The University Presbyterian Church sports card show returns to Tempe on Saturday, December 5, 2026 for its final date of the year. At roughly ninety tables when full, this is one of the largest free-admission recurring shows anywhere in metro Phoenix, and the December edition is the one long-time Arizona collectors circle on the calendar. Year-end timing means dealers arrive stocked for gift buyers and willing to move material before the books close.
Sports cards are the core of the show. Baseball tables carry vintage Topps and Bowman from the 1950s forward, mid-century stars, deep 1970s and 1980s inventory for set builders, team and player lots, and modern MLB rookies with numbered parallels and on-card autographs. With the NFL season in its closing stretch, football is the busiest category, offering rookie patch autographs, Prizm, Optic and Select parallels and vintage stars. Basketball is active alongside the NBA season, and hockey, UFC, boxing and soccer each occupy real table space rather than a token box. Graded slabs from PSA, SGC and BGS are spread throughout the hall, sealed wax is available from multiple dealers, and nearly every table keeps dollar, quarter and dime boxes underneath. Pokemon is the main trading card game presence with singles and sealed product, and the room also carries memorabilia, signed baseballs and photos, vintage programs, comics and collectible figures.
This is a single-day Saturday show. Admission is free, with no early-buyer upcharge and nothing to reserve in advance. Children are welcome accompanied by an adult, and the bargain boxes make it a legitimately enjoyable outing for kids. Door hours at this venue have historically run a morning-into-early-afternoon window; the church publishes exact times closer to each date, so confirm with the organizer if your schedule is tight.
University Presbyterian Church is in Tempe near the Arizona State University campus area, with free on-site parking in the church lot. The hall is air-conditioned with level access and wide aisles, which matters at ninety tables when foot traffic peaks mid-morning. Being in Tempe also puts you minutes from Mill Avenue and a long list of restaurants and coffee shops if you want to make an afternoon of it.
The crowd here is a genuine cross-section: methodical vintage collectors working the room table by table, East Valley dealers buying and trading among themselves, families with kids digging through commons, and the occasional ASU student who wandered in. For a newcomer this is close to an ideal first show, because the scale is big enough to be exciting while free admission and a church-hall setting keep the pressure off entirely.
To do it right: arrive at the open. At ninety tables, fresh inventory gets picked over fast and the sharpest deals rarely survive the first hour. Bring cash, which earns real discounts. Carry a want list with ceiling prices, plus penny sleeves and top loaders for raw pickups. Do one complete lap before buying anything, because at this size the same card will be priced three different ways in three different cases. Ask dealers what they are hunting, since trades move as much material here as cash does. If you are shopping for gifts, graded slabs are the easiest presentation and need no explanation to a non-collector.
Check the show listing for confirmed hours, table availability and 2027 dates at this venue.