MTA's Popular Holiday Pop-up Shop in Gravesend Offers Rare Subway Memorabilia to the Public

By Kirstyn Brendlen, Brooklyn Paper

Brooklyn’s most unexpectedly busy holiday shopping destination is the MTA’s annual memorabilia and collectible pop-up shop at a train yard in Gravesend. And, due to popular demand, the agency has added additional shopping appointments and walk-up availability for the last day of the sale on Friday, December 15.

For three days only through December 15, the MTA has been selling all manner of “perfectly imperfect” transit-related goodies at the pop-up. Old subway station signs, handholds from subway cars, maps, train parts, and even massive retired garbage cans and benches are all up for grabs.

The sales are run by the agency’s asset recovery division — which is essentially responsible for getting rid of any old or obsolete equipment “in the most cost-effective, environmentally friendly manner,” said division head Paul Dvoskin.

The MTA launched the annual holiday pop-up shop in 2021 to massive success. Prospective customers have to sign up for a shopping appointment ahead of time. And with the pop-up open for only five hours on each day of its three-day run, this year’s appointments booked up just two days after the sale was announced.

According to MTA spokesperson Joana Flores, 800 people were booked in to visit the shop as of December 12, before more appointments were made available. Dvoskin said roughly 500 people had visited the sale by midday Thursday.

Particularly popular items at the sale include any signs from the World Trade Center stop, Flores said, and Dvoskin added that station signs from all over the city are also hot commodities. Shoppers are also particularly interested in items from the retired R32 Brightliner trains, which ended their 60-year run on the rails last year.

“The Brightliner stuff is flying right now, everyone loves this stuff,” he said. “We’ve sold multiple logos, that’s probably the hottest item today – the big round logos off the R32s. I actually had to go get some more this morning because they were selling out so fast.”

The shop has seen a full range of customers, Dvoskin said — from train enthusiasts to current and former New Yorkers who want “little mementos, little symbols of the city.”

None of the items are cleaned before they’re sold, he added, “and I think that’s part of their appeal.”

The MTA sells various ephemera online year-round, but at a higher price, since the items have to be shipped. The pop-up shop is strictly pick-up only, so anything customers buy, they have to get home on their own. Dvoskin said the online shop was fairly successful, but he and the team were surprised at just how popular the in-person pop-ups have been.

“We had no idea it was going to get to this level, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “We’re very happy that we decided to do this and we were very happy that we got to meet our customers face to face.”

As the sale winds down, with plenty of people still hoping to grab a piece of transportation history, the MTA opened up a few extra appointments — most of which have already been booked up — and decided to accept walk-up shoppers on December 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Flores said. Dvoskin also encouraged would-be shoppers who might miss out on the sale to reach out to the asset recovery division online so they can stay updated as stock replenishes after the holidays.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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