Neko Collectibles

Address: 1535 East 3300 South, Suite 5

Telephone: 385-200-1996

Website: instagram.com/nekocollectibles

District: Millcreek

 

“It’s not only about trying to make a profit, but honestly, I do it more for the collective.” That philosophy sits at the heart of Neko Collectibles, the Millcreek shop Bryan Pineda and his wife, Natalia Majda, opened in May 2025. What looks at first like a collectible store is, in many ways, the natural result of Bryan’s life - a life built on curiosity, travel, engineering, and an instinct to understand how things work.

Bryan was born in Los Angeles but moved to Guatemala when he was two years old. Growing up there meant fewer toys and fewer Hot Wheels than children in the United States might remember, but it did not mean less curiosity. “I used to dismantle things just to learn how they work.” He still laughs remembering the day he took apart his father’s computer. It stopped working. His father was not thrilled. But Bryan kept at it until he figured out how to make it run again. That instinct - take it apart, understand it, rebuild it - became the thread running through his life.

Bryan's father, who ran an import-export business in Guatemala, hoped Bryan would become a broker. At eighteen, Bryan returned to the States to study in Florida, earning a certificate in 2009. Upon his return, Bryan’s natural comfort with technology led him toward networking. He joined Guest-Tek, a company that designed and implemented network systems for high-end hotels. “When you go to your hotel and you connect to the Wi-Fi network, I used to design and implement that network.” Bryan traveled constantly for the company - first across the U.S. and Canada, then to Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He did not travel lightly, however, every trip meant bringing something collectible back.

While working in Guatemala, Bryan’s father had formed a connection with an Australian importer who sourced cars from Japan. Through that contact, Bryan was introduced to the world of right-hand-drive Japanese vehicles. He immersed himself in the culture - the engineering, the design, the precision. Over time, he began building his own relationships in Japan and across Asia, developing the contacts that would allow him to import vehicles directly.

By 2013, Bryan had amassed enough experience and connections to open what was essentially a dealership-style operation in Guatemala. He was importing Japanese cars through the relationships he had cultivated in Asia. The vehicles would arrive in Guatemala, where he and his team would condition them, address any mechanical issues, and prepare them for resale before introducing them into the local market - a niche segment that was still relatively uncommon at the time. Alongside the full-size vehicles, Bryan displayed diecast versions of the same models on the walls. “People were asking, do you sell this one? Can you get this one? Can you trade this one?”

During his work travels, Bryan began buying Hot Wheels and other diecast models in every country he visited - Paris, Japan, Latin America - slowly building an international collection. At the same time, he began collecting Pokémon cards, especially when traveling through Asia and Japan. Some items were for fun. Some were investments. All of it reflected the same mindset - observe the market, understand the system, think long term. “Some people invest in gold, some people invest in crypto, some people invest in stocks. I saw that this was actually something that has been going on since the 1960s, and I don’t think it’s going to disappear anytime soon.”

In 2015, Bryan traveled to Geneva for Guest-Tek training. Natalia Majda, a network engineer, was also there training with the company. Natalia’s childhood had been filled with collecting long before she met Bryan - backpacks, pencil cases, Barbies, Legos. She grew up in Krakow, which she proudly calls “the best.” When she met Bryan, her collecting instinct shifted directions. “I started buying him Hot Wheels in Poland, because they’re slightly different.” The Polish cars were shorter and harder to find in the United States. Soon she was collecting herself.

Their relationship unfolded across countries. Eventually Natalia was offered a management position in the U.S., and in 2018 she moved to Utah. That same year, Bryan made a pivotal decision. After a decade of near-constant travel, he switched jobs and joined a tech company as a software engineer. “I was never going to see Natalia if I kept traveling.”

Natalia left Guest-Tek in 2020 and joined a smaller networking company, continuing her engineering career while adjusting her immigration status during the pandemic delays. They married on March 9, 2020 - about a week before COVID shut everything down.

Through all of it - tech careers, travel, marriage, the pandemic - the collecting continued. They started attending local buy-sell-trade events in Utah. At first, the couple was buying entire collections simply to obtain specific pieces. Two storage units filled quickly. Over time they realized Salt Lake had game stores and antique malls, but nothing dedicated to diecast while also embracing trading cards.

By 2025, “We had created a clientele. People knew and trusted us.” It was at that point they opened their shop, Neko Collectibles. Neko was the name of the cat Bryan had found while living in Guatemala. The word means “cat” in Japanese, and Bryan was pleased to say that his mom is still caring for his orange pet.

The store layout works like a maze, guiding customers through walls of one-to-sixty-four scale cars, larger scale models, Tomica imports from Japan, Mini GT, Kaido House, and trading card sections featuring Pokémon, Dragon Ball, and One Piece. Figures and Funko Pops were added unexpectedly. “The figures were not planned at all, but customers were bringing them to us, so we decided to run with it.”

On weekends, the shop is filled with collectors. “We’ve been having some thirty people gathered here at the same time.” But what defines the space is not inventory. It is philosophy. As stated at the beginning, Bryan strongly feels that “Of course, we’re a store, we need to profit out of it. But we are not being greedy - to squish the community.” Frustrated by scalping and the inflated resale culture, Bryan created “Saturday MSRP,” selling new products at retail whenever possible. “We prefer to take care of the locals first.” Natalia adds, “There are people who are here for hours, just chatting with Bryan. They trust him.”

And for Bryan, the meaning always circles back to this: “A simple car can make a difference in your life. Maybe it’s something you always wanted. Maybe it’s from your childhood. Maybe it makes you think about your goals. This is a small miniature of it. And once you explain that, people respond by saying, ‘you know what?’ That’s true.’”