Jackson, Mississippi — The Mississippi Trade Mart was filled with collectors, sports fans, gamers and pop-culture enthusiasts this weekend as the Mississippi Card Show brought together several corners of the collecting community in Jackson. William Barber of Presence News attended the event and reported on the Mississippi Card Show from Jackson.
Walking through the show floor, attendees could be seen browsing tables of trading cards and collectibles, visiting gaming areas, and stopping to meet featured guests.
Held Saturday, August 22, and Sunday, August 23, the event brought the collecting community together at the Mississippi Trade Mart, located at 1200 Mississippi St Jackson, MS 39202. The organizers described the show as an opportunity for attendees to buy, sell, and trade collectibles while also meeting special guests and taking part in activities beyond traditional card collecting.
More Than a Card Show
While trading cards remained at the center of the event, the Mississippi Card Show offered a broader collection of activities for attendees.
According to the event organizers, the weekend included vendors and artists selling sports cards, tabletop gaming cards and accessories, artwork, apparel and other collectibles. The event also featured pinball, video games and tabletop gaming, creating an environment designed to appeal to collectors with interests extending beyond sports memorabilia.
The show also incorporated organized gaming activities. The official Mississippi Card Show website lists tournaments for Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Disney Lorcana, along with free play and opportunities for attendees to buy, sell, and trade. Video game programming included Super Smash Bros., while Southern Tilt provided pinball machines for tournaments and free play.
That combination helped make the event more than a traditional gathering of sports-card dealers. Visitors could explore different areas of the hobby while also taking part in gaming and meeting guests from several corners of popular culture.
A Lineup Spanning Sports and Entertainment
One of the major draws of the Mississippi Card Show was its guest lineup.
The promotional materials for the 2026 event highlighted former Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy, former New Orleans Saints wide receiver Joe Horn, former professional wrestler Ron Simmons, Pokémon and anime voice actress Megan Hollingshead, fantasy and gaming illustrator RK Post, and former Major League Baseball pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd.
The broader guest lineup reflected the show’s effort to connect traditional sports-card collecting with entertainment and fandom.
Murphy is a two-time National League MVP and seven-time All-Star who spent much of his career with the Atlanta Braves. Horn is a former NFL wide receiver and New Orleans Saints standout.
Simmons, known to wrestling fans from his careers in WCW and WWE, also brings a sports background to the event through his time as a college football standout and NFL defensive tackle.
Hollingshead represents the anime and video game side of the event. She is known for voice work including Nurse Joy in the English-language Pokémon series and Mai Valentine in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Post, meanwhile, has worked as an illustrator on projects involving Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and other major entertainment properties.
The show’s official guest information states that celebrity guests were available for autographs and photographs, with some also participating in Q&A sessions.
A Gathering for Collectors
Walking through the Mississippi Trade Mart, the appeal went beyond simply purchasing a particular card. Attendees browsed tables, compared collectibles, visited gaming areas and connected with other fans.
The Mississippi Card Show gave collectors the chance to browse tables filled with cards, memorabilia, artwork and other merchandise while talking with vendors and fellow collectors.
The event’s vendor component included sports cards, collectible card games, accessories, artwork and other merchandise. That range allowed visitors to move between different aspects of the collecting hobby rather than limiting the show to a single type of card or memorabilia.
The involvement of both notable sporting personalities and showbiz visitors provided a new dimension. Collectors had the chance to pick cards and keepsakes while at the same time getting the chance to receive signatures or pictures from people tied to the worlds of sport, wrestling, cartoons, and video games.
Bringing Pop Culture and Collecting Together
The Mississippi Card Show’s programming illustrates how the modern collecting hobby has expanded.
Sports cards remain an important part of the industry, but today’s collectors also have access to Pokémon cards, Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana and other trading card games. Gaming, artwork, memorabilia and celebrity appearances can all exist alongside traditional sports collectibles.
That broader approach was visible throughout the show floor, where traditional sports cards shared space with trading card games, gaming, artwork and memorabilia. With card dealers and artists on the show floor, gaming activities taking place alongside the collecting experience, and special guests representing several different areas of entertainment, the event offered something for multiple generations of fans.
A Weekend for Mississippi Collectors
The Mississippi Card Show 2026 was the second edition of the event that happened in Jackson. The managers decided to bring back the exhibition to the Mississippi Trade Mart for another weekend connected with collections, fandom, and fun.
For collectors, events like this provide an opportunity to discover something unexpected while searching through tables of cards and memorabilia. For sports fans, the appearances by former athletes offered an opportunity to connect with figures from the history of professional sports. And for gamers and pop-culture fans, the inclusion of trading card games, video games, pinball, and entertainment guests expanded the experience beyond the traditional card-show format.
William Barber of Presence News attended the Mississippi Card Show in Jackson this weekend, documenting an event that brought together several different parts of the collecting and fan communities under one roof.
From sports cards and memorabilia to Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, video games and pinball, the weekend brought several different parts of Mississippi’s collecting and gaming communities together at the Mississippi Trade Mart.
Sources:
Mississippi Card Show — Official Website
Mississippi Card Show — Official Facebook Page
Editor’s Disclaimer: This article is based on firsthand, on-site reporting by William Barber of Presence News, supplemented by event information provided by the Mississippi Card Show and its official social media channels. Event details, guest appearances, schedules, and other information are subject to change and reflect information available at the time of publication. Presence News is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Mississippi Card Show unless otherwise stated.
