By Maddie Brewer ’23
As a child, Cathy Green Mahan ’98 enjoyed collecting and trading sports cards. In 2020, she turned her hobby into a successful business.
Mahan and her husband, James Mahan, started Roadshow Cards as an online-only business during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have since opened physical locations in Lexington, Ky.; Mansfield, Texas; Bronxville, N.Y.; and Sonoma, Calif. They sell sports collectibles and cards, as well as other cards, such as Pokémon.
“If you have something you like, I guarantee there’s a card for it,” she says. “There are cards for Disney characters, and there are cards for horses and jockeys.”
Pawn Stars Do America recently visited the Kentucky location and featured the business in an episode that aired on Nov. 10. The episode is now available to stream.
Mahan, who played on Wofford’s women’s soccer team, started the business by selling cards she had accumulated in her youth. From there, the business began purchasing cases of cards and selling some of the most sought-after cards individually.
Mahan says NBA cards are her top-sellers because basketball is such an international sport. Baseball and football cards, however, tend to sell better in the United States.
Mahan says she knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur while majoring in English at Wofford, but she never imagined opening a business selling sports cards. She spent several years in sales before branching out on her own.
Being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry is a point of pride for Mahan. She hopes to bring more of a face to the women involved in card collecting.
For now, Mahan is focused on Roadshow’s existing stores. She does, however, have an eye on the future.
“Opening three new locations in a year was ambitious, and we want to get them all rolling before committing to new construction projects,” she says. “Not knowing the timeframe for future projects, it looks like our next Roadshow location will be Wilmington, N.C., and my husband has dreams of a shop in Europe — possibly London or Barcelona — but that is farther into the future.”