PORTLAND, Maine — Charlie Haberstock has always had a deep love for Maine.
Haberstock, who is now a student at Hamilton College in New York, has already checked traveling to every Maine town and city off of his bucket list.
"I feel that Maine is just a really special place. It has a unique variety of landscapes, and being in Waterville, it's a good central location," Haberstock said. "I can go an hour in any direction and have a completely different landscape you know, one hour to the coast, the mountains, the lakes."
For the last two years, Haberstock has been working on turning his passion for Maine into a side hustle.
At the start of the pandemic and while he was still in high school, Haberstock decided to put his drawing pen to tablet and get to work. At first, he envisioned creating collectible cards with a Maine focus, but then realized the market for those would be slim.
Instead, he decided to design typical playing cards featuring a Maine town or city on each one.
"It was definitely not an idea that came suddenly. It evolved over time and I think mainly out of my love for Maine," Haberstock said. "Even long before the pandemic I would use my free time looking at the DeLorme Gazetteer, also, just doing silly little projects or just mapping Maine in certain ways."
Each card features key details about the town or city displayed, like population size and the year the town was established.
Haberstock even went as far as reaching out to the town offices for local slogans. There is even a 'Town Key' card and the 'Jokers' feature Mt. Katahdin and Acadia National Park.
Haberstock says the process is fairly simple, but it's tedious work. Each card can take anywhere from 45 minutes to four hours to design. He took photographs to design the cards, capturing the heart of the town or a popular landmark by using his iPhone.
"It was different for each town and that was a tough decision sometimes, like, what is the best landmark to include here," Haberstock said.
Two years and a loan from his dad later, Haberstock was finally able to send his playing cards off to the printer. He officially began selling them in June.
The cards were featured in more than 50 shops around the state and were a big hit. Some sold multiple packs a day, according to Haberstock.
In less than one month, Haberstock was sold out.
"I ordered 2,000 decks and delivered them to all the stores. By July 7th, I was sold out. We had a lot of stores asking to reorder," Haberstock said.
"There's a few stores that had sold an average of three, four decks a day that made me really happy to see that it was working. And then there were a few stores that put them right by the register so a lot of people would see them," he said.
Haberstock is currently working on his next set of cards. This new deck will feature Maine's lakes and islands. He is hoping to have them ready for the holidays or next summer.
To see Charlie's work, you can visit his website.