The October edition of the American Legion Post 974 Card Show runs Saturday, October 10, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM in Franklin Park. This monthly Legion hall show has become a quiet institution on the near-northwest side, and the October date carries an extra wrinkle worth planning around: Collect-A-Con is running the same weekend at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, ten minutes away in Rosemont. Some collectors will do both in one day. Others will deliberately choose Post 974 precisely because it is the opposite of a convention floor.
That contrast is the point. Where a convention gives you 900 tables and a ticket line, Post 974 gives you a single hall, familiar dealers, no admission barrier to speak of, and prices set by people who expect to see you again next month. If you have been priced out of the hobby by convention-floor numbers, this is the correction.
The floor is sports through and through. Baseball leads, with vintage Topps and Bowman from the 1950s onward, complete and partial sets, and stacks of 1980s and 1990s wax-era product. Football and basketball are well represented, and hockey outperforms here thanks to a durable northwest-side Blackhawks base. Expect star rookies, inserts, numbered modern parallels, and graded slabs in showcases — but the real depth is raw: dime boxes, dollar boxes, star cards in top loaders, and shoeboxes of commons that make this an excellent set-builder's room. Several dealers carry unopened wax from the junk-wax era, and a handful bring memorabilia: signed baseballs, pucks, programs, pennants and Bears and Blackhawks items. A few tables handle Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! for collectors bringing kids.
Admission at Post 974 is low — Legion shows in this market typically run free to a few dollars at the door, with children admitted free — and there is no advance ticket. Parking is free in the Post's lot with residential street overflow. The hall is single-level with level entry, and the Legion generally runs its own snack counter, with proceeds staying at the post.
Franklin Park sits just west of O'Hare, which makes this one of the easiest rooms in the metro to reach from Elmwood Park, Norridge, Des Plaines, Bensenville, Melrose Park and the northwest side of the city.
Who should come: diggers and set builders above all. Bring a want list and patience and you will leave with cards you have been chasing for years, at prices that will not make you wince. Families get an inexpensive, low-pressure first show. Sellers should note that several Post 974 regulars buy collections outright without an appointment.
Tips: get there at 9:00 AM — the strongest raw vintage is gone by 10:30, and dealers trade among themselves before the public arrives. Bring cash in small bills, since Legion shows have more cash-only tables than commercial ones. Carry penny sleeves and top loaders. And if you are pairing this with Collect-A-Con, do Post 974 first and Rosemont after — the Legion hall closes at 3:00 PM, the convention runs to 6:00 PM.