Let's Play Hockey Expo (and Card Show)

The Let's Play Hockey Expo takes place every year at the RiverCentre, which is right next to the Xcel Energy Center (Hockey Arena) in Saint Paul. Lots and lots of people are there, not just for the Expo, but also for the MN State High School Hockey Tournament, which takes place in the Arena.

I got to the RiverCentre about ten minutes before the show was scheduled to start and all of the vendors had already set up. The timing was not perfect however, as the majority of the hallway was crammed with people in line to get tickets for the tournament in the next building. Half of the vendors tables were blocked, but that wasn't a big deal, I could take my time at each one.

The vendors, as you might expect, had mostly Hockey related items. There were several familiar faces to me from the regular monthly and bi-monthly card shows, and they had a mix of things. I really don't collect Hockey at all anymore (I think I would go crazy trying to do all the major sports at once, I'm just going to stick to baseball- for now), but it was still nice to look at what was on display.

There were only two areas of the Expo that featured card vendors, and they were on different floors and opposite ends of the space. Getting to the space on the lower level in the back took about 20 minutes, as people brought the whole family to see all the various new equipment, demonstrations, historical displays and interactive kiosks that are featured each year. A lot of the people attending were content to stand still in the middle of the narrow hallways looking at their phones.

After being told that there were "about 20 tables of card vendors downstairs," I found only that there were only 3. Two of them had non-hockey cards, though I had seen both of them a week ago at the monthly show, so there was not much new to see.

Long story short, unless I or someone I know picks up the game of hockey, I probably won't be back to the Expo anytime soon... but I did find a few fun things there.

Upstairs, one of the vendors had already broken a case (or two?) of Heritage, and I picked up a few things for a trade and this Joe Mauer relic for my own collection:

UPDATE: oops - I just saw that this card was pulled in the case break I joined, so, uh, this version is available for trade!


Downstairs, there was a stack of cheap cards that picked up for more trade fodder, and few odds and ends for myself:

It wasn't a total loss, y'all - there were also Girl Scout Cookies for sale on the trip back home. Thin
Mints make it all better.