I did Fall 2025 and now Spring 2026 as my first two ever. While I again bought the 3-day (Fri/Sat/Sun) pass, I again skipped going on the Saturday.
Once again, my grand total for two days was
six cards - and
three of those (six) were pre-arranged (Francis, Bure and Sakic).
A hobby friend from 416 (the guy with the Bure) messaged me several times on the Friday, as he found the Thibault in Gamebreakers boxes and the Redden in Chris Thompson's boxes (along with another ITG action I picked up as a dupe). Bure and Sakic were deals I negotiated at the Fall Expo and exchange cash/cards at Spring.
The Francis was a gift from Hobby Insider's own
@fetter23 who came all the way from Saskatoon to chill with the Hockey Card Gongshow; and the Nurminen was found in a monster box by my Toronto hobby friend Dave Bansraj Jr., who bought as part of a huge lot and passed it on to me as a gift!
I also bought a box of 'Capybara' cards for less than the price of a sandwich from a dealer packing up his stuff at the end of day on the Sunday.
I was there from Tuesday Apr 28 to Monday May 04 - managed to spend alot of time with Mom in Scarborough and wings and beer in Ajax with four buddies from the old neighbourhood where we all grew up.
Right now I'll say I am skipping Fall 2026; but, six months ago I also said that about the Spring 2026 Expo.

So don't count me out.
I did buy a couple more packages of pepperettes, and much to my humble shame, my son and I have already plowed through both packages as of today.
Nice to see a few familiar faces, and I managed to hand out a few dozen copies of my "wants" poster to dealers there - hoping they'll find a few p.c. cards for me in their monster boxes back at home!
I guess I can't really have a legitimate complaint, as eBay has been good to me in 2026 and with the above cards included, I've added 150 cards across three p.c. with likely more to follow - none of these 150+ have yet been shown on my Hobby Inside threads, Instagram, or Facebook.
SHAMELESS PLUG--> Please follow https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61580567551418 and https://www.instagram.com/brownbullhead/ .
Used one of my soon-to-expire lounge passes in YYZ and had two beers and ate way too much food before a late night Monday flight home.
The magnitude of the deals, both prices and quantities, sure leaves a modest "low-end" collector like myself saying "Damn!" - but, it does seem the hobby has something for everyone!
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone else had a great Spring Expo 2026 Toronto.
