By CARL E. FEATHER - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
—
Jason and Trinity Williams were driving to his grandparents’ house in Geneva the conversation turned to Trinity’s frustration with all the toys Jason had stashed around the house with the idea of one day opening a retro toy store.
The would-be merchandise stored in basement, attic, porch and three other rooms — about 50 percent of their living space — was wearing on Trinity’s nerves as Jason unsuccessfully tried to find a storefront for his dream business.
“I just kept missing places (to rent),” says the Cleveland Heights resident. “I just ended up giving up looking.”
A mile or two east of Madison Village, Trinity asked Jason if he’d bothered to pray about finding a storefront. He hadn’t. “She said ‘Turn around,’ and (back in Madison Village), I started noticing things here I hadn’t noticed before,” Jason says.
Things like the coffee shop and karate business, whose owner came out and suggested Jason look into 46 W. Main St. as a location for his retail business. Jason followed up with an interview with the landlord, Bill Butler, and both agreed that Jason’s idea would be a good fit for the village’s retail district.
Two weeks ago, Jason opened the doors to his Spaceman Floyd’s Cosmic Toys, which specializes in vintage toys and comic books from the 1960s forward. Jason coordinated the opening with Madison’s Old Fashioned Days and quickly gained a lot of faithful customers who stop in to reminisce and buy a piece of their childhood.
“This is my favorite store to come into,” quipped one of the adult shoppers who has been in every day since the store opened. Jason said a little girl told his wife that “kids around here don’t have much, but now we have a toy store.”
The store has a mix of vintage (used) toys and new stock, mostly novelty items like eyeball tattoos, squirting cigarette packs, sixth fingers, magic glasses, instant worms, whoopee cushions and plastic soldiers and dinosaurs. There are boxes of comic books that sell for a quarter each and vintage Transformers that cost more than $100. The most expensive item is a metal rocket ship from a Euclid Park amusement ride. Jason won’t even put a price tag on it — parked in the front window, it’s a magnet for baby boomers and their kids to come in and browse the shelves and cases for a plastic and metal memory.
Williams, 36, grew up in the era of Star War figures, Pee Wee Herman, Transformers and Superheroes. “I was pretty fond of wrestlers and I like Star Trek a lot,” says Williams, who despite clearing his house of toy inventory, still has three bookcases filled with his favorites.
His love affair with comic books began at the age of 5, when an uncle gave him a stack of them. His knowledge of and love for vintage toys and comics got him hired at Big Fun Toy Store on Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, where he worked for nine years before deciding to start his own toy shop.
Williams said he also was going to Cleveland State to get a master’s in English, but a professor discouraged him to the point Williams decided to drop out and go into business.
“What I learned at Big Fun is that the gag, novelties and candy sold well. Cheap comics sold well, and collectibles sold well,” says Williams, who accordingly built his shop around those lines.
His store’s name, “Spaceman Floyd,” is a nod to both Jason’s middle name and the first name of his grandfather, Floyd Cumpston, of Geneva.
The stock for his store comes from posting on Craigslist and placing ads in newspapers. He hit the mother lode a while back when he made a major purchase of toys out of Kentucky; it took two trips with a U-Haul trailer to bring it all back.
“That changed the trajectory of the store,” he says. “I had to cough up a lot of dough for the toys, but it paid off,” he says.
Much of that collection is at the core of his store’s stock, which changes daily, even hourly, as customers bring in items they wish to sell.
Williams said he’d love to see someone walk in with “a couple boxes of old Marvel comics, some late-1970s Star Wars figures, a truck load of 1980s boys and girls toys and any odd-ball stuff.” Universal Monster items, cool robots and other space-age toys are always welcome.
“That’s the part I like most about this, seeing what comes in,” he says.
Williams started the business using cash he’d been saving with the hopes of one day owning a place of his own. “This is all my money and this is all me,” he says.
He recognizes that a recession is not the best time to be opening a business that depends entirely upon discretionary income for survival. But he says it is a great time to be acquiring toys, and he feels he’s in the right kind of retail environment to make it all work.
“You can always find a reason not to do something,” he says.
Response has been very encouraging, and Williams said he already has a list of at least 10 youngsters and adults who want to work for him once the store gets so busy he can’t handle it on his own. For now, however, it’s just Williams, who opens the shop at noon and closes it at 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Both buyers and sellers are welcome, but call ahead if you like (440- 983-4780).
