Episode 05 The Sleeping Soccer Storm Ft. Scott @thesocoexpo

Released: June 17, 2025 | Duration: 33:38

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About This Episode

This episode features Scott, co-founder of the SoCo Expo, discussing the creation and evolution of the premier soccer card show in North America. The SoCo Expo started as a grassroots effort to give the soccer card community a dedicated space after seeing the limitations of the National and trade nights held in cramped hotel ballrooms. In year one, Scott booked a UAW Hall in Cleveland with just a $100 deposit and brought together 100 vendors for the first soccer-focused show during the National. In year two, the show exploded to 170 vendors across 80,000 square feet in Chicago, five miles south of the National.

The conversation covers the challenges of throwing a card show, from turning a room in 90 minutes to managing transportation logistics to feeding everyone when no food service is on site. Scott shares how the show has attracted vendors from 15 to 20 countries, including collectors who have never been to the United States before but are coming specifically for the SoCo Expo. The episode explores why the soccer card community is so tight-knit, how the show operates as a FUBU (for us, by us) grassroots effort, and what the 2026 World Cup coming to North America means for the soccer card market.

Scott also discusses his own collecting journey, from setting up at 400 to 500 shows as a teenager in the 80s and 90s, to stepping away during the junk wax era, to returning to the hobby after his father's death. The episode covers market dynamics including why soccer cards have massive international demand but remain the smallest of the four major sports domestically, how the Lamine Yamal hype cycle illustrates the danger of sky-high expectations, and why low-expectation risers often provide the best ROI. The conversation closes with a thought experiment: if only 1% of Austin card show vendors currently carry soccer, what happens when the World Cup marketing machine turns on in 2026?

Topics Covered

  • How the SoCo Expo started after Scott attended the National in Chicago in 2023
  • Finding a venue in eight days with a $100 deposit to hold the UAW Hall for five days
  • Year one: 100 vendors in 10,000 square feet in Cleveland during the National
  • Year two: 170 vendors in 80,000 square feet in Chicago, five miles south of the National
  • The challenges of turning a room in 90 minutes and managing logistics with no staff
  • Why the SoCo Expo is FUBU: for us, by us, a grassroots community-first effort
  • Vendors traveling from 15 to 20 countries, including first-time visitors to the United States
  • The role of original sponsors: Soccer Breakers, Golden Goal Breaks, GV Sports Cards, and Pat Poles
  • Scott’s collecting journey: 400 to 500 shows as a teenager, stepping away during junk wax, returning after his father’s death
  • Buying a 1957 Topps Stan Musial at the National in honor of his father
  • The Garnacho Leaf Lunar Rarity numbered to 10 that got Scott back into collecting
  • Why the soccer community is the most welcoming and warm community in sports cards
  • The 2026 World Cup coming to North America for the first time since 1990
  • Soccer as the largest international sports card market but smallest domestically in the US
  • Lamine Yamal and the danger of sky-high expectations built into card prices
  • Why low-expectation risers provide better ROI than overhyped prospects
  • Erling Haaland’s market tanking despite winning a treble and breaking EPL records
  • The Messi autograph controversy and how it could limit supply and increase long-term value
  • Alfonso Davies and Jimenez as faces of Canada and Mexico for World Cup marketing
  • Christian Pulisic as Captain America and the marketing machine that will surround him
  • What happens when 1% of vendors carry soccer today but the World Cup turns the marketing machine on

Full Transcript Summary

Introduction and Scott's Background

Scott shares his card collecting journey. He started collecting as a young kid, mostly vintage from the late 60s and early 70s baseball. He had a business called World Series of Cards in the 80s and set up at card shows from ages 12 to 18, attending about 400 to 500 shows in his life. He collected everything under the sun and eventually played Division I soccer in college. At that point, he stopped collecting.

Scott met his father-in-law while he was selling cards as a teenager, so cards have come full circle in his life. It was also the junk wax era. When he was buying directly from Topps in middle school and high school, he would set up at a weekly show, the longest-running show in the country that met every single Wednesday. His mom would pick him up from middle school, drop him off at the show, he would sell cards, and she would pick him up later that night.

If you got your cases in a week before someone else, you sold them for a premium. But if they got their cases in before you, you could not sell your cards for what you paid for them. That is when Scott switched to buying vintage cards like N172s and T206s. In 1991 and 1992, he stopped buying anything new and started buying stuff that was 100 years old.

How the SoCo Expo Started

During COVID, Scott's dad got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and ended up living 13 months to the day. That was what distracted Scott during COVID and what helped him get back into the hobby after his dad's death. He started going to local shows and running into friends he had not seen in 20 or 30 years from shows. It became this whole social thing. Being in Metro Detroit, he could go to three to five card shows a week. But there was no soccer at any of these shows.

For his birthday, Scott bought a card that kicked all of this into gear. He is a Manchester United fan since 1986, actually pre-Ferguson. Garnacho was the hot prospect at the time. He had no other cards out in the market outside of a Leaf Lunar Rarity numbered to 10 with no parallels. Scott won that card on eBay for his birthday. That was the beginning of immersing himself back into the hobby.

Scott made his way to the National two years ago in Chicago. The last National he went to was in 1989. He bought a 1957 Topps Stan Musial in honor of his dad. At the National, he met Anthony, met Edwin, and found guys walking around on the show floor with soccer jerseys on. Scott was carrying a laminated sign that said "got soccer cards" on it. He started meeting more people in the community.

Wicked Soccer put together a trade night at a hotel. They rented out a ballroom space, roughly 2,500 square feet, with roughly eight tables in the middle. People were jam-packed in there with no security. People had $30,000 cards laying on the floor. There was more stuff there than at the National, but it was still really difficult to see everything because there was just no room.

Scott drove through a rainstorm thinking about how to make something better for the community. Within eight days, he had found a venue, put a deposit down, and booked the UAW Hall for all five days of the National. It was a $100 deposit to hold the space for five days. Scott decided to throw this in honor of his dad. He partnered with Adam Blumenthal at CLE Soccer Cards. Adam had the people who wanted to know where to go. Scott had the venue but did not know anybody. They started putting it together.

Year One: Cleveland Lessons Learned

The most difficult part of throwing the show was that they had an hour and a half to turn the room. They got the room at 2:30 in the afternoon. Vendors showed up at 4:00. The show started at 6:00. They had no idea how many people were showing up or how many people they needed to feed. They had school buses picking people up from the National and bringing them over because the venue location was not conducive to easy transportation.

They provided food for everybody since they were renting out a UAW Hall and there was no food or bar on site. The unknown was really the most difficult part from year one.

Year Two: Chicago Expansion

Year two, they went from 10,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet, from 100 to 105 vendors to over 170 vendors. Scott has at least 10 people who have reached out who have never been to the United States before and are coming specifically to the SoCo Expo. They are getting vendors from 15 to 20 countries represented.

The show runs from July 31st to August 2nd, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, from 4:00 PM to midnight. They are five miles south of the National at the Stevens Center. This year the facility has staff, food on site, bar on site, an ice cream parlor, a retail soccer store, and an arcade. They sold out the show floor. Free to attend.

The Soccer Card Market and World Cup 2026

Modern soccer cards really were not printed until 2014, 2017, and 2018. They are only talking about 10 years in the space, compared to baseball history going back over a century. With the World Cup coming to North America again for the first time since 1990, and now that there are actually soccer cards, the world has changed quite a bit.

From an investment angle, the last World Cup in Qatar saw a spike of 3x in volume traded on eBay. Now the World Cup is in North America and the market has grown up a lot since 2022. It is going to be interesting to see which players people focus on. The great thing is there are 48 teams in this World Cup. There are 48 faces of countries. You can cast a bigger net and might find some small country where a random guy scores a goal and your $5 card turns into a $300 hit.

Lamine Yamal and Market Expectations

Scott does not own any Yamal cards. Yamal is getting a lot of attention, which only helps the soccer market. The more his name is out there, the more he is compared with Messi and Ronaldo, the more eyes come to the game. There is probably a bunch of hype built into these prices. If he does not win three World Cups and five Champions Leagues and five Ballon d'Ors, where is the cap on his market?

Erling Haaland is a good example. He wins a treble, he breaks EPL records, and then his market tanks. Stuff that you bought at one point, you can pay 60% less six or eight months later. Even when someone breaks records and does all these crazy things, the market tanks. The attention spotlight can only really hold a few players at a time.

The Messi autograph controversy could actually make his autographs more valuable when you can get the right ones because it kind of limits the supply side. That is going to be interesting how it plays out.

The Soccer Community

Overall the soccer community is just a great place to be. They are definitely a very welcoming and warm community. The event SoCo is for soccer collectors, the soccer community. It is FUBU: for us, by us. This is truly grassroots. For many people in the community, this is essentially their favorite three days of the year. They all get to hang out, be together, be around the game they love, around the cards they love.

At the Austin card show, there was one soccer vendor out of 350 tables. When the World Cup 2026 happens, where does that number land? Are they going to go from 1% to 10%? To 20%? Something to think about.

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