Sports card and memorabilia collecting is nearly as old as sports itself, lending itself to folks all over the collecting spectrum — from hardcore collectors to the merely curious.
It is a hobby that welcomes a diverse group to its table and that’s one of the things that Doug DeJong, Andy Holtmann, and the membership of the Oregon Sports Collectors Association hope to continue to perpetuate.
And while the wave of sports collectibles goes through phases, DeJong noted that post-COVID, the hobby “really picked up a lot of steam. During the pandemic, people weren’t getting out nearly as much and there were no sports, so people went into their closets, found their old cards and decided they wanted to do something with them.
“It has maybe slowed a little bit, but that did create a new energy around things,” DeJong added.
And the OSCA wants to help keep that energy flowing within the hobby.
The OSCA was organized in March 2019 when “a group of like-minded collectors and dealers came together with the idea of bringing a pinnacle card show to the Portland-metro area. At its core, the event would be centered around providing a top tier experience for collectors both young and old while establishing a connection between the support of local youth sport organizations. The group surmised that while this event would be the primary annual gathering, there is also a growing opportunity to create access to the community and engage the collectors in smaller events to both educate and engage collectors of all ages,” states their website.
The group now puts on two large card shows a year — fall and spring. The next card show will be Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Parkrose Middle School (11800 N.E. Shaver St.).
It’s an event that DeJong and the group hope to make accessible to those who are at different points within the sports collecting journey. And the goal isn’t to make money for the organization, but to financially support athletics at Parkrose High.
“All proceeds go back to (Parkrose) softball and baseball. The Rotary Club partners with us and they provide volunteers to help us at the show,” DeJong said of the upcoming event.
And there’s plenty planned for April’s show. It will feature an autograph opportunity with former Seattle Mariner Jamie Moyer, as well as a trading board where kids can take a card and leave a card. YouTube celebrities the TCG Brothers will also be on hand doing live breaks during the show, and dealers will put special packs together for kids as well.
“I enjoy the hobby and do this because I enjoy it,” DeJong said of the show. “I think that’s true for most of the folks. This show really brings that out.”
DeJong said the OSCA shows are designed to cater to the hobbyist who maybe goes to one or two shows a year, or the person who is curious about the hobby and simply wants to find out more, or start his or her own collecting journey.
And that journey has gotten much more diversified.
DeJong noted that collecting now features a lot of new material and seems to be geared more and more to adults. His hope is that the OSCA can help stimulate interest among all age groups.
“It has become much more diverse now,” DeJong noted. “When I started, during football season you collected football cards, during baseball season you collected baseball cards, now it’s year-round.”
The hobby has expanded quite a bit, with Pokeman, Magic the Gathering, Star Trek, anime, and other collectible genres entering the market and attracting those who maybe wouldn’t be interested in sports memorabilia.
“At shows today, you see all these different genres and things,” he said. “It (the hobby) is vibrant, I believe, and the Pacific Northwest has a lively community. Some of that went dormant in the 1990s and 2000s but it has rebounded. I think a lot of people in our area buy online and maybe don’t realize we have shows here.”
There are regular shows through a group called Twin Oaks, in addition to those put on by OSCA. DeJong said that basketball has a strong collectors vibe in the Portland area but estimated that about 10% of what’s being collected is vintage material, compared to newer stuff. That, he said, is in contrast to the East Coast where 60-70% is vintage.
Fellow OSCA member Andy Holtmann also noted the changing landscape, saying “So much has changed over the past few decades. What looked to be a dying hobby is now a booming multi-billion-dollar industry. A lot of the younger folks today see real investment opportunities in cards in addition to appreciating the cards and players they represent themselves.
“But the card boom also means that many things outside of sports are being memorialized in collectible card form — from entertainers and celebrities to politicians to Internet memes and beyond. If you can think of it, it’s probably immortalized in card form somehow.
“And with limited runs or even one-of-a-kind offerings, the rarer the better (and more expensive). In my day, the thought of sports cards being among items of high-end auction houses might have only been for the super rare Honus Wagner card or maybe a Babe Ruth item or 1952 Mickey Mantle.
“Today, you’ll find thousands of cards at hundreds of auction houses on any given day — fetching high dollar amounts.”
Holtmann noted that in the Pacific Northwest, and Portland area specifically, if you don’t know where to look, it can be hard to find the community.
“But it’s here, and much stronger than I initially thought,” said Holtmann, who moved to Portland in 2017. “Portland and Vancouver still boast several good baseball card shops, which is something many cities just don’t have a whole lot of anymore. For reference, I was just in Boston and decided to look up card shops there to interview and film for an episode on my channel. There was only one in all of Boston proper, and it was a part-baseball card/part coin shop. When I asked the owner, he noted that high costs have driven a lot of typical card shop operations out of business. Here in Portland, there are also good regional shows like the ones OSCA puts on to benefit Parkrose, and the revolving Twin Oaks card shows across multiple Seattle and Portland area locations each month.”
Holtmann said he does have one complaint, however. Unlike other parts of the country, Portland and the rest of Oregon do not seem to have any good flea markets or yard sales in which sports card collectibles are ever featured, “nor are there any antique stores that deal in baseball cards. So, finding good cards at bargain prices can be a bit of a challenge here.”
You can check out Holtmann’s YouTube channel at “Blast from the Past Vintage Cards.”
For now, it’s time to turn the collective collecting attention to the April 20 show.
“I think that our mission is to promote the hobby and stimulate it,” DeJong said. “Our founder, Terry Kneisler, will sometimes open his house and hobbyists will come and learn about an aspect of the hobby. For the kids, we want to make it a fun activity.”
To find out more about what’s going on in the sports collectible realm in the Portland area, visit the OSCA website at www.oregonsportscollectorsassociation.com.
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