More than a game

Editor's note: This story appeared in the October 2026 edition of Sandusky Living magazine. PERKINS TWP. — For more than three decades, Dave Baum has watched Sandusky change. He has watched businesses come and go, downtown evolve, new attractions bring visitors to the area and generations of customers grow up. Through much of it, Baum has been behind the counter at Pop Shop, a business that began with trading cards and eventually became something much larger — a gathering place on Milan Road (U.S. 250) where people come together over games, comics and shared interests. For Baum, that community has always been more important than the merchandise. From living room hobby to Sandusky institution Pop Shop's roots go back to the early 1990s, when Baum became involved in selling Magic: the Gathering cards at trading card shows. He quickly fell in love with the game and discovered that friends were looking for cards that he had access to. What started as a hobby gradually became a business. "It grew from there," Baum said. The business initially operated out of Baum's living room. As his inventory grew, he moved into a small office, then rented a room from a friend and eventually took an office on the seventh floor of the Feick Building in downtown Sandusky. From there came additional moves — to Washington Street, then Perkins Avenue, where the business operated under the name Hero Zone. Each move represented another step in the evolution of the business. Baum said he became interested in developing a family-friendly environment where people could come together and interact rather than simply purchase a product and leave. At the time, there was considerable discussion about rebuilding downtown Sandusky. Baum saw an opportunity. "I wanted kids to come, play a card game and create an imaginary conflict that they would then need to resolve," he said. That idea remains central to how Baum views the business. The games may be fictional, but the skills developed around the table are real. Players learn to communicate, compete, cooperate and resolve disagreements. More importantly, they meet people. Trading card games and tabletop games give people a reason to sit down with someone they might never otherwise have met. Baum has seen those relationships develop over the years. One of the things he is most proud of is watching customers meet at Pop Shop, develop friendships and, in some cases, fall in love and get married. Some of those couples eventually brought their children into the store. Now, Baum has seen families spanning three generations. Beyond the balance sheet For him, that is a measure of success that cannot be found on a balance sheet. The store has also grown considerably since its early days. Baum operated his shop under the name Hero Zone. He ran it as a part-time job while he also worked for Erie County. After a while of doing both, Baum stepped away from Hero Zone and allowed Matt Morgan to run the shop. About two years later, with changes to his job with the county, Baum returned and started the Pop Shop. Pop is short for popular as the store was intended to be all things popular in the current zeitgeist. Magic: the Gathering remains one of its most popular products, but Pop Shop now carries Pokémon, Lorcana and numerous other trading card games. The store also sells comic books, role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, miniature strategy games such as Warhammer 40K, and trading cards that go beyond traditional gaming. Sports and non-sports trading cards are part of the store's expanding product line, and Baum said an agreement with Topps is allowing the business to move further into that market. The store's three most popular categories are Magic: the Gathering, Pokémon and comic books. Pop Shop maintains approximately 100 comic book pull lists for customers who reserve issues on a regular basis. For trading card players, the store has roughly 1 million individual cards available as singles, allowing customers to find specific cards needed to complete their decks. Attuned to customer wants and needs But knowing what to sell is only part of running the business. Baum says listening to customers is one of the most important parts of his job. When customers began talking about Palworld, a card game connected to a video game Baum wasn't particularly familiar with, he listened. Pop Shop bought the product. It sold out in one day. The store continues to face challenges in keeping popular products in stock because manufacturers sometimes cannot produce enough to meet demand. There is another challenge unique to operating a business in Sandusky: seasonality. Operating year-round in a seasonal economy Baum said the city can experience a dramatic surge in activity during the summer, followed by a sharp slowdown. "When I first started, the biggest challenge was knowing when things shut down," he said. "Massive growth in summer, then a brick wall." But Baum has also watched Sandusky develop in ways he believes have benefited businesses like Pop Shop. The growth of water parks and continued development downtown have brought more activity to the city, something he views as positive for the entire community. Pop Shop's own growth accelerated through Baum's partnership with Dr. Spencer Marugg. Marugg, a chiropractor, became involved with the business as Baum was making the transition from operating Pop Shop as a part-time venture to making it his full-time career. Baum said the partnership has been important precisely because the two men do not see everything the same way. They bring different perspectives to the business, and Baum believes that difference is an advantage. Having a partner who looks at a problem differently requires him to listen and reconsider his own ideas. That process, he said, has helped the business grow and make better decisions. The partnership also helped Pop Shop become more technically sophisticated. Walking away from online sales The business eventually became one of the top 100 largest stores in the country on TCGPlayer, an online marketplace for trading cards. But that success led Baum to question whether selling online was actually the best way to serve Pop Shop's customers. After conversations with TCGPlayer, Baum realized much of the focus was on improving the online marketplace while Pop Shop was struggling to obtain enough product to meet the needs of its local customers. So Baum and his team tried something unusual. They stopped selling online. For one month, they watched what happened. In-store sales doubled. They continued the experiment for another month. Sales doubled again. The experience convinced Baum that Pop Shop's greatest strength was not its ability to ship cards across the country, but instead its ability to bring people together in Sandusky. The store eventually stopped shipping products to customers outside the area. Rather, its website allows customers to see what is available, while purchases are made in person. Employees at the core That decision also allowed the business to hire more employees. Baum says providing jobs is another way Pop Shop can serve the community. Technology still plays an important role behind the scenes. The business developed its own point-of-sale system and has used artificial intelligence to help with coding and efficiency. One of its projects was developing a machine capable of sorting trading cards. The goal isn't to replace the human interaction that defines Pop Shop, but to make the business more efficient so employees can spend more time serving customers. Baum said he is particularly proud of his staff. He noted that only one employee has left during the past seven years, and that employee left to start a family. Not competing with others The business has also taken an unusual approach to competition. Baum said he views Pop Shop as part of the larger community rather than an isolated business competing against everyone else. That philosophy helped lead to the eventual joining of Pop Shop and Hero Zone. The merger brought two businesses together and created what Baum believes was a stronger experience for customers. Marugg remains an important member of the team, while Morgan, who ran Hero Zone, continues to work with Pop Shop, handling social media, events and the website. For Baum, bringing people and businesses together makes sense. He doesn't measure success solely by how much money the business makes. In fact, Baum describes himself as wealthy, though not necessarily rich. His definition of wealth is based on relationships rather than possessions. "I feel like I've had everything that I've wanted," he said. The business reinvests its profits into itself, creating a better environment and a stronger community. Now, as Baum approaches retirement, Pop Shop is preparing for another transition. The business is looking at expanding into the space next door, which would increase its footprint by roughly 50 percent. The planned expansion represents a significant investment, but it is another indication of the confidence Baum has in the future of the store. Coda Eventually, he expects other people will run Pop Shop. His hope is that the philosophy behind the business will remain intact. "I want to have a reason to come into work every day and see people I know and develop relationships that are not based on a product, but based upon living," Baum said. That may be the best description of what Pop Shop has become. The cards, comics and games are what bring people through the door. The relationships are what keep them coming back. A child discovers Magic: the Gathering. A teenager finds a group of friends. An adult rediscovers something he enjoyed as a kid. Couples meet. Families return. Parents introduce their children to the same games they once played themselves. In a city that has changed considerably during the three decades Baum has been in business, Pop Shop has remained focused on one relatively simple idea. Give people a place to gather. For Baum, that is not just good business. It is a way of living in Sandusky.