Jul 28, 2026 · 21 min · 9 segments
The hobby is loud. Buzz, hype, panic...and it all sounds the same until you learn which frequencies matter. Fresh off Fanatics Fest and headed to The National in Chicago, Matt breaks down what he saw…
The word that really comes to mind is experience.
It is not an exhibit hall.
It is not a meet and greet with athletes.
It is an experience of sports and how sports touches people's lives and the ways in which we are able to participate in them as fans and as viewers.
It can be a little bit discombobulating walking around Fanatics trying to find out where you're trying to get to and hitting up against an athlete walkway all the time.
But I think there's something for everybody at Fanatics Fest and it is truly unlike any other thing that I've been to.
First of all, it was in a 3.3 million square foot convention center, so you know it was crazy right off the bat.
I walked around to almost every single table that was out there at Fanatics Fest, and I would say a solid 7 out of 10 of them had Pokemon cards at them.
So just keeping score with you guys at home there, that means that 70% of Fanatics Fest was carrying not Tops or even Panini, but carrying Pokemon cards on their tables.
Truly mind-boggling how strong that market is.
As far as the athletes going up and speaking on the stages, I found it to be extremely approachable.
You could go there where the athlete was going to be, and you could be pretty close to Tom Brady as he's there signing cards and throwing them out into the crowd.
He even chucked out a bunch of packs for people to open, and then he got a picture with the person that got the biggest hit and signed the card for them.
Pretty cool stuff.
It was just fun to see the fervor, the excitement around all of these events taking place and just kind of walk around in it.
I love that stuff.
Also shout out some of the Slabnomics people that I was able to meet up with over at Fanatics Fest.
It took some doing sometimes to coordinate and find us in the same place, but it was a real treat being able to talk with like-minded individuals on the floor in person.
One thing I do want I want to bring up that was a little bit of a change from my expectations.
The word that really comes to mind is experience.
It is not an exhibit hall.
It is not a meet and greet with athletes.
It is an experience of sports and how sports touches people's lives and the ways in which we are able to participate in them as fans and as viewers.
It can be a little bit discombobulating walking around Fanatics trying to find out where you're trying to get to and hitting up against an athlete walkway all the time.
But I think there's something for everybody at Fanatics Fest and it is truly unlike any other thing that I've been to.
First of all, it was in a 3.3 million square foot convention center, so you know it was crazy right off the bat.
I walked around to almost every single table that was out there at Fanatics Fest, and I would say a solid 7 out of 10 of them had Pokemon cards at them.
So just keeping score with you guys at home there, that means that 70% of Fanatics Fest was carrying not Tops or even Panini, but carrying Pokemon cards on their tables.
Truly mind-boggling how strong that market is.
As far as the athletes going up and speaking on the stages, I found it to be extremely approachable.
You could go there where the athlete was going to be, and you could be pretty close to Tom Brady as he's there signing cards and throwing them out into the crowd.
He even chucked out a bunch of packs for people to open, and then he got a picture with the person that got the biggest hit and signed the card for them.
Pretty cool stuff.
It was just fun to see the fervor, the excitement around all of these events taking place and just kind of walk around in it.
I love that stuff.
Also shout out some of the Slabnomics people that I was able to meet up with over at Fanatics Fest.
It took some doing sometimes to coordinate and find us in the same place, but it was a real treat being able to talk with like-minded individuals on the floor in person.
One thing I do want I want to bring up that was a little bit of a change from my expectations.
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