As I walked around Fanatics Fest back in June, wading through the rows of dealers and activations, I was struck by an unfamiliar feeling: Mainstream relevance.
While I always like to say everyone is a collector, whether they know it or not (read: my sister snags matchbooks from every restaurant she has ever been to, but calls them keepsakes), this was an altogether different experience.
In its second year in New York, Fanatics Fest's three-day event was attended by a record 125,000 people and placed collectibles at the forefront. While the event featured celebrity panels and athlete interviews and was marketed to general sports fans, collectibles were the main attraction rather than an addendum.
Big card shows and comic-cons are nothing new, but when I looked around at the non-endemic brands leaning into collectibles and the hobby being central to the whole production, it felt, at least to me, for the first time, like the call was not coming from inside the house.
As I look back at 2025, I don’t believe it will be remembered for a specific product, event or scandal. No, 2025 was the year collectibles went mainstream.
Things started out with the Paul Skenes Rookie Debut Patch Autograph selling for $1.11 million. Aided by the fanfare provided by Skenes’ famous girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, as well as his employer, the Pittsburgh Pirates, both of whom offered bounties for the card, it set a record worthy of headlines around the world. Then the buyer was revealed: Dick’s Sporting Goods, a company on the forefront of using collectibles to connect with its customers.
While on the topic of RDPAs, we have seen a plethora of athletes looking to collect their own 1-of-1s, leading to a type of mainstream penetration only possible from the authentic piquing of interest in the public domain. In other words, it isn’t just nerds like us who care about this stuff.
Pokémon has never been hotter, but that isn’t exactly a sign of any mainstream breakthrough, is it?
Well, considering Logan Paul’s sale of his Illustrator card in an upcoming Goldin Auction now has its own odds featured on Polymarket, with gamblers and self-proclaimed prediction market experts suddenly tracking the auction like the price of crude oil, I would say we have reached a new paradigm.
It's also worth mentioning Paul does not exactly give off the appearance of a stereotypical TCG collector. And his massive platform online and through the WWE is unlike anything the hobby has seen.
While on the topic of Goldin, I would be remiss if I did not mention Season 3 of the Netflix show, "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch." Yes, it is the third season, so, no, this particular example of mainstream crossover did not begin this year, but its enduring popularity and seemingly growing cultural impact only serves my argument.
Plus, we saw the further fusion of worlds as GameStop partnered with PSA, bringing a vast new customer base from the gaming world into the hobby.
Then, of course, we had the breakout collectible of the year: Labubu.
Has there been a more widely spread collectible obsession since the Beanie Baby?
There is much more — Tom Brady’s endless spree of card shop openings, CNBC’s collectible segments, Mr. Wonderful dipping his toe into cards with a stake in the most expensive piece of cardboard ever sold — but you get the point.
This is all to say something rather simple: The Hobby is no longer just for insiders.
PSA has become a globally recognized brand. Fanatics (including Topps) is using its muscle to send the hobby into previously untapped demographics. Though I don’t have numbers at the moment, I would hazard a guess that the rapid adoption of sports cards for leagues such as the WNBA has added untold numbers of previously uninterested or excluded groups of people to the collecting world.
Are there problems with this world? Duh. Is the notion of corporate interest in this hobby always going to be a universal good? Certainly not. It could cause even higher prices and extractive business activities than are currently at play.
But if all these mainstream figures and companies are skating to where they think the puck is going — and I would bet they are based on the dollars at stake — it means the hobby is the next (or current) wave.
Money coming in, from non-endemic players, is the only way for the hobby to grow. With growth comes growing pains, surely. But it also means more opportunity for innovation, competition and legitimacy on the horizon.
And 2025 was the year it became real.
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Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.