SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – The Albany Sports Card Show made a stop in Syracuse this weekend. The show is one of the oldest monthly running sports memorabilia events in the U.S.
The show took place at the Embassy Suites hotel in East Syracuse, where 30 vendors set up tables to showcase their collectibles and cards to sell or trade.
As the name suggests, the show is based in Albany, where they hold shows with up to 110 vendor tables. They tour throughout New York, hitting areas like Syracuse, Johnstown, Saugerties and Saratoga Springs, where they hold an annual event on the same weekend as the Travers Stakes horse race.
While much of the focus is on traditional sports trading cards, the shows also include other sports memorabilia, such as vintage event tickets. There are also flags, banners, pins and more related to historic sporting events.
Scott Trudell, the owner of the show, says that the showrunners and vendors do it for the love of the hobby. On his left arm, he has tattoos of the signatures of the first MLB Hall of Fame class, officially inducted in 1939.
“Over all the years of me being a passionate collector, and going to all the shows over a span of probably 35-plus years, that I owed something to these players, to kind of represent them on my arm,” Trudell said.
Trudell worked as a vendor before being the owner, and has been involved with the show since 1986. Collectibles and memorabilia always interested him as a child.
“I would go to the shows and trade a lot of my cards for the cards of the players I wanted, which of course were those players,” Trudell said.
The 1939 Hall of Fame class is made up of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson.
Some events held by the Albany Sports Card Show include official grading services by JSA, who authenticate autographs, in addition to their standing as an official SGC submission center, a card grading organization.
The show will host two events in June in Albany, and will return to Syracuse on Sept. 14-15.
