Bellefonte area antique store closing, but one owner plans toy shop nearby

After three years in business, a Bellefonte area antique shop will soon close its doors for good, although one of the owners aims to remain local with some big future business plans.

Located at 3013 Benner Pike in Benner Township, Unlimited Treasures 2’s final day will be Saturday, after the store announced its closure in early July.

Since making the announcement, owners Vincent Bubb, Steve Glossner and Tim Rupert — along with the shop’s 20 other vendors — have been holding sales ranging from 20-75% off their goods in an effort to clear out the store’s remaining inventory. That includes a wide variety of new and vintage toys, board games, collector’s items, glassware and other antiques.

While the sales may have brought a lot traffic to the store, for the owners, the additional business has been somewhat bittersweet. They said they’ll miss the shop that they collectively took ownership of three years ago, and the memories they’ve made there.

“We’ve only been here a few years but it does honestly feels like longer,” Bubb said, looking around the store for one of the final times. “When we bought the place, we had a goal of keeping it open for a few more years, and I’d say we definitely did that.”

The reason for the store’s closure is a 10% raise in the building’s “already-high” rent, Bubb said, which would make running the business “no longer feasible.”

Before the trio went in on owning the store together in 2022, the previous owner had also operated it as an antique shop for seven years under the name “Unlimited Treasures.” The “2” was added when the they took over.

Some of the shop’s rooms are dedicated to specific categories of goods, like the board and video game room on the first floor and the entirety of the second floor, which is home to a swath of Star Wars memorabilia.

Even the rooms that aren’t themed are brimming with collector’s items, such as the store’s show room, which houses a number of vendors selling other toys, antique glasses, records, clothing, figurines, decorations, art pieces and more.

“I’d like to think that while we were open these past few years, we’ve had something for just about everyone that’s come in,” Glossner said. “One of the best-sellers we’ve had though was surprisingly this pile of little plastic animal figurines, made from this German manufacturer [Schleich]. I’d say that someone’s walked out of here with one of those little animals almost every day we’ve been open.”

New store in the works in downtown Bellefonte

Despite Unlimited Treasures 2 closing Saturday, those looking to get their fix of specifically vintage and new toys won’t have wait very long. Bubb and his wife are looking to open a new toy store in downtown Bellefonte at the former home of Victorian House Antiques, which closed earlier this month following the owner’s retirement announcement in January.

The store, to be named Jelly’s Toy Chest, will primarily stick to selling toys, a slight deviation from the variety of goods sold at Unlimited Treasures 2. Once settled in, the Bubbs would like to expand it to have a gaming area in the back, where they can host tournaments for card games like Pokemon. A small selection of antique glassware will also be offered.

The pair are aiming to open the store in October.

“We’ve got all of the toys that we could ever want to sell all crammed down into the basement of the new building, which is about 4,000-square-feet. Once we close [Unlimited Treasures 2], we’re going to almost-immediately start moving things in, which we expect to take about a month or two,” Bubb said.

“We’re really eager to start this new adventure; the future’s looking bright,” he continued. “We’ll have our own building, our own stuff to sell, we won’t have to worry about rent or any other vendors — it’s really exciting for us.”

While toy collectors and children alike will have to wait at least a couple of months before the new shop opens, Unlimited Treasures 2 will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. More information on the store’s ongoing sales can be found on its Facebook page.