Collectors Connection Connects To More Hobbyists with New Superior Location

SUPERIOR, Wis.- Just in time for the last holiday season a Duluth staple for collectors expanded their connection across the bridge.

“We opened on Black Friday which, I was overly optimistic as far as being ready,” Aaron Davis said.

Davis, the owner of Collectors Connection by Miller Hill Mall in Duluth, opened up a larger mecca for hobbyists across the bridge to house his growing inventory of 100,000 comics.

“It takes a long time to price 50,000 comics,” he said. And he still has 50,000 still waiting to be displayed and priced.

“A lot of artists work from home and they have a lot of freedom to, lot of creative control on it and that makes for some really interesting comics and there’s a lot of small press stuff available now,” said the owner.

New characters appearing in superhero movies like the recent Spider-Man No Way Home have attracted more to the pages those characters were born in.

“It’s really exposed a lot of the casual public to the Marvel characters and they get interested in collecting the comics too,” Davis said.

On Tower Avenue, owner Aaron Davis continues to hold and ship comics for his customers.

“We have people all across the state and there’s one guy in North Dakota that has us hold his comics for him.”

With more people at home in 2020 sports cards also took off.

“Ripping packs open is pretty addictive. It’s better than pull tabs because if you lose in pull tabs you got nothing but even if you don’t get what you’re looking for when you rip open a pack you have something.”

And the new shop is big news for other types of hobbyists in Superior.

“When I found out I was like ‘holy crap there’s a shop closer to me!’,” said Noah Vennes. “Quite frankly I am excited because now I can find some really cool vinyl around where I live instead of driving all the way to Duluth.”

For record collector Vennes, there’s no better way to experience music than on vinyl.

“It feels like a trophy to you, y’know? And just like looking inside it’s like wow, look at that, there’s the insert right there just the gatefold,” Vennes said.

It’s these collecting fanatics that find a home in the shop.

“There’s never a thought that someone is an oddball because he wants to come in and buy a certain comic or a card and it’s just, it is a safe place where people come.”

And as long as those people come, Davis says he’ll keep it up for another 40 years.

“At one time I was thinking I didn’t want to be 50-60 years old selling comic books for a living but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do,” he said.