Grand Opening of my New Game and Card Store!

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Today we open our Manhattan location is 30 minutes before we open. I wasn't expecting us to actually be ready, but we're ready. Uh we got receipts working.

[00:00:09]Uh if you watched the last video, you'll understand. It's not a perfect setup, but we got them working. We got our donuts. Uh everyone is here and we have a line, which is super cool. So, we're going to open the doors in about 20 minutes, 20, 30 minutes now. We opened another store a year ago, and now we're opening another one. So, who knows?

[00:00:30]Maybe maybe next year we'll have another one. Uh I'm going to try to not have a grand opening on Mother's Day weekend, though, if we do open another one. So, we're all hyped and this is going to be an awesome day.

[00:00:56]So, one thing I want you guys to do is comment below what's going to sell better today, Pokémon or video games.

[00:01:05]I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but comment below. Uh, we're going to see at the end, but I'm pretty confident it's one of them.

[00:01:14]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:01:20]So, one thing I'm pretty proud of is our Pokemon case. It looks great. Uh, honestly, maybe even better than our grand opening of the other store. We have, I think, just about every Pokémon game except for like some of the random ones like Tro. We have almost everything. CIB, bunch more down there.

[00:01:40]And then we also have like Soul Silver and the big box and just the regular one. And then we have heart gold there.

[00:01:48]And we have three different versions if they want heart gold. And then look at this beauty. Got this nice CIB Game Boy.

[00:01:54]And then we have bunch of handhelds ready to go. I think overall uh the cases look really good. We brought a lot of really really good inventory. So when we had our soft open, we just filled it with everything we could we could spare from the other store because we didn't know how the store was going to do.

[00:02:11]Clearly they've showed up. So now we filled it with good inventory and there's there's a lot of good stuff here. So now I'm going to check in with some of the staff and see what they think is the best thing about this setup for the grand opening or just favorite item. All right, what you got, Justin?

[00:02:26]>> I'm going to take you over here.

[00:02:29]This corner is just jam-packed with stuff. There's consoles, collector's editions, but I have a soft spot for collector's editions. Beautiful one right here. But like even the smaller ones, I like anything that's in like a just slightly different box than a standard like retail release. So like all of these these Trails games look amazing. These are probably honestly my favorite things here cuz I actually I haven't even seen these. I just have seen this like standard.

[00:02:56]>> Those look really good. And honestly when I walked up I thought these were like anime figures.

[00:03:00]>> I would open them if I were to get them but that might upset some people cuz they're all like >> some of them are pretty pricey too.

[00:03:06]Yeah, this one, dude. Even just the standard edition of this is like over $100. I'm pretty sure it might have got reprinted, but like it's just an expensive game, but >> All right, Riley, show me your favorite thing in the store.

[00:03:18]>> Okay, my favorite thing in the store definitely has to be this beautiful console wall that that Michael set up.

[00:03:24]It just just flows with this whole corner perfectly, and I love it.

[00:03:29]>> So, Michael, what is your favorite thing in the store with the new layout, new inventory? Honestly, it is the console wall as well.

[00:03:40]>> No way. You You both are going to choose the same answer.

[00:03:42]>> Yeah. Yes. I just love Xbox. Everything Xbox.

[00:03:47]>> He is the only lover of Xbox, though. I do think Riley loves Xbox, too. Right.

[00:03:53]>> I think so. I think so.

[00:03:54]>> This store is a weird store, >> but I'm more open about it. But yeah, the Xbox wall. That's what I grew up with. started playing with Call of Duty Black Ops, but I just love to go back through it and kind of look at my childhood a little bit. But the consoles, I just love the look of Xbox.

[00:04:11]>> All right, let's check in with Ben, the general manager for the stores. What's your favorite thing for this grand opening?

[00:04:17]>> Low question. Michael said short answers only. I was about to run all over the store and piece together a whole Gamecube kit, but I'm just going to go with Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons right here.

[00:04:26]>> I'm not going to lie, they are super clean. We just picked them up uh like a week ago and the guy I got them from everything he sold us is super mint. Uh and I like I was actually worried they were fake. They're so good.

[00:04:42]>> I was afraid to touch the manuals.

[00:04:43]>> Yeah, these things look beautiful. All right, now we're going to check in with Kristoff. What's your favorite thing?

[00:04:50]>> White Coco.

[00:04:52]>> Maybe stand right here and just like wave.

[00:04:55]>> All right, you guys can come in.

[00:05:15]Justin, >> give me your best happy dance.

[00:05:22]>> All right, show me your twerking skills.

[00:05:34]We have Elijah here right now and he is ripping some packs. What are you ripping right now?

[00:05:40]>> Mega Evolutions. He's got Destined Rivals.

[00:05:43]>> All right. What are you hoping for?

[00:05:44]Anything good. It sounds like >> the Golden Gardore.

[00:05:48]>> All right. Okay.

[00:05:50]>> Oh, >> that's how it be sometimes.

[00:05:53]>> Hey, there you go. Metagross. So, it sounds like you're a regular here.

[00:05:57]>> I am.

[00:05:58]>> What do you think of this store?

[00:06:00]>> This is probably my favorite card store in Manhattan.

[00:06:04]>> I'd love to hear that.

[00:06:06]>> Great selection. Everybody here is actually pretty nice. They'll work with you on prices.

[00:06:11]>> I've done a lot of business here. Riley knows me very well.

[00:06:15]>> Well, we appreciate it. All right, Eli, how much did you just spend?

[00:06:19]>> Do I have to say that out loud?

[00:06:22]>> I I don't I didn't hear the total. I don't know if you're >> 38.

[00:06:25]>> Okay. You're not the biggest spender.

[00:06:27]So, >> see, >> I saw that guy go out with like 80 TVs and I know obsidian flames.

[00:06:31]>> Yeah. Yeah, he spent like 2100. So, well, we appreciate it.

[00:06:35]>> I appreciate y'all. This is awesome.

[00:06:36]Thank you.

[00:06:37]>> So, it is just after 9:00. I figured I'd give you all an update. Uh we are at 6,400 in sales uh in the first hour and 15 minutes. That is crazy. I will say a lot of our sealed has already gone. Uh, so I don't know that we're going to be able to keep up the whole pace throughout the whole day, but that would be great if we did. I think realistically, I'm hoping for like 20,000 in sales today. That would make me feel pretty good. Anything over that would be even better. I think we did just under 30,000 at the other grand opening. So, if we get anywhere near uh the 30,000, I would be super excited. But 20,000 is like my realistic goal for the day. Overall, today is going really well. So, a lot of people have been asking, why did we choose Manhattan? It's 2 hours away from my house. Why would you choose to drive so far for your second location? And ultimately, it comes down to Manhattan has been my home away from home for over half my life. Uh I'm 34 now, 35. We're gonna talk more about that later uh when we do uh the grand opening speech, but that's kind of why.

[00:07:52]And it's just been really cool to see what we've been able to do in a very short amount of time. We came out in February to check out the space and here we are fully open in May. And the reason that we move so fast is they gave us 2 and 1/4 months free rent. I probably could have negotiated harder to get more rent, but we didn't have to do a lot.

[00:08:16]This space is pretty turnkey, so we were able to come in uh clean the floors, paint, and then put everything up. We have videos on that if you're interested in seeing that. But we also did in a short amount of time because it didn't make sense to just waste that free rent.

[00:08:34]Like, that's when we don't have to pay the monthly rent. Let's try and get sales rolling. and the people in Manhattan have shown up and I appreciate them so much. I also like to move fast in general. When we have ideas, as long as we can afford it, why not move forward? Let's make this a reality. And so far, it's mostly worked out.

[00:08:53]Sometimes you just got to take a little risk. And this risk definitely paid off.

[00:08:57]Um, and with the help of Justin and Ben, we were able to make this happen. And I'm just so proud of the team. Overall, I think this has been one of the best decisions we've ever made for the business. I think starting retail was the number one, but opening another location uh with a solid team has definitely made it one of our best decisions. All right, so apparently I missed it, but uh what did you pull over here?

[00:09:27]Dang. And what does that go for?

[00:09:30]>> Like 800.

[00:09:32]Dang. I hate that I miss it, but that's sick. Congrats.

[00:09:45]So, we're about to do the ribbon cutting. Uh, but it got crazy busy in here. Look at this.

[00:10:09]All right. I actually wrote the speech this year. So, uh, thank you guys, everyone, for coming out. Uh, and I appreciate the incredible welcome we've had in Manhattan. It's been an amazing experience. She loves it so much. For a long time, I've considered Manhattan kind of my home away from home. Um, when I was pretty young, my dad took me to a KState game which led me to going to K State and then uh getting my first job out of college where I met my wife and now we have a a daughter if you didn't notice. Um, and somehow we're here today. But this year I actually remembered to uh write a thank you list.

[00:10:46]So, first and foremost um Ben and Justin, they're our general managers.

[00:10:52]Can't thank them enough. lot of hours away from their loved ones. Appreciate it a lot. Also want to thank my wife who's in there. Um she's just an amazing support system. Um everything she does for me. Uh and then to our new staff, we have five new team members with the store. So I wrote it down in order of hiring so no one thinks that they're the favorite. So, Michael, wherever he went, Riley, uh, AJ, Sierra, and Sage, thank you guys so much. And then ultimately, I want to thank my parents. My parents weren't able to make it to the grand opening last year for the other store. My dad was dealing with a lot of health issues.

[00:11:35]Um, and then unfortunately, he passed in July. So, um, but this year, my mom's here, obviously. Um, I wish he was here today. So we are dedicating the store in honor of my father says in recognition of a lifetime of support, guidance, and inspiration. Uh the memories we made in Manhattan starting with the KState game will always stay with me. Your impact lives on in everything we build our nation Manhattan.

[00:12:03]>> Beautiful. Thank you.

[00:12:04]>> So um and then obviously we have my mom. So she's going to be the one cutting the ribbon today.

[00:12:14]Um, if you want to line it up.

[00:12:17]Naturally, we went with Pokemon cards.

[00:12:26]All right. Thank you all and uh I hope you guys enjoy the store. We love it.

[00:12:32]Uh, and we appreciate the community that we've already started to build here.

[00:12:36]All right, let's go buy stuff.

[00:12:41]Got it.

[00:13:02]So, right now overall things are going really well. We're actually just really busy and just trying to get everyone actually checked out. Uh a little bit of a line building up at the checkout, but it's going to we'll get that taken care of soon. Uh a lot of people are buying stuff and our sealed selection is is getting decimated, but we're making the best out of it. By best out of it, I guess I mean we're selling, which is the goal. So, uh the absolute best case scenario, I guess. So, it is 12:18 now.

[00:13:33]Traffic slowed down a little bit after the ribbon cutting and the giant wave then. Uh but overall it's been really good. We've had a lot more people come in in the last couple minutes and we're at 14,382 on the day. Uh very happy with that number. And uh it's only noon, so we're open for another 8 hours. So I think today's going to be a really good day.

[00:13:54]Uh and a lot of people are here. A lot of people excited. And some of them they said this is the first time they've ever been here. So really cool to see everyone coming out and supporting the new store. I didn't get nothing. I got a Steelix.

[00:14:10]>> Anna, what'd you get?

[00:14:11]>> I like this one.

[00:14:13]>> So, what I pulled >> nice couple little full arts. So, quick question. This is your guys's first time in the store. Correct.

[00:14:21]>> Yeah.

[00:14:21]>> What are some things you like or dislike about the store? And you could be completely honest.

[00:14:26]>> I like how open it is. You can just see everything.

[00:14:29]>> Yeah. I like the selection of like different packs, cards, and all the boxes. I will say unfortunately this morning we had a lot more but it went pretty fast. So there there was a lot more selection but a lot of it sold but hopefully in the future we could get more and hopefully you guys come back and open some more packs.

[00:14:48]>> Oh yeah, >> definitely.

[00:14:50]>> All right, so it is just after 6 now. We are going to go ahead and do the first giveaway. I'm not going to lie. Uh you can barely see anything because there's so many entries. 2,160 entries. Can barely see anything. The website basically broke when I put all of these on here. All right, here it is.

[00:15:13]Whoever this is, Zeke Felton, we're going to give him a call and then we'll probably text him and he has a day.

[00:15:21]Otherwise, uh we'll probably respend tomorrow. All right, I think that's going to conclude us on the day. I am super tired. I'm going to go home. Uh, we closed in an hour and a half. There's still a bunch of people in the store.

[00:15:33]It's awesome. People are still coming and going. It's been an amazing day. I thank you so much to everyone in the Manhattan community and some of our larger community. We had people drive up from Shaunie Witchah. It's just been incredible. Uh, team killed it.

[00:15:46]Community just bought us out of all of our seals. So, we're going to get more uh working on plans on how to do that appropriately so that it makes sense for us financially. The winner of the Switch 2 is going to be right after this. And I appreciate everyone for coming out today. So, I am home now. I got all the names for everyone that purchased things today on the wheel. I'm hoping this works. Uh because the wheel's not even turning anymore. Uh but there's 2,311 entries. We ended up with $23,355 in sales. We didn't meet the extended goal. That's okay. But anything over 20, very happy with honestly very happy with 20. So, uh, I'm gonna go ahead and pull up the wheel. We're going to spin it.

[00:16:39]And I hope it works because the site's struggling with this many entries. Just click it. Okay, it is spinning.

[00:16:49]It's just like a whirl of color right now.

[00:16:54]And the winner is Riley, right? He is going to flip his booty. Uh, that is a staff members. And yes, staff members were eligible as they spent their their own hard-earned money.

[00:17:09]He's going to be happy to see this. I'm going to FaceTime him. Let's Let's do that.

[00:17:14]>> No, you're capping.

[00:17:19]>> Nope.

[00:17:21]Are you for real?

[00:17:22]>> Yep.

[00:17:24]>> No. No way. That's crazy. No. That's a You're setting me up. No. Really?

[00:17:33]>> Yeah. Swear to God.

[00:17:35]>> Okay. Well, >> so now we're going to have to convert you to be a Nintendo boy and get rid of your Xbox.

[00:17:41]>> Yeah. Yeah. It's looking like God. Okay.

[00:17:43]I didn't even spend that much. I >> You didn't do anything special. I mean, you you you spent your own money, so >> I'm glad you spun it tonight instead of in the morning because it could have changed.

[00:17:53]>> Yeah.

[00:17:54]>> Well, congrats, dude. I'm excited for you.

[00:17:57]>> Have a good night. And you made me choke up earlier, by the way. Me and AJ were choking up, so congratulations. And your father would be very proud of you. Okay.

[00:18:05]>> Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. So, I'll make sure you guys see the footage, but he was uh literally smoking a cigarette. Um but he was very excited.

[00:18:15]So, um, we're going to convert him to be a Nintendo person. All right, but shout out to Riley. Thanks for shopping and thank you everyone that, uh, came in and spent money today. Also, for those of you wondering from the beginning, what was going to sell better, Pokémon or video games? And it is without a doubt Pokémon. I knew it would be even if you just take out other TCGs, Pokemon just absolutely smashed everything else. So, I guess we're gonna have to get more product because it absolutely decimated it. Last I look, it was like 15k Pokemon, 5K everything else. If that's what you guessed, you were absolutely right.