HOULTON, Maine — An Ellsworth entrepreneur who started his first business with the help of a $1,400 COVID-19 stimulus check when he was 21 is now opening his third Maine hobby and gaming shop in downtown Houlton.
While Ryan Lounder has eyed the Aroostook County town for a while, the perfect Houlton location at 17 Court St. only fell into place recently, he said. The new location of 207 Collectibles is set to open on April 1.
“This location will be two levels. On the main level, we will have our retail space. It will look very similar to our other two locations,” he said. “On our second floor, we will have a private play space where we will host any and all games that people are wanting us to host.”
The region does have an established hobby shop, Shiretown Coins in Houlton, that sells sports and fantasy trading cards. It also has Shiretown Gaming, a gaming center and tournament play area that’s open to both members and the public in Ludlow.
But 207 Collectibles will be unique in that its primary focus is on the card game Magic the Gathering, and it will feature a full floor of gameplay space where people of all ages can come to hang out, learn and compete in tournaments.
For Lounder, who is now 25, success is not defined merely by dollars earned, but also by how he is able to help the community, he said.
“One of my biggest things is being very community oriented and a donation style of things,” Lounder said on Monday. “When we open here, we are collecting gift cards from local businesses for a raffle. We will match 50 percent from the raffle and donate it to the food pantry.”
Since opening the first 207 Collectibles in Ellsworth in 2021 and a second in Bucksport, Lounder has donated to Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, held free breakfasts, donated a percentage of items sold to local charities and hosted free game tournaments for families and schools. All the proceeds from T-shirts sold on his website are donated away.
“This year we donated more than $15,000 to local charities,” he said. “I have a philosophy that there is no point in earning a crazy amount of money and doing nothing with it.”
The Houlton location will carry the same items as the other branches of 207 Collectibles do, including Magic The Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons & Dragons, board games, Funko, videos and original gaming equipment like Atari, Game Boy, Playstation and Xbox.
As part of his broader mission, Lounder said that playing Magic the Gathering can help build community.
“It brings people together in a time where people don’t connect anymore face to face,” he said.
Often referred to as MTG, the game was created by Richard Garfield in 1993 and is now played by millions around the world.
Traditional tournament play can be done one on one, or in groups of up to four. Each player can choose their cards, fairies, wizards and balls of fire, with the object being to remain the last one standing.
“It is a safe alternative that gives kids a place to go. It is also good for people that are not physically fit, have physical challenges or struggle socially,” said Angelina Jackman, an employment coordinator for Living Innovations in Houlton who was with Lounder on Monday. “Everybody starts on an equal playing field. It strengthens community, forms relationships or bonds that people naturally would not have had.”
Matt Leeman, who Lounder had hoped would head his Ellsworth shop, has decided to move to Houlton to manage the new location.
When the Ellsworth shop opened, Leeman was studying and apprenticing as a funeral director and declined the original offer. But he decided now was a good time to take on the Houlton shop.
Leeman has already hired two employees and 207 Collectibles Houlton will be open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., he said.
“During the week people can come and hang out for free, but during specified tournaments there is a buy-in to offset a prize for the winners,” he said.
Lounder said the original stimulus check he received during the pandemic was used to pay down his credit card debt so he could get a $5,000 loan, and it was the crucial piece to the puzzle.
At the time, he had dropped out of classes at Husson University and was working for his mother-in-law at the Ellsworth bowling alley he now owns. When he decided to start 207 Collectibles, he had a hard time convincing the landlord he would be successful.
“The landlord did not want me in the shop, he thought it was a bad business idea and didn’t think it would work,” he said, adding that eventually the landlord decided to let him give it a try.
“It’s been off to the races from there,” Lounder said. “If you had asked me in high school if I wanted to do it I would have said, ‘absolutely.’ But I came from a poor family, so the idea never seemed like it had an actual chance of happening. The stimulus check gave that little kickstart boost to what I needed.”
