Louisiana Card Con brings collectors to Mandeville’s Castine Center on Halloween weekend. The show runs Saturday, October 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, November 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Organizers say the event will have 300 tables for buying, selling and trading, plus an autograph appearance by a surprise guest.
Admission is $5, and organizers say the first 100 children through the door will receive a free gift, according to WGNO. The 300 tables will offer sports cards, Pokémon, comics, coins, memorabilia and autograph opportunities. The Castine Center is at 63350 Pelican Dr. in Mandeville, according to the venue listing on louisianacardcon.com.
The signing guest is former New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas. The New Orleans Saints say Thomas spent eight of his nine professional seasons with the team and was enshrined in the Saints Hall of Fame in 2018.
A Second Run at the Castine Center, With a Scheduling Wrinkle
A Second Run at the Castine Center, With a Scheduling Wrinkle The October show is distinct from both an earlier Mandeville event and another Louisiana Card Con date in Gonzales. WGNO reported that the inaugural Louisiana Card Con was scheduled for July 19, 2025, at the Castine Center. That report identifies the date and venue but does not provide a comparable table count. The organizer’s events page separately lists an August 29-30, 2026, show at Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales; it is a different event from this Halloween weekend show.
Collectors who can't make it to Mandeville, or who want a second stop, have another option on the horizon. The Gulf South Card Show is set for November 7-8 in Hammond at Chappapeela Sports Park, with more than 200 vendor tables of sports cards, Pokémon, trading-card games and comics, according to Gulf South Card Show's own event guide.
A Boom Year for the Hobby
Card shows like this one are riding a genuine market surge. Card Ladder reported more than $900 million in online trading-card sales in August 2026, easily topping the previous high of about $695 million set just two months earlier in June, as reported by The New York Times/Athletic. That same month, Card Ladder logged more than 8.7 million online transactions, blowing past the prior record of roughly 7.7 million set in May.
Grading numbers tell a similar story. GemRate recorded a record 3.5 million cards graded in June 2026, only to see that mark broken again in July with 3.6 million. The outlet also noted there have already been 59 publicly known trading-card sales of $1 million or more in 2026, compared with the previous annual high of 43 set back in 2021.
Experts cited in the same report point to pandemic-era boredom, nostalgia and stimulus-check money as factors that helped start the current surge. Easier access through online marketplaces, card shops and in-person shows has helped sustain interest. Louisiana Card Con offers one local way for collectors to meet and trade, with a $5 admission price in Mandeville.
Comparable shows elsewhere show the same appetite. A Los Angeles card show earlier this year was expected to draw roughly 700 collectibles vendors — nearly double the number at a prior Dodger Stadium event — with food, drink and Pokémon cards available to an all-ages crowd, according to the Los Angeles Times. Mandeville's version is considerably smaller, but the formula of cards, collectibles and a family-friendly draw looks much the same.
