Published: March 31, 2008 09:14 am            

Troll & Toad

Barbourville company makes a slaying with gaming cards

By Samantha Swindler

Managing Editor

Barbourville, Kentucky might seem an unlikely place for a flourishing, multi-million dollar business dealing in Magic the Gathering cards.

But for Troll & Toad owner Jon Huston, moving to rural Kentucky made perfect business sense.

On Friday, his company celebrated a milestone — full staffing at its new Barbourville headquarters and warehouse, the hiring of a general manager, a new company store and the unveiling of a new logo and sign.

But the story really begins back in 1991, when Huston opened a moderately-successful comic book store in Dayton, Ohio.

After Magic the Gathering — an intricate role playing game using character cards — was introduced in 1993, Huston began attending gaming conventions and selling valued individual cards a premium prices.

He soon came to a financial epiphany.

“If I moved to a small rural area where the cost of living was low, I could go to 13 shows a year and pay for everything,” Huston said.

Driving home from a convention in Atlanta, Ga., Huston and his family stopped to eat at David’s Steakhouse in Corbin.

The town wasn’t particularly exciting, but it seemed nice enough — it had a good, central location for Huston to attend conventions in major cities, and after leafing through a real estate book he picked up at the restaurant, he discovered living in Corbin would be cheap.

In 2000, Huston purchased a home in Keavy, ready to drop the storefront and focus his sales at the conventions.

He was looking to make an extra $2,500 or so to pay for the move, so he placed an ad and an 800-number in a gaming magazine for role playing collectable cards. The response was overwhelming — Huston said he received more than 5,500 calls and did $50,000 in business in just one month from the ad. The success made Huston realize that he didn’t even need to travel to the conventions, he could sell from his home.

Thus, www.trollandtoad.com was born.

From 2004 to 2007, Troll & Toad went from eight to 77 employees. Jon’s daughter Alica Huston said that four years ago, the company might have had 10 orders a day.

“Now we have up to 100 on a normal day,” she said.

The Web site started by just selling single Magic the Gathering cards, but www.trollandtoad.com now sells boxes of cards, other role playing games, plush novelties, collectable figures and now video and board games.

In November 2007, Troll & Toad moved from Keavy to the Dogtown area of Barbourville, purchasing a warehouse from SEKRI that was nearly vacant. The move allowed Troll & Toad to expand its space from 8,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet. The new building is actually larger, but SEKRI continues to operate in a portion of the building.

On Friday, Huston announced, “We are now in full operation mode.”

A massive banner — with the company’s newly revamped logo — was unveiled on the side of the building.

Troll & Toad has also started taking used video and board games to sell on its site.

Local visitors can also come to the new company store at 710 Pitzer Street in Barbourville. The company’s inventory system still requires that visitors browse and purchase items through an available computer, but items are handed to customers on site rather than shipped.

Barbourville Mayor David Thompson attended Friday’s celebration — Troll & Toad’s expansion has been good for the local economy as well. Since expanding, the company has hired 34 new employees from the Barbourville area, and Huston said Troll & Toad’s payroll will be in excess of $1.2 million this year. The company is also one of the newest members of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce.

The company’s new general manager, Dave Wallace, recently moved from St. Louis, Mo. and has already purchased a home in Barbourville.

“It’s different for me... but I’m looking forward to a little slower pace,” Wallace said of small town life.

But Troll & Toad is no small town business. The company did $2 million in sales last year — nearly all of that to customers outside of Kentucky — and Huston expects to do more than $4 million in sales in 2008.

“We think the video games are going to make the company expand another three-fold in the next few years,” Huston said.



Samantha Swindler can be reached at sswindler@ thetimestribune.com

        

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