What we brought home from the 2026 National
The 46th National Sports Collectors Convention ran July 29 through August 2 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. If you have never been, the short version is this: it is the biggest card show on the planet, it gets bigger every year, and 2026 was the most extreme version of it yet.
We went to buy. That is the whole reason we make the trip. Everything that ends up in an All Star Card Shop hit pack has to come from somewhere, and the National is five days of somewhere. We came home with close to 600 cards.
The size is hard to describe until you are standing in it
The show floor covered more than 700,000 square feet this year, according to Sports Collectors Digest. That is over 50,000 square feet more than last year, with 600-plus dealer booths and roughly 150 new tables added to the layout. Show organizers have said there is still room upstairs to grow into for 2027.
Attendance is the part people argue about. Promoters had not released official numbers a week after the show closed, but reports put the crowd north of 130,000, and every dealer quoted in the hobby press was confident it set a record for the fourth straight year. Ticket pace was running 30 to 35 percent ahead of 2025, and the top VIP package sold out in February instead of June.
You feel all of that in the aisles. One longtime dealer walked in at 8 a.m. on Thursday and found roughly a thousand people already lined up outside, an hour before VIPs were let in and two hours before general admission. Dealer Kevin Savage described the crowds as enormous and full of families and kids, which matches what we saw. Sunday afternoon usually thins out and dealers start packing early. Not this year.
Practical advice if you go in 2027: pick two days, wear real shoes, eat before you get there, and accept that you are not seeing the whole floor. Nobody sees the whole floor.
Card availability was the story
For a buyer, the National is the one weekend a year where supply is not the constraint. Vintage, ultra-modern, graded, raw, sealed wax, every sport, plus the Pokémon and TCG crossover that keeps getting louder every year. If you want a specific card, it is somewhere in that building.
The catch is that the good stuff moves fast. Dealers reported empty spots opening up in their cases by mid-week, and the general read on the floor was that the strongest material got picked over early. Sealed wax in particular has gotten expensive. Heritage's Derek Grady pointed out that boxes of 1987 Topps Football that ran $75 not long ago are now over $400, and junk wax era boxes that were $100 are going for four times that.
Shohei Ohtani was the hottest name in the cases. Four- and five-figure Ohtani cards were selling, not just sitting. Mantle and Jordan still anchor the top end, but Ohtani is the one everybody was chasing.
Grading was slammed all week. PSA had to stop taking submissions at its lowest price tier partway through day two. If you brought raw cards hoping for a same-show turnaround, that was a rough surprise.
The vendor areas keep multiplying
This is the part that has changed most in the last few years. The National is no longer one floor with rows of tables. It is several shows stacked on top of each other.
The second level now holds a first-time vendor section that started last year, and this year the show added an International Collectors Pavilion, 50 dealers from 16 countries according to the NSCC. Those rows were surrounded on three sides by corporate booths, which gave the whole upstairs a different feel from the main floor. It was also packed to the point where getting to a table took patience.
Downstairs you have the corporate row (Topps, eBay, the grading companies, the auction houses), the Autograph Pavilion running its own operation with 150-plus signers, and the auction house displays. Heritage brought museum-style cases. Memory Lane brought a T206 Honus Wagner in a PSA 2 valued at $8 to $10 million and let anyone walk up, hold it, and take a photo. Same booth had a Babe Ruth-signed bat from the early 1920s. You do not get to touch an eight-figure card anywhere else.
Then there is Trade Night, which has become its own event. The VIP lounge filled up Wednesday, was full Thursday, and by Friday afternoon collectors had spilled out into the hallways to set up. Plenty of younger collectors ripping boxes, keeping three or four cards, and leaving the rest on the table.
What we brought home
Close to 600 cards came back with us. Most of that is working inventory, autographs, patch and memorabilia cards, rookies, current stars, and Hall of Famers that will get sorted into upcoming NBA, NFL, and MLB Hit Pack series. Buying deep at a show like this is how we keep every pack to real guarantees instead of base card filler.
Here are a few of the ones worth showing off.
The graded trio
Matthew Stafford, 2025 Panini Donruss Downtown #6, PSA 10. Downtown is the insert that turned into the most recognizable chase in football, and it is a genuine case hit, not a one-per-box. These cards have been selling in the $600-$700 range and sure to go up as the season starts.
Cam Skattebo, 2025 Panini Prizm Silver Prizm rookie, PSA 10. The Silver Prizm is the rookie every football collector recognizes on sight, and Skattebo turned into one of the most talked-about rookies of last season. Getting a 10 on a Prizm Silver is not easy given how those cards center.
Drake Maye, 2024 Panini Prizm Silver Prizm rookie #329, PSA 10. This is the big one of the three. PSA 10 copies have been selling in the $1,150 to $1,800 range and the trend has been up, not down. Maye's rookie market has been climbing all year.
Cards for Hit Pack ONE
Hit Pack ONE is the new product we are building now, and it is the first pack we have made where one card comes sealed in a magnetic encased display. One card, in a case, ready to sit on a shelf instead of in a box. Two of the cards we picked up in Rosemont are going into it.
Shohei Ohtani, Topps All Aces. All Aces debuted in 2023 with rounded corners and playing-card backs, which made it stand out immediately in a hobby full of four-corner designs. Ohtani headlines the set and his is the most valuable card in it. Raw copies that went for $10 to $12 a couple of years ago have run past $350, and graded have crossed $1,000. It has quietly become one of the modern inserts collectors actually chase.
Jaxson Dart, 2025 Topps Signature Class rookie autograph. Dart's rookie autos out of Signature Class carry the "Round 1 Pick 25" inscription, and after his rookie season he became the name in a draft class that also included Cam Ward, Travis Hunter, and Ashton Jeanty. A Giants quarterback auto out of a premium Topps set is exactly the kind of card we want anchoring a new product.
Cards for upcoming Hit Packs
Aaron Judge, 2025 Bowman Anime. The Anime inserts are short prints and easily the most distinctive thing Bowman has done in years. The Judge has been running near $500 raw, and it has parallels down to a 1-of-1 Superfractor. It is also the card that makes people stop and look, which matters when someone opens a pack.
Paul Skenes, green autograph numbered to 99. An on-card Skenes auto out of a green parallel, serial numbered to 99 copies. Skenes is the most valuable active pitcher in the hobby by a distance, and numbered autos of his do not sit in cases long.
What happens next
All of it is getting sorted, sleeved, and built into series over the next few weeks. When a series is done it gets sealed and shuffled, so every buyer has the same shot at the chase cards regardless of when they order.
We also started pulling inventory for this year's Sports Card Christmas Countdown. Yes, in August. Every advent box needs 24 envelopes of cards worth opening plus the guaranteed rookies and the special card, and that math only works if you buy early. Starting at the National means the series gets built well before December instead of scrambling in November.
Hit Pack ONE is the one we are most excited about, and we will post the full contents breakdown before it goes live.
If you want to see what is in stock right now, the hit packs are all in the shop. Base cards need love too, just not in our packs.
