Kenyata Sullivan bought the cow.

Not just any old cow, but the cow from Under the Dome, the CBS series based on a Stephen King novel that filmed in Wilmington beginning in 2013. Fans of the show will know what that means – “the cow” is the unfortunate creature who gets cut in half as the dome falls over fictional Chester’s Mill, Maine. It’s a gruesome, yet memorable, scene from the first episode of the series. 

A Wilmington resident, Sullivan is displaying the prop in his new store, Whatever…Wilmington, at 608 Castle St. Although not technically for sale, the cow is one representation of the kind of unique items Sullivan offers in his brick-and-mortar store and through his online business. 

Alongside the Under the Dome cow display, the physical location for Whatever…Wilmington is filled with an assortment of collectibles that run the gamut from more modern comic books to antique tobacco cards. 

“I think having an actual physical pop culture curiosity shop is something every town should have. But I know very few towns that actually have one,” he said.

Among the many items for sale earlier this month in the store were an original backsplash from a Close Encounters of the Third Kind pinball machine, a Cabbage Patch Kid, a wedding photo used on the set of One Tree Hill, a Welcome Back, Kotter card game and a framed picture of George Washington that includes a hair from the first president’s head (complete with authentication papers).

Sullivan, who started selling on eBay 18 years ago, gets excited when he starts talking about what he’s got for sale at his store and at the warehouse he leases near the airport.

“This is what we do. We find things, and we buy things, and we sell things. We try and find things that you can’t find somewhere else,” he said, after giving some background information on a One Tree Hill prop he listed on his eBay store. The Ramones bag was carried by Hilary Burton’s character, Peyton. 

A former musician who sang in local bands, Sullivan’s path from singer to businessman began in the ’90s when his grandmother, Anne B. McCrary, had a stroke. McCrary had worked as a biology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the city park at 4000 Randall Parkway is named
after her. 

“I quit playing rock star and had gone back home and started taking care of her. I still was based out of Wilmington, but I was traveling a lot; I was touring. But then no more touring, because if you’re caring for someone who’s had a stroke it’s a 24/7 kind of a gig,” Sullivan explained. “I was busy trying to clean a lot of the clutter out of the house … and then my dad showed up and brought a computer.”

He started “poking around” on the Internet and stumbled upon eBay in the online marketplace’s early years.

“When I started selling stuff on eBay, when you had a problem you would email Pierre – Pierre Omidyar, the founder of the company,” Sullivan said, laughing.

Right away, Sullivan seemed to have a knack for finding coveted items, according to what he told the Associated Press in a feature about eBay. Written in 1998, the article is still available to read online on The Augusta Chronicle’s website.

Sullivan told the AP, “I could go out and get a day job … But I’m making like between $1,200 and $1,700 a week. So it’s like, why?”

These days, Sullivan and his employees are working on expanding Whatever…Wilmington’s online store and features. Those features include tabs for Whatever…Wilmington’s audio archive and Sullivan’s Palm Reader recording studio, also located in space near the airport. Sullivan opened the studio several months ago as “a little kind of side thing,” he said. A Chapel Hill band used the studio for the last two months
of 2015.

“We can do a full two-inch analog, and it’s got a big, beautiful board,” Sullivan said of the studio.

He said he’s looking forward to adding to the audio archive of local musicians on the website. 

“We’re going to be putting up [more music] on our sound cloud as we go through more and more of the cassettes we’ve got lying around here,” Sullivan said, referring to his warehouse. “If we can’t find it online yet, and we’ve got it, we want to make it available online, and we’re going to have a whole section just for the history of Wilmington music … We’re trying to put together a place that is really an archive of the history of recordings of Wilmington bands as long as the bands want to participate.”

In addition to being a musician in the ’90s, Sullivan has also supported local musicians and artists since then. He started Wilmington Exchange Festival, or W.E. Fest, a celebration of music and art, in 1996.

“I’ve got a long history of trying to bring things here,” Sullivan said.

Those efforts involve things here – including the cow from Under the Dome.

“There’s certain things from Wilmington TV and movie history that we want preserved,” Sullivan said.

Taylor Parson, an employee of Sullivan’s since 2014, said the first half of the cow to be displayed in the store had already caused a stir. “This has drawn a lot of attention,” she said, patting the Plexi-glass-mounted prop.

Her words were underscored by the reaction of a customer who wandered in and immediately asked, “What is that? Oh my gosh.”

Parson explained where the cow came from, and before he left, the customer pledged, “I’m going to come back. This is definitely the most interesting store in Wilmington.”