Can’s Can HQ uses the proceeds from its card sales to provide free beds, books, clothes and backpacks to the community. (Greg Poole)
Greg Poole owns a card shop — and he doesn’t make a single penny off of it.
Every dollar from Can’s Can HQ in Benton, Illinois, goes straight into the resource room attached to the shop, a space stocked with everything from beds and books to clothes and backpacks. Local teachers, social workers and youth organizations can walk in and find nearly anything they need to help members of the community — all for free.
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The card shop is run through Poole’s nonprofit Can’s Can. His wife, two kids, parents, in-laws and a small group of eight core volunteers keep it going.
“I dealt with a lot of trauma when I was growing up. Sports cards really became an outlet for me to make something of that and do something with it,” said Poole, an IT manager for a special-needs school district. “The hobby is the reason that we can do these things. Once you’re in it and you do it, it’s really cool.”
Poole opened the shop about five years ago, just before the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, he pivoted, moving from handing out school supplies to stocking essentials like beds, clothes and toiletries.
Since then he’s been able to expand to Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, selling packs of cards called Stadium Rips inside the Cardinals’ authentic store.
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“Our whole entire area is low income,” Poole said. “As the needs began to get exposed more and more, and we began starting different programs, the need to become better funded really grew. And so that, coupled with just the need for a constant presence for people to come in to get help as well, it really just made sense that we just dove headfirst into it.”
Greg Poole and his family have spent years delivering meals and supporting school programs. (Greg Poole)
Helping the community isn’t new for Poole and his family — they’ve spent decades delivering meals and supporting school programs. Other projects include taking portraits for seniors in assisted living and nursing homes, getting holiday presents for shut ins and others, free markets for senior citizens — any way he and his family can help.
The shop simply merged his love for cards with his passion for service.
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And, yes, he donates 100% of the proceeds. His 10-year-old daughter has told him it’s the worst business plan she’s ever heard.
But Poole isn’t chasing money or recognition. For him, it’s about helping people who have no other options.
Recently, he gave a social worker a bed for a child whose own had been taken by police as evidence in a sexual-assault case. The stories aren’t easy to hear, but he wants to help any way he can.
Because cards once saved his life.
At 16, Poole attempted suicide.
“After I tried what I tried, obviously I didn’t succeed, I got back in my car and saw all these monster boxes of cards in my truck,” he said. “I just looked at those and thought, ‘Well, I’m here for something.’”
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That moment gave him purpose, one that carried him through his darkest times. Now, he’s determined to watch out for others.
“It’s amazing what a two-row, three-row count of baseball cards can do,” Poole said. “We take those and feed shut-ins, deliver beds to kids — just from some pieces of cardboard, as my mom would say.”
