5 years to freedom: Harrisburg man has big plans for Loot Cave collectible shop

Harrisburg’s Trevor Schnee sees entrepreneurship as a family trait.

His father launched a chassis company that became a well-known name in Midwest sprint cars in the mid-1980s, shortly before Trevor was born — yes, he’s one of those Schnees. His uncle hung a shingle in Houston as an engineer and consultant.

Schnee himself is a year into his own five-year plan for freedom from a boss, though his plan doesn’t involve schematics or oily fingers.  

The 36-year-old launched The Loot Cave in March 2022 as an online shop with a wide range of pop culture collectibles, from the Funko Pop figurines that resemble bobblehead versions of real and fictional characters and miniature backpacks with video game or anime characters to collectible cards for Pokemon, the NFL, NBA and more. He also has plushies, Loot Cave merch and and an assortment of miscellaneous items like Xbox controller-shaped luggage tags and Nintendo Entertainment System coasters.

“I’m not on their (my dad and uncle’s) level by any means, but it does kind of run in the blood to just feel like you have to grind it out on your own, be the man and not work for somebody,” Schnee said. “So when I turned 35, I decided I was going to see if I can turn what is now The Loot Cave into something by the time I’m 40. That’s my goal.”

That “something” would be a brick-and-mortar store in Harrisburg, the city where he graduated high school, and where he, his wife and his children have lived for a decade. 

The basement of that home is the proverbial “cave” of The Loot Cave at this point. When he gets home from his day job at Schulte Subaru in Sioux Falls, he descends to the cave to turn his customer service eye to his fellow collectors.

The idea for a business was born of a lifelong interest in collecting. It started with sports cards and Pokemon cards, which he’d open and swap with friends and family as a kid, typically stashing away the goods in a safe place in hopes of perhaps cashing in decades later. As he got older, got married and had children — the Schnees have a 9-year-old son, a 13-year-old daughter and two French bulldogs — his collection of unwrapped Funko Pops grew large enough that those friends started urging him to do just that.

“I’ve always kind of had that, ‘buy it, store it, keep it nice, just be proud of what you have’ kind of mentality,” Schnee said. 

When it became clear that his curation of collectibles could double as a path to prosperity, plans for The Loot Cave began to come together in earnest. Since that start last year, he has expanded his offerings by connecting with a wholesaler called Entertainment Earth, which gives him access to exclusive items his customers wouldn’t find locally. He has worked to stay on top of trends too. When he and his wife saw gaggles of guests at a theme park in Orlando wearing miniature backpacks with Super Mario, Zelda and other characters on them, he logged on from their hotel room to research the products and secure a selection of them for The Loot Cave.

He also has worked to distinguish himself from competitors like GameStop, Hot Topic or Rainbow Comics, Cards & Collectibles with a personal touch: He’ll deliver if you live within 10 miles of Harrisburg.

He makes plenty of trips after work, but “if I can sneak it into a lunch hour or something, I’ll load up my car and communicate to whoever I’m dropping off to that I’ll be there around such-and-such time.”

With more than a decade of customer service under his belt, Schnee enjoys the chance to interact with people on those trips. He appreciates that interaction at work, but there tends to be significantly more built-in enjoyment for a person buying a sought-after collectible than someone paying for vehicle repairs. 

Seeing that satisfaction is something Schnee appreciates as a vendor.

“It’s my way to say ‘thanks’ to anyone who would shop with me online,” Schnee said. “I’m more than happy to set up a date and buzz it out to them.”

That’s often the only way a customer gets to meet Schnee, but there are several opportunities to say hello and peruse his wares on the horizon.

He first put himself out into the world as the face of The Loot Cave at SiouxperCon 2022. He’ll be there again this fall, then at Benson’s Flea Market throughout the fall and winter. 

Before that, you can catch him at Riverboat Days from Aug. 18-20 in Yankton or at the Voices Against Cancer 605 Pop Culture Con on Saturday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. The event is the second in what’s set up to be an annual gathering of celebrities to sell meet-and-greet opportunities and autographs to benefit children’s cancer research and local families impacted by pediatric cancer. The second edition is the first with vendors, and Schnee hopes to add it to his ever-expanding list of personal appearances as he lays the groundwork for a future Harrisburg shop. 

“I would love to bring my store and bring my kind of culture to this little town,” he said. “I think it’d be something that someone would be willing to come from Sioux Falls for, too, given that it’s just a hop, skip and a jump away nowadays.”

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