For the first time this weekend, collectors will be able to attend a card show and know the numbers and trends behind the available inventory before they arrive.
Debuting this weekend at Fanatics Fest NYC, a new partnership between inventory management platform Mascot and third-party grading tracker GemRate is delivering a deep dive into the numbers that make up Fanatics Fest.
Since launching last summer, Mascot has allowed card show dealers to upload their inventory ahead of time so collectors can search and quickly find the sports, players and teams they want to buy. Mascot has had the data, and now GemRate is helping tell the story behind it.
“What we realized, in the process of aggregating the inventory for shows, is that there’s a pretty compelling and interesting data narrative here that showcases trends and analytics behind what inventory dealers bring to shows,” Mascot CEO Ezra Levine told cllct. “The personality of different shows, the price points, what sports, what athletes are trending.”
Historically, some of the biggest card shows across the country have had personalities that collectors have come to expect. While major shows in Philadelphia, Chantilly, Virginia, and The National Convention have been known for a large inventory of vintage cards, Atlanta’s Culture Collision has made a major attempt to include non-sports cards, Funko Pops, sneakers and comics.
So far, Levine says about 50% of Fanatics Fest dealers have started uploading inventory and with more than 60,000 items already tracked, some trends have become clear.
According to the data tracked through Wednesday, about 64% of the inventory is graded while 36% is raw. Among graded cards, 80% are graded by PSA and 13% are graded by SGC. The final 7% is made up of CGC, BGS, TAG and ISA.
Fanatics Fest NYC also appears to be heavily indexed into ultra-modern cards, with 61% of the inventory falling into that era. Modern makes up 29% of the inventory while vintage (8%) and Pre-War (2%) will be more difficult to find.
As expected, sports cards make up 95% of the population with TCG (3%) and non-sports cards (2%) splitting the rest. Baseball is the most popular sport with 37% of the inventory uploaded so far, while basketball follows with 31%.
One of the major surprises has been the amount of football cards (21%) being brought to Fanatics Fest NYC.
“Football is not as represented as we thought it was going to be, in light of the fact that football season is right around the corner,” Levine said. “It’s heavy basketball, heavy baseball, whereas other hobbyists who I spoke to would have assumed that it would be kind of a heavy football show.”
The lack of football is also apparent in the show’s top 10 players, with only Houston Texans QB CJ Stroud and former New England Patriots superstar Tom Brady among the most popular.
Through the inventory uploaded, Michael Jordan is the most popular athlete, with Shohei Ohtani, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Victor Wembanyama rounding out the top five. According to Levine, it’s also clear dealers are focusing on bringing players from New York teams — even though Mickey Mantle is the only representative among the top 10 players.
The average price of cards uploaded so far is $226.50, while the most expensive card is listed at $499,999.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.