Card and Collectibles Shop Opens in North Adams
Kevin Dowling says his late grandfather collected some of the memorabilia in the store. (Flutie Flakes!)
Owner Kevin Dowling established 2 the Moon Card Shop & Collectibles after finding some success selling online.
"There's going to be sports cards, non-sports cards, all types of hobby games, collectibles of all sorts, autographs to non-autographs, even movie memorabilia," he said, though there will be plenty of sports collectibles, "I've just been doing sports my whole life. ...
"I've been selling for like five years online now, and I used to go to card shows. So there's nothing around here, there's no [dedicated collectibles] stores around here. Walmart doesn't even carry stuff, like cards or anything. So it was more of looking for something to do in the community I grew up in."
Dowling was raised in Stamford, Vt., and graduated from McCann Technical School. He recently worked for the Maine Celtics, an affiliate of the Boston team, so his store sells a lot of Celtics memorabilia. He came home to work on the old neighborhood corner store that his father ran years ago.
"I went to school for sports management, and so I just worked for the Celtics for the last eight years up in Maine, and I grew up around here," he said. "So when I moved back home here, this was my dad's space, and I just decided to redo it."
Dowling was eager to a have a storefront that people can visit. He started renovating the space a year ago with the help of friends, and the construction took longer than he had planned as the space hadn't been really touched in 30 years.
"This started as a variety store back in the day when my dad first bought it, then it was an ice cream store, and then he used it as his warehouse," he said.
The space was completed in August and he held his grand opening on Nov. 1. He hopes his shop become a community hub and said he'll have a space for people to hang out as well as play tournaments.
"I want it to be like a space where people enjoy coming to, there are TVs around, there's a table in the back for people to open cards. There's a slush puppy machine in the back, there'll be a popcorn machine. So, I just want it to be a fun space where people can enjoy their hobbies," said Dowling. "There's no real hobby places around here, and so I try to touch on all of them. And I know cards are big, and just kind of a positive place on the community, where I want people to just be able to enjoy coming here."
He plans to get more involved with community and have trade night. He'll also buy from customers and welcome young customers with a box of free cards to get them started collecting.
"I want to do a lot with the youth sports, because that's where I grew up playing, and where this love of this hobby came from. So it stemmed from the YMCA, the Northern Berkshire Youth Basketball and all that stuff, there's Little League," he said. "So I want to get back to that as much as possible and just stay involved and do as much as you can, host different gaming tournaments ... Hopefully maybe a bigger space down the road."
Dowling said he was inspired by his grandfather, who he used to collect with growing up, and that some of the items in store were his.
"This is 28 years of collecting. I got pretty hard into it my senior year of high school and on. But with my grandfather, growing up, I used to always collect with him, there's a lot of stuff here," he said.
Dowling's shop is open Wednesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. His Facebook page is here.
Tags: new business, collectibles, Sports,
