image description — Owner, Ryan Thebeau, is no stranger to the card collector world and is excited to bring a new spot to the city.

Card and Coffee Shop Opens on Tyler Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:30PM / Sunday, November 16, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass.—Berkshire Sports Cards and Coffee opened on Friday, providing the collector community a place to hangout and add more to their collection.

The store is located at 147 Tyler Street and will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Owner, Ryan Thebeau, is no stranger to the card collector world and is excited to bring a new spot to the city. The card and coffee shop carries various Pokemon and sports related cards.

"I started as a kid. I used to mow my lawn for cards and Pokemon cards [and] baseball cards," he laughed.

Thebeau was raised in Pittsfield and moved to Arizona, where he started his business, Desert Sports Cards.

The pandemic hurt sales, so he moved back to Pittsfield and sold online while going to school for Human Services, later becoming a mental health therapist at Berkshire Medical Center.

Thebeau still sold on different online platforms and decided he wanted his own shop like the one he used to visit when he was younger.

He use to go to Bassball Sports Cards, owned by Pat Bassi, which closed in 2010.

Bassi "did really well for a while, and card shops have done really well here," Thebeau said.

"I got into the love of Pokemon cards and all that, especially when the boom started back in the 90s."

Thebeau also grew up playing sports and currently coaches many little league and older teams in the community. He wants his location to be a safe space and hangout destination for youth.

"Where you can trade, sell, hang out, watch a game, play Pokemon—just a safe space for kids, my little leaguers," he said.

"It's wild, because now I'm old enough, they come and say, 'Hey, Coach, I'm going to come see you, right?' It just feels really good. Like it's wild."

Thebeau also hopes his business helps revitalize Tyler Street.

"I always wanted to be on Tyler Street with a revitalization. I wanted to be a spearhead of that. I think it's really cool, the vibe, the new things that are coming in, almost like kid oriented [with all the] hangout spots," he said.

"We got the arcade across the street. I'm also trying to collaborate with a lot of local businesses."

One thing that makes his collector shop unique is its collaboration with Chicago based roasters, Connect Roasters, so the shop can also serve coffee.

While his space is still being worked on for his coffee lounge he will begin serving drip coffee and some of Connect Roasters cans and other materials. He will also have a discount for medical and first responders.

Thebeau eventually hopes to expand his store as well as be an active member to help the community.

"The biggest thing is just growing this community with baseball, myself, with my teams, and I eventually want to have a nonprofit for mental health and sports. And hopefully the city of Pittsfield will see what we're doing here, business wise, and grow," he said.

Tags: new business, coffeeshop, collectibles,

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Companion Corner: Fox at Berkshire Humane Society

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
03:16PM / Wednesday, June 24, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There's a sweet and energetic dog at the Berkshire Humane Society waiting for his new family.

iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home.

Fox is a 3-year-old Pomeranian who has been at the shelter for about a month.

Canine caregiver and adoption counselor Simone Olivieri told us about Fox.

"He's a bundle of joy. He would love a family who's home with him a lot, because he's just, he's very social and wants to be with his people a lot. And he would be fun to bring out and about, bring a lot of places, because he's very happy to go anywhere," she said.

When Fox enters the room he is immediately a puffball of energy that goes around and around the room.

He came to the shelter after his former owner could not take care of him anymore.

"The owner was just not able to care for him anymore. Had he came in with another dog, Wolf, and she already did find her forever home just last week," said Olivieri. "The two of them were left with a friend of the original owner, and the owner did not come back to pick them up, and the friend had too many animals in the house, and too much going on, and she just couldn't continue to look after them, so they did end up coming to us."

Fox can go home with cats and children but is not recommended to go home with other dogs as he gets too excited.

"He would love a home where people are home quite a bit to give him all the attention that he so desires. He loves kids. He absolutely adores children. So he would like a home with kids to play with. He could live with cats. We are saying that he should not live with other dogs. The only reason is that he gets very humpy, and he does not leave the other dogs alone," she said.

With his energy it is recommended he goes to a home that can keep him active whether walks or hikes and even fetch in the yard.

Fox does need to learn more about walking on a leash and has a tendency to mark in the house but he was recently neutered. Olivieri said belly bands will be sent home with whoever adopts him to help prevent marking and managing it.

"He would like an active home. He really does like to go for walks daily. He likes to run around in the yard. He does need a little work on leash walking. He sometimes gets a little tangled still under your feet, and he's learning how to walk on a leash," she said. "So, someone who's got some patience and some time to work on some training with him."

"He also is not fully potty trained, so he does know to go potty outside. However, he will still mark, urinate in the house sometimes, and he might poop here and there in the house."

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