Nerd Nation Games & Collectibles — Attraction in Shawnee

I recently visited Nerd Nation, a new retro game store in town, and overall, I had a pretty good experience. They have a solid selection already, and from what I understand, they still have a couple of months before they’re fully open. The prices are mostly reasonable—though I did see a few things that seemed overpriced, like SNES empty boxes in rough shape going for $100+. That said, there are definitely some good deals to be found.

One unique aspect of the store is their consignment vendor hall, which I found to be an interesting concept. However, as a customer, I found the payment system a bit confusing—especially regarding whether store credit could be used for consignment purchases. A little more clarity on that would be helpful.

My biggest issue, and the reason I couldn’t give a full five-star rating, is the trade-in value. Based on price charting and eBay comps, I received maybe 35-40% value for my trade-ins, even when opting for store credit. That felt pretty low, especially since there are signs stating they offer the best buy prices in town. For cash, I could maybe understand, but for store credit, I would expect closer to 60% or more.

This is a concern because trade-ins are a crucial way for a store like this to build a better inventory over time—something that would bring me back to shop more often. Unfortunately, with the current trade-in values, I don’t see myself trading anything in again unless that changes. I really hope they adjust this, as it could make a huge difference in the long-term success of the store.

That said, I still think Nerd Nation has a lot of potential. With some fine-tuning—especially in trade-in values and clearer policies around the vendor hall—it could become a go-to spot for retro game collectors in the area. I’ll definitely be back to check out how things progress as they get closer to full launch!

Update on 6/8/2025: I decided to give the shop another shot at trade ins today after seeing the owners response here and came in with a trade of some Lorcana cards I had and a Switch OLED (which I knew they advertised for $190 trade in which I thought was a good deal already). Was really happy with the trade in value I got for the Lorcana cards as they ended up being slightly above what I thought I might get for them.

So it's clear they took the criticism to heart so I'm bumping this from a 4 to 5 since the trade in value was my really real complaint.

I also went there for their grand opening and got a really clean Link to the Past CIB and right now I'm just saving up my trade in credit hoping for a Final Fantasy 6 (3) CIB.

I also really enjoyed the swap meet in the parking lot they had that day and hope to see...

I really can't put into words what a special place this is and how lucky we are to have a shop this great in KC. The entire crew is wonderful and the selection is always a joy to dig through. Prices are almost always right in line with pricecharting.com, and often even skew a bit lower than a lot of recent recorded sales.

The vendor cabinets are such a great addition to the store, and I've had no trouble with purchasing from vendors. I recently snagged a copy of Paper Mario TTYD from a vendor that ended up not working, and the vendor and shop staff made it so easy to return. I've had zero issues with any other purchases, and a non-functioning item is definitely not the norm by any means.

I've been stopping by embarrassingly frequently, as I'm a newer collector (just got back all my old consoles!) and everyone is always incredibly helpful, informative, and kind. Most items are in excellent condition, cleaned and tested. And if they're a little banged up, there's an entire separate shelf for heavily-loved games for crazy low prices (and I've had zero issues with even any of those games not working). My spouse collects game show video games, and she has found so many gems to add to her collection from here.

Massive shout out to Ben who knew I had been hunting for a copy of Star Fox 64. Ben ended up region swapping the JP copy they had on hand and gave me a call to let me know it was available. It runs perfectly, and it's the new crown jewel of my collection. Truly the best customer service interaction I've ever had, and this is just par for the course for how Nerd Nation treats their guests. Side note shout out to Jordan for going out of their way to help me try to hunt down a ps3 power cable. The folks here are beyond great.

Having this shop near by has sparked such joy in my life recently, and I'm really proud of my collection thanks to Nerd Nation's selection and staff. If you're a collector, or even a casual gamer/browser or modern console gamer, do yourself a favor and set aside an hour or so to go explore their selections. You'll be really glad you did.

Thank you so much to everyone there. Y'all...

When I first visited, I asked to buy a game in one of the vendor cabinets that was $20. The person asked if I knew how it worked, I said no, they explained I needed to use Venmo or cash app and send the vendor the money for the game and they would give it to me. I said I don’t use those, can I just give you cash and you can give it to them? They said no, they don’t handle any of that. I then asked if they could contact the person and I could go where they lived and give them cash. They then lied, and told me they didn’t have their number, to only later text them, to which they didn’t answer. I asked them again to just call them. As a vendor, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a phone call related to a sale. This back and forth went on for probably 20 min where I kept asking if there’s some kind of workaround that would allow me to purchase the game. They said they couldn’t ring it up cause they would have to charge taxes, I said ok, that’s fine, “oh but there’s other stuff too” at every turn they kept making excuses to NOT take my money. I finally left. I did try to go back with a friend who used Venmo and was gonna purchase that way. The game was gone but I went to purchase something else that the store owned. The person at the counter asked if I had an account. I said, no. He asks, would you like to create one, I said No. He then says, “oh, well we require customers to create an account with us. It just makes returns easier” I said I have no plans to return it. He would not allow me to buy anything. So I gave them a second chance, and they failed. They do have a lot of stuff but their customer service is absolute trash. I’ve never seen worse, and I’ve never saw a store work so hard to refuse money. I’ve tried to contact the owner through the store number to alert him or her how their employees are turning away revenue and business. I never got a...