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Collections & Hobbies

Sports card collecting sees a resurgence

2/5/2025

Brian Eikenberry

Packs of trading cards might not come with a stick of gum anymore, but the allure to grab a pack off the shelf, place a bid online, or go to a card convention is still alive and well when it comes to collecting trading cards. Just ask Brian Eikenberry.

Eikenberry began his card collecting when he was a child. A local card shop where he grew up in northeast Iowa supplied the cards. He experienced the days of gum in packs before they were no longer included in 1991.

“My first couple of packs of cards were the old, what we call wax packs with bubble gum in them. And they were Donruss baseball cards. That was the cool thing for me. You get a pack of cards, and you get some gum, too. So, it was a two-and-one. It was a quarter a pack at that time. I was the proverbial kid who had the cards in the spokes of your bicycle so you could ride and make noise with the bad ones. The good ones were used as currency on the playground for different opportunities to go first on the slide or whatever it was,” Eikenberry said. 

Many hobbies and collections that people could begin and expand through the internet experienced boosts during the pandemic, and card collecting was one of them. 

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“It has really seen a resurgence, sports card collecting in general, across the industry. It really had an explosion of new money, new interest,” Eikenberry said. 

Knowing the value of cards was more of a challenge in the early days than it is now.  With a quick Google search or check on eBay, one can easily see the price the cards sold for recently. 

“Back then, there were price guides. So, if you were a seasoned trader, you always had your price guide with you, but if you didn’t, you were easy pickings for people,” Eikenberry said.

The next Capital City Card Convention will be March 28-30 at the Iowa Events Center. Brian Eikenberry is a co-owner of the convention that is all things cards.

Eikenberry said he was taken advantage of in his younger days collecting Magic: The Gathering cards, but that was all part of the learning process.

He began taking collecting more seriously in the late 1980s, spurred on by his favorite player. Despite growing up in a Green Bay Packer household, an electric running back swayed his fandom allegiance and card-collecting focus. 

“Barry Sanders was coming out of college at that time, so that’s how old I am. I said, this is who I’m going to follow. This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to collect Jose Canseco cards, and I’m going to collect Barry Sanders cards. I remember those being my chase cards,” Eikenberry said. 

Chase cards are the ones collectors are going after. When new sets of packs are released, the highest-valued cards are considered the chase cards. Or, like Eikenberry, when a collector is focused on one specific player, that player’s cards become their “chase.” 

There’s still one Sanders card that has eluded Eikenberry over the years.

“When you really start to focus your collection, you find these super weird cards. I’ve got Wonder Bread Barry Sanders cards. I’ve got Oscar Mayer wiener Barry Sanders cards. There’s one card I don’t have, and it’s a Detroit Police Department special issue that I think was in 1992 or 1993. The Detroit Metro Police Department had their own Barry Sanders cards made, and they were only given to officers. That is my unicorn card. I know it’s out there. I know it exists. I know it’s super expensive, but I need to find one of those,” Eikenberry said. 

After Sanders retired, Eikenberry’s collecting slowed down. But, once the pandemic hit, he found his binder of Sanders cards, which he gave to his child. Passing his hobby off to his son and daughter is a point of pride for him.

“I think that’s really what keeps all of this going and my collecting momentum going, but also with my daughter, too. My boy started out playing competitive Pokemon, and now he collects certain Pokemon chase cards. I also noticed with my younger daughter, Caitlin Clark was the perfect opportunity for her to start to deep dive into this, and she’s got her Caitlin Clark collection, and she’s also noticing women in other sports,” Eikenberry said. 

Eikenberry is a co-owner of the Capital City Card Convention. He wanted to be able to feed people’s hobby and reward the local collectors. 

“It really came out of nowhere, going to card shows and thinking, you know, everyone has to travel to a big show, whether it’s the national one in Chicago or spring shows in Kansas City. We always have to travel. And I thought, you know what? Why not? Let’s see what we can do and see if we can do a big show in Iowa,” Eikenberry said.

His recommendation for people just starting out is not to start buying up packs en masse — especially for the younger generation of collectors who are just getting started. He wants to help set them up as much as they can through the convention. 

“Kids are the most important part of the hobby, because, if you exclude the kids, there’s no one to be there for the next generation,” Eikenberry said. ♦

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