NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Almost a month after a fire damaged nearly everything inside one of Nashville’s oldest collectible card shops, the owner explained it’s a never-ending clean-up process.

On Feb. 1, John Dunphy, the owner of Cards-R-Fun, woke up to a phone call that his business was on fire.

While the card shop is not a total loss, smoke damage affected more than half of the collectibles inside.

“So many things got black film on them from the fire, and so many things burst. The fire was not that big, it was mainly the water that did a lot of destruction. I don’t think the full impact has really gotten on me yet because it’s so busy moving this stuff out, packing it up, and putting a lot in the garbage,” Dunphy said.

The community has truly rallied behind Dunphy and his 40-plus years of business since the fire, and that support has only continued.

“It just gets me to sleep at night with the goodness that people have shown. It really has, it’s been unbelievable,” Dunphy said.

So far, over $10,000 has been donated through a GoFundMe page to help Dunphy with bills.

“People I don’t even know have given me money and that is so out of the ordinary. It gives me a brighter aspect of life,” Dunphy said.

On top of that, Dave & Adam’s Card World, a wholesale card company, surprised Dunphy with a $15,000 check to help with his shop’s recovery.

“That was crazy. I had no idea we were getting anything, I was just doing it you know, and at the end, I was like ‘whoa are you kidding me? Did you get the right guy here?’ But yeah, that was really, really nice,” Dunphy said.

Dunphy said he’s not closing the door on reopening just yet. The more than four decades of Cards-R-Fun could come back even better than before.

“This space will basically be in the past. I don’t want to shut the door, it’s easy to do that, but right now just keep it open a little bit and see what happens. I have plenty of stuff to open a new store, plenty,” Dunphy said.

With help from close friends, they’ve been able to salvage what they can, clean through smoke damage and sort through items to give away.

From noon to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4, Cards-R-Fun will be opening its doors for people to buy the surviving collectibles at a discount.

Dunphy’s friends created a GoFundMe page to help rebuild Nashville’s oldest hobby shop. You can donate by clicking here.