Less than six months after its inaugural showing, the third edition of Okanagan Collectors Fest was packed on Saturday as hundreds stopped by the Coast Capri Hotel.
The locally-organized event features a number of vendors buying and selling Pokémon, sports cards and other collectibles. The event has grown rapidly, surpassing the expectations of its organizers.
“Not as fast as it's grown, we've been super surprised with the love from the community that we've been getting and honestly, every time I put it on now, people come in…and thank me for putting it on,” said Ehsan Mohammad, founder of Vaulted Gems and Okanagan Collectors Fest organizer.
“And I can tell, like every show, I've met new faces, more people are knowing about it. I've had people coming from Salmon Arm and Kamloops down here. It's big now.”
The first time the fest was held, it used the Laurel Packinghouse in downtown Kelowna and saw around 800 people throughout the day.
To accommodate the demand, the event was moved to the Coast Capri hotel for the second edition, which occurred in the summer, and now, after a second time at the hotel, Mohammad is already looking at potentially moving to a larger spot for the next event.
“I think in the first hour, we had like, 500 people come through the doors and it's just been getting more and more packed as we're going, so it's crazy,” he said when asked how many people were at Saturday’s event.
The show allows buyers to interact with the vendors and to see the items in person, instead of the disconnect that occurs when buying things online.
“Normally, you wouldn't get to interact with them. You wouldn't even be able to see conditions on cards besides pictures,” added Mohammad.
“Where now, you get to see what condition the collectible is in, you can haggle the price, you can bring your collection, trade, you can't do that online.”
While there was a variety of items for sale at the event, the star of the show was Pokémon-related items.
“It's just non-stop, like, the community is hungry for Pokémon and all sorts of cards, there's not just Pokémon here, and it's been a ton of fun,” said Blake Ouellet, owner and founder of Blakestoise TCG.
“Just so, so busy, so non-stop. It's great, buying, selling, trading, everybody's here just to have a good time.”
While this was the last Okanagan Collectors Fest of 2025, event goers will probably not have to wait too long for the next event, as organizers are looking to potentially hold another collectors fest in February.
“Honestly, the future, I think we're gonna need to get a bigger space, because there's a lot of vendors that are on the wait list that I feel bad saying no to,” said Mohammad when asked what is in store for the popular show.
“We just don't have the room right now. But yeah, we're gonna open up some more doors to bigger spaces for sure.”
