Most people see a box of old action figures, a shelf of dolls or a collection of comic books and wonder what they're worth. But for Kelly MacLean (BA'07), she sees something else. "We like to look at things because it makes us feel something. And if it makes us feel something, well, there's value there." 

Today, Kelly and her husband, former UNB student Chris MacLean, make their living buying, researching and selling collectibles through All In The Mind Treasures, their Fredericton-based eBay business. But her path to entrepreneurship was anything but straightforward.

In fact, it took decades of twists, pivots and persistence to build the life she always imagined. "Ever since I can remember, me and my mom would always have this big fight. I would say that I am never going to work for anybody else. My mother felt that this was a dangerous path. She wanted me to get a pension and have stability."

Starting with a roadmap 

As a teenager, Kelly joined Junior Achievement, attended entrepreneurship camps and launched a dance program at École Sainte-Anne. Long before she knew what business she would run, she knew she wanted to run one.

Her plan was to study business at UNB, but life had other plans. Circumstances in high school meant that she didn't have the prerequisites she needed, so she enrolled in the faculty of arts instead, hoping she might eventually transfer into business.

“My first year of university, I did do some math classes to try to get my math up to do business. I wasn't advanced enough and I didn't succeed.” She began looking for another way forward. 

Lessons from the secondary market 

One of her first major learning experiences came outside the classroom. While studying, she worked as a bookkeeper at Digital World, the Fredericton business known for its mix of electronics, collectibles and second-hand goods. 

There, she received an introduction not only to accounting but also to the secondary market – the world of buying and selling previously owned items. "One thing I learned about the secondary market is that you don't need a lot of money to start a business.” 

The experience opened her eyes to a different model of entrepreneurship. Instead of needing massive amounts of inventory and startup capital, a business could begin with a single item and a deep understanding of its value. 

"People aren't really collecting objects. They're collecting experiences." 

A historian’s perspective on collecting 

After stepping away from UNB, Kelly spent several years working in tourism before returning to complete a history degree. That decision would prove far more valuable than she could have imagined. "I figured history was going to be my niche to sort of tie all that in together.” 

Professors challenged the way she thought about people, culture and material objects. Dr. Deborah Johnston's course helped her consider the ethical and economic stories hidden behind everyday items. "It made me understand corporate history and how people have been used for so long for profit and how there's so many items around the world that are connected to that.”

Intersession in Rome deepened those ideas. Visiting museums, archives and the Vatican's vast collections, she became fascinated by humanity's relationship with objects and the meaning attached to them.   

Turning passion into expertise 

After returning to Fredericton, Kelly found another opportunity to apply the skills and insights she had gained. Following her return to Digital World, she joined the Collectors Guild, a globally recognized online dealer of military memorabilia, where her background in history proved invaluable. 

“I did a lot of research on items [from around the world] ... who would have worn this? What division would they have owned it? What war would it have been part of? What's the year? What's it made of?” That information would be used to write detailed descriptions on the website for series collectors. 

Many of the Collectors Guild customers are researchers and historians seeking a tangible connection to subjects they had studied for years. “They wanted to touch that thing they had been writing about and researching." The job strengthened her belief that collections are about far more than ownership. They're about connection. 

Around that same time, she met her husband Chris through Digital World. The pair quickly discovered a shared interest in music, collectibles and entrepreneurship. By 2004, they were living together and beginning to imagine a different kind of future. 

When life changed direction   

After graduating, Kelly worked in several sectors while paying off her student loans. Once the debt was gone, she redirected the same monthly payment into savings for the business she still hoped to build. Along the way, she earned her Lean Six Sigma certification and expanded her business knowledge.

Meanwhile, she and Chris spent years buying collectibles, studying markets and learning what people valued and why. They poured themselves into understanding toys, comics, pop culture memorabilia and collector behaviour.   

Then, in 2015, everything changed. Health challenges forced Kelly to step away from government work. "It became more of a quality-of-life thing. I did absolutely need to give my nervous system a break." 

For nearly a year, she focused on recovery. The business she had spent years planning remained little more than a hobby. She listed a few things online, did a little research and gave herself permission to rest. She also applied for funding through a business development program. 

The response was discouraging. "I got a very lovely rejection letter saying that this business will never work and that there's just not enough money in it and that no one would ever be able to survive doing this." She laughs about it now. 

Seeing value beyond the price tag   

Instead of giving up, she doubled down on research, diving into academic studies about collecting culture and consumer behaviour. One paper on Disney-pin collectors fundamentally changed how she thought about value. It confirmed what she had already begun to suspect: people aren't really collecting objects. They're collecting experiences. 

"When you have 10 boxes of something, that's an experience. That person is having an experience." 

Preserving stories through collections 

Today, that understanding shapes every aspect of her work. Much of her business involves purchasing collections from estates, downsizing families and longtime collectors. Often, she finds herself entering people's homes at moments of major transition. "When people let go of that much stuff at once, it's either because of a death or it's because they're moving. They're essentially entering a new chapter." 

Walking through a collection can feel deeply personal. Every shelf, every box and every carefully preserved item reveal something about the person who gathered it. "You learn so much about a person. It's so personal because it's their things." 

Looking back, Kelly sees how every chapter of her life contributed to the one she's living now. Today, she helps meaningful collections find new homes while running a business on her own terms. In many ways, she's living the future she envisioned as a child, when she insisted she would never work for anyone else. Along the way, she learned that the things people keep often tell stories about who they are, what they value and the lives they've lived.