FERGUS – It’s a tight space at the 12-foot-by-12-foot store with an entrance on Menzies Lane in downtown Fergus, but Russell Davey has packed every inch of it with video games, toys, comic books and other collectibles.
Davey, 34, is the owner of Bonus Box Games at 126 St. Andrew St. W. which can be accessed at the rear from the parking lot near the Fergus Library and facing the Grand River.
Bonus Box Games is a collectibles store, focused on older video games, cards, toys and comic books open for just a few hours each evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Erin-born Fergus resident said in an interview at his shop has been a collector his whole life, starting with bottle caps, stickers and keychains as a young child and taking off from there. Now, he mainly focuses on collecting video games, Pokémon cards — he still has the completed original three sets he’s had since childhood — and a few select toy lines.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been able to narrow that down to why I do this … it’s fun, you learn more stuff as you keep collecting more and more and more,” Davey said. “Right when you think you’ve finished it all? Well you didn’t really finish it all, you keep finding more.”
Davey tries to finish it however, describing himself as a “completionist” who doesn’t collect every video game system but the ones he does he goes big.
“So like Wii U, this video game system, there’s only 164 games in the whole library, I have almost 500 Wii U games,” Davey said, adding he has five bookshelves at home dedicated to the system.
Davey had been selling and trading various collectibles online for many years but happened upon an opportunity to have a storefront while working at his job at a county waste facility.
One of the owners of the art gallery upstairs from his shop came by on a garbage run and asked Davey if he knew anyone looking for retail space.
“I’m your guy, I’m interested. I’ve always been thinking about it, this is the opportunity right there,” Davey recalled saying at the time.
He ended up clearing out some stuff from his home and moving it into the small space, first opening in early September.
Despite the low amount of hours the store is open — Davey keeps his full-time job still — he said he’s had enough traffic to make it worthwhile from interested collectors looking to buy, sell or trade.
Davey said the price of collectibles like the ones he sells has skyrocketed since COVID and there’s been an increase in people nostalgic for their childhood with extra income to spend.
“That’s what a lot of my customers are, they’re playing the games they had when they were kids,” Davey said. “The amount of people who walk into the store and just don’t even buy anything, just sit here looking around ‘I remember that.’”
Davey said his wife, who has a Polly Pocket collection of her own, is happy there’s a little more room at the house although he’s been slowly filling it back up. She’s also happy to have a place separate from his home to do this in.
“I think she likes the fact that I’m keeping myself occupied and busy and I was doing this at home at home time, when I should be with family,” Davey said. “Now when I go home, I don’t do any of this.”
