How to sell cards at a card show
Selling to dealers on the floor or renting your own table: what show organizers require, how to price from sold prices, taking payment, and keeping cards safe.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 8 min read
There are two ways to sell at a card show. You can walk your cards to dealers’ tables and take offers, which needs only an admission ticket, or you can rent a table and sell to the public at your own prices, which takes an application, a fee and a full show of your time. Either way, price every card from recent sold prices before you go, decide in advance the lowest price you’ll take, and keep your cards and your cash on you.
Should you sell to dealers or rent a table?
| Selling to dealers | Renting your own table | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | An admission ticket | An approved vendor application or table order |
| Upfront cost | Admission | A table fee, plus extras such as showcase rental ($75 a case at the 2026 National, $50 at the November 5 to 8, 2026 Dallas Card Show) |
| Time | A few hours on the floor | Setup day plus every show day; Collect-A-Con requires every vendor to set up on the Friday |
| Who sets the price | The dealer makes an offer | You set the asking price and negotiate |
| Who buys | Dealers who plan to resell | Collectors walking the aisles |
| Rules | You can sell to vendors, but at Collect-A-Con only vendors may set up to sell | Table limits, cancellation terms and no reselling the table |
A simple rule follows from the table. If you have a few good cards, or a collection you want gone in one day, sell to dealers. If you have many cards priced one by one and can staff a table for the whole show, a table lets you sell at your own prices. Our guide to selling a whole collection covers the in-between cases.
How do you sell to dealers on the floor?
At the Dallas Card Show, you need no booth to buy, sell or trade your own cards. At Collect-A-Con, attendees are welcome to bring collectibles to sell and trade with vendors, but cannot set up to sell unless they are vendors. So you sell table to table.
- Sort before you go. Group the cards by what they are worth, sleeve them, and put the best ones in toploaders.
- Bring your numbers. For each card worth more than a few dollars, note recent sold prices and your floor, the lowest offer you’ll accept.
- Ask more than one dealer. Show the same cards at a few tables and compare offers card by card against your floor.
- Expect an offer below sold prices. A dealer who buys plans to resell. Our guide to selling cards to a local shop shows the buy rates some shops publish, which gives a sense of the gap.
- Take the cards back between tables. Don’t leave a stack with a dealer while you walk the aisle.
The Dallas Card Show also holds a Trade Night at its hotel on Saturday, from 6 pm to 2 am.
What does renting a table involve?
Each organizer sets its own terms.
| Collect-A-Con | |
|---|---|
| How to get a table | Buy tables online; the order is confirmed only once a table number is assigned |
| Table and extras | Standard table 6 feet by 30 inches, though sizes vary by venue; $150 for each extra table used without authorization |
| Limits | At most 10 tables per company or person; no reselling or trading tables |
| Setup | Required on the Friday; 9 am to 7 pm in Dallas, as of December 2023 |
| Cancellation | At least 30 days before the show, with a 10% fee; no refund after that |
To get a table at the Dallas Card Show, fill in a vendor application naming the shows, the tables needed and photos of what you’ll show; showcase rental is $50 for the November 5 to 8, 2026 show. At The National, first-time dealers send a notice of intent to exhibit, the 2027 show runs July 28 to August 1 in Rosemont, Illinois, and display cases for the table, 22 by 34 by 3 inches, are $75 each for the whole 2026 show if booked by July 12.
At Collect-A-Con, badges come with the tables: 2 badges for 2 or 3 tables, 4 for 5 tables and 8 for 10, and more may be on sale at check-in. It also bars tape and stickers on the venue floor without written approval, and a vendor who uses them may be charged a $2,000 fee. The Dallas Card Show runs six main shows a year in Allen, Texas, with more than 700 tables, and its tables were on a waitlist, so apply well ahead. Ask the organizer for the table fee before you plan around a show.
How do you lay out the table?
Measure what you plan to bring against the table you will get. For example, on a table of Collect-A-Con’s standard 6 feet by 30 inches, two of the National’s 22 by 34 inch rental cases set lengthwise take 68 of the 72 inches and leave 8 inches of depth in front, by Rip.fan’s arithmetic. Keep loose stock and supplies under the table, not on it.
How should you price your cards?
Price from what the same card has recently sold for, in the same condition or grade, and ignore other sellers’ asking prices. Our guide to finding what a card sold for sets out the method, and comps explains the term.
- Pokémon cards: Rip.fan’s card price lookup gives the NM market price of any English Pokémon card from our weekly price check, and the Pokémon card pages list market prices by raw condition.
- Your floor: the seller fee calculator shows what you would keep from the same sale on TCGplayer or Whatnot after each site’s fees. It excludes the shipping the buyer pays, since that goes on postage, but supplies, insurance and a signature come on top. Subtract those, and any show offer above the result leaves you more than the online sale would.
- Labels: put a price on everything before the doors open. Our guide to pricing cards to sell covers stickers, tiered prices for cheap cards and how to counter an offer.
Our guide for buyers at a first card show tells them to look up each slab’s cert number on the grader’s site at the table, so keep each number easy to read.
What should you bring?
- Cards, sorted and sleeved, with your best cards in toploaders. Our guide to card sleeves and holders covers which holder suits which card.
- Team bags for sold cards. BCW’s resealable team bag takes up to 35 standard cards or up to 5 standard toploaders, and is sold for use at card shows.
- Your price list, on paper or your phone, with sold prices and floors.
- Cash in small bills for change, and a charged phone.
- Display cases, or a booking for the organizer’s rentals.
How should you take payment?
At the Dallas Card Show, cash is the preferred payment, and most vendors take electronic payment too. The National has 15 ATMs throughout the show, so buyers can get cash on site.
Check large bills before you hand over a card. The U.S. Currency Education Program lists features of the $100 note you can check by hand:
- Tilt it. The blue 3-D security ribbon, woven into the paper, shows bells that change to 100s as they move, and the bell in the copper inkwell shifts from copper to green.
- Hold it to the light. A faint image of Franklin appears in the empty area on the right of the portrait, and a security thread runs vertically to the left of the portrait, printed with USA and 100. Under ultraviolet light the thread glows pink.
- Feel it. Franklin’s shoulder on the left side should feel rough, from the raised printing.
For a card or app payment, wait until the payment shows as completed in the app or on the reader before the card leaves your hand. Payment apps and card readers each set their own terms for in-person sales, so read them before the show.
How do you keep your cards safe at a show?
- Keep everything on you. Collect-A-Con has no bag check, requires you to keep possession of your items at all times, and may search bags.
- Hand over one card at a time, and get it back before you show the next.
- Know who to call. Collect-A-Con asks for serious problems to go to event security or Show Management. The National’s code of conduct directs visitors to an organizer, to workers in distinct shirts, or to the registration desk in the lobby.
- Expect cameras. At Collect-A-Con, filming and livestreaming may happen throughout its events, and anyone who does not want to be recorded should tell staff. The National bars harassing photography or recording.
What should you do after the show?
- Write down what sold, at what price, and what each buyer paid with.
- Count the cash against your list before you leave the hall.
- Note which cards drew no interest, and recheck their sold prices before the next show.
- For what’s left, our guide to where to sell cards online compares the online options.
For guides by topic, see the sports cards hub and the Pokémon hub.
Frequently asked questions
Can I bring a guest signer to my Collect-A-Con table?
Not without approval. Vendors may not advertise or bring any celebrity, voice actor or influencer to their table until that approval arrives.
What if I miss a Collect-A-Con show I bought a table for?
Collect-A-Con gives no refund for a missed event, and no replacement event or credit toward a future show. A vendor who isn't fully set up by the end of Friday also faces a fine.
How do I check a $20 bill at my table?
On notes from the 2004 series on, hold it to the light for a thread printed USA TWENTY that glows green under ultraviolet light, and a faint image of Jackson to the right of the portrait. Tilt it, and the 20 in the lower right corner shifts from copper to green.