Super Sports Cards and More has expanded into a new, larger location in Vancouver to accommodate a growing number of collectors and provide more space for trading card games, tournaments and customers looking to browse its inventory.
The store, which specializes in sports cards alongside Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and other trading card games, is celebrating the move with a grand opening on Friday, Oct. 23, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. and activities throughout the weekend.
Justin Mirabal, the store’s general manager, said the move was driven primarily by a need for more room to host events and give customers space to browse cards.
“It's huge. We had just become so busy at the old location that we're hosting events, sports, Pokemon, Magic, all of them, and we're getting more people to show up than we had chairs or room for, and it was just getting too cramped,” Mirabal said. “So we needed the space mostly to host the events.”
The new store, located at 11505 NE Fourth Plain Blvd., Ste. E, occupies just over 8,000 square feet, with a sales floor Mirabal estimated is about four times the size of the previous location’s sales floor. The additional room allows the business to spread out its inventory and set up designated areas for sports cards, Pokémon and other games.
“We've got tables set up in the front, and we've got different sections broken down, so there's a Magic and One Piece section, a sports section, and a Pokémon section,” Mirabal said. “Just to have that opportunity for people to come in and not be rushed or crowded and just have time and space to look through all that inventory that we're trying to provide for people.”
The previous location, off of Northeast Andresen Road, remains open while the business determines its long-term plans. Mirabal said the store has a lease through the end of 2027 and is continuing to sell cards there, particularly individual cards, while gradually reducing some of its other inventory.
More room for trading and tournaments
The expanded location is already helping the business accommodate larger gatherings. Super Sports Cards and More hosted its first Pokémon Trade Night at the new store before the grand opening, drawing more than 100 people, Mirabal said.
“We host Pokemon Trade Night once a month. … We had over 100 people show up, which is impossible in the other location,” he said.
The store also hosts a monthly Sports Trade Night, along with events for games such as Magic: The Gathering and One Piece. The business is working to expand its offerings to include Dragon Ball, Disney Lorcana and Cyberpunk.
Pokémon, Magic and One Piece events have been among the most popular locally, Mirabal said. The store’s weekly Pokémon League, held from 5 p.m to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, has attracted about 40 people during its first two weeks at the new location.
At the previous store, attendance was limited by the available seating. Mirabal said Pokémon tournaments averaged about 30 participants, but the business had to turn people away when too many showed up.
With the additional room, he expects some of the store’s most popular events to regularly draw 40 to 50 participants.
The grand opening weekend will feature a Pokémon tournament at noon on Friday, followed by a Magic pre-release event at 6 p.m. A sports trading event is scheduled for noon Sunday, Oct. 25. The store also plans to offer special discounts and other surprises during the celebration.
A growing hobby
For Mirabal, the expansion represents another step in a business tied to a lifelong interest in collecting. He began collecting cards when he was 6- or 7-years-old, and remembers looking through boxes of cards with his grandfather at a shop on Mill Plain.
“I remember looking through boxes of cards with my grandpa in their shop, and theirs was a traditional small shop, kind of how we started,” Mirabal said.
The business has expanded several times over the years, growing from a 750-square-foot space to progressively larger locations before making the move to its current store.
Another goal is to build up the store’s selection of individual cards, giving customers the opportunity to search through drawers and discover items that might otherwise be difficult to find. Mirabal said the business buys collections daily and was averaging about 30 to 35 collections a day between its two locations at the time of the interview.
Rather than keeping all its inventory cataloged out of customers’ reach, Mirabal wants the store to offer an experience in which collectors can browse cards themselves.
“We want to give people that experience where you can come in and grab a drawer of cards and just go through it and never know what you might find in there of interest,” he said.
“The ultimate goal is that we're going to be able to say that we have a million cards that people can walk in and touch,” he added.
Mirabal said the trading card collecting hobby has grown considerably since the business started about 15 years ago. Early on, he said, the business was driven more by a shared passion for collecting than by significant financial opportunities.
Interest began picking up before the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled in part by prominent young professional athletes and their collectible cards. Mirabal cited basketball players Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and Luka Doncic, along with football players Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, as athletes who helped attract collectors.
The pandemic accelerated that growth as people spent more time at home and rediscovered collections they already owned.
Interest extends beyond sports cards. Mirabal said collectors increasingly want places where they can meet others who share their interests, trade cards and participate in organized events.
The new location has also introduced the business to customers who were unfamiliar with the store despite its relatively short move from the previous site. Mirabal said the number of new faces has been a surprise, with some visitors discovering for the first time that the business carries Pokémon cards and other card-gaming products.
Although sports cards remain the store’s primary focus, Mirabal said the business aims to combine a broad retail inventory with space for community gatherings rather than simply selling products.
