Jake's Cards & Games — Local services in Bellefonte

New to the area, thought I'd support the local game store (LGS)--unfortunately, my experience was less than stellar. Went in with a full commander list prepared to spend big $$$ with them--I walked in and was immediately hit with the stench of BO and cigarettes. I stood at the counter for 5+ minutes before anyone even acknowledged my presence. I then informed them that I had a list and wanted to know how to search their inventory--to my utter shock, I was told they DO NOT HAVE AN INVENTORY. Any rares or mythics I wanted, I was expected to hunt for by eye in their display case which WAS NOT ORDERED IN ANY WAY OTHER THAN COLOR. I also had a number of uncommons that I wanted, I was told I would need to search through bulk boxes for those (I declined). When I finally found the few rares on my list that they did have, they were not priced, the shop worker had to go look them up and came back to me with a single number. Surprised, I asked for an itemized list, when she finally returned, it turned out she had made a mistake in her pricing (good thing I made the "unreasonable demand" of asking, eh?).

Final evaluation: this shop seems to be run by people with poor business sense who do not understand magic:the gathering. I had a look at their "event list" and their FNMs were commander 3/4 Fridays per month with 1 night dedicated to modern. I am a modern player and I couldn't imagine spending $1k+ on a deck that I only got to play once a month...forget about training for regionals.

State College area could really do with some competent people opening an LGS that knows how to cater to spike/tournament minded magic players. Until then, take your $$$ to TCGplayer.

Edit: since google does not allow replies to the business--I want to be clear that there was no misinformation in my review, and that I would welcome the business owner to clarify what they think that may have been. As far as coming in on a busy day, this was 2pm on a weekday--not exactly prime time for MtG--if you find it difficult to handle ~5-10 customers on a normal day, perhaps you should consider hiring additional workers. As far as walking by "the line," I have no idea what you mean, there were two people behind the counter doing nothing when I walked in and stood there waiting to be acknowledged; further, several people asked if they could cut in front of me while I looked for singles, which I obliged. Oh, and that BO and cigarette smell I mentioned? You might want to look through your google reviews, as I'm not the first person to state as much.

To prospective customers, you can see how they react to honest feedback about their business model by calling me "toxic" for expecting a standard level of service that would be required for basic WPN designation (which they don't have, obviously). Extremely disappointed to see that rather than trying to improve, they resort to name-calling and...

Spent 1.5 hours getting my collection SOMEWHAT evaluated, because the “main evaluator” couldn’t put a value on most anything and had to keep calling “his guy”. He gave me an offer for 21 comic books at $5 total. I asked if we could split the difference so we are both happy, and he absolutely raged. Stood up. Threw our contracts away. Told me my prices are outrageous. When this was the single and only time I brought up a difference in price between us. Made the entire situation uncomfortable for everybody in the building. Extremely unprofessional. He also expected us to leave our entire collection with him under a contract for consignment when we weren’t looking for consignment. Even asking for a contract of any form to ensure our belongings would be taken care of during the several days they needed to look at everything, was met with anguish and...

I recently closed down my card shop. Wanted to sell all inventory left over. After calling Jake’s card shop, I was told to bring one of the ten storage bins to their Bellefonte location. On arrival, I was met by a shorter gentleman smelling of booze and cigarettes. I watched this erratic individual sort through cards for an hour. After going through everything, the short gentleman followed up with, ”I will not be able to make an offer because the guy that appraises cards isn’t in”. At this point, I wasted an hour of my time, not including driving. I was tricked into bringing my inventory to their shop. In the end, no deal was made. I was left with many questions, but the number one thing I would ask is, “why tell me to pack, drive, and wait around if you already knew no one could...