Owners are genuine. You can tell when you walk in the door, they have a different feel about the…read moregame world. This is the best local game store. I also want to note that for the Pleasant Hill residents, they have opened up a new location next to the laundry mat across from Hy-Vee. On Wednesday night after six, join us for Commander night!

As a gaming store, this one was okay but nothing special. They mainly carry used video games,…read moregaming systems, and Pokemon/playing cards, so if any of those are your jam it may be up your alley. The uneven flooring and steps to get in made it feel less accessible for someone like me with disabilities/balance struggles. It also smelled weird inside but I can't place the smell. Overall I would say this game shop was average but didnt rock my world.

Dishonorable liars. Promised money back if I was not satisfied with my purchase of an xbox. They…read morehad no power cord and no controller to test it. I bought it. Took it home. Ordered and paid for a new power cord. Spent 2 hours trying to get the controller THEY SOLD ME to connect. It did not. I called. They said to bring it in. I did. They then hooked it up to a wired controller. I said this is NOT the product I wanted. They then refused to refund me. Less than 24 hours and after I have paid gas to drive to their store twice. Do not trust. This is over $50. What a way to ruin their reputation in the gaming community.

I stopped in here the other day and Ally loved it it was so much fun reminiscing! I just had to buy…read morethe PlayStation to guitar and game to go with, My grandsons will love it! I can't wait to go back!

Amazing selection, super friendly and helpful staff. And some of the cleanest bathrooms I've ever…read moreseen at a game store!

Cool niche place to go to. Lots of collectibles and board games that you wouldn't find in a normal…read morestore. Worth a look around.

Great service. Nice cheap…read moreComic books. Good discounts. Nice stuff. Good video games. At stuff. Really cool. Comic books.

Awesome video games, movies/shows, card shop located right next door to Target. DEFINITELY worth a…read morebrowse whenever you're in the area and the only card shop in the entire city! Customer service is great - the employees are so friendly and quickly pick up on if you're a returning customer and build some great rapport. They are just as passionate about playing/using the goods that they sell, which we love to see! Card selection is pretty sweet in the way of Pokemon cards. They might not always be in the best condition, but their pricing is typically very fair when it comes to these kinds of shops, so we respect that. They don't typically have pricing listed on the card sleeve though, so you either need to ask or sort of make the gamble once they ring it all up, which is a bit peculiar. My favorite part of Video Games Etc is the fact that they are always running "sales" of buy 6 cards, get the 7th free or buy x amount of used dvds, video games, etc. and get your next one free. It's very similar I would say to 2nd and Charles kinds of deals and gives the vibes of being a smaller 2nd and Charles in general, which is lovely to see!

Exceptional store for all your gaming needs. They have so many collectibles to choose from. Owner…read morewas so knowledgeable! They have a game room in the back with special nights for Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Everything from A-Z!

Had a really great experience here! Customer service wasn't the best but the staff was super…read morefriendly and knowledgeable. I see a lot of reviews talking about their no-refund policy, which is true but when I purchased my 3DS they made it very clear that I could not get a refund for it. Decent prices for the stock, good selection of games, little lackluster on the console selection. Definitely come here if you need some old gaming nostalgia

I went in here with my eight year old son to look at video games. First off we noticed this really…read morenasty odor and very dirty store. The selection was not very big. A sales man came over and greeted us and asked what we were looking for. My son had found an Xbox 360 game and asked if it was compatible with his Xbox S one. The salesman told us we needed to go to the Microsoft website and look it up ourselves. My son then found a game that he wanted that was $45. We ran over to Target and purchased it for $29.99.

Uptown Gaming and Collectibles have a strong video game presence in Uptown Ankeny. Still, their new…read morePolk City location features a vibrant baseball card environment that also branches into football, hoops, and hockey. I met owner Andrew Freeman on my initial visit, and he has a passion for card collecting. I'm a gaming and video novice, so I will focus on what I know: the baseball world. The store had numerous gaming customers who appeared happy with his selection, but it's a foreign environment to this baseball dude. There is plenty of parking, and it is easily reached from DSM metro, Ames, and Ankeny. Cool space, areas to get comfy and browse various elements. Open Tuesday through Sunday. I enjoyed browsing some of his better cards, as Freeman has a good eye for talent and ratings. It's not easy to find a Gretzky, Jordan, Aaron, or Griffey Jr card in this area, and he plenty of them, including a lot of $1 cards that brought smiles to my face. I bought a few of my baseball buddies' early cards for fun. I look forward to seeing this store's trajectory, as I like the overall store vibe, and Freeman's card passion was evident.

The kids like to stop in randomly and look at the trading card selection! The adults seem to do the…read moresame thing.

staff is nice there is a great selection of just about everything i love going to jays it is very…read morefun and its not to expensive and they will give you a great price when selling things there.

Jay's CD & Hobby stores are probably my favorite establishments in all of Des Moines. I'm a huge…read moreretro junkie so scouring through old video games, music, trading cards, etc., is one of my favorite pastimes. This location in particular, is probably my most visited one, but also my least liked of the three. Even so, it's still a great store. When it comes to retro and vintage items, you can always find exactly what you're looking for on sites like eBay. The fun part of Jay's, is not knowing what you want and just browsing. More times than not, I don't buy anything from this location. The selection of items is usually better at the other locations. That's the only reason it's not a 5-star rating for me. Value wise, I think their prices rival eBay, and you can buy it on the spot instead of waiting for shipping. Staff always seems friendly and helpful also.

A hidden gem. We stumbled upon this place and chatted with the owner for quite a while. He was…read morefriendly and knowledgeable and had an amazing and well-curated collection of vinyl and some great recording and audio equipment, too. Worth a stop, both for the records and for the conversation.

Stopped by this shop today after seeing some pictures of the interior on Craigslist. I was…read morepleasantly surprised at the variety and quality of their selection of LPs. There was a very large selection of high quality albums from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's. Warren, the co-owner, was very nice and conversational. They have cool rare and hard-to-find stuff such as a NIN triple album brand new in the shrink wrap for $100. They had a couple thousand albums in the main store plus a ton of compact discs and vintage video games. The owner stated this still have a few thousand albums to go through to add to the main store. Great shop, good prices, discounts with multi purchase. Check it out!

I bought a set of dice from Mayhem this week, and the numbers started peeling off the first time I…read moreused them. I brought them back and asked for store credit toward another set. I was told they could only exchange them for the exact same product, but since that item wasn't in stock I'd have to contact the manufacturer myself. I wasn't asking for a refund, just an exchange or store credit for an item that was defective on day one. Most retailers stand behind the products they sell, especially when something fails immediately. Unfortunately, that wasn't my experience here, so I can't recommend shopping at a place that doesn't take responsibility for defective items.

My husband and I have been to 32 game and comic book stores in 8 different states. We are on a…read moremission to find the coolest stuff across the states. We came to Mayhem Comics and Games because of a recommendation from a friend. We are SO happy we stopped. I can't speak for my husband, but this is officially my favorite store on our journey. We stopped in to pick up some sleeves for one of our card games, The Mind Extreme. The sleeves we had purchased back home were too big and we wanted to sleeve it to play this past weekend while we were in Des Moines and Ankeny. We walked in and one of the owners (?) walked us over to "The Sleeve Wall." They had just about any size you could need. He personally helped us find the right ones. While my husband browsed through Magic cards and games, I stopped into the comics section. I was very impressed with the variety, organization, quality, and quantity of the comics! I could have spent HOURS looking at them all. We were in a rush, so we didn't have much time to browse. I can say that we will DEFINITELY be back. I would recommend this store to anyone stopping in the area. Any age. Any interest. Definitely worth checking out!