Card Shows Overcrowding, CGC Raises again & more! E378

·56 min·3 clips

A dealer says a 50-to-60 table show produced over $13,000 in sales on Friday night alone.

1. Hobby Hotline Podcast E378 centers on crowded card shows, inventory shortages, and the rising cost of COMC. 2. Dan from Four Collectors hosts with Orlando, who talks as a South Florida show regular and vintage buyer. 3. The episode asks whether packed shows mean the hobby has peaked or is still building. 4. Orlando describes a Fort Lauderdale show with free entry, 50 to 60 tables, and a dealer who sold over $13,000 on Friday night. 5. Dan adds reports from Shipshawana, Chicago Sports Spectacular, Palm Beach, Phoenix at Chase Field, and Dallas parking problems. 6. The hosts compare those lines and crowds with the smaller South Florida shows Orlando attends. 7. Orlando says dealers are running out of inventory and pulling cards from anywhere to keep cases full. 8. He says vintage is hot, while unopened wax gets less traffic than singles at the shows he visits. 9. Dan points to Philadelphia photos showing a long Saturday morning line that stretched past the building corner. 10. Dan also says the Philly parking lot was full, forcing him to park near BJ's and walk in. 11. Orlando says he saw people at his local show who had not attended in years. 12. He also says some of the new faces were vintage collectors in their 50s and 60s. 13. The hosts note that kids were visible at Philly and at local shows, including children looking through dollar boxes with parents. 14. Orlando says the hobby feels more like the late 1980s, when cards became more visible in popular culture. 15. Dan argues that celebrities wearing cards around their necks and post-COVID growth are adding to the public face of the hobby. 16. Orlando says the shift toward singles over wax is a better development because collectors are no longer chasing as many box hits. 17. The conversation stays casual and conversational, with Dan and Orlando reacting to chat comments and call-ins. 18. A late segment with John adds a broader view on shows, trade nights, eBay, card stores, and auction houses. 19. Listeners who follow sports card shows, vintage buying, and hobby economics will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want a tightly edited, topic-specific interview may skip this wide-ranging chat.

As heard by us

A hobby-first card chat about pruning, chasing, and keeping the long view.

Hobby Hotline lands as an informal card-market conversation, more table-side hangout than polished studio segment. The talk stays close to the collector grind: pressure to pare down thousands of cards, the pull between moving lower-end pieces, and the temptation to hold out for…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the card-market talk without the polished sales pitch.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Hobby Hotline Podcast