MANALAPAN – The Central Jersey Classic Two-Day Card Show returned to Manalapan boasting 150 vendors of Pokémon cards, sports cards and memorabilia, action figures, and much more.
They gathered at the Multi Sports Kingdom (formerly Sportika) at 150 Woodward Road to sell, buy, and trade their products with other avid collectors. The event was hosted on the turf field in the back of the complex, and it had over four double-sided rows of tables for shoppers to roam and check out.
Once patrons paid for their $5 entry, they were handed a pink raffle ticket that had numbers on it. About once every hour throughout the event, the event manager would get on a mic, read off certain numbers, and the person with the winning ticket would be able to come up to the front to collect a prize. The prizes for winning this raffle changed each time a number was called.
The event was put together by an organization called Our Cards and Collectables, who run several different card shows throughout New Jersey. The group often hosts smaller bi-weekly card shows on Friday nights from 5-10 p.m. at the Old Bridge Elks Lodge.
Our Cards and Collectables is run by Steven Rahor, who is a young entrepreneur who had his passion for trading cards passed down from his dad. His father used to run similar events and card shows when he was younger, which helped inspire his love for cards since he grew up in that community. He has been running his own show since the end of the pandemic.
“I know of the potential for this sort of business. When I got into baseball cards for my hobby of collecting, I figured that if he could teach me how to run events, I can use the money earned to further my own collection. I try to buy as many Mets and Knicks cards as possible because they are my favorite teams. Now that we have had some success and I have gotten older, I have started to use this to fund other expenses as well.”
He also shared what he believes to be the main reason why trading card collecting is having a resurgence.
“From what I have seen from people my age, they do it for the nostalgia factor. They grew up opening Pokémon packs and now they are finding their way back into the hobby.”
“A lot of it is nostalgia, and the other part of it is that people are looking for a good community to be around. Since there are so many people doing it, especially online, people get into it for a sense of community,” he explained.
People who are interested in attending the many card shows they host throughout the year should follow @ourcardsandcollectables on Instagram to see their posts that contain information about the upcoming events. As of right now, they have two remaining Friday night shows to close out the year, both at Old Bridge Elks Lodge. The first one is on December 5 and the second one is on December 19. Both take place from 5-10 p.m. The address is 67 Amboy Road, Old Bridge.
