I spent most of my weekend ensconced in sports memorabilia at the Dallas Card Show. Despite its name, it was held in Schaumburg, Illinois, northwest of Chicago.

It all goes back to 2009, when Kyle Robertson debuted Dallas Card Show in Allen, Texas, where his Sports Collectors Hub store is located. That show featured only eight tables of collectables but drew rave reviews. Since debuting, attendance increased every show. This year there are five scheduled shows there.

When Robertson decided to expand to other cities, he kept the name, figuring the brand name far outweighed potential confusion in other hosting cities. The Dallas name didn’t seem to bother anyone at the first Chicago show in 2024. It was so popular, Dallas Card Show now runs twice yearly in Chicago. There are also shows in Houston; Cincinnati; and Edison, New Jersey.

I met my friend Tony at Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel on Friday night. Opened in 2006, the magnificent facility features 500 rooms and 150,000 square feet of convention space.

On the first night we slowly made our way through the 400 vendor tables, scouting them for future deals. Although Tony and I were there mostly to buy and sell sports cards, our focuses were different. I looked to sell my older sets while buying cards to finish a few sets. Tony was interested in newer cards to flip. We saw plenty of possibilities to further inspect the rest of the weekend.

In addition to the vendors, there were 25 athletes appearing. While many had a connection to Notre Dame, several other big names were also there, such as Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who drew a huge line despite being in Chicago Bears territory.

Our main athlete draw was Chicago Bears legend Chris Zorich. A native of Chicago, Zorich starred at Notre Dame before playing seven years for his hometown Bears. We spent several minutes chatting while organizers set up the area. Because we were wearing Notre Dame softball shirts, the conversation turned to college softball. We learned Zorich was quite a knowledgeable fan of the sport.

Two booths really caught our attention for their fun logos. I laughed every time I saw Fudgie Wudgie, but the fudge was serious business. My favorite was the cherry cheesecake.

The other great logo was RJ Duke Sports. The smiling dog face logo would look great on t-shirts. Hopefully they will have some at the next show. They did have a lot of great card deals for Tony.

By the end of the weekend, Tony and I bought more than we planned but were very happy with our purchases. We are already looking forward to the next Chicago show in November.

— John Wroblewski, online writer