The Match Slip

In episode 16 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with Co-Owner, Antonio, of Warpstorm Games & Lounge. Antonio is one of the five owners of the business which is located in Greenfield, Wisconsin. All owners of the store are friends who each bring a specialty background to the store where they operate their departments individually.

Before being a store owner, Antonio had worked in retail for six years followed by three additional years working at Games Workshop. Given his background, Antonio specializes in the retail side of the business along with his experience in painting miniatures. He's parlayed this experience by offering free one-on-one classes to customers through the Warpstorm Gaming Academy.

With 5,200 sq ft. of space, the store also sports the Boba Cafe which is the lounge portion of the business run by Liz. On the gaming side, Quinn handles the carding gaming which involves buying, selling, and trading. Alex Muhich and Alex Karr deal with inventory and systems management.

When all five friends joined forces, Antonio, with a background in graphic design worked with a designer to have a new logo created and update the color palette for the store's branding. While the store doesn't have any employees outside of the five owners at this time, Antonio looks forward to the day when this can be a possibility.

With a focus on offering a premium experience to customers, Antonio notes that he feels the current retail front location concept is antiquated. Instead, both he and his partners believe in experiential retail. An example of this is a centrally placed 55-inch screen TV for Dungeons & Dragons nights.

The store has an active community for those into Role Playing Games, Miniatures, and Card Games. Antonio had always wanted to be a tabletop game designer and so a goal of the store is to create games to sell to customers.

In episode 15 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with store owner, Darnel Sonnier, of Anubis Games & Hobby located in Lafayette, Louisiana.

A former welder, Darnel's store, Anubis Games & Hobby, began online selling on eBay and in flea markets. The inspiration to launch a store originated with the affinity he had for a store in Georgia. In the initial 7 months of opening his brick-and-mortar store, Darnel was there 7 days a week.

Along with his wife, Darnel shares that he had to learn the business of running a game store. He found himself sleeping at the store and putting all the money made back into the business. While he regrets not paying himself in those first 7 months, he decided to see the store through due to the people. He wanted to see the store's success for his customers.

In the early days, he did everything, but these days he handles the bills. He credits the team he's built for carrying out the vision of Anubis Games & Hobby with special recognition for his store manager. Overall, he wants his employees to feel a sense of ownership in the store which includes ceding some control.

The location he's in now covers all the requirements that Darnel was looking for including foot traffic, existing anchor stores, and being located off a busy street. The first location didn't have everything he was looking for. Additionally, the rent was very high so he moved the store's location to where it resides now.

Encapsulated with an Egyptian theme, Darnel's WPN Premium store provides its customers with a free space to play. Due to the long-term lease structure he negotiated, he could offer this amenity to his players.

One of Darnel's desires would be to one day have the space to add a LAN center. He also envisioned a small micro-center offering computer and 3D printing products.

In episode 14 of The Match Slip, we're talking with store owner, Spencer Thomas of Magnolia Gaming. The store has two locations located in Troy, Alabama, and Huntsville, Alabama. However, there are plans for a third store that will serve as the headquarters with a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse.

Spencer originally bought the store for $0 and took on $5,700 in debt when it was three weeks away from closing. He currently has 52 employees with a manager at both locations, so his involvement these days in the day-to-day operations is mostly hands-off. Both stores are WPN premium with a casual player base consisting of mostly Commander players. Although, the store does sport one of the largest Flesh & Blood stores in America. An obstacle is the four-year turnover of players considering the store is based in a college town.

Most of Spencer's time these days is spent with his other business which includes a liquor business and media company. The former is the most time-consuming and he spends 20-25 hours (80 hours total) a week with each of his businesses.

In addition to his businesses, conventions are a big part of the game store business. 30-45 conventions are attended a year to acquire collections to later sell online. While the costs can be expensive to attend conventions, Spencer says it's all factored into the marketing budget. The biggest challenge, he says, is finding profitable products.

A future goal of Spencer's is to possibly open a store with one of his existing businesses on the West Coast.

In episode 13 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with Josh Goodsell, Owner of The Gathering Place located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This live episode was recorded in person with Josh at SCG Con in Columbus, Ohio.

Located in a college town, The Gathering Place has its core returning customers but also has the luxury of new incoming players every four years when new students enter the fray. A unique aspect of his store is a dive bar, "specializing in local craft beer & vintage MTG!", as noted on their Facebook page. Employees not only sell their customers Magic: The Gathering products but also have knowledge of various beers that they can discuss with customers.

With Modern being popular amongst players in North Carolina, The Gathering Place features a casual-competitive crowd. Not only is Modern highly played at the store but Legacy also has its mainstay of players on Friday nights.

Josh spends a lot of his time on the road at conventions and views his time at these shows as good branding opportunities. While the costs of attending and vending are high, he feels that if he's getting the store's name out there into the community and more people know about the store it can lead to more brand loyalty.

In episode 12 of The Match Slip podcast, we talk with store owner, Pete Hoefling, of Star City Games in Roanoke, Virginia.

Having entered the industry with a love of comic books, Pete's journey in the business started 30 years ago and has been based in the same town since its inception. As someone who enjoyed attending one-day comic conventions as a kid, Pete would soon find himself vending at these events on the weekends while he was in high school.

Later in life, he would run the largest single-day comic book conventions in 7-8 cities at a time throughout the United States. However, an early interaction with four kids visiting his store would change the trajectory of his business forever. With continued requests for Magic: The Gathering products, Pete would eventually budge and purchase products he had never sold initially. Doing so became a great decision as more and more people would show up to his store looking for Magic: The Gathering products where Pete would make the transition and turn Star City Games into a full-blown game store.

With 130-140 total employees across the entire business (6-8 employees in the brick-and-mortar store), Star City Games is probably best known for its big events such as the SCG Tour of years past to current, SCG Con. Today, about 10 SCG Conventions are held a year in the United States with a focus on promoting the store's website.

In episode 11 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with store owner, Travis, of Millennium Games in Rochester, NY. It's the birthplace of the Rochester Draft format for Magic: The Gathering and is the "largest game store in the country", as dubbed by Travis himself with no disputes to the sentiment thus far.

Travis, who originally went to college to become a teacher, has owned the store for 17 years after purchasing it from the previous owner on February 20, 2007. Prior to that, he was an online poker player, but the daily grind lost its luster over time. Travis also has a background in mortgages, which helped him negotiate payments to pay off the store's debt accrued from previous ownership. By paying off the store's debt, he's seen the business grow at a rapid pace with 36 employees and plans to hire more.

In addition to the game store, Travis owns Free RPG Day, he's a co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons Onslaught Miniatures Game, and he also serves as a consultant. His primary role with Millennium Games involves purchasing, employee development, scouting for talent, and planning events. He's always wanted to work at a game store as board games were something that brought his family together growing up.

With the unique addition of used board games in the store, Travis also allows the opportunity for customers to play games before purchasing them so they can determine if it's right for them. Within the play space area, it can accommodate up to 320 players with 120 players seen on average for Commander on Saturday nights. When it comes to the games themselves, Travis tends to allocate more of his time to learning new games that his employees aren't already enfranchised in.

While the majority of marketing for the store is word of mouth, Travis has also seen growth attributed to coverage in the local press after their move to their new location, as well as TikTok reels posted to Facebook which appears to draw the most traffic to the store.

In episode 10 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with store owner, Mark of Cardboard Shuffle located in Kingsport, Tennessee. Based in a factory town, the store originally started at Mark's house where he was only selling singles. As time went on the amount of single cards he was collecting to sell exceeded the space in his house. At that moment, Mark realized a retail location would be needed.

Cardboard Shuffle has been in business since 2019, however, the retail store didn't come to exist until its second year. With sales quadrupling every year since opening, Mark has been able to employ five full-time employees. His employees are guaranteed two consecutive days off a week and each specializes in a particular area of expertise further bringing value to the store.

While being a store owner requires a lot of time and attention, Mark is also a school teacher. After teaching, he normally will head straight to the store afterward. These two endeavors consume a good chunk of Mark's time so his days of being a Magic: The Gathering grinder for 8 years in the SCG tournament circuit are behind him. However, he still enjoys playing the Pauper format as well as Modern for fun.

With a store full of players that foster a positive play group, Mark is recognizing that a bigger space to accommodate those players and their product offerings is needed. However, he maintains that the store will remain in the area the current location is in.

In episode 9 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with Don and Jen, owners of Treasure Coast Magic in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Originally customers at the store's first location, Don and Jen purchased the store from the original owner in 2018. They stayed at the previous place for two years before moving and now aspire to move to a larger space. However, they plan to remain in Port St. Lucie where they are currently the only store in the area.

Don handles product orders at the store and oversees events for Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Jen handles the events for the satellite games from brands such as Bandai and Lorcana. Both have made it a priority to create a casual play environment at the store.

With word-of-mouth being a major asset in attracting new players, diversifying the games they support has been beneficial to the business overall. Even after moving from their first location, Don and Jen recognized familiarity would make their customers feel comfortable. So, they designed the layout of the new location to be nearly identical to the first.

With plans of changing the store name to more accurately reflect their offering, to bringing in more female players, Treasure Coast Magic puts an emphasis on fun and providing all players prize support if they stay for the entire event duration (i.e. Magic: The Gathering pre-releases).

In episode 8 of The Match Slip podcast, we're interviewing Aaron C. of Gamers Guild AZ located in Tempe, Arizona.

Gamers Guild AZ opened on June 1st, 2021. Aaron, Justin, and Erik founded it. Ryan, the initial investor in the company would later be brought on as the fourth owner of the store.

Aaron is the one owner in this venture who is not unfamiliar with owning a game store as he previously owned one earlier in his life. While admittedly Aaron considered himself not mature enough for running the initial store, the lessons learned would prove to be invaluable with the launch of Gamers Guild AZ.

He's a natural businessman who also owns a construction company that served as the gateway for opening the store. While he couldn't persuade angel investors in 2015 to fund a game store, he was asked to launch a construction company and did so in 2016. Aaron was able to use this business as a springboard for Gamers Guild AZ in 2021.

With a strong focus on community and a premium offering in everything he does, Aaron has helped build a successful and ever-growing business with plans on expanding to further metro areas within the next 20 years.

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In episode 7 of The Match Slip podcast, we're talking with Adam Bowles of Owl Central Games located in Millersville, Pennsylvania. Adam is the former General Manager of the store who now focuses on the technical aspects like managing the store's website. The website is very engaging and very easy to navigate and find whatever you may be looking for. Another interesting aspect of Adam's job is the in-house application he developed that is used for pricing cards the store sells on TCG Player.

Owl Central Games places a heavy focus on their employees to which Adam has nothing but good things to say about all of them. The acknowledgment of new employees showcased on the store's Facebook page helps immediately establish that comradery amongst the team.

In order to help get formats off the ground - like Pauper for Magic: The Gathering - Adam took the time to build popular decks to have on hand at the store to enable interested players to try out the format without having to invest the money.

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