Inaugural collectibles

Calling all collectors …

In the continued effort to keep the fairgrounds busy, another new event is scheduled for this weekend.

Jay County Fair Board will host its inaugural Cards, Comics, Coins & Collectibles Show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Bubp Building at Jay County Fairgrounds. Admission to the event is free.

Jason McGraw, a member of the fair board, explained that he recently got back into collecting sports cards, a hobby he had enjoyed as a youngster and teenager. 

“It’s kind of brought me back to my childhood,” he said. “When I was a kid, collecting in the late ’80s, early ’90s, I was like, ‘Man, if I hold onto these cards, I’m going to be rich one day.’”

It turned out that wasn’t the case, as cards were mass-produced during that era, diminishing their value. But nostalgia and the art of the find have drawn him back in, and he and some friends subsequently turned their reinvigorated interest into a side business.

Having attended a few card shows, he felt the fairgrounds would make a perfect site for a similar event, particularly during the off-peak late fall through early spring months.

“So that’s what we did,” said McGraw of Saturday’s event, which will serve as a fundraiser for the fair board’s planned grandstand infield renovation project. (Plans call for widening the demolition derby track, installing a barrier between the track and infield fan seating and replacing the judge’s tower.)

He presented the idea to the fair board in May and has been working on Saturday’s show since then. About 20 individuals and/or vendors with 30-plus tables of items have committed to being in attendance Saturday. (Anyone interested in displaying items can still do so by contacting McGraw at (260) 251-0414 or [email protected]. The fee is $35 per table.)

While McGraw’s passion is in the area of sports cards — he’s enjoyed finding cards featuring Portland native and former NFL wide receiver Pete Brewster as well as Indiana high school basketball players like Bonzi Wells and Dick Van Arsdale who went on to careers in the NBA — Saturday’s show will go well beyond football, basketball and baseball.

“It’s not just strictly cards,” said McGraw. “They should expect to see a lot of different variety of things here.”

Signed up to attend the event are exhibitors that will also display Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, coins, Coca-Cola items, NASCAR memorabilia, Funko Pop! items, comic books and vintage toys. Among the exhibitors that will be in attendance Saturday are Muncie’s All Star Sports Cards and Hartford City’s Magic Corner, which sells toys, magic tricks, crafts and other items.

McGraw already has another collectibles show planned for Nov. 11. (Exhibitors at Saturday’s show will receive a discounted fee to sign up.) He is hoping to make the shows a once-a-month regular event through the early spring.

“Obviously we are in a building process for this show,” he added. “It’s going to take a few shows to really build it to what I envision it being.”

He’s hopeful that the event will grow, with more vendors and exhibitors being added as it gains a foothold in the collecting community.

And, ultimately, he hopes it becomes a regular fairgrounds feature and an opportunity for others to join him in enjoying the nostalgia of their youth.

“It’s just been a lot of fun to bond with friends over something like this and to just kind of relive a hobby I forgot I had so much passion for when I was younger,” he said. “It’s just been a lot of fun.”