Sports-card collectors and collectibles dealers from around the Rocky Mountain region will gather today for some last-minute holiday wheeling and dealing at the Sports Collectible Show, which offers a spread of local team and Hall of Fame-related memorabilia, just in the nick of time. Promoter Christian Bakken, a dealer himself for the past fifteen years, says there is no way to profile a collector — whether novices or regulars, they come in all genders, age groups and social castes — and they all flock to the shows looking for that magical find. “Some people will line up for six hours just to get a look at the quarter boxes, where they can find four-dollar cards going for a quarter,” Bakken notes. “The connection people have as sports fans goes way beyond the game itself.”

Expect to dig up lots of Rockies and Broncos merch, from Beanie bears and custom-framed cards to blind boxes of sports cards or baseballs signed by Tulo and Cargo. What’s the best discovery Bakken has ever made? “I once had a guy with a storage locker full of collectible cards, who wanted an appraisal,” he says. “I found Hall of Fame Mickey Mantles and Hank Aaron — he had a lot of great stuff in there. He thought he might have a couple hundred dollars’ worth, but it ended up being in the hundreds of thousands! He inherited the locker from his uncle.”

Perhaps you won’t be as lucky, but it’s still fun to look — and maybe grab a last-second lift for a sports lover. The show runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel Denver-Westminster, 8773 Yates Drive in Westminster, and admission is free; go to www.facebook.com/5280sc for details.
Sat., Dec. 22, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., 2012