A collector himself as a kid, 48-year-old Columbus, Ohio, resident Matthew Cowden got back into the hobby a few years ago, this time as a father to Evan and Owen.

“I used to collect when I was a kid, then didn’t collect for 35 years,” Matthew said. “When I took them to their first card show four years ago, they fell in love just like I did when I was a kid.”

They attended last year’s National Sports Card Convention in Cleveland and had so much fun that they planned this year’s family vacation around attending the 45th national convention that was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont last weekend.

Matthew, his wife, Kelley, and their boys were four of the countless number of collectors that turned out over the five-day convention that concluded Sunday.

More than 600 vendors, ranging from industry titans such as Topps and eBay to local shops like Seven Out Cards and Collectibles in Sycamore, set up shop as thousands of collectors bought, sold and traded cards, cracked new boxes and got signatures from about 200 professional athletes and sports-adjacent celebrities. After the floor closed at 6 p.m. each day, another room was opened to allow attendees to cut out the middleman and buy, sell and trade with one another.

It was the seventh national show that Dave Faron, owner of Seven Out, has set up shop at, and the 14th total that he’s attended. And after his business saw a record amount of activity at the 2024 show, the 2025 version once again proved how the sports card industry continues to live through its biggest boom in decades, as proven by the largest turnout and number of vendors in show history.

“I can say that for as big as the national was last year, this year has probably been double the national for us,” Faron said. " ... It’s been an unbelievable amount. The national here used to only be in the main room with an autograph pavilion in the middle area. Now it’s all the way out [to additional rooms], all the upstairs and has a waiting list [for vendors]."

Faron, like most of the industry, pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as the launching point for the boom, as people were stuck in the house with not much to do other than spending their government-issued stimulus checks. But as the pandemic subsided, the growth has continued.

“I think COVID was the start of that, but even that, it wasn’t everything it is now,” Faron said. “I think it took a lot of influence to push the younger kids to stay in the hobby, which I think was missing for a bit.”

Faron and his booth focused mostly on selling single cards, while other companies such as industry titan Blowout Cards focused on selling sealed, unopened product. There were also scores of breakers, the latest hobby trend where a person takes one or more boxes, sells spots to cards in the box, usually broken down by team, and opens the box on a live stream before mailing each customer the cards they got from the box.

Ethan Kohn, a 10-year-old Clifton resident, got to meet his favorite breaker, Coyte Kyles of Drip, at the show Friday. Between the smile on Ethan’s face and the bonding time he got to have with him, the show couldn’t have been much more fun for Ethan’s dad, Clifton Central baseball coach Brian Kohn.

“Coyte Kyles and other breakers from Drip and other breakers from social media treated Ethan like royalty,” Brian said. “As a dad, spending time with my son collecting cards, there’s almost nothing better.”

While the Kohns and Cowdens took in the show as customers, the longtime form of father-son bonding was also seen on the other side of the table. Bruce Baine, a 69-year-old Dixon resident, and his son, 43-year-old Robert, began collecting together when McDonald’s partnered with USA Basketball for a special set of cards for the 1992 men’s team, quickly accumulating so many cards that Robert’s wife made him start finding shows to unload product.

More than 30 years later, they were able to finally cross off their bucket list goal of not just attending the national together, but having their own table at it.

“As I started my career, started my family, I’d always come back to do [card] stuff with dad,” Robert said. “One thing we’ve always talked about is going to Wrestlemania together and going to the national together. … Here we are living our dream we’ve talked about for years."