Oconomowoc Sports Card Shop owners share story of survival and spreading the love for the hobby one card at a time

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Tim and Lorena Luke own Lake Country Cards in Oconomowoc, a sports card shop that provides everything you can think of; packs, singles, memorabilia, and help with grading cards.

Tim grew up with cards and remembers ripping packs in the 80s when he was a kid.

“Ever since then I’ve been hooked,” Tim said. “A lot of my finest memories have to do with cards.”

Tim got out of collecting as he grew up, but it was always there, and it was definitely there when Lorena came into the picture.

“All of a sudden these boxes of cards started showing up and I was like what is this,” Lorena said. “I was like oh, that’s cute ya know this is like something children do so that’s real cute.”

When the two started a family, Lorena wasn’t having it with the cards, and said if they stay out for too long, to the trash they go.

“I threw thousands of cards away,” Lorena said.

“Yeah, a lot of money out there right now,” Tim said.

In 2015, everything changed for the couple, when Tim took Lorena to her first sports card show, where collectors and vendors come together to trade and sell cards.

“She’s thinking that it’s guys that are coming around, big sweaty guys that are eating Cheetos and breathing on you and all this stuff,” Tim said. “I’m like it’s not like that at all.”

After a show in Chicago. Lorena was hooked because she got to start her own collection, create lifelong friends, and go on trips with the kids.

“I did not know anything about his passion for cards right away,” Lorena said. “That was definitely a hidden treasure moment when I discovered it.”

The Luke family spent the next several years traveling the country to different card shows and making connections with collectors all across the United States.

In 2022, everything came to a halt, when Lorena had a severe headache on the way home from a card show.

The family visited a doctor and got the bad news.

“He gave us the really harsh news that yes you have a brain tumor on your brain," Lorena said. "You have probably 5 years to live but because of where it is and how it is in your brain there’s nothing we can do no surgery to be able to touch this.”

Lorena wasn’t ready to only live for five years, and the family visited surgeon after surgeon, until they got a chance at survival.

“Seven brain surgeons later we finally found one that said that he thought that he could give me a 50-50 percent chance of having surgery and surviving the surgery,” Lorena said.

A fifty-fifty shot at life was a no brainer for Lorena and Tim, a big difference from zero percent.

“They cut you from here all the way to the back and it wasn't even by the time we took her to the hospital that the time we took her home was not even 48 hours,” Tim said.

Lorena pushed through, surviving the surgery, but as she recovered there were no more card shows.

“It’s something that he’s so passionate about,” Lorena said. “It hurt my heart because I couldn’t travel.”

The recovery opened the door for something Lorena had been pushing for years while building a brand at all the card shows which was their very own card shop.

"That was the moment where I said to Tim, I’m like you know you’ve always wanted to open a card shop, we can’t travel right now, let’s open a card shop,” Lorena said.

So, boom, there it was, Lake Country Cards in Oconomowoc.

“There’s no way that I ever thought in a million years that we would be sitting here doing this together,” Lorena said.

Tim and Lorena have become a staple in the community, running trade nights and special events at the shop and doing their best to spread their love for the hobby, and make it more accessible for everyone.

The love for card shows has not gone away either, with Lorena running the Wisconsin Card Show, which features hundreds of vendors, former athletes, and thousands of collectors.

"This would have been my last good year and here we are celebrating owning a card shop and looking at the next 10 years and 20 years of what we’re going to do for the hobby,” Lorena said.