Family promoters put Charlotte Card Show on collecting map with growing NC event
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—There's no greater sign of the current boom in sports memorabilia than the Charlotte Card Show, whose promoters have seen the event grow in scope over the past year to encompass about 250 dealers and 540 tables.
Those numbers put the Charlotte Card Show, held Oct. 11-12 at Park Expo and Conference Center, on par with the Dallas Card Show, The Philly Show, The Chantilly (Va.) Show, and other big 500-table shows around the country.
The show’s promoters are the husband and wife team of Wes and Katie Spece. Together, they run Oak City Sports Cards, a card shop in Raleigh, NC.
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Two years ago, they purchased a series of events from Wes Starkey, owner of Inside Sports Promotions. For many years, Starkey produced up to 15 card shows across the Carolinas before selling his biz to the Spece couple.
Those events cover Raleigh, Hickory, Salisbury and Winston-Salem, N.C., among other cities.
The Charlotte Card Show, created by the Speces, joined the lineup in fall 2024.
The newest event got off to a rocky start, considering the first event was held the same weekend in late September that Hurricane Helene blew through North Carolina, devastating the state’s mountain region.
“It was crazy,” Katie Spece told Sports Collectors Digest on Oct. 11, the first day of the two-day event at Park Expo and Conference Center and the third Charlotte Card Show overall. “We lost power in our Airbnb. I have three young children and my youngest was one month old. Several of our vendors couldn’t make it because of the storm. But we still had the show.”
Last year’s first edition featured about 350 tables and was held at the smaller of two Park Expo buildings. In March 2025, the Charlotte Card Show moved to the bigger facility, setting up 400 tables in the 110,000-square-foot hall.
The most recent event was the biggest to date in terms of total vendors and tables, according to Spece.
“In March, we had a little over half the floor filled,” she said. “Today, we’re getting close to the back wall. In five years, I want to fill it completely. We could probably fit about 650 tables in here.”
The Speces feel that Charlotte is an untapped market, considering the city’s huge growth spurt over the past 20 years. North Carolina’s biggest city has a population twice the size of Raleigh, the state capital. Over the past few years, other promoters have held smaller card shows in hotel meeting rooms, as well as at Truist Field, home of the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.
“We saw the need to have a good show in Charlotte,” Spece said. “It’s a great location with a big airport and people can fly in pretty easily. There’s two big-league teams here (the NFL Panthers and NBA Hornets). There’s nothing else out there to this magnitude and we’ve got dealers coming in from California and Florida. Grand Slam Collectibles in Nashville and Sappy’s Sports Cards from Dallas are here. It runs pretty deep.”
The fourth Charlotte Card Show is tentatively set for late February-early March 2026.
The Speces are committed to bringing business to the dealers they have developed relationships with over the past 18 years through Oak City Sports Cards.
“For us, the heart of putting on a show are the dealers,” Katie Spece said. “We bought these shows because my husband has been a dealer for almost 20 years. They’re for the public, but if my dealers don’t like it and I’m not driving business to them, then it doesn’t matter. They’re not going to show up. We believe in taking care of our people and making sure they feel heard and appreciated.”
Their philosophy extends to the smaller dealers as well that regularly attend the regional North Carolina shows, she said.
The show’s rapid growth has allowed the promoter to add more amenities.
At the third Charlotte Card Show, the Speces set up about 25 padded chairs facing a videoboard on the show floor, tuned to ESPN’s College GameDay. It gave folks a chance to grab food and drink, sit down, rest and catch some of the pregame show.
“It’s the first time for the board; we’ve never had that before,” Spece said. “The show has grown, so we can continue to put money into it.”
Next to the videoboard, former big league slugger Jose Canseco signed autographs for two hours, charging $30 per item. Last fall, former NBA star Jason Williams signed for fans at the inaugural Charlotte Card Show.
“Having a signer is great, but it’s not what brings most people to the show,” Spece said. “It’s an added benefit, but we want to have a killer show for our dealers."
Don Muret