Cheryl's Comics & Toys

Cheryl's Comics & Toys has stocked sport and non-sport trading cards on MacCorkle Avenue in Charleston for more than 37 years running strong.

Thirty-seven years is a long time for any small shop to hold onto a single stretch of MacCorkle Avenue SE, and Cheryl's Comics & Toys wears that history in the way its shelves are packed — one longtime customer described it as small on the outside but filled to the rafters once you're through the door. That density is the point: new comics, back issues, imports, and graphic novels from Marvel, DC, IDW, and Dark Horse crowd the walls alongside a real trading card selection covering both sport and non-sport varieties.

Cheryl herself is the reason regulars keep coming back, according to nearly every review the shop has collected. Customers point to her customer service and stock knowledge by name, a level of continuity that's rare for a Charleston card shop that's changed as little as this one has over nearly four decades in the Kanawha City neighborhood.

Beyond comics and cards, the shop carries new, vintage, and imported toys, magazines, fiction books, t-shirts, models, statues, and comic supplies — the kind of inventory mix that turns a quick stop into a slower dig through boxes most visitors say is worth the time. It's less a specialty card shop than a genuine mom-and-pop general collectibles store where trading cards are one strong thread among several.

Hours are tighter than a big-box retailer's: closed Monday and Tuesday, a short Wednesday afternoon window, and Thursday through Saturday days that wrap up by 5 or 5:30pm, with Sundays closed entirely. Anyone hunting trading cards Charleston shoppers have relied on for decades should plan a midweek or Saturday visit and budget extra time — the shop rewards browsing over quick in-and-out trips, and the packed shelves mean a second or third visit often turns up something a first pass through the store missed entirely.