Multiple A’s fan groups spent the summer calling attention to the plight of their team, which Fisher intends to move to Las Vegas. A vote on the proposal is expected Thursday at a meeting of Major League Baseball owners in Arlington, Texas.

Jorge Leon, Jared Isham and Gabriel Cullen, leaders of a fan group called the Oakland 68s, decided to go the extra 1,700 miles. They crashed the scene, booking a hotel room at the site of the meetings to avoid being chased off by security.

And it was there, in the hotel bar, that they encountered Fisher, the reclusive A’s owner, on Tuesday night.

Interestingly, it was Greg Johnson, the Giants’ chairman of the board of directors, who the 68s credit with helping set up their unexpected confab with Fisher.

“He first went over and warned him about us,” Cullen said. “The first thing we see Greg go over and kind of like stop him. And then we see Fisher turn his head around this big pillar, look at us and then pull back. Then he kind of walked away, so we were like, ‘Ok, he’s probably not going to come over.’

“Then he came back, shook our hands and talked to us for 10-15 minutes.”

During that 15-minute conversation, Fisher told the group he’d been trying for 18 years to get a new ballpark for the A’s in the Bay Area. And even if the team and Oakland had a deal, he said, a new ballpark wouldn’t be completed until 2031.

Fisher,  who bought the team in 2005, thanked the 68s for their passion. He also told them: “It’s been a lot worse for me than you.”

The exchange, first reported by USA Today and confirmed Wednesday morning by Leon, Isham and Cullen, became another viral moment in the A’s saga on the level of this summer’s Reverse Boycott and “Sell The Team” chants.

Efforts to reach Fisher for comment were unsuccessful, as they have been for the entirety of his 18 years of ownership.

The group had a second encounter with Fisher on Tuesday night, when they saw him having dinner at the hotel restaurant.

“I yelled out, ‘Do the right thing!’ I was telling him the whole night, do the right thing,” said Leon, the president of the 68s.

Fisher didn’t respond directly to Leon, but according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Fisher told someone in his dinner party: “I am doing the right thing.”

The 68s learned of Fisher’s comment later in the night. They said they appreciated meeting with Fisher, but were not surprised by his stance.

“I feel like he lives in his own little world, and so he thinks that he’s coming off as genuine. But he’s not. He’s tone deaf,” Leon said.

The trio gained social media traction in the morning when a plane they chartered buzzed the site of the meetings with a banner that read: “A’s belong in Oakland – #VoteNo.”

They rubbed shoulders and pitched the “STAY” in Oakland message they wore on their green t-shirts with multiple team owners — and whoever would listen — for more than 12 hours.

The 68s said their message was mostly well received in the lobbies, bars and restaurants they patrolled most of Tuesday. They also distributed Oakland A’s “gift” boxes to owners with a DVD and other items explaining why the A’s belong in Oakland.

Leon said the owners weren’t surprised to see them.

“When I spoke with John Fisher and said I was with the 68s, he said, ‘Yeah, I’m well aware,’” Leon said. “We know we are in their heads.

“Even if he didn’t talk to us, the trip still would have been worth it. The point was being visible and that we’re not going to go away easy.”

Other state lawmakers, though, lauded the team’s proposal to build a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark on the strip and offered support during a special session Gov. Joe Lombardo called after the legislature’s regular term had ended Tuesday.

It turns out, that was just the start.

The nearly day-long session adjourned shortly before midnight and is scheduled to resume around 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Legislators are asking for more details and assurances surrounding the ambitious bill — introduced so late in the game that without Lombardo’s intervention, it would have been on hold until February.

If the public funding is approved, the A’s would end a decades-long search for a new stadium, reaching a key checkpoint in their efforts to leave Oakland and taking the last major team from a city once robust with professional sports franchises.

The A’s, which tracked down the current site after ditching a separate, costlier land deal, ran into hard questions about how recently the bill was introduced, as well as the proposed language, which some members of the legislature believed didn’t contain enough clear-cut community benefits.

Many of the lawmakers appeared to simply not believe the project was worth such a sizable investment.

“The small business community is basically being used to subsidize a form of corporate welfare for some exceptionally big people that honestly should be able to finance their own projects without the need of the Nevada taxpayers,” said Republican Sen. Ira Hansen.

The proclamation is here! The measure would be consistent with the provisions of Senate Bill 509 (as introduced in the 82nd regular session of the Nevada Legislature). https://t.co/r002Zo92DU pic.twitter.com/9bpCx1BZ67

— Tabitha Mueller (@tabitha_mueller) June 7, 2023

But the A’s have promised tax revenues generated by the 9-acre project site — on the same lot as the likely-to-be demolished Tropicana hotel — would go above and beyond the state’s bond-debt obligation.

“Those first years will probably be the easiest to fill … this shiny new stadium on the Vegas Strip,” Jeremy Aguero, a financial analyst hired by the A’s, said of attendance at the new ballpark. “I like our chances.”

Sen. Jeff Stone, a conservative former Californian, noted that sports franchises have almost never defaulted on their debt obligations, echoing other elected officials who signaled excitement at the prospect of summer baseball games on the Strip.

“I think you’ve done a good job minimizing risk to taxpayers,” Stone said. “I think it’s a very exciting project to consider.”

Major League Baseball has told the A’s they must have a stadium deal in place before Jan. 15 to continue to be eligible for revenue-sharing monies.

League commissioner Rob Manfred, meanwhile, has pledged to waive the team’s relocation fees if the ballpark in Vegas becomes a reality.

The eagerness by Manfred and billionaire A’s owner John Fisher to move Oakland’s longstanding baseball franchise out of town has irritated most of the city’s leaders and residents.

In a letter to Manfred this week, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland, said the commissioner and the A’s don’t appear to be negotiating with Oakland in good faith and are attempting to “actively take crucial revenue, and a cultural staple, from the East Bay.”

“Multiple generations of Oaklanders have grown up identifying with the team’s dogged efforts and hard-earned triumphs,” Lee wrote.

“The A’s organization adds significant tangible economic benefit to our region, including numerous good paying jobs at Oakland Coliseum,” she added. “But as important is the sense of unique shared cultural identity that surrounds the team and its local fanbase.”

Hansen made it a point at Wednesday’s special session to extend sympathy to Oakland, noting that the A’s may one day “abandon” Las Vegas in similar fashion.

The A’s lease at the Coliseum extends through the end of the 2024 season, but a ballpark at the team’s latest proposed site in Las Vegas would not be constructed until at least 2027.

The $380 million sought by the A’s is significantly lower than the $750 million Nevada coughed up in 2016 to draw Raiders football away from Oakland.

And after Nevada legislators last month balked at a $500 million funding request for a stadium further down the strip, the A’s scrambled to the Tropicana site — announcing each of the two deals with a tone of finality that stands in stark contrast to how things have played out.

The bulk of the public funding for the retractable roof stadium would come from $380 million in public assistance, partly through $180 million in transferable tax credits and $120 million in county bonds.

Backers have pledged the district will generate enough money to pay off those bonds and interest. If the bill were approved, A’s would owe no property taxes for the publicly owned stadium, and Clark County would be expected to contribute only $25 million.

For senators with little patience for the project, details of the financial workings were more interesting because of the opportunity cost — all the ways that the money wouldn’t be spent.

Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, a Las Vegas Democrat, noted that the A’s had made their funding request “at the same time that the governor has vetoed funding for summer school, a bill to support children’s mental health, a bill requiring paid family leave — all because the governor said we couldn’t afford them.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Friday night, fans will have a platform to air their feelings about the team’s potential move to Las Vegas, the failed negotiations with Oakland, and the sad state of the once-proud franchise.

A’s fan groups called Oakland Forever and (Un)Rooted in Oakland — the name mocks a longtime A’s marketing slogan about being Rooted in Oakland — are calling on fans to gather outside the ballpark before Friday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds. It will be the first home game since the team announced an agreement to buy land for a ballpark off the Vegas Strip. Oakland mayor Sheng Thao responded by immediately terminating negotiations with the team about the Howard Terminal ballpark project.

“We were played,” said Curt Silver, a co-organizer of the protest. “I think there is a possible route to save this team. I don’t think A’s fans are done — there was a lot of information thrown at people very fast, and some of them accepted that they are moving. That is far from the truth.”

Organizers are asking fans to meet at the pedestrian bridge between the BART station and the Coliseum at 5 p.m. The group (Un)Rooted added the “Un” to its Twitter name following last week’s developments.

The call to action reads: “Angry about Rob Manfred’s handling of this whole situation? Come out and join us on April 28th. Make a sign. Make many signs. We will not back down. #OaklandForever #SellTheTeam.”

The group doesn’t want fans to attend the game; they don’t intend to give owner John Fisher another dime. Even the organizers have no idea how well-attended the protest will be – the Warriors have a playoff game Friday night — whatever the number, misery will have company.

“It’ll be every emotion you can think of,” said A’s fan Stu Clary. “I think there will be more than enough anger to go around. Sadness in a certain way. But also some hopefulness.

“Maybe I’m in the denial stage of grief, but I don’t think it’s just possible, but probably they screw this up. That’s all they do, screw things up.”

Silver, the rally co-organizer, said re-connecting passionate A’s fans willing to still fight for their team is the priority on Friday.

“If 500 lackluster people show up, I’d rather have 20 diehards screaming at the top of their lungs about their grievances,” Silver said.

Most signs point to the A’s moving to Las Vegas, perhaps as soon as next season. But there is hope among A’s fans that the ballpark deal could be shot down by the Nevada legislature. A potential move also could be blocked if 75 percent of MLB owners don’t approve. And then there is the big save-the-day dream: Fisher is forced to sell the team, keeping the A’s in Oakland, their home since 1968.

Another big date on the calendar is June 13. That’s when A’s fans — and all baseball fans — are being asked to pack the Coliseum for a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

THE “HERE WE ARE” REVERSE BOYCOTT!!!

Come join us at the Coliseum on June 13 as the A’s face off against the Tampa Bay Ray’s. The idea is to pack the stadium and show the owners our frustration (shirts, signs, etc). Together, we can show the most dedicated fans in the MLB. pic.twitter.com/K96ZOfOIA6

— (Un)Rooted In Oakland – SELL THE TEAM (@OaklandRooted) April 14, 2023

The team and MLB commissioner Manfred have long pushed the narrative that the A’s have to leave the crumbling Coliseum because the team simply can’t draw fans there. Oakland did rank last in the majors in attendance last season and is likely to bring up the rear again this season.

The counterargument is that ownership’s mishandling of the team and its fan base is to blame for the attendance problem. The ballpark is shabby, they acknowledge, but the roster is worse. Give them a winner, and they will come in droves. Case in point: the 2019 AL wild-card game against Tampa Bay — on a Wednesday night — when the tarps came off Mount Davis and more 54,000 fans jammed into the Coliseum.

“Staying away is not the answer,” Clary said. “It just drives the narrative that we don’t deserve a team… Now, more than ever, we need to pack the Coliseum on the 13th and make a statement.”

Despite missing the playoffs, the Giants turned the second-largest profit in the majors last season ($74.9 million), while the A’s were the 16th-most profitable team ($29 million) despite losing 100 games for just the second time in Oakland franchise history and ranking dead last among the 30 teams in attendance.

Those were just a few of the surprising financial details to come out of Forbes’ annual report of MLB valuations, which was released Thursday. MLB values reached record highs – and profits – despite a season that was delayed by a lockout and media rights squabbles.

According to the report, the Giants are the fifth-most valuable franchise in the majors at $3.7 billion. The Yankees top the list by a wide margin – $7.1 billion – followed by the Dodgers ($4.8B), the Red Sox ($4.5B) and the Cubs ($4.1B).

The Giants’ value went up six percent, according to the report, despite a disappointing season that saw them go 81-81 and finish third in the NL West after a captivating 2021 that included the franchise’s first division title in nine years. The Giants reportedly made $421 million in revenue last season despite ranking 12th in the majors in attendance. The Giants’ payroll of about $162 million last season ranked 12th (the Dodgers were first at $270M), according to Spotrac.com.

The Giants didn’t add Aaron Judge or Carlos Correa, but their payroll is projected at closer to $183 million this season after several free-agent additions like Michael Conforto and Mitch Haniger.

The initial report from Forbes placed the A’s fifth in all of baseball in profit from 2022, with an operating income of $62 million. Forbes assistant managing editor Mike Ozanian said a correction was applied because the initial calculation gave the A’s a full share of revenue sharing. But as was reported last season by multiple outlets, Oakland only received a quarter of a share, requiring the correction and recalculation.

Still, the $29 million profit could be frustrating for A’s fans who have seen all of the team’s biggest stars jettisoned over the past 14 months as the franchise battles the city of Oakland over a potential stadium deal – all the while with the threat of a move to Las Vegas looming overhead.

Forbes ranked the A’s 29th in franchise value ($1.18B) – ahead of only the Marlins ($1B). The A’s were the only team in the majors to fail to average more than 10,000 fans (9,973) and four times drew fewer than 3,000 to the aging Coliseum.

The A’s have one of the worst media contracts in baseball, too. So how did the A’s manage to still make more money than any team other than their cross-bay rivals, the Mariners ($83.8M), the Red Sox ($71.6M) and the Orioles ($64.7M)?

The A’s had the second-lowest payroll, around $50 million, and also received about $9 million in revenue sharing to go along with revenue of about $212 million, according to Forbes. The A’s figure to be profitable again this season no matter how they do on the field: They will reportedly receive $20 million in revenue sharing and their payroll is estimated at about $58 million according to Fangraphs.

Interestingly, the top two teams that lost money in 2022 made the playoffs: The Mets ($138.5M) and the Padres (55.2M). Another playoff team, the Blue Jays, lost $33.7 million, fourth between the White Sox ($53.4M) and the Twins ($30.3M).

The 76-year-old Jackson was on the “Howard Stern Show” and said that money was no object for his group, which he said included Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and he believed a deal was all but done when the A’s were up for sale in the early 2000s. Jackson suggests he had an agreement in place with then-A’s owner Ken Hofmann, and is “absolutely” convinced then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig made sure the deal didn’t happen — paving the way for the A’s to be sold to a group led by Selig’s fraternity brother at the University of Wisconsin, Lew Wolff, in 2005 for $180 million.

“It broke my heart,” Jackson said during a wide-ranging interview with Stern on Wednesday. “I went into depression for about six months.”

When @mroctober tried to buy the Oakland @Athletics he says he was blocked by Bud Selig. He tells Howard what happened and why he decided not to sue the former #MLB commissioner. pic.twitter.com/aBQpLhcd85

— Stern Show (@sternshow) March 22, 2023

Jackson said his group, which also included John McCaw, the former part-owner of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, had enough money that, “I could have bought the National League.”

Jackson said, “In writing, I sent a letter to Ken Hofmann, who owned the A’s, that I’m willing to pay $25 million more than any bid that you get. Bud said to me, he said ‘Reggie, stay with me. I’ll guide you through. I’ll get this done for you.’

“And then all of a sudden it came out that the A’s were sold to a guy by the name of Lew Wolff — Bud Selig’s college buddy.”

Selig could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Frustrated A’s fans can only wonder what the franchise might look like now if Jackson and his group of deep pockets were in charge.

Wolff sold his shares in the team in 2016, making John Fisher the sole principal owner. With Opening Day just a week away, the team heads into another season of uncertainty — the A’s lease at the Coliseum runs out after next season, there has been no movement on a potential new stadium at Howard Terminal, and the dark cloud of a potential move to Las Vegas continues to hover over the franchise.

Jackson’s wasn’t the only group in discussions with Hofmann and Steve Schott when the team was sold in 2005. Warriors primary owner Joe Lacob has said he had a presumed deal dissolve around the same time. Lacob also says he’s had a standing offer with Fisher to buy his part of the team for more than a decade.

In his Schott’s 2022 book “Long Schott”, he wrote: “Reggie Jackson had a group that he said wanted to buy the team, with Brian Shapiro and other investors, and said they were willing to pay $25 million more than what the Fishers were offering. But by the time Reggie contacted me, we had the deal in place. It would have been great and historic for Reggie to be part of the ownership group, as the first African American owner. I had a good relationship with Reggie, having retired his No. 9 a year earlier. But I had to commit to the deal with the Fishers and baseball and couldn’t chase the last dollar.”

Jackson told Stern he was so convinced he was about to own the team he broke into the majors with and helped lead to three straight World Series titles that he was prepared to sue Selig and baseball when Wolff (Jackson says surprisingly) got the team instead of his group.

When asked if he felt his reputation as a “troublemaker” as a player was a factor in the potential deal failing, Jackson told Stern, “I absolutely believe that. And I absolutely believe that Bud was the guy involved that denied me from getting a team. I had a 100-page lawsuit drawn up, I still have the deck — about 3-4 inches thick. And there’s six inches of text messages and all that kind of stuff that went back-and-forth. I never filed it.”

Jackson said he didn’t file the lawsuit on the advice of others, who suggested there would be significant retribution from the baseball owners.

“I got scared away by some people in baseball. They said, ‘Reggie, the first thing you have to do is resign from baseball — from the Yankees. And you probably won’t get hired again. And you probably won’t this and you probably won’t that.’ And I didn’t know enough about the legal system, etc.

“I should have sued. I didn’t. It’s obviously still in my craw.”

Jackson, who spent his first nine seasons with the franchise and returned in 1987 for his final year in the majors, has appeared at numerous A’s functions at the Coliseum during the Fisher era, including last year’s celebration of the 1972 World Series team. The next likely appearance would be April 16, when the A’s honor the 1973 team that beat the Mets in the World Series for the second of Oakland’s three straight championships.

“What’s it going to take to get me Ohtani?” a voice from across the table inquires. “I’m willing to overpay for that guy.”

A few feet away, a small group watches with great interest as numbers are traded and then punched into cellphone calculators. In the end, negotiations for another of the game’s biggest stars fall apart before it really gets serious: “I’d love Trout, but you’re just asking too much; people are starting to figure out he’s kinda overrated.”

No, this isn’t a scene from the baseball’s winter meetings. Welcome to the world of baseball card collecting 2.0.

Those colorful, cardboard treasures have existed in one form or another since the late 1800s. They were a pretty big deal in the early 1960s and a REALLY big deal in the early 1990s but were mostly forgotten at the start of this century because they were barely worth the cardstock they were printed on.

But if you haven’t collected since the days when chewing gum came with your packs, let alone before the age of serial-number autograph cards, you may be surprised to learn the hobby is enjoying a historic revival.

It’s one nobody saw coming – and was fueled by, of all things, the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The lockdown put us kind of all in a place where we had to sit down, stay home and do nothing,” recalled Keane Dasalla, a memorabilia collector and vlogger from Fremont. “It didn’t take long before everything kind of went crazy.”

Jim Bernardini opened Lefty’s Sports Cards in Burlingame in 1987 and has seen it through the Bash Brothers, the Loma Prieta earthquake, two Gulf Wars, the baseball strike, 9/11, the stock market crash and three Giants World Championships. But the pandemic era has been something else.

“We’ve had some ups and downs in our industry over the years,” said Bernardini. “This is an up. For the first time, we are debt-free.”

Vintage cards. New releases. Prospects. Everything took off, virtually overnight.

“Five years ago, I was telling people the hobby would be dead in 10 years,” said Ray Krause, who has owned and operated MVP Sportscards in Pleasant Hill since 1991. “Basically everybody who used to collect who were in their 20s, 30s and even 50-year-olds jumped back in.”

They were not alone.

CLEANING UP

Baseball card collecting began showing signs of life in the mid-2010s with the emergence of instant-impact rookies from big-market teams like Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge.

Then a couple of seemingly unrelated events brought the real heat.

The pandemic created an abundance of spare time during the lockdowns as well as an influx of spending money from stimulus checks. Around the same time, several prominent social media influencers started turning their attention – and their followers – from buying and selling sneakers to sports memorabilia.

The final element was nostalgia, which baseball is practically built around.

Extra time meant more screen time for many. But we all know people – or ARE those people – who during the pandemic began rummaging through closets and sheds to organize and declutter. For many, hidden – or simply forgotten – under those old sweaters and school papers were cardboard treasures.

Jennifer Starks from San Francisco said she was a big collector as a kid. Her dad gave her rookie Joe Montana and Jerry Rice football cards for her 16th birthday, but, “I kind of forgot about them.

“Then I decided to get my old cards out. Everybody else was doing it.”

Practically everyone has heard the collecting horror stories about someone’s childhood stash that might have been worth thousands – Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle cards almost always seem to be involved, right?  – that was thrown out or lost during a move or spring cleaning, or simply because the collector had outgrown the hobby.

Modern collections, by and large, didn’t meet the same three strikes and you’re out fate. Millions of cards have been safely stored away because parents and kids alike swore that  “one day these will pay for college or a down payment on a house.”

During the pandemic, some of those bold financial claims actually came true. Or at least helped pay some bills and cover some Starbucks runs.

“I saw (some of the prices vintage cards were getting) and said, ‘Wait, I have a stash of cards in the closet, let me look into those,’” Vanson Nguyen of Alameda said of his return to the hobby, which included rediscovering a Mookie Betts rookie card worth more than $100.

“I was a collector in the early 2000s, and I got back in during the pandemic because I was looking for a community. I found it. I’m a kid again. But to be clear, I’ve always been a kid.”

BIG LEAGUE BUSINESS

Interest in the hobby was surging by the late spring of 2020. By the end of the year, eBay reported that more than 4 million sports cards had been sold on the site, an increase of 142 percent from the previous year. Card shops couldn’t keep up with demand.

It wasn’t just the volume of cards being bought, sold, and traded that was off the charts. Prices for cards, and especially unopened materials, suddenly made the Bay Area housing market appear reasonable.

At least two dozen baseball cards are believed to have been sold for more than $1 million since the spring of 2020, including a legendary Honus Wagner T-206 card that went for a record $6.6 million.

But it wasn’t just vintage or rare autograph cards that were getting huge bucks.

Take Trout’s 2011 Topps Update card for example. It has been one of the most valuable baseball cards since the Angels star debuted and was going for about $500 in February 2020. A year later, collectors were asking for – and getting – $2,500.

“The hobby was just on fire,” said Dion Noriega, a card dealer for The Card Attic and promoter from Vallejo.

Even the popular grading services that for a fee will determine and log the overall condition of a car, which can increase value significantly, weren’t ready for the boom. The two largest, PSA and Beckett Grading Services, suspended operations temporarily when they faced a backlog of more than 11 million cards. Cards submitted last year still haven’t been processed.

When the pandemic hit, card shop owners were understandably concerned. In the 1990s most towns had multiple card shops. There are about 1,000 left nationwide, including about a dozen in the Bay Area. The pandemic wiped out many small businesses, but card shops largely survived. Many thrived even though customers couldn’t come inside the doors for most of the card boom.

But owners had to hustle. Krause of MVP Sportscards stayed in touch with customers via email and delivered orders to doorsteps. Bernardini and his staff at Lefty’s would pack up phone and online orders, spray the plastic covering with disinfectant and then leave the cards at the front of the store for the customers to pick up. As it did for everyone else, mail and delivery orders became a lifeline.

As prices soared – it wasn’t unheard of to “flip” a $40 box of cards for nearly 10 times that – new products became scarce.

Not only were kids and adults being priced out, hoarding was a big problem. Almost overnight, the retail store displays that for years were overflowing with boxes and packs of sports cards were reduced to empty wire racks.

“It was like the toilet paper problem all over again,” Starks said with a laugh.

NEW SEASON AHEAD

The hobby was at its hottest last August, when prices for some of the most valuable cards on the secondary market doubled – or much more – from just months earlier. Demand for new products was so high that finding unopened packs of cards was virtually impossible unless collectors were willing to spend like the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees. Major retail stores stopped selling packs of cards because fights were breaking out in the aisles and parking lots.

“They’d cut in front of you and start taking everything off the shelves,” said Dominick Rodriguez of Newman, describing one of his card-purchasing experiences. “Then you go outside to the parking lot, and they try to sell it to you for twice as much!”

Tempers – and prices – have started to cool, leading some investors to leave the hobby. But it wasn’t only finances that had people flocking back to the hobby. There’s more reason to believe the card market will remain healthy.

“The joy of opening the packs, we enjoy doing that together,” said Jeff of San Mateo while attending a card show with his youngest son, David, adding that he wasn’t a big collector growing up, but, “I wish I had kept them; Mom kind of threw them out.”

Collectors have never had more access to cards – just type in “Buster Posey Topps rookie card” on eBay and see how many results pop up. Even social media sites like Instagram and Facebook are places fans can buy and trade cards online. And there are the old standbys – neighborhood hobby shops and card shows, which are beginning to pop up again as COVID-19 guidelines loosen.

Hundreds of collectors gathered for a two-day show on the concourse at Serramonte Center in Daly City in January, with the tables bustling with activity as names big and small were bought, sold, and traded.

One of the first big shows in the region was staged last April in Fairfield by Noriega. He figures about 3,000 collectors showed up for the 75-table event. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, only 100 people could be in the building at a time, and the wait to get in for some was 2 ½ hours.

“They weren’t happy to wait that long, but they all stayed,” Noriega said. “You couldn’t find product anywhere else.”

Collectors are still on the hunt. Topps released this season’s Series I cards in mid-February and, with budding superstar Wander Franco’s rookie card as the centerpiece of the set, the site was sold out within 24 hours.

“I still get new people to the hobby about every day,” Krause said. “A lot of people who got into the hobby during the pandemic had fun and will stick with it. The guys who were trying to become instant millionaires without actually doing any work are all starting to leave.”

Many returnees to the hobby are now parents. They want to share their card memories as well help make new ones by chasing after cards of the stars of this generation like Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatís Jr. and Ronald Acuña.

Will the cards of today pay for college tuition and down payments down the road? Is another bust like the post-90’s era on the horizon? Who knows? Why worry?

“Collectors who love the hobby are going to stick with it no matter what,” said Union City’s Craig Queyrel, owner of Vintage Cards & Collectibles in Newark. “My advice has always been buy what you like.

“Then, you can never go wrong.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants finally made a splash this offseason, and while the impact on the field could take some time, the results outside their waterfront ballpark will be immediate.

Redwood Shores-based Oracle Corp. has purchased the naming rights to the team stadium, for between $200 million and $350 million, according to news reports Wednesday.

The Giants are expected to officially announce the name change from AT&T Park at a news conference Thursday. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which was first to report the story, temporary signage for Oracle Park will be visible around the ballpark immediately.

The agreement gives the tech giant 20 years of naming rights, according to news reports.

This is the third time the Giants have renamed their home stadium since they moved from Candlestick Park for the start of the 2000 season.

Originally named Pacific Bell Park (that original naming-rights deal reportedly was for around $100 million over 24 years) it became SBC Park in 2003. Then it became AT&T Park in 2006. That’s the name of the stadium that saw the Giants win three World Series titles in five years and Barry Bonds break Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record.

According to the Chronicle, AT&T Inc. held the rights through next season, but gave the team a chance to opt out a year early if it could secure a new partner. Giants president and CEO Larry Baer told the Chronicle that the team called about a half-dozen of their marketing partners to gauge interest.

“The organizations know one another well,” Baer told the newspaper, referring to Oracle. “That’s the only way we were able to get a deal this quickly. It was hatched over the holidays.

“It’s an iconic park and we kind of view it as a landmark. We said early on we want this park to age gracefully to the point we can feel like what Fenway might feel like in Boston, and Wrigley might feel in Chicago.

“Nobody knows this park, other than AT&T, better than Oracle.”

In addition to sponsoring the ballpark’s suite level for the past decade, the company wraps up its annual OpenWorld conference with a major musical performance at the venue and holds several smaller events there throughout the year, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

“This is not just a naming thing or financial,” Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd told the San Francisco Business Times. “This is about a relationship, a long-term relationship.”

The deal appears to be one of the richest of its kind in North American professional sports, which seemingly would trickle through to the Giants’ product on the field. The team already boasted the second-highest payroll in the majors last season at around $203 million.

Kevin Bartram, principal of Bartram Partnerships, a brand sponsorship consultancy, told Bloomberg the $200 million to $350 million price tag “seems very fair.” He was one of the consultants who brokered the Pacific Telesis-Giants partnership, according to the news outlet.

“The price has escalated significantly since we did the original deal,” Bartram told Bloomberg. “But we’ve seen with Levi’s Stadium and the Chase Center that for some companies, there’s a lot of value there.”

In one sense, Oracle is trading blue and gold for orange and black, the team colors of the Golden State Warriors and Giants, respectively. The company’s name already adorns the Oakland arena where the Dubs play, but that deal is expiring with the team’s upcoming move to San Francisco. JP Morgan Chase & Co. has reportedly agreed to pay up to $20 million annually for the rights to the Oracle Park-adjacent Chase Center.