By: Heather Wrixon
In a retail landscape where trends shift as quickly as they emerge, MVP Collectables stands as a testament to adaptability, determination, and grassroots entrepreneurship. The company’s origin did not begin with investors, loans, or formal business planning. Instead, it began with a young reseller who built profit one flip at a time.
Before a storefront existed, the founder of MVP Collectables was already familiar with profit margins and customer demand. In high school, income came from selling snacks to classmates: Hot Cheetos, Kool-Aid gummy worms, anything peers craved. Over time, the hustle matured into sneaker flipping Nike SBs, Vans, and Chuck Taylors, which, at the time, carried meaningful resale value. Later came aquarium fish breeding, then vintage apparel sourced from discount racks and thrift stores. Every hustle refines business instincts; most entrepreneurs only learn through experience.
Photo Courtesy: MVP Collects
The thread that connects those early ventures is not the product itself, but the habit of paying attention. Whether it was snacks moving between classes, sneakers changing hands, fish being bred and sold, or vintage pieces pulled from thrift racks, each move required the same quiet discipline: noticing what people wanted, learning how quickly demand could shift, and understanding that small margins add up only when consistency shows up first. It also meant getting comfortable with the unglamorous parts of building something from nothing, from reinvesting profits instead of spending them to staying patient when a flip did not land right away. Over time, those lessons sharpened into a mindset, one built on testing, adjusting, and keeping momentum even when the outcome was not guaranteed. That mindset did not arrive through a single breakthrough moment. It formed through repetition, through the willingness to start small, make mistakes, and return to the work the next day with better instincts than the day before.
Yet, entrepreneurship was not the expected path. Raised in a traditional Asian household, the pressure to prioritize academics and pursue stable, conventional careers was constant. Business ownership was considered risky, uncertain, and unconventional. Instead of discouraging ambition, this skepticism became fuel. The desire to prove that success could be carved outside traditional expectations pushed the founder further toward independent business ownership.
That tension between expectation and instinct shaped how the founder approached every next step. It required building confidence without external validation, trusting results more than opinions, and learning to make decisions based on what could be controlled: effort, consistency, and follow-through. Rather than chasing a perfect plan, the focus stayed on progress, taking whatever experience was available and turning it into a stronger foundation for the next opportunity.
A law firm internship provided a temporary sense of direction until the COVID-19 pandemic brought layoffs. With no job security and no guaranteed path forward, the choice was simple: rebuild or risk stagnation. Savings from the internship became startup capital, and when lockdown restrictions eased, the founder began organizing pop-up booths to sell Funko Pops. Foot traffic surged as people returned to public spaces hungry for small joys and collectibles. Sales snowballed. Inventory expanded. A storefront opportunity appeared, and MVP Collectables became official.
Photo Courtesy: MVP Collects
Today, the shop stands in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, serving collectors locally and online. The brand continues to grow through active social media engagement on Instagram (@mvpcollects.liltokyo) and TikTok (@mvpcollects), where new stock arrivals, events, and shop moments are shared in real time.
MVP Collectables proves that success rarely begins with perfect conditions; it begins with movement. What started as snack sales and thrift flips now exists as a retail space built from resourcefulness, discipline, and belief in one’s own potential. The journey is ongoing, but the direction is clear: continue building, continue expanding, and continue defying expectations.
