The recent post Gary made about card shops has me wondering… are there any good card shops that carry pokemon in the Virginia/Maryland area??
I’ve attempted searching multiple times, but can never find anything. Most shops around the area seem to be dedicated to sports and nothing else. I get extremely jealous when I see people posting cool cards they found at their local store, and I would love to find a local shop I can support while also finding cool pokemon stuff.
If anyone has any leads, it would be much appreciated!
As far as Maryland goes, the only card shop I know about is called ‘MTG first’, its in Glen Burnie. I’ve been there twice and bought cards there each time. They have quite a bit of cards (at least last time I went which was over a year ago). The “Pokemon guy” of the store was very helpful and friendly. If you aren’t too far away id recommend it to you. I’m a fellow marylander myself! So greetings from Maryland!
I think I’ve actually passed by this guy a couple of times in the DMV. He’s always hanging out on corners telling people he has PreRelease Raichus for sale if you follow him down the alley
In Northern VA area:
Huzzah Jr. (Pokemon, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc)
There is one more but I completely forgot…
Huzzah Jr. is a decent place and holds games but its mainly flooded with Magic players. Have decent selection of Pokemon, some old school cards. Its like your generic card shop.
I am in this area as well. I remember looking for place a couple years ago and the one place I visited was closed due to a water main issue I think most in this area will be run of the mill shops. Online killed everything off. Not like the good ol days where Japanese and special products were everywhere.
I looked into transitioning my office shop into a physical store. The best lease price I could find for a retail-zoned space with room for 30 people to sit was $14,000 a month.
And that’s why there are basically no card shops in the DMV.
Not to mention everyone only likes local shops when they’re getting product cheaper or immediately at the same price as online. The real world premium doesn’t pan out like people think it does. So the options are:
A) Have an online store and write off a portion of your rent for taxes and get paid to sell at competitive prices.
B) Have a physical store and dump six figures annually in order to sell at competitive prices.
Is that all? $14,000 a month pshhhhhh. The cost of rent in this area is pretty high across the board. If you had a card store I would visit though…for whatever thats worth
I think most in this area will be run of the mill shops. Online killed everything off. Not like the good ol days where Japanese and special products were everywhere.