Inside the Pack: Showtime Sports Cards Shop and Card Show Review
I love going to card shows, and I love going to card stores. A few weeks ago, I had the change to do both in one shot, as I attended the monthly show at Showtime Sports Cards & Collectibles in Jacksonville, FL.
While I frequently attend the monthly Jacksonville Sports Card-sponsored card show, the Showtime show is quite different. That’s because rather than a more traditional hotel or rental space, the show takes place in the middle of the large 4000-square-foot Showtime Sports Cards store. The shop opened several years ago, and in a previous iteration was something of an antique mall-type setup, with different vendors renting spaces to display their cards. I haven’t been to the store in many years, and it’s changed ownership in that time. The multiple dealer model appears to have disappeared now, or if it’s still in place, it’s much less obvious. The store has two dozen display cases along the perimeter, sorted by sport. The front of the store has shelving with sealed products and packs, while the back of the store has shelves with a “card library” sorted by year. I had a little success finding some reasonably-priced oddball type vintage cards from the store to take home with me, and I’m confident that you could find anything you wanted in their huge selection.
Every third Saturday of the month, the store plays home to about a dozen dealers in the central part of the shop. Quarters are tight, with no space between tables and a real question as to whether or not there are fire codes and occupancy limits being violated. All that aside, it’s a really cool concept to have a show inside a store. If a dealer was too busy for me to get to a table, I simply looked at store inventory until there was an opportunity to make my way over to the table.
Most dealers carried modern cards, with a few having Pokémon cards. Only one dealer had a considerable amount of vintage, but I still spent plenty of time checking out each table. I found it very interesting that most dealers — and most customers — were completely different from the Jacksonville show I’d attended the weekend before.
Showtime Sports Cards & Collectibles is located at 9365 Philips Hwy #106, Jacksonville, FL 32256. The card shows are the third Saturday of every month from 9 AM to 4 PM.
