Noobie: Problems with a query - Mailing list pgsql-novice

The query that I'm trying to execute is as follows:

SELECT
  card_names.card_name,
  card_sets.set_name
FROM
  card_names_in_sets,
  card_names,
  card_sets
WHERE
  card_names_in_sets.card_name_record_num =
    card_names.record_num
AND
  card_names_in_sets.card_set_record_number =
    card_sets.record_num;

And the explain for this query is:

Merge Join  (cost=100.37..186.36 rows=191 width=83)
  Merge Cond: ("outer".record_num = "inner".card_name_record_num)
  ->  Index Scan using card_names_record_num_idx on card_names
      (cost=0.00..78.09 rows=1826 width=47)
  ->  Sort  (cost=100.37..100.85 rows=191 width=36)
        Sort Key: card_names_in_sets.card_name_record_num
        ->  Hash Join  (cost=1.14..93.16 rows=191 width=36)
              Hash Cond:
              ("outer".card_set_record_number = "inner".record_num)
              ->  Seq Scan on card_names_in_sets  (cost=0.00..63.65
                  rows=3465 width=8)
              ->  Hash  (cost=1.11..1.11 rows=11 width=28)
                    ->  Seq Scan on card_sets  (cost=0.00..1.11
                         rows=11 width=28)

which, sadly, is greek to me.  The problem is that the above query
takes very close to 12 seconds to execute.  Is there a better way I
could write the query?  The number of rows in each table are as
follows:

1826 : card names
3465 : card_names_in_sets
11   : card_sets

On a side note, it takes almost 11 seconds just to display the 3500
rows in card_names_in_sets.  Is there a better way to create that
table?

The table "card_names_in_sets" is a bridge between the tables
"card_names" and "card_sets".

My 3 tables are (from pgAdminII):


CREATE TABLE public.card_names_in_sets (
  card_name_record_num int4 NOT NULL,
  card_set_record_number int4 NOT NULL,
  record_num int4
    DEFAULT nextval('public.card_names_in_sets_record_num_seq'::text)
    NOT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT card_names_in_sets_record_num_idx UNIQUE (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT card_names_in_sets_pkey PRIMARY KEY (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT "$1" FOREIGN KEY (card_name_record_num) REFERENCES
    card_names (record_num) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE NO ACTION NOT
    DEFERRABLE INITIALLY IMMEDIATE,
  CONSTRAINT "$2" FOREIGN KEY (card_set_record_number) REFERENCES
    card_sets (record_num) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE NO ACTION NOT
    DEFERRABLE INITIALLY IMMEDIATE
) WITH OIDS;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX card_names_in_sets_record_num_idx ON
  card_names_in_sets USING btree (record_num);
CREATE INDEX card_names_in_sets_card_name_record_num_idx ON
  card_names_in_sets USING btree (card_name_record_num);
CREATE INDEX card_names_in_sets_card_set_record_num_idx ON
  card_names_in_sets USING btree (card_set_record_number);

CREATE TABLE public.card_names (
  card_name varchar(50) DEFAULT '',
  record_num int4
    DEFAULT nextval('public.card_names_record_num_seq'::text) NOT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT card_names_record_num_idx UNIQUE (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT card_names_pkey PRIMARY KEY (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT card_names_integrity CHECK (((card_name IS NOT NULL) AND
    (card_name <> ''::character varying)))
) WITH OIDS;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX card_names_record_num_idx ON card_names USING btree
  (record_num);

CREATE TABLE public.card_sets (
  set_name varchar(20) DEFAULT '',
  record_num int4
    DEFAULT nextval('public.card_sets_record_num_seq'::text) NOT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT card_sets_record_num_idx UNIQUE (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT card_sets_pkey PRIMARY KEY (record_num),
  CONSTRAINT card_sets_integrity CHECK (((set_name IS NOT NULL) AND
    (set_name <> ''::character varying)))
) WITH OIDS;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX card_sets_record_num_idx ON card_sets USING btree
  (record_num);

Any help with this would be *greatly* appreciated!!

thnx,
Christoph