Great Catch

A wall of autographed framed jerseys, cases of sports cards, figurines of dozens of players, signed balls and helmets. The impressive collection of sports memorabilia at Five Star Collectibles looks like it has taken years to assemble — and it has.

Owner Tom Brode has been a collector since he was a kid, and he started setting up his sports cards collection at card shows at age 12. He grew up watching sports with his dad, who taught him tips for collecting sports cards. Those lessons led to Brode opening his first storefront in Kent in the early 2000s, owning other businesses and opening Five Star in Streetsboro in 2018.

The store’s extensive inventory includes a basketball signed by LeBron James, a used Brutus Buckeye costume, a framed “Remember the Titans” movie poster beside a photo of the real-life team and more. The goal is to have hard-to-find items that can only be found at Five Star. Plus, employees work with third-party authenticators.

“We represent all the sports, even down to billiards,” says manager Josh McComb, whose expertise is Pittsburgh sports, where his family is from. “Anything you can think of as far as autographed memorabilia — we have.”

For non-sports fans, there’s memorabilia from movies, music and pop culture, like a photo signed by the Kardashian sisters, an autographed Pearl Jam vinyl record and a poster signed by the cast of “The Wizard of Oz.”

There’s even more than what’s inside the building. Five Star has 32,000 listings on eBay that attract international buyers, and some standouts include a baseball signed by Babe Ruth that’s around $20,000 and one of Ty Cobb’s baseball bats from 1909 — one of the oldest items available. Sports fans from all around can also get rare items in Facebook Live auctions. “We have a few customers in LA. We have guys as far as Scotland. We had a girl from England,” McComb says.

Many of the store’s items come from national shows that employees attend, but they also come from local sellers. Once, the employees went to Youngstown to pick up an 83-year-old’s collection. The trip required two U-Haul trucks and four pickup trucks to get everything back.

“He had a house just for sports memorabilia. We bought everything,” McComb says. “He had stuff I’ve never seen in my life.” One of those items was a signed helmet from the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Watch for visits and signings from famous athletes, including Cleveland-area two-time UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic, former Cleveland Cavaliers player Austin Carr and former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar. During the holidays, catch charity auctions and donation projects where Five Star partners with local schools and churches.

The whole experience creates a community among Brode, McComb and other employees and customers who love collecting as much as they do, including one avid sports fan who visits Five Star nearly every day.

“They like to talk to us about their card collections,” McComb says. “People like to come in.”  

9231 state Route 14, Streetsboro, five-star-collectibles.myshopify.com