Richmond Shop Attached to Sports Bar
Imagine a place where collectors can rip their favorite product and watch multiple sporting events at once, all the while enjoying nachos, a pizza, and a cold adult beverage.
Sounds like a dream scenario. It’s a reality in Richmond, Virginia.
The hobby shop Graybo’s Sports Cards opened in May, and it includes the attached sports bar and lounge, Parlay. The 5,500-square-foot building—62% of which is taken up by the bar and lounge—features a modern design and feel in the trendy neighborhood of Scott’s Addition.
“People seem to be very excited about it,” said Duke Dodson, who owns the businesses with his friend Ryan Fitz and brother-in-law Gray Burnette. “I think it’s the future of hobby shops because all these things go together. If you like sports cards, you like watching games. If you like watching games, you like eating chicken wings and drinking beer. If you come with friends and family and you get some cards, why not hang out and rip the wax together and have a bite to eat? The Venn diagram of sports fans, sports card heads, fantasy sports people, and sports betting people all go together. We’ve created an environment where you can do all those things.”
The sports bar and hobby shop hybrid concept emerged from brainstorming sessions on what it would take to design the coolest shop ever.
“We wanted a community feel, like a barbershop feel, where you felt comfortable coming in and hanging out,” Dodson said. “We also started thinking, what if you could hold your fantasy football drafts here and have a place where all your friends would want to come?”
Variety of Products
Graybo’s Sports Cards offers customers a wide variety of singles and unopened wax. The shop specializes in baseball, football, and basketball, which are the three owners’ favorite sports. Graybo’s is also starting to dabble in F1, WWE, UFC, Pokémon, and magic cards.
“We pride ourselves on having a massive inventory of singles and wax,” Dodson said. “We do breaks in the shop and have a studio there. You can watch the breaks on the TVs at the sports bar. So, if you choose, you can have three football games plus a live break going on at Fanatics Live.”
The shop contains three slab walls: one featuring PSA holders, the second having SGC cases, and the third for ONE-TOUCH holders.
“We have a display case with high-end singles from a hundred bucks up to 10 grand,” Dodson said. “We have multiple slab walls, and those cards might be anywhere from $20 to $100. Then we have value boxes, where we have $1 boxes.”
The shop includes a couch and chairs for collectors to relax, watch a game, or rip product on-site.
“We had a couple of goals with the shop,” Dodson said. “One, we wanted to have the highest level of customer service engagement. So, when someone walks in the door, you see the staff get excited — they know their name, make them feel welcome, and feel special. We wanted a place where people felt comfortable gathering, whether it’s hanging out and being a customer or on a trade night. We wanted it to be interactive and exciting. So, we wanted the décor to have an urban chic feel. We didn’t want it to feel old and stodgy; we wanted it to feel modern and cutting edge.”
A Gathering Place
After checking out Graybo’s, customers can walk into Parlay. The two establishments are connected aptly by a putting grees flanked by a pair of televisions.
In August, Parlay hosted multiple fantasy football drafts per day. Groups could reserve an area and get everything taken care of for the upcoming NFL season.
It’s also a place to watch college football on Saturdays or NFL action on Thursday, Sunday, or Monday.
“People can reserve a bay, which holds anywhere from eight to 12 people, and you can control what’s on your TV, and you can book for three hours, say, like for a particular game,” Dodson said. “You and your friends or family can hang out for three hours. Each bay has one big TV, or you can split-screen it and go to two or four games. It’s a sports bar, so higher-end bar food.”
Parlay offers extensive wine, cocktail, and beer options, along with a food menu. There is plenty of restaurant seating, as well as an outside area with four tables and two TVs.
Graybo’s owners (l-r) Duke Dodson, Ryan Fitz, and Gray Burnette had the grand idea to attach a sports bar, Parlay, to their hobby shop. (Photos courtesy of Graybo’s)
A Community Feel
Dodson and his business partners felt there was a need for a hobby shop in Richmond that would serve more kids, adults, and families.
“We saw where the hobby was going, and we thought that there was a need and a desire for this type of experience,” Dodson said. “There’s nothing wrong with a small dive card shop, and there are plenty of them, and there are a couple of them in Richmond that are good shops. But we thought this would be a unique experience, and a lot of people would be drawn to the combination of the experience you get at the card shop and the sports bar.”
Graybo’s plan is to frequently host trade nights and various events, such as autograph sessions with the popular student-athletes on the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team. Including the Richmond community, with its vast card history, is an important element for the owners of Graybo’s and Parlay.
“I think we’re building the culture, the community, and a space where people want to get together and have relationships,” Dodson said. “It’s pretty cool to watch.”
