For more than 20 years Rob Collins has been dreaming of a store like the one he is operating today.
Collins has been operating the longest-running Hockey Card-Sports Memorabilia business in the city of North Bay.
"Since I started this was the store that I always envisioned," he said.
"Something where somebody can come in and sit down, go through boxes, I mean that is what a hobby store is supposed to be about. The little store we had was not accessible for people to do that. Now, to me, there is tons of room so it means a lot. People can actually look at items now. We are still working on restocking the store now that our square footage has doubled."
While COVID-19 caused so many economic challenges, Collins says his industry was able to flourish during the lockdowns.
"I really believe COVID-19 in our industry, actually really helped us out," admitted Collins.
"People were stuck at home and they really could not do much so everybody needed a hobby and I think that is what really jumpstarted everything."
Collins says business has been booming in the sportscard industry which caused a real challenge when it came to running a storefront and still giving the store on the corner of Cassells and Princess Street an expansion facelift.
"We came through it with literally non-stop work for three months," explained Collins.
"From June 1 to September 1, had a lot of great help from a lot of great customers. It was difficult in the fact that the industry is definitely booming so to shut down the retail store for three months at a time when it is booming was hard but on the flipside, the online store was super busy, so it was manageable for us to do what we had to do during COVID-19."
Collins is excited about the opportunity with his new store and will be having a number of giveaways and door prizes during his grand opening celebrations this Saturday.
For more information on the event, check out the Ultimate Sportscards Facebook page.
