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Eight years ago Steve Ayers had hit rock bottom. He had gone through a marriage break up, a mental breakdown and lost his job as a Christchurch primary school teacher.
Now Ayers has turned his second hand video games and collectables store, Appleby Games, into a million-dollar business, opening his first retail store at Avonhead Shopping Centre last week.
"Rock bottom looked like suicidal, rock bottom looked like despairing of life, not wanting to be here, seeing no hope of a new job or a new career,” he said.
He started a whiteware store in an attempt to try a new vocation. It eventually went under during Covid, but he discovered there was a market for second hand video games.
He started buying and selling them on Trade Me from home, before signing up to the Government’s digital boost programme in Easter 2021, which was designed to help kick-start small businesses.
He quickly turned his attention to running a second hand video games and collectables store out of a room in his Burnside home.
Ayers started his Appleby Games business, which he named after the street he used to live on.
He said the company now turns over about $1.5m a year. "It feels surreal, I’m still getting my head around it."
Initially Ayers was a one man band, but he now has eight staff working in his store, while he manages the business side of things.
The biggest shift since moving into the new retail space is the volume of customers. Ayers said the number has tripled since he ran the business from home.
The Appleby Games store opening marked a watershed moment not only for the business, but for Ayers’ life as well.
"For me, this has been about finding new life after teaching. That’s what this has meant to me,” he said.
"It’s good to encourage people who are at rock bottom that your life can turn around, with the right support and the right systems in place.
"It’s just so humbling and surreal, knowing where I’ve been and where I am now, because life really feels like it’s never been better.”
Ayers store is only a few hundred metres from where he used to teach at Merrin School Ngā Whetū Kohara.
The business has also activated Ayers’ childhood memories of collecting G.I. Joe action figures and WWF wrestling cards.
He said the "nostalgia hit" his store gives people has been a contributor to the business' success.
"They physically handle the thing grandma gave them when they were seven and they get the same feelings of nurture, affection, love and the memories they got from playing it,” he said.
"Another big part of what will keep this going is Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony wanting to keep everything digital, so they can keep selling at $100 and you've got no option because all the pre-owned physical media is gone.
"So there will always be a demand for physical media.”
Appleby Games has inherited a lot of EB Games’ customer base. EB Games closed its New Zealand branches in January.
"For me, it was mixed feelings because I’m gutted for EB Games, an iconic gaming franchise in New Zealand, but we’ve definitely had an upside,” he said.
“Right at the end, they started taking retro, but up until maybe three months before they closed, they weren’t buying or selling the older stuff and hadn’t for a long time.
"Whereas we buy and sell as old as you like, so that’s something we offer that EB Games didn’t.”
Appleby Games has had Black Caps bowlers Blair Tickner and Lockie Ferguson visit the store, as well as former Crusaders prop Oli Jager. But there is one celebrity Ayers is determined to snag, United States artist Post Malone.
The singer famously purchased the ultra rare “The One Ring” card from Magic: The Gathering's Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set for a reported US$2m (NZ$3.4m).
Greeting you when you enter Appleby Games is a life-sized Gollum statue from the movies based on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. It was the last one ever made by Weta Workshop.
Ayers is aware of only five statues in the entire country.
"How good would it be for Post Malone to get his one ring card reconciled with the world’s last Gollum,” said Ayers
Post Malone is performing at Go Media Stadium in Auckland in October. Ayers is hoping the story reaches the musician and he makes his way to Avonhead mall in pursuit of the statue.
He said he would donate the sale price to the Grace Vineyard Church, which he said has been critical to helping his mental well-being.
Ayers was referred to a psychiatrist in 2018, he was a patient of the late Christchurch clinical psychologist, John de Freitas, who died about four years ago.
"Seeing him gave me hope and by the end of 2018 he was satisfied to discharge me from the programme,” Ayers said.
"Then I’d started to get momentum selling privately on Trade Me, that was probably the start.”
Gamers from around New Zealand have reached out to Ayers, asking if he plans to open a store near them. He is already thinking of expanding Appleby Games.
"It’s got me thinking but, for now, it’s making sure that everything is set up, the processes are in place, and we’ve got a successful thing happening at Avonhead mall,” he said.
"That’s when I’ll probably start to think about further expansion.”