South Shore Grails opens in Sayville selling trading cards
Josh Carcione, left, and Mike Hennessey in their Sayville hobby shop, South Shore Grails. Credit: South Shore Grails
Collectors love the thrill of the hunt and the joy of adding to their stash. Josh Carcione and Mike Hennessey’s South Shore Grails in Sayville is a new destination for trading-card enthusiasts and newbies alike. They opened the shop in September.
“We’re building the kind of shop where kids can buy their first packs and parents can share the hobby with their children,” says Carcione, 38, who owns LendSaaS, a financial software company. “Serious collectors can find something worth adding to their collections.”
The Bayport-based friends met when their kids were in preschool. They specialize in cards featuring basketball, baseball and other sports stars and trading card games (TCGs), particularly Pokémon, but also One Piece, Dragon Ball, Magic The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!
The card inventory runs roughly 55% sports and 45% Pokemon and other gaming cards. Prices run from $1 to around $28,000.
The partners were inspired by their own collections — Carcione’s into Pokémon and Dragon Ball; Hennessey is a sports enthusiast. The current strength of the trading-card market, fueled by nostalgia and growing collector interest, was another motivator.
Merchandise includes graded cards, singles, coveted collectibles, plus sealed boxes — unopened trading-card packs with unknown contents inside. They’re working with a distributor, Carcione said, in the interest of managing inventory and prices.
Cards are displayed like pint-sized pictures at an exhibition in the shop, which is designed like an art gallery. Hennessey, 43, who owns the JPMM painting company and a construction firm, handled the build-out.
The dynamism of the collectibles market is ongoing conversation between the co-owners. Sports cards are tied to the performances of athletes and an injury or off-field offense can send a card’s value tumbling. Game cards, not so much.
“Pokémon don’t break their legs,” says Hennessey, adding that they also don’t get into dust-ups off the field. “The kind of things that affect the cards for sports don’t affect Pokémon.”
Since opening, the co-owners have collected something new — favorite moments of being in business. Many involve young customers’ excited reactions to seeing a favorite character or finding a surprise treasure in a sealed box.
“Honestly,” said Hennessey, “that’s basically what this is all about.”
South Shore Grails, 126 W Main St., Sayville, 631-883-5772, southshoregrails.com, Instagram: @southshoregrails
