The Match Slip Frank Angelone

In this episode, we're talking with Gil, owner of Brother's Grim Games at the Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo.



Gil's store is located on Long Island in Selden, NY. In 2007, he bought the store, originally named Monkey Head. As a store owner, one of his biggest challenges is knowing how much product to buy. This incorporates recognizing when a product has plateaued and is about to decline. There are no restocks after the initial order when purchasing a product from a distributor.



While competing with Amazon is challenging, Gil says customer loyalty is the best way to overcome that. That loyalty has resulted in a few thousand regular customers. Moreover, new games entering the market bring in new players. Nowadays, he's seeing customers bring friends, families, and parents. Furthermore, sets like Universes Beyond from Magic: The Gathering also have brought new players in.



Gil always strives to make his store nicer. Over the years, he's expanded units to increase the square footage. He's also open seven days a week with four employees. In the early days, Gil would work 100 hours per week but is now down to 30 hours a week. His focus is the store's financials, purchasing, and insurance.



To continue getting word out about the store, Gil attends conventions. He used to travel outside New York attending conventions in about 20 states. The networking opportunities with those in the industry were valuable to him. He still attends local conventions.


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In this episode, we're talking with Alan Reid, owner of Meta-Games Unlimited. In addition to running the game store, Alan also has a full-time job. His desire to open a game store stems from his previous background in competitive Magic. While being a competitive player from 1994-1996 had its enjoyment, as time went on he wished to be near family and friends. This would lead to the beginning of his store in 1997.



While the store has been around for 27 years and counting, Alan credits his friends with whom he had played competitively for helping make the store what it is today. He initially started with a 750 sq. ft. store and would later expand to 3,200 sq. ft. However, today, the store is 10,000 sq. ft. culminating as its fourth location since its opening. Moreover, Alan notes this could be considered the store's fifth location when the expansions are factored in.



With 9 employees total, some of whom have been with Alan for over 20 years, Alan stresses the importance and appreciation for his staff whom he relies on for helping build the store's foundation.



With an open free-to-play space, pinball tournaments, Games Workshop events, RPG events, and Magic: The Gathering events, Alan's store boasts many opportunities to accommodate his customers and hold multiple events per day.



These days Alan mostly plays board games while focusing on relationship-building with vendors, stocking up on products, and providing his customers a great place to play.




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In this episode, we’re talking with Jon, owner of The Enchanted Deck - an online-only store. However, he does hope to have a brick-and-mortar store in the future; potentially within the next couple of years.



In July of 2023, Jon would stream on Twitch with a “rip and ship” concept selling packs of cards Pokemon cards. However, in January of 2024, The Enchanted Deck was born as an online store, but now he was selling various TCGs. Having worked as a salesman for Best Buy for 10 years, Jon feels he has the experience required to acquire customers and learn what they want.



While Jon doesn’t face the overhead a brick-and-mortar store would, he does face the difficulty of acquiring products from distributors. Because he’s an online-only store, Jon says that acquiring said products is limited. Initially, he was only able to buy Pokemon products. While distributors have asked when he will open a store, Jon said they he wants to do it the right way when it becomes a reality. One of those things he wants is to make sure his store would be WPN-ready from the get-go.



Being a new dad and having a full-time job, in addition to running The Enchanted Deck makes it difficult to consider opening a brick-and-mortar store at the current time. However, Jon does participate in conventions that he can afford to go to, to get the name out there regarding his business. He’s also noticed that online “buy, sell, and trade” Facebook groups have been a great way to attract new customers and build relationships. 



Additionally, Jon utilizes online ads to grow the business and is constantly updating his website to make it as easy to use as possible for his customers.


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In this episode, we're talking with Josh Wilhelmi, owner of Game Goblins. With two locations in both Little Rock, Arkansas, and Conway, Arkansas, Josh hopes to open five stores in total with plans to franchise the brand afterward.



Josh started buying and selling singles from dealers at events to pay for his travel. He built up enough income from this venture which led to a game store. Game Goblins started in 2012 with 2,000 sq. ft. of space. This would become a limitation, and the store would relocate to a location with 6,000 sq. ft. of space. As of this writing, the store has been at this location for the past nine years. Furthermore, the store is WPN Premium - the only game store in Little Rock.



The store in Conway - also a WPN Premium store - is the Game Goblin's second location. While the store is smaller in square footage and staff, Josh employs a full-time team leader who manages the day-to-day operations. Overall, he has 15 employees between his two stores.



As the owner, Josh focuses on the direction of the company. Such decisions include product lines to carry, new events, and ordering. Moreover, Game Goblins is not the only company that Josh runs. As such, he passes along his philosophy for the company to his employees to implement.



The company generates about 3 million in revenue per year. The revenue encompasses the two stores and TCG Player. 50-60% of that revenue is in products sold. Josh notes that the company is very data-driven when ordering products. With a background in computer engineering, they have created internal utilities that they iterate over consistently to help improve buying decisions.



As he pursues a third store, Josh focuses on a few requirements before doing so:


The store must be in a city with at least 50,000 people.
The space he purchases must be at least 4,000 sq. ft.
The store must generate 1 million in revenue after the first two years.
The store cannot be hard for people to find.








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In this episode, store owner, La Donna of OC Geeks & Games owner joins us to discuss her store in Oregon City, Oregon.



While not a gamer herself, her husband is. While La Donna was in the military, La Donna's husband had wanted to start a game store focused on families. The family concept of the store is their most unique selling point. It is further emphasized by La Donna when she says, "When someone comes into my store, it's like you're coming into my living room."



La Donna handles the managerial aspect of the store, learns the games, and hires the right people to help facilitate those games. Her husband handles the Games Workshop and miniatures side of the business. With three current employees, La Donna emphasizes the wonderful and impactful contribution of her late best friend, Anna, to the business.



Anna helped grow the Pokemon community, embodied the family spirit that La Donna and her husband were aiming for, and as La Donna puts it - she was the reason people were coming to the store. Her loss is still a difficult loss for everyone to this day.



In the spirit of what Anna brought to the store, La Donna loves that parents look to come into the store and play games with their kids. Both Dungeons & Dragons and Pokemon are huge with families at her store. The "Learn-To-Play" concept is working well to draw in new customers.



La Donna is very active in the community including being a foster parent to two kids and her involvement in the Oregon City Chamber of Commerce. Although active, La Donna notes that it's still a challenge getting people to know that her store exists along with the financials that are involved with running a game store.



La Donna grew up on a farm and her family did not have much money. However, she never lacked love from her family and friends. She parlays that richness in love to the customers in her store today and treats them as if they're her kids.



Looking to the future, La Donna would love to open another store with more square footage.


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In this episode, we're talking with Sherri and Zack of Dragon's Hoard, located in Greensboro, North Carolina.



Celebrating its 1st anniversary as a game store, Dragon's Hoard originally started as a hobby shop / collectible store. When Sherri's husband recommended they bring Magic: The Gathering to the store, it changed the direction of the business. The store would officially become a game store from that moment forward.



Both Sherri and Zack have full-time jobs outside of the game store. Sherri works in the corporate world and Zack is a commercial real estate broker. Furthermore, Zack was the property manager of the space where Dragon's Hoard now resides as he was looking for someone to take over the lease that was recently vacated. With a desire to open a board game cafe, Zack asked Sherri if they could be partners together on this venture.



The pair currently have two employees: Justin and Steven - the latter of whom ran the store in the beginning 6 days a week. With some help in hand, Sherri says Steven has two days a week off. One of the things Sherri likes doing in the early years to get the store's name out there is attending conventions. Even if money is lost by doing so, Sherri believes in the motto, "Be everywhere."



Sherri shares that the store name comes from the various vendors who would sell products in their store. Moreover, she's looking to highlight the vendors through various means - like raffles - as part of the store's 1st-anniversary celebration. Attending the conventions was a great networking opportunity to invite those vendors to sell in her store, Sherri shares.



With 3,500 sq ft. of space, Sherri and Zack can hold multiple events simultaneously. To help alleviate some of this work for Justin and Steven, they hope to bring on more employees in year 2. The long-term goal is to open a second store and make Dragon's Hoard their full-time gig in 5-10 years.








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