We Launched the Website! (And a Bit About Me)

For anyone new here: I’m Rich, aka The Curio Collector. Since January I’ve been sharing my love of Pokémon and collecting on TikTok (and yes, I’m a massive Lord of the Rings nerd).

Every week I’ve gone live to clean and restore cards—both from my own collection and pieces that Buy Play Trade in Southampton have asked me to work on before they send off for grading (I’ve been lucky enough to work on their base set zards and love birds - this one alone is worth over £1500). Nearly every stream I’d get the same question: “Do you take submissions?” Back then, I wasn’t a registered business and didn’t have insurance, so it felt like too big a responsibility to take on peoples most loved cards.

I decided if I was going to do it, I would do it properly. I registered the business and then spent weeks hunting for insurance…….I got laughed at more than once:

“You clean shiny cardboard?”
“Sorry, what do you mean you restore Pokémon cards… as in the kids’ game?”

Turns out cover didn’t really exist for this kind of work. But we kept pushing and, thanks to a referral to a brilliant broker (and fellow collector) Lisa, we finally got insured. It costs more than our car and house insurance combined… but we’re protected—and that matters.

With that sorted, we upgraded our space and kit, and built a proper website to make ordering simple. Huge thanks to Shaun Parker and my wife Emily for grafting to bring it to life.

I’ll keep sharing updates as the journey continues. I’m always learning new techniques (massive thanks to The Card Care Academy—shout-out to PokeMarsh). If you fancy hanging out, join me live on TikTok every Sunday at 8pm—just search The Curio Collector.

Thanks for being here.

Keep on chasin’.

A quick note: I am really sorry that restorations are temporarily closed. Demand has been incredible, and restoration work needs serious time and careful management. I’ll reopen as soon as I can—promise.