Allen Iverson is coming to Concord on June 6, when the Hall of Fame guard will headline Collector’s Jam at Cabarrus Arena in what organizers say will be his first autograph signing at a sports card convention in the Charlotte area.
The event runs June 5-7 and is expected to draw more than 600 tables, with about half the room devoted to sports cards and memorabilia and the other half split among TCG, Pokémon, anime toys, collectibles and video games. Along with Iverson, the lineup includes Panthers players Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jonathon Brooks, former NBA player Vernon Maxwell, new Duke quarterback Walker Eget and voice actors Matthew Sussman and Haven Burton Paschall.
For Sports Wax Promotions founder James Ferree, the draw is as much about the state of the hobby as it is about star power. He has organized card shows since 2021 and has put together well over 30 shows in North and South Carolina over the past five years. He said the sports card and trading card game market has grown by $5 billion since 2021, with younger collectors increasingly buying and trading at live events and online platforms such as Whatnot, TikTok, Fanatics Live and eBay Live.
Ferree said the shift is visible on the showroom floor and in the way collectors talk about product. He pointed to the rise of One Piece in the TCG world and said Topps’ licensing for football and basketball has kept new releases moving fast. New drops, he said, are creating constant activity among buyers who want fresh inventory, whether they are building personal collections or planning to flip cards online.
That business model has changed the way some collectors enter the hobby and where it can take them. Ferree said some people who once only came to card shows now stream online and open brick-and-mortar shops, a path he sees as part of the industry’s expansion. He said the live-event element still matters because it gives collectors a place to trade, compare and sell in person, even as much of the market moves through apps and livestreams.
Iverson, an 11-time NBA All-Star and a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team, lives in Charlotte, giving the appearance a local edge that should make June 6 one of the weekend’s biggest draws. For collectors, the combination of an NBA icon, a packed dealer floor and a room split between traditional cards and newer fandom-driven collectibles reflects where the hobby is headed now: bigger, broader and more tied to the way younger buyers actually shop.
