Cotten’s Collectibles holds grand opening for Corpus Christi gamers – Riverside, California

Cotten’s Collectibles, a local gaming store, held its grand opening on Friday at its first physical store.

Located in Cedarstone Shopping Center, this business specializes in collectibles, figurines and trading cards.

What started out as an online-only business soon moved its owners Jacob and Katie Kotten to the Corpus Christi Trade Center booth.

“I was lucky enough to find a place in stock to help me get started,” said Jacob Kotten. “The plan was to start online and build from there. I didn’t expect it to happen this fast.”

He said the growth of Kotten’s collection exceeded their expectations. After being asked by the community to open an LGS (local game store), the two began looking for a storefront.

“LGS requires a lot of space,” says Katie Cotten. “If we just sold the retail store, we could have made it somewhere smaller, but in the future we have a table for holding trading card tournaments, so we made it bigger.”

What started out as a weekend venture to earn extra cash turned into a full-time career, she said.

“Neither of us expected it to explode so fast, and it really hit me last night,” Katie Kotten said. “We’ve put it all together for weeks. When I left last night, I was in awe of what we had achieved.”

According to Jacob Kotten, their business offers a wide variety of trading cards compared to local competitors. In addition to Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon and Digimon trading cards, Kottens Collectibles sells Funko Pop figures, board games and collectibles from the world of Harry Potter, Marvel and Star Wars.

With a line of over 50 shoppers, Yanni Vogiatzis was the first to buy. He recently bought some Pokemon trading card boxes after being interested in collectibles.

“I often visited the trade center with a friend who introduced me to Kotten’s collection,” Bogiazis said. “I’m going to spend my time and money here in the future. It’s not as expensive and affordable as other stores.”