The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for Nicodemus Enterprises, a card and memorabilia shop located at 1131 E. Winona Ave., Warsaw, on Friday, April 30. From left: Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker and Ambassadors Mike Patmore, Heather Lardino and Brittany Lyon, Michael Hadley’s mother Gayle Prehn, Nicodemus Enterprises Vice President Diana Hadley and President Michael Hadley and Chamber Ambassadors Glenn Hall, Corbin Holtsberry, Scott Clay and Scott Allison and Member Relations Manager Scott Wiley. InkFreeNews photos by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some people to consider making life changes.

For one Warsaw man, it led to him starting a business.

The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting for Nicodemus Enterprises, a card and memorabilia shop at 1131 E. Winona Avenue, Warsaw, on Friday, April 30.

Nicodemus Enterprises President Michael Hadley credited the pandemic for turning his longtime hobby into the business.

“With the downtime of COVID, you have a lot more opportunity to explore,” he said. “And I got more kind of into I guess everything that was going on in the world of cards in general.”

Hunting for cards for himself, Hadley saw there was money to be made in selling them and a market for it in Warsaw.

Hadley noted that although other similar shops exist in the area, none specialize in sports cards the way Nicodemus Enterprises does.

Hadley started selling online via eBay and doing card “breaks” on YouTube. That’s when someone opens a package of cards and shows all of them off for potential buyers to see.

The business was formalized in November 2020 with the storefront opening on April 1. Aside from Hadley, the other employees are his wife Diana Hadley and friend Mark Liddell, who both serve as vice presidents.

Current business hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday. The store will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

The store gets its products via wholesale distributors. People are welcome to bring in cards to trade too.

Products are also available to buy via the business’ website nicodemusenterprises.com.

Plans are to hopefully make the store more of a hangout spot.

“I like the hangout atmosphere and honestly that’s the fun part is when the people come in … and we just talk shop and then they kind of hang out and we open cards and watch sports … and if we had food, that’d be cool too,” Hadley said.

He said he’s enjoyed helping get kids interested in card collecting.

“I think the most fun I’ve had so far is some of the kids coming in here and they can actually literally buy a pack of baseball cards or buy a pack of Pokemon cards at a reasonable price and they can go and they can flip through the little boxes for a quarter,” said Hadley. “That’s been the best part so far is just being able to carry on that conversation with some of the younger folks.”

A look at some of the items for sale.