Jake’s Cards and Games Offers Community for ‘Nerd-Chic’ of State College

Calling all gamers: Jake’s Cards and Games has made its way to State College.

Four years after the opening of an original store in Bellefonte, a new location has opened on Pugh Street in downtown State College.

“We opened up in July and have had great turnout,” said Bryce Taylor, one of the storeowners. “We are now able to get people who can just walk over from the Penn State campus, which we weren’t able to do in Bellefonte. It opened up a whole new market for us because State College didn’t have anything like this before.”

The store is any organized gamer’s dream. From Magic the Gathering to Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! to Star Wars table top battles, Jake’s Cards and Games has it all. Walking through the store, you can find that rare Pokémon card you’ve been meaning to get your hands on, a new strategy board game for you and the family, or that final piece you’ve been missing from your tabletop battle collection.

“The store is still in startup mode,” Taylor said. “We wanted to make sure that we got all our inventory in first so we could benefit our customers before we focused on remodeling.”

Not only does the store provide endless amounts of products and collectibles for gamers, it also provides weekly tournaments for them to compete in. Every Friday night, also known as Friday Night Magic, the store is transformed into a room full of people eager to play the game they’ve been waiting all week for.

“I played Magic the Gathering a lot when I was younger, but had to stop because there was no one to play with,” said Mac Schrantz, a regular store customer. “I love having somewhere to play all the time. There’s always people to play with here and we’ve all become friends.”

Everyone who comes for the weekly Magic the Gathering tournament pays an entry fee and is paired up randomly, where they compete for three rounds against different competitors. Because most players attend the tournaments regularly, each pairing engages in friendly banter and catches up with one another.

Jake\’s Cards and Games offers a wide variety of games and collectibles. Photo by Jaime Rosenberg/StateCollege.com.

In addition to Friday Night Magic, each month the store comes out with a calendar with multiple opportunities during the week to play in a variety of tournaments.

The original store in Bellefonte also provides gaming tournaments for their customers. Both stores have different events going on to make sure customers have a choice of what they want to play on any given day.

\”A lot of our success is undoubtedly because of \’Big Bang Theory culture\’: nerd-chic,\” Taylor said. \”It\’s okay to admit you play and have a dice necklace.\” 

Customers that usually visit the Bellefonte store also come into the State College store. “Each store has its own unique character,\” Taylor said. “The State College Store is hardcore and all about gaming, whereas the Bellefonte store focuses more on antiques and secondhand collectibles. It gives a reason to go to both stores.”

Four years ago, the Bellefonte store was opened by Bryce Taylor and three friends in honor of their friend Jake Tibbens, who owned a sports card shop where the group used to play Magic the Gathering every Friday. In 2011, Tibbens passed away and the friends decided to take the inventory from his store, add some gaming aspects, and open up a store under Jake’s name.

“We’re a very customer oriented store,” said Taylor. “If a customer wants something that we don’t have, I’ll make some calls and have it ordered for them.”

In October, the Bellefonte store will be celebrating its four-year anniversary. Taylor plans on being able to continue expanding and opening more stores in the future.

“We have very dedicated regular customers that come in to our stores,” said Taylor. “There’s a sort of community to it. These people have invested a lot of time and money into their gaming and this is a place they can come together to play and compete.”