The 2026 National Set Attendance Records and Opened Its First International Pavilion
The hobby's biggest annual show closed out its Rosemont run with more dealers, more floor space, and more international presence than any previous edition.
What Happened
The 2026 National Sports Collectors Convention ran July 29 through August 2 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, and closed with a reported attendance record. Organizers added 150 dealer tables over the previous year, pushing the event's footprint to 650,000 square feet. A new International Pavilion in Hall G brought dealers from the UK, Germany, Croatia, Hungary, China, Hong Kong, France, and Italy, with many of those international vendors attending the National for the first time.
Why Collectors Should Care
Scale at the National is a direct proxy for the hobby's health, and 650,000 square feet of dealer floor with a brand-new international wing is a meaningful signal. The International Pavilion is the more interesting development: soccer, F1, and non-North-American NBA and NFL inventory showing up in volume at the National reflects genuine collector demand that the domestic market has been slow to serve. If those dealers return in 2027, and the early signs suggest they will, the National starts to look less like a baseball-card show with a big tent and more like a genuinely global hobby marketplace. That matters for what gets graded, what gets chased, and where price discovery happens.
Questions Collectors Are Asking
Where was the 2026 National held?
At the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, just outside Chicago.
What was new at the 2026 National compared to previous years?
The show added 150 dealer tables and launched a dedicated International Pavilion in Hall G, bringing in dealers from eight countries for the first time.
What kinds of cards were available at the International Pavilion?
International dealers brought soccer, F1, NBA, and NFL cards and memorabilia, with inventory reflecting non-North-American collecting markets.
Sources
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