Cards
Sale of Collect-A-Con card show by big investors shows strength of hobby
Global events firm Mari’s acquisition of Collect-A-Con, among the biggest promoters of trading card shows in the U.S., further cements the strength of the hobby and signifies its growth potential, according to industry experts.
On April 21, Mari, a holding company formed by TKO Group executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, announced it had acquired Collect-A-Con, a producer of 24 card shows across the country, drawing 500,000 attendees annually.
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The purchase price was not disclosed. The Collect-A-Con brand remains intact, Mari officials said.
Collect-A-Con events, which are heavy on Trading Card Games, extend to showcasing celebrity guests, anime voice actors, live concerts and exclusive drops of collectibles. Attendees are predominantly in the 18-34 age demographic, targeting the future of live entertainment, Mari officials said.
Emanuel, a top Hollywood talent agent, and Shapiro, whose media experience includes stints at ESPN and Dick Clark Productions, are two of the most powerful people in sports and entertainment. Both are principals with TKO, a publicly-held company formed in 2023 through a merger of UFC and WWE.
In early 2025, Emanuel, TKO’s CEO and executive chair, and Shapiro, the group’s president and chief operating officer, led TKO’s acquisition of multiple sports properties from parent company Endeavor, which then went public in a separate deal.
All told, TKO’s net worth currently stands at $36 billion, as reported by stockanalysis.com.
Shapiro was not available for comment, TKO officials told SCD in an email exchange.
The deal is the newest example of third-party investors with deep pockets taking a financial stake in the trading card industry. It comes five years after Endeavor, helmed by Emanuel and Shapiro, was among multiple firms raising $350 million in Series A funding to acquire equity in Fanatics’ trading card business. For 2025, Fanatics reportedly generated $4 billion of its more than $10 billion in total revenue from cards and collectibles, which includes the Fanatics Fest card show in New York.
Jeremy Allen, chief collectible officer at Oh Yaas, a new trading card company that started in January, provided his perspective on the Mari/Collect-A-Con deal in a LinkedIn post.
Allen believes the acquisition takes the next step in the collectibles hobby in which promoters create a comprehensive experience around card shows beyond counting tables and vendors. He coined the term “experiential collectables.” The physical card is just the starting point—the real value lies in before, during and after the event, with live content playing a key role in the experience.
“The hobby is growing fast at every angle,” Allen told SCD. “It’s not just trading cards, but memorabilia, toys, action figures and comic books. All of it has accelerated growth and it’s been so steady that institutional money sees it as a safe bet and a good opportunity to invest.”
Collect-A-Con is a perfect example of the rapid trajectory the hobby has seen over the past five years. Two brothers, Jeff and Cody Wirz, and their cousin, Matt Weatherly, founded the event business in 2021 in Texas. Together, they’ve grown it from a hotel ballroom in Frisco, Texas to card shows stretching from Orlando, New Jersey and Los Angeles to Atlanta, Chicago and Charlotte, among other cities.
The bulk of Collect-A-Con’s biz is tied to trading card games, mostly Pokemon. Sports cards represent 10 percent to 15 percent of the inventory at their shows, company co-owner Jeff Wirz informed SCD by email in Chicago, where he ran a show the last weekend in April.
“They’re trying to be everything, but their core audience is Pokemon,” Allen said. “The TCG stuff is 10 times bigger than all the sports stuff put together.”
Regardless of the split, Collect A Con’s national brand appealed to TKO, Allen said.
“No one else has done that in a show format, because they’re typically regional and one-offs,” he said. “Collect-A-Con built a system that touches most of the country and they have a show every two weeks. Now, with [greater investment dollars], they can take that money and amplify things to make the shows better and bring more resources with a higher level of experience and interaction. They can touch even more people … and grow the business five to 10 times its current value.”
The high-profile deal is great news for the hobby, said Dan Bliss, owner of Front Row Card Show, a promoter staging six events on the West Coast, running from San Diego to Portland, plus Atlanta and Orlando, two newer events.
“It’s growing incredibly,” Bliss said. “Big investors are taking the hobby seriously and this deal is a reflection of how strong it is right now.”
On the sports side, Front Row Card Show, which expects to add a Midwest show in the future, stands among the biggest promoters of card shows on a national scale. Bliss told SCD he’s been approached by outside investors about selling his company since expanding along the West Coast three years ago.
“There’s a lot of platforms that want that national exposure,” he said. “We’re not looking to sell. We tell collectors and vendors we’re not going anywhere. We’re still in expansion mode and growing, but I expect we’ll get more inquiries as the market continues to grow.”
Front Row’s Atlanta show in March, its newest event, had 400 tables and drew more than 9,000 attendees, Bliss said. The promoter’s second Atlanta show in November will feature 550 tables.
Oh Yaas, Allen’s new venture, has also taken on some heavy hitters in the world of entertainment. Mark Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, and Nolan Bushmill, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, are both part owners and advisors with Oh Yaas.
“Guys like that don’t get involved unless they see opportunity,” Allen said. “We want them because they’re disruptive. They understand emerging markets and new things happening.”
Oh Yaas is currently developing test products for a series of cards chronicling the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships after the card manufacturer signed a five-year licensing deal with BKFC in March. UFC fighter Connor McGregor is among the property’s owners.
Allen said Oh Yaas hopes to have prototypes completed to display at The National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Illinois, July 29-Aug. 2.
Allen, a card collector for about 40 years, previously served as director of pop culture for Heritage Auctions for three years before starting Oh Yaas.
“Investors are poking around every aspect of the hobby, looking at the numbers,” Allen said. “Those decisions don’t happen overnight. That [Collect-A-Con] deal probably started a year and a half ago before it was completed. A lot of these companies are looking at ways to be involved, whether through auction houses or the shows. They’re looking at all of it.”
Mari’s acquisition of Collect-A-Con expands Mari’s ownership in event production that extends to the Mutua Madrid Open and Miami Open tennis tournaments, auto auction house Barrett-Jackson and Broadway ticketing firm TodayTix, among other assets.
Don Muret
