Fanatics Fest 2026: The coolest things we saw, including Justin Bieber’s sports dominance

The third annual Fanatics Fest at the Javits Center in New York City wrapped up on Sunday, completing four days of an unparalleled sports fandom smorgasbord and viral moment factory. Scheduled to coincide with the World Cup final happening at nearby MetLife Stadium, soccer played its most prominent role yet at an event that intermingled 400 entertainers and athletes from different sports, drew about 200,000 fans over the four days (up from 125,000 the year before) and cost between $80-$90 million to put on, according to Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.

As we found last year, the dizzying array of activities, appearances, panels, podcasts, trading cards, merchandise and more is impossible to see and experience in totality, even if you’re there for the entire time it’s open, as The Athletic was this year. That said, here’s what stood out to the Collectibles staff.

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Larry Holder:

Coolest moment I saw: Old “Saturday Night Live” compadres Jason Sudeikis and Seth Meyers competed in a card buying challenge during Thursday’s opening night. I followed Sudeikis during his quest. He approached a dealer asking if he had any Bill Ripken cards, hoping for the former Baltimore Orioles infielder’s infamous “F— Face” card from 1989 Fleer. The dealer from Grand Slam Collectibles didn’t have one so the actor asked, “Can you just write f— face on something?” The dealer said, “I can!” Then Sudiekis asked, “Can you just sign my chest?” Sudeikis settled on a Jacob Misiorowski card. “Tall drink of water,” Sudeikis said.

I’m a big tennis guy. So watching Novak Djokovic battle Tom Brady, Justin Bieber and Logan Paul in ping pong on Saturday afternoon also made me smile.

Coolest moment I didn’t see: I remember telling myself when I first tasted the sauce at Raising Cane’s at the franchise’s original location at the north gate of LSU’s campus that I could swim in that sauce. So I’m bummed to have missed Rob Gronkowski being dropped into a dunk tank full of Cane’s sauce after Brady hit the tank’s target with a football on Thursday. In reality, though, it doesn’t seem like a person could swim very well through the sauce. And cleaning that sauce off Gronk must have been challenging.

This is how deep into the offseason we are pic.twitter.com/MbgtFMpSKf

— Fanatics (@Fanatics) July 16, 2026

Coolest card I saw: This may be a touch of cheating because I already knew the card would be at Fanatics Fest. But seeing the restored “die-cut” 1909 T206 Honus Wagner owned by former ESPN and news personality Keith Olbermann on display at the CGC booth fascinated me. I felt compelled to try to get a closer look at where the bones of other T206 cards connected to Wagner’s head and torso from the original card.

It was also fun to find a card on display from Bleecker Trading that I actually watched pulled at the West Village location in Manhattan late last year. Owner Matt Winkelried pulled a 2025 Bowman 1st autographed card numbered to 150 of New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler from a pack. It received a gem mint 10 grade from PSA and it sat front and center in the display case at the “pop-up” shop in Javits Center.

What can be improved: The congestion of people around the stage area within the Topps section became overwhelming at times. That was partly because of the product pickup windows being placed really close to the stage area. It brought a combination of long lines of people waiting for assistance right at the entrance, along with hundreds of fans smashed in to see guests like Victor Wembanyama, Cooper Flagg and Karl-Anthony Towns on stage. Moving that pick-up area away from the stage would avoid a tough bottleneck in easily one of the most popular areas of the event.

David Betancourt: 

Coolest moment I saw: Tom Brady nailing a Steph Curry-esque logoman shot during the basketball portion of the Fanatics Games competition. Brady was grouped with Novak Djokovic and eventual overall winner Justin Bieber (both of whom hit multiple shots from the three-point line). Brady was surprisingly not as successful as Joker and the Biebs from three-point land (a shock considering how seriously he takes these games that he won last year and finished third in this year), but he hit the Logoman shot off the glass for an on-brand Brady moment of greatness. Although, two-thirds of The Athletic collectibles team was there and we can confirm he didn’t call bank.

From the gridiron to the hardwood 🏀

Tom Brady drains a half-court shot at Fanatics Fest.

🎥 @BrooksDT pic.twitter.com/ZuQaIxL2kr

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 18, 2026

Coolest moment I didn’t see: Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, showed up on the last day of Fanatics Fest and provided a very high-profile reminder that the Marvel Entertainment license is indeed with Topps. While on stage, Reynolds highlighted some cards from the 2025 Topps Deadpool Chrome set (you couldn’t ask for better advertising than Deadpool himself showing off the cards, and it worked — I’m currently looking up boxes on eBay) and even gave a hint as to whether fans will one day know why Thor was crying in “Deadpool and Wolverine” (Reynolds said the answer is yes, but that’s all he’d say).

Reynolds also participated in one of my favorite parts of Fanatics Fest: funny celebrities shopping for trading cards. It makes for a great video.

The Avengers Doomsday trailer dropped online the next day. Given Fanatics Fest has shown they can pull from the Marvel A-list in terms of appearances, maybe a big Marvel trailer debuts at Fanatics Fest one day?

Coolest card I saw: One of my favorite comic book artists ever is Jim Lee. The eternal impact of his work in the ‘90s at Marvel and what he would later do for DC Comics (where he currently resides as president, publisher and CCO) is undeniable. So seeing one of his exclusive (there are only 415) illustrated Tiger Woods autographed Upper Deck cards was quite the sight. These were given out at the 50th birthday celebration/TGR Foundation event Woods hosted in January. The cards have sold for over $25,000 because of their exclusivity. It’s also just a really cool collaboration between two Asian icons from the world of comics and sports.

What can be improved: This Fanatics Fest was heavily attended, likely fueled by New York Knicks fans in celebratory mode for their NBA title as well as the presence of the World Cup. There are celebrities everywhere. And the only way to get them quickly from one event to the next is to create pathways for them and blocking off fans temporarily. Sometimes this resulted in attendees being blocked off into corners and not being able to move around until said celebrities had made their way through to their next appearance. It could be frustrating at times, but thankfully wasn’t something that I felt happened every single time a celebrity was making the rounds.

Brooks Peck: 

(I’m adding a couple of additional categories just because I can.)

Coolest moment I saw: The last thing I expected going into this event was to be standing next to an absolutely locked-in Justin Bieber as he dominated Fanatics Games challenges, but that’s what happened on Saturday. If the U.S. is coming out of the World Cup asking “What if our best athletes played soccer?” then Canada should be asking “What if our best pop stars played soccer?”

Justin Bieber couldn’t miss at Fanatics Fest 🤯 pic.twitter.com/eJMAHZ509l

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 18, 2026

Coolest moment I didn’t see: Karl-Anthony Towns was all over Fanatics Fest (in between choke-slamming WWE wrestlers at Madison Square Garden). One of his stops was the Topps Trade Night on Friday, where he worked some deals with kids in attendance. When one kid offered up a Victor Wembanyama card, KAT reportedly told them, “This is New York. You can have the Wemby back.”

I was also upset to miss the NFL Disney character draft, in which the Las Vegas Raiders selected Darth Vader, to promote a collection of NFL/Disney apparel.

Coolest card I saw: The fact that I saw three different T206 Honus Wagner cards in different sections of the show floor is pretty wild. Just to have that many examples of such a rare and iconic card in one place is incredible. As far as modern cards go, I spotted a Paul Skenes Topps Chrome Gold Logoman patch card with a $125,000 price tag just hanging out in a display case at Beverly Hills-based Canon Collectibles’ table.

Coolest non-card item I saw: A sheet of paper on which LeBron James practiced his autograph while in class during his high school days (including a “King James” variation). Unhappy with the results, he crumpled up the paper and threw it away, but his teacher saved it, realizing the significance it could one day have. James was a Fanatics Fest participant and was reunited with the paper, which was at the Celebrity Mint table, completing an awesome full-circle moment.

Most surreal thing I saw: Maybe it was seeing Russell Wilson with a giant, live snake around his neck while standing on a FIFA mini-pitch. Maybe it was seeing a Hartlepool United, an obscure English fifth division club, booth next to an Inter Milan booth. Maybe it was seeing Tom Brady ask Lionel Messi about the now famous photo of him bathing Lamine Yamal as a baby. Maybe it was seeing Ryan Reynolds on stage with artist George Condo, retired NBA great Amar’e Stoudemire, and WWE champion CM Punk to judge a Deadpool sketch card drawing contest held on the show floor (the winner’s card may go into a future Deadpool set). I haven’t decided yet simply because I’m not sure any of those moments actually happened despite having my own photographic evidence of each one.

What can be improved: It’s kind of more of a venue issue than a Fanatics Fest-specific one, but having more food options would be nice. Given the theme of the event, it would be fun to have an area featuring a variety of notable stadium foods from around the country (or world?). Food is such a big part of the sports fan experience and it just seems like too much of an afterthought at Fanatics Fest. And speaking of venues, it might be time for a change, just to give people in different parts of the country (or world?) a chance to experience it and keep it feeling fresh.

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