Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Leal.
Hi Christian, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Christian Leal, from Grand Prairie, Texas, 26 years of age and I am the owner of Spinners Toys & Collectibles. I was born with brittle bone disease, also known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and yes, I have been confined to a wheelchair my entire life. I attended the University of Texas at Arlington, and Graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Management in 2021. I started off as a regular Funko Pop collector back in late 2015. I got my first pop from my mom for Christmas, and that was the official start to me collecting. It became a hobby for me and I went wild (like all new collectors). In 2016 I attended my first event, where collectors sold and traded Funko Pops and other Collectibles. My friend Gabe invited me and I shared his table with about 6 or 7 items. There I met Jay of Crazy Loco World, and we quickly became friends. We bonded over wrestling, Funko and all other pop culture related things. We didn’t realize it would be the start of a great friendship and brotherhood.
In 2017, I began attending more shows throughout the months, buying more and more, until I spoke to a few friends I had made in the community, mainly Jay of Crazy Loco World, and Shawn of 181 Comics and Collectables, about possibly joining the resale business. After mulling the idea, I finally gave in and decided to do it as a side hobby. It was just something that was supposed to be fun and give me something to do.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I realized I was doing quite a bit of shows, and my inventory had grown way bigger than anticipated, at least at the time, with maybe 150 items in inventory. My mom thought it was so much at that time, little did she know what it would become. After a couple years, I was approached by Jay in mid/late 2019, if I wanted to join him in his shop expansion and be a full-fledged partner of the shop, which was over in Vikon Plaza in Garland. It was a super exciting opportunity and I immediately said yes. I joined the shop in late November of 2019, and together we had the shop for about a good 6 months, right up to the occurrence of the lockdown for Covid. We ended up having to leave the shop, and went back to doing our own thing during the lockdown period.
I had joined my friend Jaime’s, admin team for his group on Facebook called W-Dallas Funko Swap Collectors, and here we did a lot of online stuff and kept the local community active while lockdown was going on. It was a lot of fun, and this is where I really began to grow. Came out my shell and where people began to get to know me in the local community. So, I really appreciate the time I spent there and it was crucial to my growth and who I am today.
Once lockdown was lifted, events picked back up, and I was back to business. Business was slow for a while, but eventually I was able to build back up my inventory and was more focused than ever. I began attending more events and I eventually got into my first Convention which happened to be the first Weeb Con, in August of 2021. It ended up being the best show I ever had (at the time). It was so crazy for me to finally have been a vendor at a convention. Going from a local pop swap in my home city, to a convention. It was a big milestone for me. From that show on, the growth skyrocketed. Not just for the business, but for myself as well. I realized that what I was doing, was growing and I just loved it. It was so much fun, and even became sort of addicting. The confidence in myself skyrocketed, and I had so much more time to dedicate to the business now that I was out of school. Post weebcon is when I decided that I was all in. Fast forward to now, I’ve set up at shows that I never thought I would ever be in: Fan Expo, Retro Expo, Kameha Con, DFW Vintage Swap Meet and Collect A Con to name a few. Closing off the year I have Anime Dallas and Anime Frontier on the schedule and multiple booked for next year. In addition to that, I also had a shop location for a 7-month period. From September 2021-May2022, I had a booth in a vintage store in North Richland Hills called JNJ’s Vintage-Retro. It was a fun experience, made a lot of new friends, and clients. Also was able to bring customers to the store as well. This was an important time in my career and life. I really wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted for the business, or what it would lead too. I just knew it was going to be beneficial in the long run, and I truly believe it was. I learned a lot in my time there. I began to see the impact I had and that I was making, so I knew that whatever my next moves were, would be big ones, and since then, they have been.
In addition to attending events, I’ve also thrown some as well. I have thrown 7 shows so far. One of those was actually at JNJ’s as well. Inside and outside of the store, we had about 15 vendors, and we tons of customers roll thru. New and old faces. It was an amazing experience. The most recent event I hosted was an event in Grand Prairie. I partnered up with Jay once again for this joint show we called “DFW Swap-A-Palooza” The event took place at Fire House Gastro Park in Grand Prairie, on September 24th. We spent two months promoting this event. We wanted to do something a bit different and we wanted it to make an IMPACT on the community, and BE a show for the community. We had about 60 vendor spots sold, we had a couple voice actors in attendance, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. The restaurant had food and drink available all night, and a DJ was present as well. We created merch with our logo, and raffles throughout the night, where we gave prizes. The profits of those raffle ticket sales went to a nonprofit organization called, Children First Counseling Center. A great nonprofit that specializes in counseling children who have been through mental and physical trauma. Giving back is always important to me when we throw events, me and my Facebook Group team have done a couple drives for Scottish Rite, Soles 4 Souls that we’re about to officially submit, and we have one coming up for Mission Arlington.
To begin the newest chapter of my journey, Jay and I are beginning a podcast. The Podcast is called “The Vendor Spotlight with The Palooza Boys”. We will discuss our lives as business owners, business and personal. The things we deal with in our daily lives, and we’ll also have guests on it, who are other vendors and business owners who can come give their viewpoints and experiences and help promote their business as well. The first episode is on YouTube under the channel “The Vendor Spotlight”
I’ve been really blessed to do what I do. Especially given my situation, I never let it control my narrative as a business owner or anything like that. People have come up to me and told me I’ve inspired them, or got them into the business or hobby, and I really appreciate that. I appreciate everyone who has supported me at any point of my life. It really does mean the world, and that’s how I can continue to do what I do. If I can inspire someone to do the same things I’m doing, that’s amazing. But follow my work ethic, follow my drive, and whatever traits you see that are relatable to you. It was never my initial intent to inspire, because I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. Though if that the position I am in now, I won’t let anyone down. Because at the end of the day, I’m just a guy who just happens to sit down all the time, and happens to run a business at the same time. As long as I know that I’m doing good, and not swaying into a direction that’s making a negative impact or changing in a negative way, then I’m happy with that. And for anyone looking for that nudge, or scared to take a risk, all I can say is, always be prepared to take a risk, never settle, because if you don’t believe in yourself, who will?
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh man, that’s a good question. Looking back at it as a whole, I would say it’s been a bumpy road with smooth surface. There haven’t been too many instances where I’m like, “I don’t know if I can do this anymore”, or “this isn’t working.” But there have been instances where I feel like it’s not enough. Especially during the downtime of there not being shows. When there’s no shows, it can get a bit difficult because there’s no funds coming in. As a result, I should be selling online, but during the most recent break I had, I was so busy preparing our Swap-A-Palooza show, that there was no time to physically or mentally spend hours taking pictures, pricing, posting, sharing, my listings.
It’s the daily, mid-week grind, that really takes its toll. In our business, the prices of items constantly are changing. Within a month, an item’s value can fluctuate $50 or more. So, we constantly have to price our items pretty often. Unpack and repack everything. I’m not the best at it, due to how much inventory I have. It’s hard to keep track. I don’t have an official staff that can help with that. Eventually, we’ll get there, but until now, it’s mainly me, unless I recruit my mom to help, which does happen if I’ve procrastinated pricing. I have some events that are back-to-back weekends, so pricing possibly a thousand pieces of inventory, can get difficult. It’s a repeat process that exhausts mentally. Especially when we have to promote shows, look for new inventory, post on social medias, and pursue other ventures at the same time. It can quickly become a nonstop grind, that to be in this business, you have to do. If you want to succeed and keep growing. And, as tedious as it can be, I love every part of it. I may not always on task or do what’s absolutely needed every single time, but I’ll choose this before anything’s else, because it is mine. I chose to do this, and I gotta own it. So, it has to get done.
The smallest annoyance I’ve had is probably when people come to the booth and avoid talking to me. Some people will go to whoever else is running the booth, and ask questions before they come to me. Then they are pointed in my direction, and are like oh sorry. Maybe they just don’t see me, I don’t know. It’s just something I always found funny and consistent throughout the entirety of me doing this. I’ve never taken offence by it, but I do enjoy the shocked reactions when they realize it is my booth.
The one thing that has been an adjustment is probably the growth of the events and business. As mentioned, my mom thought that my beginning inventory was a lot. We used to take 4/5 bins and she’d tell me “Omg this is so much, stop buying” Fast forward we laugh about it, because we now use my Dad’s Truck to transport bins. We’ve gone to some shows with 30-40+ bins. In addition to grid wall panels, shelves, tables, and more. The setups have grown tremendously, and when I look at my booths, it’s so crazy to see how much I actually have. These setups are more than a one-man job, it takes a team to execute some of these booths we put together. I owe a lot to everyone that has helped, to name a few Gary, Rick, Crystal, Ross, Anthony, Chad, Karina, Santos, Francisco, Will, Erendira, Valentino, Sam, Daniel, Jay, Stephanie, Jesus, Scott, Anita, my dad, and most IMPORTANTLY, my mom. My mom has been there since the beginning, supporting me, and assisting me when needed. Taking time out of her life, and even work, to come help me set up for these events, and help me run the booth when needed. I definitely wouldn’t be here without her. So, thank you mom, and I love you very much.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Spinners Toys & Collectibles?
To go deeper in the business, I offer a wide variety of Funko Pops, Nerf Guns, Squishmallows, Anime Apparel, and am branching out further into vintage and retro items. I do have a website, where I sell most of my products. In addition to selling products, the one thing that I wanted to do with my website was separate from other collectible websites. When you enter the website, there is a section that has my upcoming events, and a “Past Events Summary Blog” where I go more into depth about the events I attend. I give my experience of the event in its entirety and how I saw it. I discuss from set up to breakdown, and give as much detail as possible, so that the people who didn’t attend, get a chance to hear about the event. They’re also getting a viewpoint from the eyes of a vendor.
I feel like my business has a lot of layers. I don’t just sell products, but I create content for my instagram and my Facebook group (Undiscovered Realm of Collectibles), throw events, design logos, and now have a podcast. All these things intertwine together and I’m really proud of what we’ve done. I appreciate all the people who help me get here, I wouldn’t be here without them.
I think the spinners brand itself is what I’m most proud of. It’s become more than what I thought it would become. I also love the fact that my team, customers, and peers have helped raise money for multiple charity drives. The one that was closest to me was Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Besides that, it’s hard to speak on the things that I’m most proud of. I am happy with what I’ve done, but I know more can be done. I don’t know exactly how to explain it because talking about yourself in this way is so odd to me. But what I do know is that I’m told by a lot of people that I’m doing great things, and that people are noticing, and I think that’s enough for me.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love Dallas, I feel like Dallas has so many major surrounding cities. I’ve been to so many new areas of the DFW because of the business. Events all over the place, from Garland to NRH to Arlington to Downtown Dallas to West Dallas to Fort Worth. I’ve gotten the chance to check out so many new areas, and I love that. There’s also so much to do, tons of bars, restaurants, small businesses. That’s what I like to do on my downtime. Hang out with friends, try new places. And I feel like Dallas presents great opportunities for that. The only negative would be the traffic, but I’ve gotten so used to the drives, that it’s really not even a bother I’m usually too excited to attend events, that the longer drives have become the norm.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/spinnerstoyscollectibles?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpinnersTC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfvYdsx5U29TbMb_AP1gFgg
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weareuroc
Image Credits
Luna
