,” Hall said. “Anytime things become popular, people try to take advantage of that.”

Emotional reward

There’s also the human side of this business, seeing the faces of people when they see their idols, getting to shake their hands in person.

Role models can be loved ones, teachers or friends, for but many, role models are athletes and celebrities, people that can be seen through screens and help create memorable moments for others.

“I do this for the expressions on the fans’ faces,” Ayers said. “I have been given many emails, many letters over the years from people thanking our company for bringing people to an event or a show. … I like seeing all of these people happy.”

With cards, that feeling of pulling your favorite player’s rookie card, an autograph of a superstar or a one-of-a-kind insert of a legend is a feeling that can’t be replicated.

This hobby is truly a community, something that brings people together, a place where people can reunite or just strike up a conversation with a stranger while rummaging through different boxes of cards.

While the highs of the sports card and memorabilia market during COVID have subsided tremendously since then, there’s as much interest and excitement in the hobby as there’s ever been. It’s expected to rise locally, nationally and worldwide.

“The more that the area grows, the more you’ll see as far as the industry growing more,” Hall said.