How to find a card show near you
Where card shows are listed, how to read a listing's hours, tables and admission, and how local, regional and national shows differ before you travel.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 7 min read
To find a card show, check three kinds of listing: a show calendar that gathers shows by state or by distance, the schedule pages of the organizers who run regional and national shows, and, if you want a card graded on the spot, CGC’s events page. Then confirm the date, hours and admission on the organizer’s own page before you travel. Most listed shows are small. On Sports Collectors Digest’s calendar on October 12, 2026, 200 of the 315 listings that gave a table count had fewer than 100 tables.
Where are card shows listed?
No single list covers every show, so use more than one.
| Where | What it covers | How you search | How far ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports Collectors Digest’s show calendar | Card and memorabilia shows, grouped by state | Scroll to your state | It asks organizers for dates month by month and no longer posts a full year at once |
| Treasure Hunter, a show finder | Estate sales, trade nights, conventions and card shows, collected from organizers’ own sites, convention directories and entries that people submit | City or ZIP code, with results within 100 miles sorted by date | Listings are checked weekly and past events removed |
| An organizer’s own schedule page | That organizer’s shows | Its website | On October 12, 2026, all six of The Dallas Card Show’s 2027 dates in Allen, Texas were already set |
| CGC’s events page | Shows CGC hosts or attends | Filters for country, state, month and service, such as on-site grading or accepting submissions | Events, dates and services can change at any time |
Check the calendar again each month for new listings.
Shows are a place to sell and trade as well as buy, because dealers and collectors there may want what you bring. Our guide to selling at a card show covers that side.
What does a show listing tell you?
Sports Collectors Digest prints each show as one line of short codes.
| Field | Example from the calendar | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Date and place | Oct 17, CA, San Jose | The day and the town, with the full venue address after the show name |
| SH | SH: 9am-2pm | Show hours. On the October 12, 2026 calendar, 159 of the 244 one-day listings with a simple start-to-end range close by 3 pm |
| T | T: 30, or T: $40 | Tables. A plain number is the number of dealer tables; a dollar figure is what a dealer pays for one, which says nothing about size |
| A | A: Free, A: $3, or EA $10; GA $5 | Admission. Two prices often mean an earlier, dearer entry and a later general one; one listing spells it out as $10 at 9 am and $5 at 10 am |
| Contact | A name, phone, email or social account | The person to ask before you travel |
A few listings add a third, later entry time, such as 3 pm at a Northern California expo, with admission given as a range. One lists a trade night the evening before, at a hotel in the same town.
Two real lines from the calendar on October 12, 2026 show the range. A one-day show at a hotel in northern Alabama listed 8 am to 2 pm, 30 tables and free admission. A two-day show at a stadium near Phoenix listed 800 tables and $10 admission. The finder’s listings give the organizer’s contact, the venue and address, the date and time, admission and the table count.
How big is a typical show?
Smaller than the big names suggest. Rip.fan sorted every listing on Sports Collectors Digest’s calendar that gave a table count on October 12, 2026:
| Tables listed | Listings |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 50 | 72 |
| 50 to 99 | 128 |
| 100 to 199 | 65 |
| 200 to 499 | 42 |
| 500 or more | 8 |
| All with a table count | 315 |
The middle listing had 75 tables. Another 52 listings gave a table price or no count at all, and a show that repeats appears once for each date. Admission was free in 166 listings, close to half of those that stated it. All eight with 500 or more tables charged at least $10, and the Dallas Card Show’s line listed $15 to $35.
How do local, regional and national shows differ?
| Tier | Example | How often | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local | One-day shows in hotels, halls, malls, fairgrounds and school gyms | Many list both an October and a November date | Most under 100 tables |
| Regional | The Dallas Card Show, with six shows a year in Allen, Texas, and further shows in New Jersey, Chicago and Houston; Collect-A-Con, a touring convention | Several times a year | 700+ tables at Dallas; 900+ vendor tables at Collect-A-Con |
| National | The National Sports Collectors Convention | Once a year | See our guide to your first card show |
The National’s future dates are set: July 28 to August 1, 2027 in Rosemont, Illinois; August 2 to 6, 2028 at Huntington Place in Detroit; and July 25 to 29, 2029 back in Rosemont.
The card mix varies by organizer. The Dallas Card Show is mainly sports cards with a strong showing of Pokémon and other card games. Collect-A-Con lists sports cards, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic among its categories, next to comics and toys. Many local listings say in their names which they cover, such as sports cards and Pokémon together.
Size claims are the organizers’ own. Collect-A-Con describes itself as the biggest trading card and pop culture convention in the country, and the Dallas Card Show describes itself as the biggest card show series in the country. A table count is a figure you can compare across listings.
Which kind of show fits what you want?
- A short want list, or a first visit: a local show. Entry is often free or a few dollars, and with fewer than 100 tables there is less ground to cover.
- The widest choice of cards: a regional or national show, where the table count runs to the hundreds.
- Grading on the spot: a show where CGC lists on-site grading.
- Selling a collection: a show with many dealers, so you can compare offers in one room before you accept one.
- Pokémon or other card games: a show billed for them, or a regional organizer that lists them among its categories.
How do you check a listing before you go?
- Confirm the date on the organizer’s schedule page. A calendar or a finder gathers its dates from organizers’ sites and submissions, so the organizer’s own page is the one to trust for the date.
- Check hours for your ticket type. The Dallas Card Show has two early-entry tickets on Thursday, from 4 pm or 6 pm, and general admission from Friday, with a trade night on Saturday from 6 pm to 2 am at the hotel.
- Check parking. At Dallas, parking at the hotel garage is typically $10 to $15 a day.
- Check grading on site. If you plan to grade what you buy, filter CGC’s events page for on-site grading or accepting submissions near the date, and use our grading cost calculator to compare service levels.
- Ask about selling without a table. At Dallas, you need no booth to sell or trade your own cards.
- Call or email the listed contact if anything is unclear.
What if no show is listed near you?
Widen the search radius and check the calendars again next month, since Sports Collectors Digest posts dates month by month. A local shop is the other in-person option, and our sibling guide on how to find a local card shop shows how to look.
When you do go, our guide to your first card show covers what to bring and the three checks to make at every table: condition, comps and the slab’s cert number. To look up an English Pokémon card’s NM market price from Rip.fan’s weekly price check, the card price lookup finds a card by name, set or number.
Frequently asked questions
Where are the Dallas Card Show's events outside Texas held?
In convention centers. The 2026 schedule put DCS New Jersey at the NJ Convention and Expo Center in Edison from October 30 to November 1, DCS Chicago at the Schaumburg Convention Center, and DCS Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center in December.
How does a show get onto Sports Collectors Digest's calendar?
Its organizer emails the dates in the calendar's one-line format, month by month. Listings sent in the wrong format or with errors are not posted, and listings sent from a cell phone are not accepted.
Can I find shows where CGC witnesses autographs?
Yes. CGC's events page can be filtered for shows with CGC Signature Series witnesses, where a CGC or JSA representative watches each signature, as well as for a CGC facilitator accepting submissions.