Entering The Cardboard Devil in Preston is like walking into the basement of city’s biggest sports fan.
From signed jerseys and player cards to obscure collectibles like the banners displayed outside the Hockey Hall of Fame on induction weekend, Rick and Janice Haines’ family-owned business has something for everyone.
“Back in high school I got into the card and comic world,” Rick said.
“Our vision of what this was going to be was the non-traditional collectible shop. It’s constantly changing.”
Diehard collectors and sports fans their entire lives, Rick and Janice’s dream of opening their own store almost never came to be. It began as an online operation in the mid 2000s out of the family home, but the 2008 recession put them under.
“Everything we had left for inventory we liquidated,” Rick said.
At that point, Rick and Janice decided to head back to school to embark on completely different careers. Rick took police foundations and was working his way through the hiring process with the Canada Border Services Agency.
Janice studied paralegal and found work at a law firm.
In 2015, Rick stumbled across an advertisement for Upper Deck, a company known for producing trading cards. From there he found a product called Premier that is a higher end set of collectible cards.
The collecting started again, this time for personal pleasure to share with their children, as the couple worked at their new careers. Then, as Rick contemplated heading off to pursue his work with the CBSA, which would require him to move to Montreal for several months, Janice’s mother passed away.
Once again they found themselves pumping the breaks on promising careers to be there for Janice’s father.
“I looked at Rick and said ‘maybe it’s time’,” Janice said.
“I left the law firm in September 2018 and we opened the store in 2019.”
Despite the up and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, the store has been going strong ever since.
As for the most prized possession in the store, it’s also the most unusual.
Hanging framed on the wall is a Dallas Stars jersey and hat from the team's 1999 Stanley Cup championship season.
For hockey crazed fans, they’ll remember Brett Hull sliding the puck past Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek with his skate in the crease in triple overtime of Game 6. It was an infraction that back then would have resulted in a disallowed goal.
It wasn’t called and the Stars won their first and only Stanley Cup to date.
During the off season, each winning player and staff get a day with the cup to parade it around their hometown or wherever they choose. With it goes a jersey and hat that they each sign.
Fast forward over 20 years later and in walks a man with a jersey and hat in a bag, signed by the entire 1999 Stars team.
“It walked through the front door,” Janice said.
“Someone came in looking to sell it and I checked the certificate of authentication and called to verify it. It’s a Hockey Hall of Fame COA and it was legitimate. I was texting Rick telling him he was never going to believe what walked in.”
The jersey and hat travelled to four different countries before landing in Cambridge, an example of just one of the many treasures that can be found on Eagle St.
“Things just walk in,” Rick said.
“Everything in here has a story.”
