Former Texas Longhorn Mo Bamba is opening a sports card and collectibles shop directly across the street from the campus where he became a UT Austin legend, with a grand opening ribbon-cutting set for Friday. Mo Bamba Cards & Collectibles will occupy 2350 Guadalupe Street — the strip students call The Drag — bringing a wax wall of sealed packs, a museum-style display case for rare cards and a full slate of trading nights to a corner Bamba once called home during his one-and-done season with the Longhorns.
According to CBS Austin, the shop's public grand opening runs Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., featuring a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Bamba himself. Grand opening celebrations continue into Saturday before the store settles into its regular daily hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. starting Sunday, per the outlet's reporting. Bamba, who founded the business, told the station that Austin is where a lot of things really started for him — a nod to the collegiate run that first put him on the national radar.
That run was a memorable one. During his lone 2017-18 season at Texas, Bamba set a school record with 105 blocked shots and averaged 3.7 per game, ranking second nationally while also putting up 12.9 points and 10.5 rebounds a night, according to University of Texas Athletics. That production earned him Big 12 All-Defensive Team and All-Newcomer Team honors, per CBS Austin's reporting, before the Orlando Magic made him the No. 6 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Inside the New Shop on The Drag
The 7-foot-10-inch-wingspan center — a physical trait CBS Austin's report also notes — has since played for the Magic, Lakers, 76ers, Clippers and Jazz, amassing more than $36 million in career NBA contract earnings, according to Sportskeeda. His initial four-year rookie deal with Orlando alone was worth $24.1 million, the outlet reported. That earning power appears to be underwriting his pivot into retail, a shop stocked with everything from sports cards to Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Magic: The Gathering product.
Inside, shoppers will find lounge seating, communal trading tables and a large TV wall for streaming Topps TV and live sporting events, per the station's reporting. The store also displays autographed jerseys, basketball memorabilia and custom artwork celebrating Bamba's Ivorian-American roots. Consignment services, in-house grading and expert collector guidance round out the offerings, alongside subscription and loyalty programs and space available for private parties and collector gatherings.
A Shop Built for Every Kind of Collector
Bamba wanted a spot where customers could do more than just buy cards — a place to open packs, watch games, trade and talk sports, the report notes. The shop's inventory spans football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey cards, plus both high-end one-of-one pieces and value-priced product aimed at newcomers. Monthly trade nights, VIP collector events and in-store live breaks are also planned, according to CBS Austin, with updates promised via the store's @mobambacollects social accounts and its website, mobambacollects.com.
The timing lines up with a broader boom in the collectibles world. The global sports trading card market was valued at roughly $13.75 billion in 2025 and is projected to nearly double to $27.52 billion by 2034, growing at an annual rate of 8.02 percent, according to Fortune Business Insights. North America accounts for roughly 42 percent of that global revenue, the firm notes. Young adult collectors aged 18 to 35 — a demographic that overlaps heavily with the UT Austin student body across the street — represent more than 65 percent of active market participants, according to Business Research Insights.
The Drag's Retail Churn and a National Athlete Trend
Bamba's new storefront also lands on a corridor with a complicated commercial history. Guadalupe Street has faced ongoing pressure from rising rents that have pushed out long-standing student-focused businesses over the years, according to The Daily Texan. The building itself has a long retail lineage, having previously housed the 1972 Pub and campus apparel shops, per the Austin Daily Texan's historical archives.
Bamba isn't the only star athlete betting on brick-and-mortar cards. NFL Hall of Famer Tom Brady has been expanding his CardVault store footprint near major sports venues, including outlets that claimed a downtown Indy corner and one that opened in St. Louis's Ballpark Village earlier this year. The rise in card valuations that fuels these ventures has also created new risks: a wave of pre-dawn break-ins hit hobby shops nationwide in early 2026, including one Illinois store robbed of a six-figure haul in April. Whether that risk factors into Bamba's operation at 2350 Guadalupe Street wasn't addressed in the CBS Austin report, but it underscores the stakes now facing any shop stocking high-value graded cards and sealed wax boxes.
