I have been going here for so long, I think I have been through three locations. When I was ever at the first ones, I was with a parent or grandparent shopping for Magic and Star Wars stuff when I was younger, usually there for single cards which I started buying as a kid. It was really great to have a shop for cards back then as it was a lot less popular and I could pretty much always rely on OP to have something I was interested in. I started getting into Magic again around the time the newest location opened, and it was a cool experience to get into again there. Big celebrity opening, offered way more official events, just seemed like it would be perfect, but nothing ever is.
Not that I dislike the store at all, but the consistency of my experience has gone down overall. A good few of the usuals are toxic players here which is pretty sad, but I still managed to start playing EDH here and learned really well mostly thanks to the community upstairs, and I managed to trade in a bunch of Pokemon cards from my childhood collection for a decent price that gave me a bunch of starter capital for EDH and newer Pokemon sets. I have managed to started playing a few games at casual cEDH tables upstairs now but still have yet to do any tournaments. I went from a complete casual player to a collector and enthusiast player in under a year playing there in my free time and the weekends.
The events they hold are small but nice and always through official apps to get all rewards available. They also have some kind of event happening almost every single day; definitely over half of the days there is some kind of event. And, despite some of the somewhat valid complaints in general about pricing here, they have fair trade pricing on all new sets of any TCG release, guaranteed and they get their initial stock from the official retailer. They do also buy from customers though who are often times scalpers but they do need to make a profit and the scalping problem isn't their fault.
OP themselves generally discourage things like scalping and often have product buy limits. And, through it all, I still manage to get good deals. And the right employees I like there are honest too and they always will honor sticker price on a card, so if something went up that day you will get a steal here. So to people saying the store is just out to make money, honestly, give them a break. Not only have I managed to get cards for like 60% of TCG value for hot singles, they have a huge, ever expanding 3 for $1 uncommons bin for MTG and a $10 slabbed TCG Pokemon card section next to it too now. Just because they bought some things from scalpers to increase their selection doesn't mean they have no good deals but you do have to look sometimes. Also, to the people who criticize their pricing on boxed or new packs or boxes of cards, they can only buy from the retailer once per release apparently. After their initial stock is gone they are really having to rely on other people for inventory just like everyone else. If you really think you'd rather see nothing on the shelf rather than something a bit too expensive, just go to another store; this place chooses to have a huge selection and not limit themselves.
There are also definitely members of staff I highly dislike. Just as other reviewers have said, some of the workers treat being asked to find something specific even if it is meant to be behind the counter as a chore. There are good workers there a lot of the time trying to make up for it, but it can be a little disappointing considering the bad times are always pretty noticeable and do lessen the experience of being in the shop. Today I went in for a specific card and they didn't have it, but the employee there I like spent a ton of time looking through the binders in the back of the counter for it and found other things I wanted because they went into the binders. Other times I have asked for something not in the case, I have unfortunately been told, quote "If it's not in the case, we don't have it". You didn't even check your binder, how would you know?
So at the end of the day, TLDR, this place isn't perfect but that is honestly because nowhere is. There is a choice shops can make to either buy from customers for stock or not. OP games chooses to keep stock going and keep its shelves stocked with lots of options even if the price has to be a bit higher on some things. The customer service can be pretty hit or miss, but the overall experience walking into the shop is generally quite good. All of that plus they have a great area to play whichever games you want upstairs and a community to play with. I don't think you can ask for much more than that. read more
