After over 30 years, the owner of Hawaii’s oldest sports card store is ready to trade it all in

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – When it comes down to the business of dealing in sports cards, Paula’s Sports Cards Etc. in Makiki is the oldest game in town.

”It’s just amazing to think that I’ve been doing this for 34 years! It’s been such a blessing. Such a blessing,” said owner Paula Nakata.

She got into the collectibles biz literally by accident. As a young adult, she was on her way to work at ABC Stores when she got into a moped accident that laid her up for months.

To get money to pay a credit card bill, she sold a small collection of cards that she’d been holding onto for years.

”What I paid $40 in fourth grade for ended up being worth what the dealer would have paid me $700,” she said.

That return on investment blew her away. When she went back to her work, she set aside a paycheck a month to buy cards and build her inventory.

”If you buy the right stuff, the stuff that sits on your shelf can actually appreciate quite a bit in value,” she said.

Nakata started by selling sports cards part-time then opened her first store in 1990. Some of her early sales were to kids who are now grownups with card-collecting children of their own.

Her philosophy has always been to make her store a place where customers feel comfortable.

”It’s having actually more of a relationship with them than just being a business that just wants to sell things to them,” she said.

She tried to retire at the peak of the pandemic but got bored and quickly came back. Now, to honor a vow she made to her husband, she will step away for real and turn the business over to her sister by the end of the year.

”I absolutely love what I do, although I love my husband more,” she said.

Nakata promises to remain part of Hawaii’s sports card scene and help at the store from time to time. After three decades behind the counter, she has made a lot of friends.

”Thank you so much for the years of being able to serve the hobbyists out there,” she said. “Thank you so much for all the times. It’s just been amazing!”

Sometimes destiny is written in the stars. Her destiny was in the cards.

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