West Coast Card Show, Ontario California Report
Yankees70
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This is being advertised as one of the largest West Coast sports cards shows in 2025. I only collect vintage and I had better luck at this show than the show at the Anaheim Convention Center last summer. At the Anaheim show there was over 700 Tables and maybe 10 had a good selection of vintage.
At least half of the show were dealers selling Pokemon cards which I have zero interest in. I would say about 75% of the sports card dealers were mostly selling modern cards. There was a decent amount of vintage but I would say 90% of it was PSA 6 and lower. There was very little vintage PSA 8's and 9's for sale. I only counted two dealers who had a nice selection of vintage which included PSA 8's and some 9's. Once again there was less than twenty cards from the 70's in PSA 8 or 9 for sale. I walked the entire room twice in case I missed anything. Most of the vintage cards in 8 and 9 condition were way overpriced. At least double the price of recent comps.
I managed to pick up three cards - 1970 Pete Rose PSA 8 which was recently graded, 1966 Bob Gibson PSA 8 which was recently graded, and a 1978 Jim Palmer in PSA 9. which was recently graded. The Palmer was the only 1978 Topps card I could find in PSA 9 in the entire convention.
Some more comments.
PSA was there taking submissions.
Lots of people were there. Every aisle was crowded. Parking was a huge problem. It took me 15 minutes to find a parking space.
At least half the tables were Pokemon cards and every one of those tables had ample collectors looking at the inventory. Lots of deals going down.
There was a lot of Jim Brown rookie cards for sale. I counted at least 30 for sale ranging from a PSA 2 to a PSA 8 OC. At the Anaheim show last year I only saw 3 or 4 for sale and the Anaheim show was much larger.
There was a lot of 86 Fleer Jordans for sale. If a collector went to this show with the goal of purchasing one they had a lot to pick from.
1970 Hall of Famers in PSA 9 condition were harder to find than Bigfoot. Even PSA 8's were hard to find. I did see a Brett, Yount, and Schmidt rookie but there were only a handful of each for sale and of course they were all priced double of recent comps.
Comments
Appreciate the report.
Didn’t even know it was happening. Very interesting about the vintage 8/9 selections. Folks have been predicting that those would get very scarce for a while. And especially on here.
They were very rare and like I said the small amount that were available had asking prices that were not close to market value.
Nice report and good pick-ups. Is the hobby losing some luster? IMO, the '70's lack star power rookies. You got Schmidt & Brett--- Murray (no love), Ozzie (defense, showman) and not difficult to find in 8's..... no comparison to the Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Clemente cards of both 50's & 60's (even though not rookies). Maybe folks are just holding their 9's waiting for some sales to set the market.... then they'll come out of hiding.
This was I believe my 5th time attending the Burbank Card Show. From what I saw there was not much difference in the weekends show then the past 4 shows. Vintage tends to always be more of a rare sight at west coast shows.
I avoid high grade vintage like the plague so should have gone and checked out the show. Would've been a nice early Sunday morning drive.
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I think the lack of 1970s 9s are for two reasons. 1 psa now charges 20.00 a common. 2nd they still won’t grade the card a 9 it’s now graded a 5-8.
I could 'copy-paste' that report from a 200 table 2-day card show I went to in Tacoma in January. Pokémon, Yu-Gh-Io & Magic the Gathering pretty much dominated the show. 200 tables were crammed into a room too small and the aisles were about as tight as a train in Tokyo for rush hour. Beckett & SGC were there taking 'subs' along with an autograph certification company whose name I don't recall. I was glad I went, but mighta avoided the early entry - it was much easier to navigate the room the last couple hours of each day. I should have known when the 'snake entry line' had probably no less than probably 8-900 people standing in it when I arrived 30 minutes prior to the doors opening. I won't be making that mistake again.
I've been to a handful of small shows lately in my area that previously have always been dominated by sports cards and memorabilia. I'm not sure if shocked is the word, maybe impressed, I don't know, but the Pokémon craze thing is on fire! Probably half the inventory at the last show I attended was Pokémon, and it was swarming with kids carrying around albums and briefcases full of cards, with a LOT of money changing hands and deals being made.
Yup, I was indeed impressed with the volume (literally hundreds) of individuals carrying around locked briefcases. Then, when I saw them opened, there were individual tight foam cushioned compartments for their treasures.
I was at that show because my wife wanted some of her Lorcana cards signed by artists. I've been out of the card game for 6 years now (what a surprise that my daughter just turned 6 haha). I was pretty stunned at the way the hobby has changed even in those 6 years. I kind of want to go to the National just to see if that has also turned into 25 year olds with pelican cases walking around and buying that much Pokemon. Seemed to me (and I'm 45 not 75) that the whole thing is in trouble. It's just gambling. All the modern stuff that isn't a really low #'d parallel or a 1/1 just blends together to me. My wife watches WhatNot for her Star Wars and Lorcana cards and it's, again, just gambling. The breakers are talking about the value of the cards in the box against what they paid for it continuously on those breaks. I feel like the set collecting hobby may be dead forever for all but the craziest or richest collectors. Capitalism won. I definitely saw some vintage cards. I just didn't see many people looking at them or making deals for them. If it was pre-2000 it seemed to just be sitting there. Would I be worried if I was sitting on high grade vintage? Of course not. Low grade or raw vintage? Terrified.
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Based on what I'm seeing on social media and vintage card groups, the demand and market for lower to mid grade vintage cards is as strong as it's ever been.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Honestly I'm super glad to hear that. This was my first exposure to a card show in 7ish years and I'm glad to know the online community is still strong.
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