The New England Card show is a quarterly event in Springfield Massachusetts that includes a trade night in the Basketball Hall of Fame and a show in the Mass Mutual Center.
Its goal is to be one of the largest shows on the East Coast.
The event switches from a 1 day to a 2 day show every quarter. So be on the lookout for which event is taking place!
Let’s first talk about the trade night. The Basketball Hall of Fame’s venue is the nicest location in the hobby. Most trade nights are hosted within Hotels/Casinos or card shops. I really enjoyed the atmosphere in the BB HOF. You could walk around and see memorabilia of legendary hall of farmers.
I was a bit worried that you had to pay admission to go to the event. But it was completely free. It was held in the main court of the building. There were also plenty of tables for you to set up cards as an impromptu card show dealer.
While there, I was able to make 3 deals and rip open a hobby box.
The next day, I went to the card show. Admission to the show is free to kids and $10 for adults.
I thought the show did a decent job of having a diversity of different cards represented. There were vintage, wax, pokemon and modern dealers spread throughout the floor.
It was easy to walk around the show floor. One thing I noticed, which tends to happen to card shows in Massachusetts, is the dealers packed up early.
While the show was technically till 5, many dealers started packing up at 3 which was a bit of an annoyance. Especially as I wanted to make more deals. At 5 it felt like more than half of the rooms dealers had left the building.
Deal-wise, many of the dealers were more than fair. I was able to make a lot of deals walking the floor
