Card Show Observations

 

There’s something in the air here in Gotham City.

            Spring, yes.

            Baseball is back.

            And so are card shows in New York City.

            Really since last fall.

            A steady stream of them when this place has been a card show wasteland for the entire time that I’ve been back collecting.

            We’re talking about 2019 here.

            Which shouldn’t sound like a while ago…but it kind of does now, huh?

            Since September 2025 I’ve been to five card shows. Have had to miss two card shows because I was working. Will miss two card shows over the next two weeks because of work/travel. And I have plans to attend at least two more card shows in the coming months. Last Saturday there were actually two dueling card shows in the city.

            WTF?

            I’m not complaining. I enjoy going to card shows. I think they’re great. I think card shows are exciting. I like buying cards in person over buying them online whenever I can. Card shows have proven to me that kids are still very much involved in this hobby even though it seems so out of their reach monetarily. Or maybe they’re all little rich brats at card shows. Regardless, it’s been a real joy attending them and walking away with some stuff like this.

            Having been able to attend a decent number of card shows lately, I’ve come away from them with the following observations.

            Over half the dealers at the card shows I’ve gone to have been Pokémon dealers. Now, I don’t have an issue with Pokémon or even non-sports dealers. Hell, I’d welcome a more diverse selection of non-sports cards, considering I’ve dipped my toe a few times.

            But it’s ALL Pokémon. 

            And dealers are paying for the tables, so…

            What I’ve observed, however, is that there are not nearly as many collectors at Pokémon tables as there are sports card tables. Which means the sports card tables can get pretty crowded. Which means looking at cards can become a bit of a jostling competition. Especially when all of the Braxtons show up.

            What’s a Braxton?

            A brief definition: A Braxton is a boy aged 12-14. He usually has a haircut that’s shaped like broccoli. He wears a hoodie. He calls all the other kids with him bro or brah.

            This is the part where you’re saying to yourself: hey, I thought this guy was glad that kids are at card shows.

            And I am.

            Except for the Braxtons.

            You see, the Braxtons are pushy. The Braxtons come in packs. The Braxtons all have these card-carrying cases that look like little safes. The cases open at the top and have foam lining to snuggly hold all of the graded/insert/numbered cards that The Braxtons are going to try and sell dealers, pushing a guy like me out of the way so that they can haggle and compare prices on their cell phones.

            Kids selling cards at card shows.

            I guess this is where my age is showing. When I was a kid, we didn’t have insert/auto/numbered/graded cards. We had the cards that came in packs. The best we could hope for was a good card not having wax and/or gum stains on it. If you had an autograph card, it was because you either met a player at the ballpark or at a card show signing. That’s obviously not the case now, when little Braxton gets a hobby box for his birthday and can pull out a number of cards that the collecting hoi polloi might be envious of him for having.

            Again, I’m not criticizing this.

            If I were a kid now, I’d probably be at shows with my broccoli-shaped haircut, wearing my hoodie and hanging with my brahs, toting around my Braxton box trying to make a deal like I was Monty Hall or something.

            Monty Hall?

            Showing my age again, huh?

            Vintage card dealers.

            There aren’t as many vintage card dealers at the shows that I’ve gone to. There are a few. And I’ve managed to grab some cards that I wanted from them.

            But they are few and far between.

            And the ones that are there…the cards are usually graded.

            Graded cards are a non-starter for me.

            For the record, I have nothing against graded cards. I’m not judgy about them. I don’t think grading is a scam. I believe that collectors should collect what they like. Graded cards just aren’t for me. I do feel the value is unnecessarily inflated when the card is graded. I’m not a fan of having cumbersome slabs in my collection. A nice one-touch works for me. And, you know what? I’d like to know that I can take the card out and actually touch it should I want to.

            My last observation is also my biggest pet peeve.

            Dealers who don’t put prices on their cards.

            This happens a lot with the vintage guys, graded or not graded. I was recently at a small card show that my local LCS put on at a church. It was a small but great card show. The dealers are awesome and I always have to leave early because I’ve quickly spent my allotted amount. They usually have one or two vintage dealers there. The last time there was only one. And he didn’t display the prices on his cards, which kind of bothered me. I’m going to shows FOR vintage, and it’s kind of hard to be casual when every few seconds you have to keep saying, well, how much is that? How much is that? And the dealer has to keep lifting his glass display case up and down and up and down.

            I’m sure the dealer thinks doing this leads to engagement.

            And maybe it does.

            But I tend to shy away from tables like that.

            I feel like I’m being a nuisance, especially when I don’t buy.

            And I don’t want to feel like a nuisance when I’m at a card show.

            Especially when I’m hanging out with all my Brahs!

            With all that being said, I did really enjoy the last card show that I went to.

It took place here.

And I came away with these.

Maybe my observations came across a little bit like complaints. I didn’t mean them to be. I hope these card shows keep coming and coming and coming and coming and…

You get the drift.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!