Waterbury's deep-bench back-issue shop, where a Pokemon and Magic singles counter shares floor space with four decades of graded comics.
Thirty-eight years in business have turned Richie's Comic Cabana into the kind of Waterbury card shop that rewards patience. The Store Avenue storefront is tight and stacked floor-to-ceiling, and the long-boxes running down the middle of the room hold back issues going all the way to the Golden Age. Collectors who come in for comics tend to leave with cards, because the TCG counter sits right where you pay.
That counter covers Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana, and Sorcery: Contested Realm. It is not a sprawling singles wall like a dedicated TCG store runs, but the selection is curated rather than picked-over, and the shop restocks around new set releases rather than sitting on dead product. Sleeves, toploaders, and binder pages live behind the register, so you can protect a pull before you walk back out to the parking lot.
The shop's calendar is quiet by design, with one big exception: Free Comic Book Day. Richie's has run it for years, historically on the first Saturday in May, with artist signings and a line out the door. Regular promos rotate too, most often a buy-one-get-one on wall comics and back issues, which is the best time to dig through the older material.
A fair warning worth knowing before you visit: reviews of the service run hot and cold. Some customers describe a genuinely helpful owner who will hunt down a specific issue; others have run into a shorter, drier reception. The inventory is the reason to come. If you know what you want and you are comfortable digging on your own, this is one of the more rewarding stops for trading cards Waterbury has.
Practical notes: the shop is closed Mondays, opens at noon Tuesday through Friday and runs to 8pm, and shifts to an 11am to 5pm window on weekends. Parking is in the plaza lot out front. Call ahead if you are driving in for something specific, since the website has not been updated in years and the phone is the fastest way to check stock.
