The world of sports is about anxiety.
In basketball's case, the clock winds down, time is limited to do something, anything, to get your team ahead while five people are dead set on stopping that very thing from happening. Then add in thousands of people watching, cheering or jeering and the best athletes prove themselves as ones who can silence the noise.
When the moment requires it, stars step up and overcome that anxiety. They turn it into victory.
It is Dec. 28, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State women's basketball and the soon-to-be crowned National Champions the UCLA Bruins have a scheduled Big Ten matchup at the Schottenstein Center.
The hallways of the arena are not yet overrun with people. Only security guards, red coats and concession stand workers hustle to make it to their stations.
Before any buzzer sounds, whistle is blown or basketball is dribbled, there is a different kind of anxiety. It is not on the hardwood court but it stands a few feet outside of those empty, echoing, hallways. Some fans line up early to skip the food lines, catch a few moments of shootaround or on this afternoon just escape the cold.
There is a basketball fan in the with a different motivation. Rachel Mansfield wants to get the autograph Bruins point guard Kiki Rice.
That night, getting down to the court before Rice players left for the pregame locker room talk was on Mansfield's No. 1 goal.
"I got through the door, got down to [section ]124 as like Kiki [Rice] was getting ready to walk off," Mansfield told Land-Grant Holy Land. "It's like a rush."
Its a three-hour trip, one way, for Mansfield from her home in Northeast Ohio down to Columbus. That alone is an admirable trek to come see a favorite player alongside her team full of now WNBA players, but the journey is nothing new.
That's because Mansfield is also an Ohio State women's basketball season ticket holder and collector of arguably the largest collection of Buckeye women's sports cards and memorabilia.
Everywhere you turn in Mansfield's room, there is scarlet and gray. From signed cards by current Buckeyes like point guard Jaloni Cambridge and center Elsa Lemmilä to a framed, unbroken, sheet of cards from the 1993 National Championship runners-up team signed by the entire roster.
That includes Basketball Hall of Fame guard Katie Smith. From a signed and inscribed replica of Buckeye legend Tracey Hall's retirement banner, an item from the now closed Buckeye Cafe to a pair of game worn shorts from Amber Stoke when the Buckeyes played the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on the deck of the USS Yorktown naval ship on Nov. 9, 2012.
Think of any era of Ohio State women's basketball and Mansfield probably has something from it, if not multiple things.
So, why the UCLA Bruins? Sure, the native Ohioan Mansfield loves Ohio State. On the football field her favorite players are TJ Barrett and Braxton Miller, and she has signed memorabilia from both of them, but women's sports fandom is different. Mansfield is not simply a fan of Ohio State, she loves college basketball in general.
Mansfield followed the Bruins thanks to weekly videos on social media from head coach Cori Close. The championship-winning coach shares talks from her car where she discusses a myriad of topics both in and out of the team.
That is how an Ohio State fan came to respect the team's culture and Rice, who spent her entire collegiate career at UCLA and was the embodiment of those values.
Commitment is an ongoing theme with Mansfield. In three years as a season ticket holder, Mansfield logged over 300 hours of just driving to and from the arena.
Then add another few hundred hours being at the arena before the doors open, getting autographs, meeting with fellow members of the Ohio State women's basketball fan group and the game itself and sports is more of a lifestyle than a hobby.
A lot of those games are on weeknights too, which makes for some tired mornings for the special education paraprofessional.
"I think I follow her. I feel like I know who you're talking about," Cam Finch told Land-Grant Holy Land. Finchworks for Midwest Cards , a shop based out of Downtown Columbus, only a few feet outside of Nationwide Arena.
After teaching for nine years and setting up at card shows on the weekends, Finch left for the world of cards full-time in May. Finch ran into Mansfield at card shows, weekend events where Mansfield is normally the only person in the high school gym or hotel conference room with mostly women's sports cards on their table.
Finch's first WNBA card was of Cynthia Cooper from the 1997 inaugural WNBA season. That year, Cooper won the league's inaugural MVP award, led the league with 22.2 points per game and won the first WNBA championship with the Houston Comets.
When all that happened on the court, Finch was four years old. The sports card expert received the card at seven years old.
"She's still a PC for me. Like I will PC Cynthia Cooper to the day I die because that was my first ever WNBA card," said Finch.
In the world of collecting, "PC" does not stand for personal computer. It means personal collection and in Finch's line of work not all collectors are the same. To oversimplify it, there are two camps of people who buy cards — the ones who collect them as a hobby and the ones who are looking to flip cards to make extra money.
The first women's sports card dates back to 1887 when the W.S. Kimball cigarette company released a series that highlighted great athletes of the day and included was famous boxer Hattie Stewart.
Now, 139 years later, there are many more big names in the women's collectibles game and the market reached a tipping point where there are sets of women's cards outselling their male counterparts.
Athlon Sports reported in April that women's basketball cards outperformed men's basketball cards, and the percentage of growth is not necessarily close.
Take Silver Prizm Rookie cards for instance. The brand of collectible stretches across sports and is a key name in cards when a star college player leaves for the professional ranks. Financial gains for men's rookie cards are 10% to 12% above the original purchase price of a card while the women's stretched to 28% to 32%.
That shows momentum in the women's sports sphere, fueled by names like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. A 2022 Bowman Superfactor card of Clark card sold for $78,000.
Bueckers surpassed the highest selling women's sports card with a $249,750 one of a kind Panini Flawless WNBA Logowomen Patch Autograph Platinum . On the card featured a WNBA logo patch from an actual jersey, framed above Buecker's signature. That did not last long as a similar card released for Clark that sold for $660,000 .
In the world of cards, WhatNot is the live, digital, marketplace that collectors of every level use to grow their collections, or quickly flip. Finch runs shows for Midwest Cards for women's basketball and men's football, although 90% of the collector's streams are for the WNBA.
Streamed live on WhatNot, fans can join a broadcast and bid on cards, bid on specific players or sometimes on entire teams. So, for example, a streamer may pay $20 for every Kelsey Mitchell card in the box. That person could come away with hundreds of dollars worth of cards or nothing but another debit on a bank statement.
In other words, it's gambling with cards.
Finch opens up, also known as "breaks," hobby boxes to reveal what streamers won. Sometimes fans hit it big and sometimes they come away with nothing.
It is a specific kind of job that comes with its own anxieties. Finch has two computer screens, a laptop and a phone on throughout the hours spent in front of a camera.
From logging sales, preparing shipments and running a giveaway every five minutes, running a professional WhatNot stream is not for the faint of heart, but Finch has sold and bought on the app for nearly two years before it became a career at Midwest.
To the Midwest go-to on WNBA cards, it does not feel like a job. With all that experience, Finch knows the kind of fans buying cards from stream to stream.
"I can tell by their reaction on the card that I pulled for them. Pull a big card. You're there for flipping. You immediately ask what it's worth. What was the last sold? What can I get? What do you think I can get for that? How much should I list that at? Should I list it now," said Finch.
"The collector goes, 'Oh my God! I can't believe you just sent me that. Let me screenshot it, Cam. You're the best. You're the best. Oh my freaking God!' Like, it's just completely different reactions. It's just pure joy compared to like, 'yay, I made mine.' It's a different type of joy."
People find happiness in countless ways. That could be from selling a card immediately or putting it in a sleeve and displaying it for years to come. It is not only noticing what the person intends to do with their winnings but how groups of fans as a whole communicate and connect within the world of sports cards.
Take those card shows for instance, Finch has not seen a big change in the demographics both selling and the product in which they sell. Ask for women's basketball cards and they will show you their binder of Caitlin Clark cards.
It's a male-centric environment in-person, largely based on flipping and finding a deal. Its different when Finch starts to break the next set of WNBA hobby boxes.
"When I do a show, it's heavily women in my show and heavy on collectors, and not people just trying to buy and flip and try to make a buck. So it's been really cool to see that online, and I would love to see that grow in person," said Finch.
Mansfield shares that passion for community in women's sports. Within the basketball part of that community, Mansfield is a moderator for the Ohio State women's basketball fan group on social media.
That means interacting with all different kinds of fans. Recently, Mansfield created a similar fan group for the Buckeyes women's softball team.
In high school, Mansfield played both softball and AAU basketball, which means a lot of games against athletes who went on to play at the Division I level.
On the softball field, Mansfield played against former Ohio State All-Big Ten selection Courtney Pruner, a pitcher who threw the ball so hard that she broke the thumb of one of Mansfield's teammates. Mansfield continued playing at Muskingum College, an hour west of Columbus.
So, that support that Mansfield shows for basketball only scratches the surface.
College sports dip in and out of the sports card world, although it is nowhere near as popular as the pros. At the Schottenstein Center, and at many schools across the country, are cards sold by the onit brand.
Onit produces cards for collegiate sports like softball, gymnastics, and volleyball on the women's side, in addition to basketball, football, hockey and wrestling. However, two years ago onit did not release any Ohio State softball cards in time for the season.
Since Mansfield also travels three hours one way for softball games, the collector took matters into her own hands.
"So, I actually went and created my own cards to be printed, and I had them signed by the women, and they were just like amazed. They're like, 'whoa, you actually picked good pictures of me,'" said Mansfield. "They're just amazed. I've actually given a couple to the parents of softball players to keep because they wanted them."
There is no listing for those cards online with a value next to them. None of them are PSA certified 10s. Even so, the value of those softball cards stretched beyond Mansfield's own passion. That is because the act of collecting in and of itself creates community.
To Mansfield, collecting is part of building a lasting legacy for the student athletes, which is something not always afforded to women's athletes.
The latest card-focused endeavor for Mansfield is back on basketball. The Ohio State fan sent letters to 15 former Buckeyes from the 1980s and 1990s and that is only the first batch to go out. In the letters are cards from the former Big Bear series of college basketball collectibles.
The goal is to get the players to return the cards signed to add to Mansfield's collection. So far eight responded. In future batches, any player who does not have a card will have a custom one created by Mansfield.
"I wanted to create a space for them to be recognized for their accomplishments as well, and try to take that on. I have my programs from when I attended early years and tickets, but more recently, in the last five to 10 years I've been collecting," said Mansfield.
"I just wanted them to be recognized and acknowledged because they are great programs, and there is stuff out there somewhere. So trying to collect it so they can be recognized too, not just football."
Mansfield still has two autographed cards that Katie Smith sent the then middle school basketball fan after she wrote an actual paper letter to the Ohio State All-American. This season, Mansfield hopes to get a picture with the now Scarlet and Gray assistant coach and the two prized possessions.
No matter who is in town playing against the Buckeyes, Mansfield will take the opportunity to acknowledge the former members of the program. That happened last season when the USC Trojans came to Columbus for the first time in Big Ten play.
That is when Mansfield met star guard JuJu Watkins. Normally, collectors are known to bring multiple items to get signed. It could be for their own personal stash or some get them to sell later on when the market is right. Mansfield only asks for one, out of respect of the players and their time.
That day, Watkins would have signed as many things as was put in front of her. On top of that, Watkins was friendly with everybody and enjoyed taking with fans. Watkins signed so much that the Trojan nearly signed a card of Beth Burns, the former Ohio State coach from 1997 to 2002.
Mansfield had a card ready for the now USC Trojans associate head coach to sign. There is always more to add to the legacy.
"She was like, 'oh, Coach Beth got a card?" and then Coach Beth came and signed. I'm like, 'yeah, JuJu tried to sign your card,' and she thought that was hilarious," said Mansfield.
For all of the growth in the women's sports card world, a lot of it is attached to Clark and Bueckers. Take that record Logowoman one of a kind card.
With the sale of the $660,000 Clark card, she is all of the top five cards ever sold for women's basketball. Card companies market their women's basketball cards predominantly around Clark and Bueckers, which in the sports card world is not exactly normal.
"We don't see that nearly as much in football, baseball, basketball," Jim Christy told Land-Grant Holy Land. Christy is the co-founder of Midwest Cards.
Back in 2020, Midwest Cards began at the same time that the COVID-19 pandemic put jet fuel in the engine of the world of sports cards. A passion turned into a career for Christy too. He has seen the growth of women's sports cards since the original sports card bubble of the 1980s and 1990s burst.
In Christy's expert opinion, card companies are not doing enough marketing of players outside of the top names to help the sector of the industry grow even more. "They're not trying to say, 'hey, look at all these amazing young WNBA players that could be great.' They don't message it that way as much as they say, 'come and chase these things.'"
The shortsighted marketing strategy within the women's sports card world has had a trickledown effect. While the early years of Midwest Cards had young girls come through the door to buy, sell and trade Pokemon cards, the monumental growth of the women's game led to the same demographic's move towards professional basketball, soccer and other women's sports cards.
Back when Finch taught, the card collector took the base cards from breaks and made them into prizes for students. One day, a seventh grade girls basketball player approached Finch and asked if the then teacher had any WNBA mystery packs.
"'I will in four seconds. I will make you one so quick. You stay right there. You stay right there,'" said Finch to the student.
Finch gave the student Clark but also A'ja Wilson, Bueckers and more. While valuations increase and resale percentages climb for women's sports, on the collector's level, on Mansfield's level, it is interactions like Finch's with a student or Mansfield with a softball player or former Buckeyes basketball coach that standout in how its growing for fans.
Over the last two seasons, the Ohio State women's basketball fan group even had their own card trading event at a Buckeye home game. That same season, the team held autograph sessions with players and gave away a set of cards to fans in attendance.
While it is not a college program's responsibility to grow the sports card market but through these pieces of cardboard and plastic is access to a community.
For all of the talk about community, a lot of collecting starts with family. It can begin through a first pack of cards from a local shop or an in-game promotion at a college basketball game.
Mansfield's love first came through a passion for sports. Living near the Lake Erie coast, Mansfield's dad Stephen had season tickets for the Cleveland Browns and sat in Municipal Stadium for some of the most historic, and painful, sports memories the city has to offer.
He was present for The Drive where John Elway led the Denver Broncos on a 98-yard touchdown drive to beat the Browns and The Fumble where Browns back Earnest Byner fumbled the ball with less than a minute left with Cleveland threatening their own comeback at the goal line.
Both moments coming far into the playoffs with Cleveland on cusp of trips to the Super Bowl.
In 1974, at a Cleveland Indians baseball game, Mansfield's dad sat in the stands for Ten-Cent Beer Night, the promotion gone wrong where the team sold beers for a dime a piece. That led to a battle between fans and players in the bottom of the ninth as drunk fans rioted, and there were eight innings of streakers and thrown objects before it.
"Guess what? He did not keep any of those ticket stubs," said Mansfield. "You have an $800 ticket in a urinal of Municipal right now because they probably just chucked it because they were so mad that John Elway drove all the way down the field."
Between Mansfield and her dad, she is clearly the better collector but without that relationship there might not be such a large repository of Ohio State women's sports history today.
While Mansfield herself was not old enough, or even alive enough, to attend any of the sad sports moments up north, the two made their own sports memories. Not only at Ohio State events but taking an annual trip to the girls high school basketball tournament.
That is where Mansfield's love for Ohio women's sports grew. Over the years the pair saw players like Ohio State star Kelsey Mitchell or Barbara Turner who went on to play for the UConn Huskies.
"I hold that pretty close to me as well with my dad. So I like to collect them. I just try to find any Ohio high school players that have went on to bigger colleges or WNBA, and I collect that, and I enjoy that as well."
Since 1999, the Mansfields made trips to the Big Ten Tournament, home games and at least one or two away games a year. Mansfield kept the ticket stubs and programs, when events still had both. To this day, the Mansfields share stories about upsets long forgotten on the court, and while current Buckeyes were likely in preschool.
On top of all of the game mementos, each year for Christmas Mansfield and her brother received at least one box of sports cards. That is when the family's love of sports turned into the start of a lifelong enthusiasm.
The room full of scarlet and gray memorabilia and cards from all Ohio State sports traces back to the connection between a parent and child. While Stephen does not have much memorabilia of his own, he loves seeing everything his daughter has collected. When she gets an autograph, he still gets excited.
When the anxiety of getting an autograph or flipping a card for maximum profit is taken out of the equation, there is real meaning behind every card, ticket stub and player correspondence. To Mansfield, it means everything.
"It's just been a great escape from my normal job of being a paraprofessional in special education. It's given me a great outlet. Somewhere to go to when I'm stressed about other things. It's given me lifelong friendships. Just having that connection with my dad too. Still being able to take him to games, like he used to take me to games, so now I take him."
