Adventure Gaming will broaden with new Colony Square Mall location

• At varied factors, Adventure Gaming has been ranked No. 1 in card quantity and No. 3 in whole worth.
• The store is shifting subsequent month to a bigger location between Dunham’s and Spencer’s within the mall.

ZANESVILLE – Adventure Gaming is among the greatest — if not the largest — buying and selling card distributors in Ohio.

Its journey to greater than 50,000 on-line buying and selling card gross sales, and a 100% buyer score, has a secret weapon that lends itself from the technological future.

The gaming store contained in the Colony Square Mall is owned and operated by Ron Smith. It has what’s referred to as a Roca, a card-scanning sorter that automates picture recognition and uploads stock onto a specialised on-line market referred to as TCG Player.

It can undergo 1,000 buying and selling playing cards in about 90 minutes and have become a recreation changer for Adventure Gaming’s at present listed 16,000 distinctive playing cards and 264,000 whole playing cards.

“Online sales are very strong,” Smith instructed the Times Recorder. With the Roca’s assist, Adventure Gaming has turn out to be one of many state’s largest card sellers. At varied factors, it has been ranked No. 1 in card quantity and No. 3 in whole worth.

The on-line listings are valued at round $1.2 million, Smith shared, nevertheless it solely represents round half of the shop’s stock, with a minimum of 500,000 whole playing cards in inventory.

The card costs can range. Rare, in-demand playing cards can skyrocket into the lots of or hundreds of {dollars}, a few of which can be found for in-person collectors on the store. More widespread playing cards can run as little as 12 or 13 cents.

The Roca helps the store keep on the forefront of a red-hot buying and selling card market that favors well-liked franchises like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Yu-Gi-Oh!, Disney Lorcana, Flesh and Blood, and Final Fantasy.

But Adventure Gaming is quickly delisting a lot of these on-line playing cards to concentrate on one other milestone.

What’s new at Adventure Gaming?

The store, averaging between 1,500 and a couple of,000 transactions a month, has turn out to be one of many mall’s greatest drivers of gross sales and foot site visitors, Lake talked about, and it wants more room.

Adventure Gaming is making ready to maneuver from its present location, down towards the JCPenney finish, to a brand new spot inside the mall between Dunham’s Sports and Spencer’s. This will almost double its house to only shy of 8,000 sq. toes and achieve the capability of round 112 folks.

The packing is underway, therefore decreased listings, and the transfer is anticipated to start out and end in September, Lake mentioned.

As it strikes into its new spot, Adventure Gaming can even begin emphasizing some new franchises and hobbies, like Lego and buying and selling playing cards for League of Legends and Gundam. Its first allocation of One Piece playing cards is anticipated someday within the fall, he added.

Family issues

Adventure Gaming is a family-owned native gaming retailer with six workers members, together with some relations. Lake took over possession of the shop earlier this 12 months.

Lake has loved video video games, buying and selling playing cards, and fantasy fiction for many of his life.

He earned his first Nintendo Entertainment System promoting popcorn as a Boy Scout. It got here with the motion set that included Duck Hunt, he famous.

Early reminiscences along with his dad revolved round taking down notes and creating hand-made maps on graph paper for a few of the video video games, whereas his mother drove his ardour for studying and is why he nonetheless loves fantasy.

It’s additionally resulted in a household custom for a weekly gaming night time that also carries on to at the present time.

“We grew up with this stuff,” Lake mentioned.

What’s sizzling?

That nostalgia is likely to be one massive motive why most of the buying and selling playing cards now have exploded in reputation, Lake famous.

Millennials had been the primary technology to have a lot of at the moment’s well-known franchises and media out there to them as youngsters.

The playing cards are oftentimes the off-shoots of video video games (Pokémon and Final Fantasy), anime and manga (One Piece and Dragon Ball), and even Tamagotchi-style digital pets (Digimon).

For instance, Pokémon briefly began as only a online game when it was launched in Japan in 1996. The first roster-building recreation includes the participant exploring the fictional Kanto area, accumulating creatures, and battling them in opposition to trainers and gymnasium leaders.

By the time it was launched within the United States in 1998, the buying and selling playing cards had already been launched in Japan as effectively, coming round six months after the sport.

The playing cards have supplementally elevated the franchise with a few of its earliest and now most desired units, like Base Set, Jungle, and Fossil, that includes the primary technology’s 151 unique critters.

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Now, almost 30 years later, Pokémon is on the tail finish of the ninth technology’s cycle.

“We’re at the point where everything Pokémon is going insane,” Lake mentioned.

The buying and selling card market most not too long ago exploded in January 2025 when a set referred to as Prismatic Evolutions was launched, touting fascinating holographic illustration playing cards of the favored Eevee Pokémon and its eight completely different evolution sorts.

The fever pitch continued in May with a set referred to as Destined Rivals, however there have been indicators of waning curiosity with the newest double set in July, Black Bolt and White Flare.

There had been between 250 and 300 collectors standing outdoors the gate for Destined Rivals’ launch, Lake shared, and solely round 10 to fifteen for Black Bolt and White Flare. Lake believes collectors turned pissed off with the worth level and the 2 distinctive collections of playing cards hitting without delay.

It’s a part of a multi-year cycle that Ron has seen through the years. Sometimes a single set, with round 4 to 6 launched per 12 months, catches hearth and reinvigorates new and outdated collectors, like Prismatic Evolutions or 2023’s 151 set.

Momentum dies off a few 12 months after the red-hot units, as the corporate overwhelms collectors.

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The market might be headed towards oversaturation, particularly with one other double set, Mega Symphonia and Mega Brave, scheduled for launch on Sept. 26.

Then, it is a ready recreation. The market begins correcting and quiets down for a 12 months or two earlier than exploding once more, Lake defined.

In addition to the playing cards, Adventure Gaming additionally sells video video games, fashions and collectibles, like Funko Pops and Warhammer. It additionally hosts Dungeons & Dragons each Sunday.

Adventure Gaming is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday by way of Thursday, 10 to eight Friday and Saturday, and midday to six on Sunday.

It might be reached by calling 740-297-7781 and emailing adventuregaming9000@gmail.com. You may observe it on Facebook.

Shawn Digity is a reporter for the Zanesville Times Recorder. He might be emailed at sdigity@gannett.com or discovered on X at @ShawnDigityZTR.