New owners usher in new era for The Dugout Collection in Keene
May 5—After 20 years, this Keene card shop has traded owners.
Keene brothers Derek and Matthew Castor, 33 and 32, assumed ownership of The Dugout Collection on Jan. 1 from Dick and Sharon Comerford, also of Keene. According to a news release from Dick, he and his wife had been looking for the right people to take over the shop at 800 Park Ave., in the hopes that it would remain locally owned. And they got their wish in the Castors.
"Last September I asked the Castors if they would be interested in owning the card shop," Dick wrote in the news release. "Their response was an immediate yes."
Derek and Matthew were long-time customers of the store and are avid card collectors themselves. Matthew said he picked up the hobby from his younger brother Joshua, 19. When Dick offered to sell him and his brother The Dugout Collection, Matthew said he was excited at the idea of owning a shop he had frequented for so long.
"It's something I've always wanted to do," he said Wednesday. "There's a really good market right now in card trading. People are investing a lot of money into it."
The Dugout Collection's merchandise includes sports cards, as well as cards from Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Matthew said some of the cards at the shop go for as high as $500.
Although not for sale at the store, Matthew and Derek own a Tom Brady rookie card estimated at $15,000, which Matthew noted is kept in a safe-deposit box. The card is a 9.5 out of 10 on the Beckett Grading Services' (BGS) scale, which evaluates cards based on centering, corners, edges and surface.
Matthew is also a custodian at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Keene, and Derek teaches physical education to grades K-8 at Westmoreland School. The two brothers hail from Marlborough and graduated from Keene High. Derek also coaches the boys' basketball and baseball teams at Westmoreland.
The brothers are already working on new ways to boost business at the card shop. Matthew said he and Derek plan to do live card breaks, in which viewers can buy-in to watch a collector open a group of cards with the hope of obtaining a valuable one.
"It's one of the biggest things in the market right now," he said. "Lots of businesses have taken off because of it."
Although no longer an owner, Dick Comerford, 82, won't be leaving the shop behind. In fact, he's still working there and plans to do so for a while longer. He said he's been pleased with how the Castors have been running the store.
"They've already exceeded my expectations," he said.
He said in the news release that he enjoyed his time as owner and cherishes the people he's met along the way, but knows The Dugout Collection is in good hands.
"It has been a good run and I know you will enjoy your dealings with the Castors as I have," he wrote.
Hunter Oberst can be reached at 355-8585, or hoberst@keenesentinel.com.
