By Christopher Tenpenny
An old tradition was revived Saturday in Harrisonville Saturday, when for the first time in nearly three years, the Harrisonville Trade Fair held a sports memorabilia auction. Multiple floods and COVID-19 have prevented one from happening since 2018 and owner Lani Cook said it was good get things going again.
“I’ve been an auctioneer for a long time and missed being up there rattling off prices,” Cook said. “It was good to be back out there with everyone. I’m a people person and I enjoy the interacting with everyone.”
COVID-19 precautions kept the Cooks from holding an event, but she said people were interested.
“They’ve been bugging us for a while now, asking when we are going to have a sports auction,” Cook said. “These guys love it and are always excited to see what we have.”
The Trade Fair’s sports auctions draw people from all over the Midwest, ranging from Kansas and Iowa and one woman made the trip from Omaha, Nebraska.
The highlighted items from the auction included a signed Patrick Mahomes rookie card and a KC Wolf bobblehead. The Mahomes card went for $2,500 while the bobblehead went for $1,100. Sports trading cards are currently up in value. The auction featured binders filled with cards as well as select cards such as Major League Baseball’s 500 home run club. The interest in cards brought new faces to the auction.
“For years, the auctions have been the same crew, but we had a ton of new faces this year,” Cook said. “It’s good to see people getting more comfortable going out again.”
Items are put up for sale by lots by whoever is trying to sell their memorabilia. Cook said they have already gathered enough people interested in auctioning off their items to have another auction in the near future. Cook said the Trade Fair plans on returning back to normal and trying to host three to four auctions a year. There is no date set for the next one, but Cook said to be on the lookout in the next three months or so.
