Collectors take note: A new sports card and hobby shop opens in Lexington. Here’s where

There’s a new spot in the Midlands for collectors of sports cards and fans of card-based games like Pokemon.

Hobby shop Palmetto Cards recently opened at 404 West Main St. in Lexington. It’s located next door to the New York Butcher Shoppe in a small shopping center just west of downtown Lexington.

Palmetto Cards carries a wide variety of sports cards — baseball, basketball, football, soccer, pro wrestling and more — as well as other sports collectibles. The shop sells, buys and trades cards and also submits cards for grading.

Grading is the process of submitting cards to a third party to verify their quality and condition.

Palmetto Cards also has a selection of gaming cards that have proven popular, including Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and a number of others. The shop also sells supplies for hobbyists, including items to help collectors transport and protect their cards.

Owner Aaron Cordero is running the business with his son Jacob Cordero and fiance Meredith Hatley. Cordero told The State he’s been a collector for many years and has often done business at card trade shows across the country. He’s also run a card grading submission business for a number of years.

“We decided we ought to take the next step,” Cordero said. “The stars aligned. We said, ‘We need more space for the (grading submission) part of our business, let’s open up a retail space, also.’ So when you walk in our store, the front half of the store is retail space, and the back part is where we do the submission piece.”

Cordero said the shop on West Main Street has already gotten good support and that he enjoys seeing customers come in and get excited.

“It was really humbling to me to have people messaging us on our Facebook and saying, ‘Hey, we can’t wait for the store to open, we are going to be there on the first day,’” Cordero said. “Literally, when my son flipped sign on the first day when we opened the door for our soft opening, we had a dozen or so people ready to walk in the door. That was cool.

“That was a surreal moment for me, personally. It was humbling to know we were bringing something to the area people were passionate and excited about.”

Cordero said he wants customers to feel comfortable spending time at Palmetto Cards. There are tables in the space where folks can sit and open their cards. Cordero also said he plans to get some TVs up in the store so customers can enjoy ballgames as they shop and talk cards.

Palmetto Cards is in a high-traffic area in Lexington. State traffic count data indicates more than 18,000 cars per day travel down that stretch of West Main Street.

“We love this area,” Coredero said. “We definitely wanted to do (the shop) in Lexington.”