What a Weekend – Community, Cards & the New Forest Collectors Club

Wow. What an incredible weekend 💛

We hosted our first New Forest Collectors Club show of the year, and honestly—it was everything we hoped it would be and more.

As one of the founders of NFCC (alongside my wife Emily and my childhood friend Gary), I get the privilege of helping design a show that I would genuinely love to attend as a collector. We hand-pick our vendors and work hard to create a space that’s welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

This includes our dedicated trade room (kindly sponsored by my good friend Dan at ShoPoke Collectibles) and our SEN room, complete with toys generously provided by RM Prints & Collectibles—both of which mean a huge amount to us as organisers.

At the show itself, I was set up as Curio Card Care, offering free pre-grading throughout the day. That gave me the chance to see some truly special cards—including my very first jumbo cards, brought along by one of my favorite little regulars, George. Shout-out to George and his mum Lottie, they are a regular attendee for every event, and being able to provide a space for all the kids like George to be themselves is a privilege .

But the weekend didn’t stop at the show…

We kicked things off on Friday night with a dinner for members of The Curio Collectors Clubhouse, the Discord I run for genuine collectors who’ve now become proper friends. Some people travelled up to six hours to be here, which still blows my mind. This Discord is invite only, but as Curio Card Care customers, you are more than welcome to come and be part of the fun.

Twenty of us met at Kwackers in Southampton (amazing food and service—huge shout-out to the team), followed by the show on Saturday, pizza and beers at the brewery, and then a Pokémon shopping trip on Sunday for about ten of us at BPT and ShoPoke.

We’ve already booked our next NFCC show (date announcement coming very soon 👀), but the next event for me will be one of our regular trade nights at Vibrant Forest Brewery on Thursday 26th February (last Thursday of every month).

Pop down between 6:30–9:00pm—a few vendors, great beers, pizza, and plenty of trades. Honestly, what more could you want?

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who attended, our brilliant vendors, our family who help us every single time, and the Curio Clubhouse members who made the journey. None of this works without you.

Keep on chasin’,
Curio Rich 🖤✨