Trading card, anime and pop culture convention with hundreds of vendor tables, celebrity meet-and-greets, live concerts and box breaks.
Collect-A-Con comes to the Tampa Convention Center on Saturday, January 9, and runs through Sunday, January 10. It's put on by Collect-A-Con LLC, which bills itself as the organizer of the nation's largest trading card, anime and pop culture conventions. The show takes over the East/Central Hall and the meeting rooms, so there's plenty of room to wander.
The floor fills with hundreds of vendor tables stocking Pokémon and sports cards, comic books and vintage toys. If you're into trading cards, that's the main draw, but the comic and toy tables keep it from being just a card show. Beyond the tables, there are celebrity meet-and-greets, live concerts and box breaks, so you can spend the day hunting for a specific card and then hang out with the people who made the things you're collecting.
Attendance is estimated at around 4,000 on the Saturday and 2,000 on the Sunday, so the first day is the busier one. There's also a concert on Saturday evening after the expo closes, which gives you a reason to stick around after the vendor tables pack up for the night. If you're looking for the full experience, Saturday is the day to be there.
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It opens Saturday, January 9, at 8 AM and runs through Sunday, January 10, closing at 6 PM. The whole thing is at the Tampa Convention Center, East/Central Hall and meeting rooms.
