SALEM–The third annual sports cards, trading card games and collectibles show will bring vendors and players alike the Salem CenterPlex March 14.

The show was organized by Earl Fox, the owner of Fandemonia a locally-owned game store located at 304 East Main Street in Alliance. Fox said that the show will feature between 120 and 150 vendors selling accessories and cards for a variety of popular trading card games (TCGs) like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Lorcana, One Piece Card Game, and Digimon; sportscards and other sports memorabilia like autographed jerseys, helmets and footballs; comic books; and collectible toys and memorabilia. Fox said that he was expecting 1,200-1,500 people to attend this year’s show and that there would also be giveaways throughout the day totaling more than $1,000 in value, including “$100 shopping sprees” every hour. General admission for the show begins at 10 a.m. at no cost, and the show runs through 5 p.m., and for those that want an early look, early VIP admission begins at 8:30 a.m. at a cost of $5.

“Essentially you could come to the event intending just to be a sightseer and win one of the $100 shopping sprees we have every hour,” said Fox.

In addition to the vendors the show will feature dedicated tables to play TCGs with open play for commander, Magic the Gathering’s most popular format all day, and tournaments throughout the day with cash prizes for competitive players including: Magic team trios tournaments for the modern, standard, and pauper formats beginning at 11 a.m.; a two-headed giant commander tournament beginning at noon, and a One Piece constructed tournament beginning at 1 p.m. Tournament entrance fees will be $75 per team for the Magic trios tournaments, $40 per team for the two-headed giant commander tournament, and $25 for the One Piece constructed tournament.

“We tried to stagger the times out so that people have time to get there, check in, check out all the vendors, and get settled in before their games start. We’re also going to have plenty of space for people to bring their cards and hang out and play some games of commander,” said Fox.

Fox was inspired to begin organizing card shows in Salem while participating in similar events in larger communities like Cleveland, Akron, and Canton to help promote Fandemonia. He explained that even though his store is technically located in Stark County, most of his customers were from nearby communities in Mahoning and Columbiana counties –there were no card shows serving those communities.

“Our business is mostly people from Sebring, Alliance, and Salem, and there were no shows serving that market. It was a mixture of having such a nice facility close to our home base for our customer base to have a show, and recognizing that void in the market,” said Fox.

Fox chose Salem as the site of the show both for its proximity to those communities, and for its facilities. He said the CenterPlex is not only a wonderful facility to hold an event but that the management makes planning an event substantially easier than in other communities where he has organized events like Canton and that quality helps to recruit vendors. Fox highlighted the CenterPlex’s concession stand as a standout feature, allowing attendees to get food and drink on site rather than having to leave and return.

“Once they get in there and see the community’s reaction, because they have always been awesome, and how nice the facilities are we really win them over. I can’t say enough about how great the facilities are there,” said Fox.

Fox said that every year the Salem community has given the show an “amazing reception” and the community’s support has helped make the show more successful each year, and “really opened doors.” He said that he works to earn that support and wants to continue developing the show into an event the community gets excited for each year and that benefits local businesses both in Salem and the surrounding communities.

“I’m just trying to get the word out, and the knowledge out that we’re here and we’re trying to include Salem as much as we can. We offer all kinds of stuff, we like networking, we want any businesses in Salem that do this kind of thing to join us and participate whether that be as vendor, advertising, a restaurant running concessions, or even just putting a flyer for the show in the window,” said Fox. “We don’t want to take business away from them; we want everyone to benefit. We want the community to embrace what we’re trying to do and hopefully we can make this something the whole community will be excited for.”

Fox wants the card show to provide an opportunity to enjoy the interactive and community aspects of events like TCG tournaments and collectible shows that he got to enjoy and form fond memories of as a child. Soon, Fox will be taking the next step in those efforts as the card show begins expanding into a three-day destination events with “hundreds of tables and large tournaments” like Magic the Gathering Regional Championship Qualifiers, which draw players from around the country to compete for cash prizes and opportunities to qualify for the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour and world championships in partnership with the internationally recognized TCG retailer and event organizer Star City Games.

According to Fox these large destination events and tournaments used to be held in cities like Cleveland and Akron. In recent years they have been restricted to even larger cities like Chicago and Las Vegas. The first of these destination events is set to be held at the CenterPlex from July 17-19, and that general admission will begin at 4 p.m. on July 17 with a VIP trade night at a cost of $5 and will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on July 18 and 19 with free admission. The “headline event” for the July show will be a two-slot $5,000 Magic Regional Championship Qualifier for the modern format, which will see the top two players split a $5,000 prize.

The event will also feature two-headed giant commander, pauper, standard, pre-modern, One Piece, and Lorcana tournaments. Fox said that as they begin hosting these larger destination events that local businesses throughout Salem and the surrounding communities will see an influx of customers as players and vendors from the event stay in local hotels, eat at local restaurants and patronize local businesses during their stay.

“We’re trying to bring more of these big city events here to Salem and our community,” said Fox.