If you played sports growing up as a kid, chances are you or someone you knew collected trading cards. Whether it was cards of your favorite player, team, or rare insert cards, building sets that could fill up binders, old shoeboxes or even storage cases provided dedicated young sports fans a unique thrill.
Craig Fydenkevez, vice president (baseball) and board member of the Northampton Baseball & Softball League (NBSL), has seen firsthand the joy and excitement sports trading cards can bring and decided to parlay that into a fundraising opportunity for the NBSL.
Fydenkevez is the brains behind the NBSL Inaugural Trading Card and Collectible Show, which is set to take place Sunday, Aug. 3 at the Elks Lodge in Northampton.
“My son, who’s 11, in the past year really got into collecting trading cards, football, baseball, that kind of stuff and with that interest we started going to some card shows,” Fydenkevez said. “We were having a board meeting one night and we were talking about different things we could do and were trying to think of something besides the traditional, ‘hey, everybody’s got to go sell 10 raffle tickets’ or ‘everyone’s got to sell a calendar and we’ll pull different prizes on different days for people who buy the calendars.’
“So I just threw out the idea [of a card show],” Fydenkevez said. “It’s kind of a popular thing right now with the card shows, so I’m like ‘what if we organize a card show and every vendor that buys a table, that will go towards fundraising for the league.’”
As of July 29, Fydenkevez revealed 30 interested vendors have already bought tables, yet Fydenkevez added there are tables still available as the vendor capacity is around 50.
The sports trading card industry has exploded in popularity in recent years as the value of certain cards of the top players across football, basketball, baseball and hockey is well within the six-figure mark. For example, a 1-of-1, signed Caitlin Clark rookie card sold for $660,000 just last week, counting as the largest purchase of a sports trading card in 2025.
Fydenkevez is hoping to use the surge in interest to bring in some money for the NBSL, which hasn’t done a fundraising event of this scale since before the Covid-19 pandemic. In the spring, the NBSL raised about $3,500 on sponsorship signs of local businesses that were attached to the outfield fence of the fields, Fydenkevez said.
“If I can get another two, or three or four [thousand dollars] from this, or at least close to it, I think I’d feel pretty good at the end of the day,” he said.
While Sunday’s event will have a heavy sports presence, Fydenkevez noted there will be vendors selling TCG (Trading Card Game) cards, such as Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering items.
“The Goat [Card Shop] in Florence that opened a few months ago, they’re pretty heavy into Pokemon and some of those different kinds of cards, so they’re going to have a table and they’re going to do some stuff there,” Fydenkevez said.
Along with the chance to buy, sell and trade cards, attendees of Sunday’s event can enter into raffles for prizes and win giveaways courtesy of donations from the Worcester Red Sox, Valley Blue Sox, A2Z Toy Store, SpareTime Bowling and the Goat Card Shop. A food truck is also expected on site.
“Trying to make it a fun event, trying to raise as much money as we can,” Fydenkevez said. “Between the vendors, plus the raffles, like I said, if we can get another nice little bump in fundraising money, it’ll go a long way towards uniforms and league fees and all those kinds of things.”
Admission for the card show is $1 for kids and $3 for adults and the show will run from 9 a.m.—1 p.m.