Diamond in the Ruff holds its November date at the Sun City West Foundation building on Sunday, November 22, 2026, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. That timing makes it one of the most interesting stops on the series calendar. Snowbird season is fully underway in the northwest Valley, holiday gift shopping is in motion, and dealers who want to convert inventory to cash before the end of the year are unusually willing to deal.
Sports cards carry the room. Baseball runs deepest, with vintage Topps and Bowman, 1950s and 1960s stars, heavy 1970s and 1980s material for set builders, team and player lots, and modern MLB rookies with numbered parallels and autographs. Late November puts football at the front of the conversation, so NFL tables carry rookie patch autographs, Prizm, Optic and Select parallels and vintage stars, while the NBA season keeps basketball active. Hockey, UFC, boxing and soccer each hold real table space. Graded slabs from PSA, SGC and BGS are distributed across the hall, several dealers specialize in raw vintage that has never been submitted, and most tables keep dollar, quarter and dime boxes underneath for anyone who enjoys digging. Pokemon singles and sealed product represent the trading card game side, with memorabilia, signed baseballs and photos, vintage programs, comics and collectible figures filling out the floor.
Hours are 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, a single afternoon block. Admission is free for everyone, with no early-buyer tier, no advance tickets and no hidden upcharge. Children are welcome accompanied by an adult, and the cheap boxes under most tables mean kids leave with something rather than just watching.
The show occupies the Webb and Powell Rooms of the SCW Foundation building at 14465 W RH Johnson Blvd, inside the R.H. Johnson recreation complex just off Grand Avenue in Sun City West. Parking is free and wraps the building, and the rooms are fully air-conditioned with level access and wide aisles. The two connected rooms give this show noticeably more breathing space than a typical community-center event, which is welcome on a busy seasonal date.
This one suits vintage collectors and set builders best, but the free admission and unhurried pace make it a good family outing and a genuinely easy first show for someone new to the hobby. The Sun City West dealer base is patient and talkative, happy to walk a newcomer through grading, population reports and how raw pricing compares to slabbed. Collection buyers and dealers should treat November through March as the priority window at this venue, when the seasonal population peaks and long-dormant collections come off shelves at the highest rate of the year.
To work the afternoon well: arrive at the 1:00 PM open, do a complete lap without buying to map your targets, then circle back and negotiate with a plan. Cash still earns the best price at a show with no admission revenue. Keep a written want list with ceiling prices so you are not negotiating from memory, and carry penny sleeves and top loaders for raw pickups. A loupe or bright phone light pays for itself if you inspect vintage corners and centering. Introduce yourself and say what you collect, because want-list callbacks and trades drive a real share of business in this series.
Contact organizer Joey at 602-908-1597 or [email protected] for table rentals and dates. The next edition follows on December 6, 2026.