Fanatics Fest 2025 Returns To NYC With Exclusive Baseball Cards, Celebrity Athletes & More

Image credit: (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Fanatics)

Sports heaven returns to the Javits Center in New York City the weekend of June 20-22 with the second-annual Fanatics Fest, featuring A-List athletes and celebrities, exclusive merchandise and a “Museum of Greatness” featuring $200 million of the most iconic cards of all time, including the recently sold Paul Skenes Topps Debut Patch.

This being Baseball America and all, we’re going to focus mostly on the baseball-centric aspects of the event. But Fanatics Fest will also feature appearances, merchandise and activations of all major leagues, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, WWE, FIFA and more.

Perhaps not surprisingly, athletes with strong New York ties will dominate the roster of baseball players who will be signing autographs and available for photo ops at the event, including Derek Jeter, Dwight Gooden, Reggie Jackson, Mike Piazza and 2025 Hall of Fame inductees CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

Other legends such as Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Mike Schmidt will also be making appearances, as will current Yankees including Max Fried and Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The list of non-baseball athletes at the event is also a who’s who: Lebron James, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, Peyton Manning, John Cena, Henrik Lundqvist and more. And among the non-sports celebrities appearing are Travis Scott, Kevin Hart and Kevin Costner.

The event will be a collectors’ paradise. Fanatics will not only spotlight their own merchandise (including Topps products), but there will be an entire “merch village” featuring dozens of card and collectible vendors.

Topps will also be offering three exclusive baseball card releases available only at the event:

Boxes of high-end “Cactus Jack” cards will be available on Friday. Each box will sell for $500 and contain two packs with four cards each.
Hobby and value boxes of the new Topps Series 2 (featuring exclusive NYC-based parallels) will be available on Saturday and Sunday. Hobby boxes will sell for $300 and value boxes for $50.

Travis Scott and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin open a pack of Cactus Jack baseball cards at last year’s Fanatics Fest.

The on-site “Museum of Greatness” will feature more than $200 million worth of the most exclusive cards, game-used items and other memorabilia in the hobby, including items from Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Shohei Ohtani.

Among the items on display will be more than 50 Topps Rookie Debut Patches, including the coveted Paul Skenes patch that sold for over a million dollars back in March. Remember, there are only 347 Rookie Debut patches in existence, and many still haven’t even been pulled, so displaying more than 50 in one place is unprecedented.

Fanatics is also introducing a new feature this year called Fanatics Games, which will allow fans to test their athleticism against top athletes to win cash prizes. Among the challenges is a Pitching Accuracy contest.

There will be panels, live podcasts and more throughout the weekend.

Last year’s inaugural Fanatics Fest drew 70,000 fans, and organizers expect this year’s event to draw an even bigger crowd.

For more information on Fanatics Fest tickets, schedules and more, go to FanaticsFest.com.