What really is normal? For Ravenna resident Steve Cummons, his normal has been collecting a variety of unusual items throughout his life and he is giving the City of Ravenna a taste of what he has acquired by opening The Odd Collective, an antiques and memorabilia shop at 245 West Main Street.
“I pretty much have collected, sold and traded my entire life,” Cummons told The Weekly Villager on March 26. “Everybody has come over to my house and has been, like, this is a very odd collection you have here. It just came naturally. It is all kinds of different stuff.”
The Odd Collective is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday. The shop offers a wide range of antiques and commodities such as hand-built robots by Cummons, tikis, paintings and other valuables.
“There are antiques and vintage stuff in general,” Cummons said. “We do some retail and I can do custom stuff and my buddy from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art does custom painting and custom stuff.”
In addition to offering the collectibles that Cummons has acquired over his lifetime, the store also acquires new items from people who are seeking to sell some of their own personal collectibles. Cummons said that he personally appraises each piece that is brought to his shop.
He added that the inventory which the store is offering is only a fraction of what is available and he has many more items in the basement that he will unveil once business starts picking up. Cummons said that he also plans to open a room upstairs to house more of the items.
According to Cummons, he has been a collector for most of his life. One of the first items he started collecting were tapes of the syndicated HBO horror-anthology series “Tales from the Crypt.”
Collecting horror-themed items became a popular habit of his because celebrating Halloween was a big tradition in his family. His aunt managed a roller rink in Deerfield Township and every year they would seal off a section of the rink and design a Haunted House. He has still kept that tradition alive by decorating his own house as a Haunted House every time the holiday rolls around.
Cummons said he started collecting things when his family traveled to Florida for vacation and would visit flea markets, where he developed an interest for unusual items. He continued building his own personal collection of valuable commodities and antiques through garage sales, flea markets, and eBay.
Cummons worked as a heavy equipment operator for 25 years before he decided to venture out and start his own business. Although he only moved to Ravenna 10 years ago, it had been like a second home to him since childhood.
“Everybody in my family is right around here and even when I was in Deerfield in high school, we would ride our bikes up here,” he noted. “Ravenna has always been home basically.”
It only took Cummons three months to get his new business set up and The Odd Collective opened its doors on March 2. Cummons acknowledged that business has been slow because of the inclement weather but expects things to pick up shortly. He added that he had spoken with the Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce and there was talk of hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony once the weather improves.
Cummons works in the store all five days it is open but is also busy behind the scenes. He is also supported by his wife, Laura, who works in the store on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“This business from 11 am to 5 pm is the easy part,” he said. “The work is done after and before like setting everything up and dealing with people as far as buying and selling. I got emails and calls from 5 am to midnight.”
Even with all of the products he has in stock and storage, Cummons stays busy searching for unusual items that he can add to his inventory. He acknowledges that his collection may not be everybody’s cup of tea.
“It does reflect my personality,” he added. “People might tend to judge me on the store but this is just a piece of me. I am a very normal person. I have two kids, a wife and this is just my job now.”
