SEQUIM — Collectors continue to find their place in Sequim.
There’s a record show, a toy show and now a card show.
Sequim High alumni and sports and Pokemon card collectors Clancy Catelli and Josh Gahr had an epiphany this summer to host a sale of their own in Catelli’s garage.
They recruited friends, posted online, and with seven tables, they had about 200 people visit.
“It was so busy, we could hardly talk to each other,” Catelli said.
“We thought, ‘We might have something here.’”
They’ll host a much larger “Card and Pokemon Show” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday in the Sequim Elks Lodge, 143 Port Williams Road.
Entry is $10 for adults and free for children 12 and younger.
Catelli and Gahr are calling it the largest card show ever on the North Olympic Peninsula with more than 40 tables from 30-plus vendors offering various sports cards, Pokemon and other game cards, memorabilia with signed jerseys and helmets, and video game items.
One booth, Olympic Card Grading Service, will offer card grading on site for a fee to preserve cards in hard plastic covers.
Show organizers will offer free hourly raffles for children and raffles of high-grade cards for a fee.
The Elks’ bar also will be open for adults 21 and older.
Organizers encourage patrons to use cash for entry and for purchases, although some vendors may use app payments, such as Venmo. There will be an ATM inside.
Patrons also should bring cards to buy, sell, trade and be valued, Catelli said.
He said people continue to uncover their collections from childhood, and they should bring them in, and vendors can help them learn how to look up prices.
“Now we have apps,” Catelli said. “It’s not like the old days where you’d have to look it up in Beckett magazine.”
A growing collection
Catelli and Gahr, 2010 and 2011 Sequim High graduates, said they’ve known each other a long time and found a mutual interest in card collecting.
“When you find other people who collect cards, you gravitate towards each other,” Catelli said.
Both collected as children, and they got back into the hobby in recent years.
“We’re pretty excited,” he said. “We saw how many people are interested in it (at the summer show) and how many people brought their kids.
“We did it on such a small scale, and we already have 100 people interested in it on Facebook.”
They anticipate anywhere from 300 to 600 people could attend.
Due to the demand, card collecting has taken off in recent years, Catelli said, and he hopes the Sequim show offers another avenue for locals to buy and sell.
He and Gahr’s goal is for it to become big enough to do events more often, possibly quarterly.
“I’m excited to see how this show continues to grow,” Gahr said.
“I really want to just keep growing this to something huge like other national card shows.”
Opening a new pack
He’s also excited for children to attend and have fun as well.
“It reminds me of when I was a kid getting new cards,” Gahr said.
Catelli said the show will “be a good opportunity to find cards they’ve been looking for, and/or to sell stuff they’ve been collecting.”
“It’s also a fun time meeting people and talking,” he said.
