Cards
Dallas Card Show expands into national brand with big events in major markets
The Dallas Cowboys were dubbed “America’s Team” by NFL Films in the late 1970s, a reflection of their rabid fan base that helps fill stadiums across the league.
In a similar vein, the Dallas Card Show has grown into a national brand, expanding its operation to running sports collectible events in Chicago, New Jersey and Cincinnati. More shows in other markets are coming, said Kyle Robertson, owner of the 17-year-old company in Allen, Texas.
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Robertson runs a card shop, Sports Collectors Hub, in Allen, a community of 112,000 situated 30 miles northeast of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. As of early February, Robertson said he could not identify those additional cities until the bookings are confirmed.
This year alone, Dallas Card Show expects to promote about 30 events. The total number includes six shows in Allen at a local Marriott hotel, plus some smaller pop-ups in the D/FW Metroplex.
Some may question why Robertson kept the Dallas Card Show brand intact while developing other events across the country. Apart from Dallas-Fort Worth, does it get confusing to the consumers?
“Look at Nebraska Furniture Mart,” he said. "It’s the same thing with us. We have great card shows in Texas and when we started expanding, we found that if we continued using the brand, people trust us. They know what the level of service is, and for the vendors, they trust that they can put their money into a trip that’s going to be worth it.”
That’s not to say that things don’t get a little wacky logistically.
In Cincinnati, for example, Dallas Card Show held its first two Cincinnati events in 2024 and ’25 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, KY, across the Ohio River. (The airport serving Cincinnati also sits in Kentucky).
“That was a bit confusing,” Robertson said. “I’ve been told different things, but if I changed [our brand] to a different name, it would be tougher to get the recognition.”
During one Dallas Card Show event in Allen, a collector traveling from Hong Kong was dropped off at Robertson’s card shop instead of the show, his intended destination. The card shop sits one mile from the Marriott.
“He was telling us that people in Hong Kong and China know what Dallas Card Show is, so maybe it is the right branding,” Robertson said.
Robertson launched Dallas Card Show in 2009 after working full time for several years as a production manager at a chemical plant. His first show that year started with a sparse eight tables. Over time, his shows grew to the point where Dallas Card Show books 700 tables at the Marriott Dallas Allen Hotel & Convention Center, filling 80,000 square feet of exhibit space and sells out the 300-room property.
Every show in Allen has surpassed the attendance mark at the previous event, he said. The most recent event at the Marriott, held Jan. 15-18, drew a record 23,000 attendees, according to Robertson.
“At this last show, we had six people from England, some from China—all over the world,” he said. “It’s insane how far people travel for these shows.”
Two years ago, Dallas Card Show expanded its footprint to Chicago, holding an event at a conference center in Schaumburg, a northwest suburb. This year, two 300-table shows are scheduled at that venue, May 29-31 and Nov. 13-15.
Business has been strong in Schaumburg, considering the National Sports Collectors Convention, the industry’s pre-eminent card show, favors Chicago, with the 2026 and ’27 events set for the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
Apart from The National and Dallas Card Show, other promoters hold sports collectible events in the city. Some might think there’s a glut of shows in Chicago, squeezing the market for everybody, but for Dallas Card Show, it made sense to crack the market. Similar to The National’s strategy, Chicago sits in the middle of the country, making it easier for a greater percentage of collectors to get there. There are about 10 million people in the metropolitan area and Robertson figures that if he draws one person out of 1,000 people to the card show, the result is a well-attended show.
Autograph guests help drive attendance in Schaumburg, said Austin Paxton, a full-time employee of Dallas Card Show who’s worked for Robertson over the past eight years, dating to his high school days.
“We have to make sure Chicago sports teams are in town,” Paxton said. “We try not to stack on top of other shows. We like the vendors to be able to travel to [all] shows and make their living without forcing them to compete with each other."
In New Jersey, Dallas Card Show has booked its first official event at the New Jersey Convention & Expo Center in Edison, N.J., 25 miles south of Newark, for April 17-19.
Surprisingly, there’s not a lot of competition in the New York-New Jersey market, Robertson said. A few years ago, Dallas Card Show rented some table space at an autograph show in Edison and recognized the potential for running card shows in tandem with booking pro athletes to sign memorabilia.
For Dallas Card Show, it helps to bring autograph guests to the table in other markets to make the overall events stronger and more attractive to collectors and vendors alike. Paying current and former players to sign autographs can get expensive for promoters, but they can draw big crowds depending on the market and the list of autograph guests, Robertson said.
At the New Jersey event, there’s an impressive roster of current and ex-NFL players lined up, including Derrick Henry, Drew Brees, Jordan Love, Terry Bradshaw, Bijan Robinson, Colston Loveland and Mike Singletary.
All told, the sports card market remains a robust endeavor for Dallas Card Show officials as they continue to expand their footprint. It’s been a slow build, Robertson said, but it’s now paying off for his business.
“Kyle’s been in the game for a long time,” Paxton said. “He knows the vendors and he wants a vast amount of cards at the shows with different price points. We do the 100-table shows in Dallas with free admission, smaller ones between major events. We’re getting new collectors, plus those making tangible financial investments. You don’t have to spend $100,000; you can spend $100 and have a great time doing it.”
Don Muret
