By ERIC SEIVERLING
For Monessen resident Don Spagnolo, playing with toys is serious business.
As owner of the newly opened ReMixxd by Steel City Galleries, Spagnolo and his staff spend their days buying, selling, photographing, cataloging and shipping thousands of vintage and collectible toys, sports cards, action figures, magazines, videos, lunch boxes and comic books to collectors and hobbyists around the world.
Though ReMixxd, located in Belle Vernon’s Amcel Center at 236 Finley Road, has been open since March, Spagnolo will hold an invitation-only grand opening from noon to 3 p.m. June 26 that will include tours of the facility, giveaways, prizes and the StreetEats food truck.
The 5,000-square-foot warehouse is home to an estimated 40,000 comic books, 20,000 autographed sports cards, 10,000 vintage magazine ads, 1,500 Hot Wheels cars, 400 beer tap handles — one of the largest selections in the country, according to Spagnolo — and many other collectibles.
The inventory is sold only online, and Spagnolo ships to customers in Ireland, Japan, Italy, China, Russia and India.
“You know what they say … one man’s trash,” Spagnolo said. “People are so aware of the value of collectibles. When people hit their 40s, they start having the money to buy things. They start to get that nostalgia boom.”
Spagnolo was hit with the collector’s bug at the age of 5 when a case of tonsillitis prevented him from attending a local comic book convention and meeting his idol, legendary comic book creator Stan Lee.
“I was crushed,” Spagnolo recalled. “But my mom sent a letter to him and he sent me a couple autographs and comic books. For a little kid, that was a big deal. That lit the match.”
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