EPHRATA — While there have been – quite literally – stumbles along the way, The Cardman hobby shop is now open in Ephrata and Derran Donoghue and partner Melissa Craven are excited to be in Tiger country.

“The first thing I want to do is, I want to make this for the community,” Donoghue said. “That’s what (now-closed Ephrata Sports Cards) brought to the community. We want to just basically take the torch from (that store) and build it for the younger (people in the area).”

The pair are still refining the shop into what they want it to be, but they’ve come a long way since they first decided to open in Ephrata. Donoghue had previously operated the shop out of East Wenatchee. The goal was to get Craven closer to her mom, Soap Lake Mayor Michelle Agliano, and to create a space where parents can drop off their children and know they’re safe and staying out of trouble, Donoghue said. While at the shop, patrons can enjoy casual play of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: the Gathering and other collectible card games or browse through a wide variety of sports collectibles. The shop even sells Star Wars cards from the 1970s and 1980s and Garbage Pail Kids cards – which are still kinda gross but funny if you’re a sometimes-immature news editor.

The thought had been percolating for a while when the pair drove by the store’s location just across the street from Safeway, he said. They went out of their way to turn around, took a peek in the window and realized the space was just what they were looking for.

“I looked through one of the front windows and looked all the way down (the space), and I thought, ‘Oh. This is huge. Probably out of our price range,’” Donaghue said.

After mentioning the site to his mother, Jeannie Donoghue, who had always told him he needed a larger space than he’d previously worked out of, his mom talked him into putting in an inquiry on the rental rate and an application for a lease.

“You don’t know if you don’t try,” he said his mom told him.

The lease was official on March 15 and the pair got set to move in. That’s when the stumbling started, they said.

Donoghue, who is diabetic, developed an ulcer on his foot and eventually had to have a toe amputated.

“That was the first roadblock,” Craven said.

Then, as they were moving items around in the shop, Craven broke her ankle at around 4:30 p.m. and that slowed things down. However, between sheer determination and teamwork, the couple was able to get the store opened up.

Craven said she and Donoghue work well as a pair. They’ve been a couple for a bit longer than five years now and each brings a set of skills to the table to make the business work. She’s helped with marketing and promotions for four years or so.

“I’m your marketing and your public relations,” she said.

On the other side of that, Donoghue has been working with sports memorabilia and collectibles since he was young, opening his first shop before he could drive. He’d been enthralled with sports cards since his mom had bought him a pack of Upper Deck Collectors Choice basketball cards. He traded back and forth with friends for a long time before opening his first, less-than-300-square-foot, shop at 17. When his father fell ill, he threw himself into the business wholeheartedly to help support the family. His dad and brother had taught him business sense from a young age through their company, Donoghue Trucking, he said, and he applied that knowledge to cards.

Over time, he expanded his sports collectibles knowledge and branched out into the collectible card game business. Also known as CCGs or tradable card games, TCGs can have a huge impact on the bottom line for a store, so Yu-Gi-Oh! and other games have hit the shelves. His preference among them is Magic: The Gathering, he said.

Craven has a different priority, with a collection of Pop! Vinyls figures, especially the girly ones, that she enjoys.

“Pop culture is my favorite thing,” she said. “I love the movies and the music and everything else, you know. So, pop culture has kind of become my thing, and the TCGs are included in that.”

The store may expand into roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons and board games over time, but The Cardman is focused on getting its core products in line first. In the meantime, they’re open to people coming in for casual play and good conversation. They’re also open to feedback from customers on what the community might want from a hobby shop.

Craven said she hopes area residents will come in and check out the shop. While Donoghue takes care of sales and inventory, her passion is with the people that come in.

“I’m happy as long as I’ve got a customer in front of me to talk to,” she said.

R. Hans Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com. If you have any feedback on the content of the paper or just want to talk about things going on in the community, he welcomes letters to the editor via that email address.

The Cardman

1105 Basin Street SW

Ephrata, WA 98823

509-699-1903

www.thecardman.org

Facebook.com/EphrataCardman