Sports Memorabilia Dealers
Promotor Joe Drelich talks 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention, success of Chantilly Show
With a large crowd buzzing with activity in the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va., in the main dealer and vendor area and the autograph pavilion, the sports collectibles hobby pulsed with the energy of an athlete in their prime.
On the first Sunday in April, Joe Drelich, the promoter of the popular Chantilly Show, met with SCD in the backstage area of the long-standing Collectors Showcase of America (CSAshows.com) event to talk about the success of the Chantilly Show and plans for the upcoming National Sports Collectors Convention in July.
SCD: How has the spring Chantilly show been this year?
Drelich: It’s been gangbusters from start to finish. Even today, Sunday, we are still very busy out there. It’s been a super successful show, the best crowd we have had since I’ve been involved, since 2016. The numbers continue to grow. Vendor space has been sold out for many years and the crowds are really supporting it, and it’s nice to see.
What do you credit as the key components for the show’s continued success?
Dealers and vendors with a great variety of inventory, both vintage and modern, and the autograph lineup this year was amazing. My partners with GameBreakerSports have done a fantastic job. Many are involved behind the scenes, but they should get a lot of credit for putting on such an amazing event because we complement each other.
Marco Rol started the Chantilly Show in 1996 and it was mainly an autograph show. It has evolved over the years, but what is the biggest difference with the show compared to a few years ago?
Things have sort of settled a little bit. It was sort of a frenzy coming out of COVID, because everything was shut down and the market was just soaring. Everybody that’s been in this space for a long time knows it’s kind of a little bit of a bubble effect, and you really don’t know what the aftereffect is going to be once that bubble settles. The phase we are in now and what we’re seeing is the core [of the hobby] has grown, and that’s the goal. We’ve seen cycles in the industry many times, and each one seems to be adding a little bit more, which is fantastic, which means we’re on the right path, kind of like the tortoise and the hare—slow and steady wins the race.
We have these spikes [in interest], which are exciting and they bring new people into the space, but more importantly people are staying. So I would say that is the main difference from two to three years ago versus today. There is still excitement and newness and vintage is doing well and modern is doing well.
What were the biggest autograph guests for the spring Chantilly show?
All of the boxers have been amazing this weekend. Mike Tyson has been amazing. Roberto Duran is a legend, plus Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Lennox Lewis.
The football players in general. The modern football players catch a lot of flavor. John Elway, who hasn’t done a public autograph signing in a long time, he was one of our top sellers, as was Jerry Rice.
THE BIG SHOW
Turning to the 2024 National Sports Collectors Convention July 24-28 in Cleveland, you and two other partners at JBJ Corporation are running the event for the first time. How are things shaping up for the biggest show in the hobby?
We’re excited and right on target to where we want to be in regards to the overall development of the show. More details will follow in the near future as we button up some final details on a couple items. We’re working on accommodating as many dealers and vendors as we can and we continue to hope to improve that year over year. We’re hoping it’s going to be one of the best Nationals of all-time—that’s our goal.
What is the projected attendance for the 2024 National?
That’s hard to say, but what I can tell you is that the only pre-sales we do is for our VIP packages, and they are exceeding last year’s, which was an amazing event in attendance and an overall event.
There have been some significant challenges at The National the past two years. At Atlantic City in 2022, the Wi-Fi was spotty, at best; in 2023 in Chicago, the lack of air conditioning left many people hot and sweaty. What has your team done to improve those issues?
Those were two immediate things we addressed right out of the gate, making sure they are completely under control. We have been working behind the scenes prior to taking over The National, and vast improvements are coming from the logistics side that will ensure much better success in those areas that were deficient.
How have the dealers embraced any changes they’ve been made aware of?
I think it’s all a positive because it’s always a dealer show first. We love our corporate partners, so that does not diminish anything they bring to the table, they bring a tremendous amount to the table, but The National is about the dealers. So for us, that’s one of our goals—to accommodate as many dealers as we can and make sure the diversity of availability of collectibles out on the show floor meets the demands of the customers. So its collectors, dealers and corporate all getting together to put on the best possible show.
How has the corporate end of the equation changed?
There are a lot of new corporate partners that want to come into the space, and we’re doing everything that we can to make that happen. We asked some of our larger corporate partners to take a little smaller of a footprint so we can accommodate some real necessities that we see in the space. For example, there will be some of the larger corporate vendors from Asia that we made room for; we understand the importance of the global collecting community. We’re looking to follow the footprint of growth, to multiply the space and continue to introduce new components to the collectibles community that are going to enhance and have growth and make sure it’s sustainable.
How do you go about striking a balance between the dealer and collector communities?
It’s feedback. We have a great team around us, we listen and we try to be transparent as well. We’re open to suggestions, positive and negative; we tend to learn more from the negative. We’re very receptive.
What is one element of the 2024 National that you can share some specifics on?
The National is bringing the Trade Night component, which has become a very popular thing since COVID, in house. It’s going to be Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night, and it brings all of the collecting community together. The Trade Nights will cover mainstream baseball, football, basketball and hockey, of course, but also Pokémon, wrestling, ticket collectors, soccer, F1, and non-sports, because that’s how we envision The National being an encompassing of all trading card collectibles and sports memorabilia.
How has the transition been taking over The National, has it been easier or tougher than expected?
It was a little tougher, I think, because there was so much uncertainty. The existing management team was there for almost 20 years and we were not allowed to get our hands dirty, so to speak, until last year’s National was officially over. So even though you can visually start to assess and take your notes and put your plan together, it’s like Mike Tyson said, ‘Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.’
It was a little bit of a wakeup in some areas, like settling in our corporate; it had a little bit of a sprawl element to it. But we work as a team. Transparency and communication are real key factors to what we’re doing. And, I like a challenge. I like where we are at; it’s a three-person effort in almost all areas. I’m thankful we kind of lean on each other when we need to and we have the ability to tackle the problem when it’s bigger than we may have anticipated. But all in all, it’s going really well.
We will be excited to announce more specifics in the coming weeks.
— Doug Koztoski is a frequent SCD contributor. He can be reached at dkoz3000@gmail.com
