Entrepreneur and Collector Cameron MacDonald

by Donna Faye

Anything can be collectable, according to Cameron MacDonald (BAdm’17), the owner of The Cave Collectables in Orillia.

Books, records, cards, and plush, for example.

“It’s up to you,” says Cameron. “Anything that is valuable or sentimental to the collector. Other people may see a monetary value, but to you as a collector, that shouldn’t matter.”

Cameron’s passion started when he was a child, collecting Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

“It began as something I did with my dad. He would take us to card shows at convention centres.”

Although some cards sell for millions of dollars, Cameron says, as a kid, you don’t think about that.

Eventually, he started to dream of opening a collectables store one day.

Born in Brampton, Cameron spent his teenage years at Wasaga Beach, which he considers home. After high school, he went to George Brown College in Toronto for Pre-Business and Advanced Financial Planning.

After graduation, he transferred to Lakehead’s Orillia campus, allowing him to be a little closer to home and family.

“It’s a great school,” Cameron says. “As a transfer student, I was only there a year and a half, but that time was meaningful, and I made lifelong friends.”

Lakehead built on his pre-business studies and had a significant influence on his next career steps and would allow him to land the kind of fulfilling work he was looking for.

“The people and atmosphere at Lakehead drove me to not give up on pursuing the position of financial advisor as a career option.”

One week before convocation, Cameron interviewed for a financial advisor position at Scotiabank, a five-minute drive from Lakehead. They offered him the job on one condition – that he finish his degree. He graduated in the spring of 2017 and started working in May. He was there for four and a half years and was promoted to senior financial advisor.

But during his university studies and career in banking, Cameron never lost sight of his childhood dream.

“I always kept the big picture in mind,” he says. “I started with savings I could put together, and now it’s just mind-blowing when I look at what we’ve accomplished.” The store opened at its downtown Orillia location in October 2021 to both in-person and online shopping.

The Cave has something to offer customers of all ages looking for either vintage or modern collectables, including NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, the latest arrival on the collectables scene.

While 70 per cent of their customers are adult collectors, they do see younger customers as well.

“A lot of kids come in. We teach them about grading and starting a collection. And we give them branded merchandise like stickers.” 

Cameron says his hope for other students like him is to see that anything is possible. “If you’re passionate about something, don’t give up.”

To learn more visit thecavecollectables.com.