FERGUS ― Alexander Taylor is sick of driving up to two hours to pursue his hobbies.
That’s why the self-proclaimed “massive nerd” recently partnered with his friend and part-time employer, Russell Davey, to create Centre Wellingcon, a new gaming and collectibles show planned for the third Sunday of every month at the Fergus Legion on Blair Street.
The event is a dream at least a decade in the making for Davey, who is a lifelong collector and owns Bonus Box Games, a gaming, toy and collectibles store at 126 St. Andrew St. in Fergus.
“My working relationship with Russell is really, really good, and we were like, let’s build on this momentum,” said Taylor. “And so we’re just trying to engage with our community, who we know is desperate for more.”
Centre Wellingcon will have a little bit of everything for everyone.
The first event, which is scheduled for Sept. 20, and the December event will be a general show with everything from trading cards to movies, to trains and tattoos.
“Our goal is to promote local businesses, give local collectors and vendors in the area an opportunity so we don’t have to travel all the way to Toronto for our collectible hobby; we can just do it at home,” said Taylor.
The October event will focus on trading cards like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, while the November event will focus on physical media like movies and memorabilia, VHS tapes, video games and records.
“We have hopes to eventually get special guests, but that’s not for a while,” said Taylor.
While the number of collectors everywhere continues to increase, Taylor said the gaming scene, whether that be video games, tabletop games, or trading card games, is “huge” in Fergus and Centre Wellington and is only growing.
When Davey opened his store in 2023, he was just selling comics and video games.
But when Davey branched out to selling trading cards earlier this year, shortly after relocating to a new unit on St. Andrew Street, Taylor said he easily surpassed his average monthly income in a single night.
“The trading card community in Fergus alone is extremely hungry, so there’s a big interest for sure in our community,” said Taylor.
At the end of the day, Taylor said a key aspect of the event is that it is made by locals, for locals.
To date, 20 vendors are on board for the event, and Taylor said they’ve made a point of contacting as many potential businesses as they could ahead of time who might be interested and have turned to social media to encourage anyone they might’ve missed to reach out.
“We want our local vendors to be represented; that’s really the thing that we’re trying to do here,” said Taylor.
More information about the event is available here.
