Cardboard Castle — Local services in Eureka

I've been shopping here since they had the location in Fortuna. While my experiences here have been average to OK, my most recent trip to the shop was awful. I had gone in before for their bulk pokemon cards to pick out ones I like and I was coming in to do that again. I was "helped" this time by a man with a tattoo of a group of Pokemon on his left arm. I asked for the bulk boxes and went through one, and he went back over to a table by the front of the store with another employee and a couple of other people. As I continued asking for boxes he seemed more and more fed up with me for no apparent reason. He kept telling me to download the TCGplayer app and I had asked why they don't use Pricecharting to price their cards instead. TCGplayer's prices are taken exclusively from TCGplayer's own site, meanwhile Pricecharting takes into account multiple different marketplaces across the internet to get average prices for the cards so its sample size for its data is much broader. The only justification for using TCGplayer prices was because pricecharting was "bad and innaccurate" with no further explanation. You'd think that the person the store claims is their Pokemon expert would have a more concrete answer as to why they price things the way they do. When he saw my admittedly large stack of cards, he said to me in a very passive aggressive tone "You're gonna make me scan all these cards after I keep telling you to just get the TCGplayer app?" Or something to that effect. He was insisting that I should be the one scanning in each individual card myself and that I take up the space on my device for an app I don't intend to use, and quite rudely too. If I, the customer, am supposed to be the one scanning my own cards, then what's stopping me from simply not scanning a couple cards here and there to skirt the system, and if I'm scanning all the cards myself, then what is the guy behind the counter being paid for beyond playing Magic the Gathering and clicking a couple buttons to tell me what I owe at the end of my trip? After telling me this, he scanned in every single card I had picked out into the app, nickel and dime-ing me the whole way through. For ~90 mostly common and uncommon cards (the two lowest forms of rarity for Pokemon cards) I was charged 80 dollars. I got a single foil card. I had picked it out because it was damaged and the guy tried telling me the price would have been that of a mint one, and he would have charged me that had I not pointed out the blatant crease across the foil, which prompted him to reduce the price. The week prior however, I had come in and done the same thing, though I had only gone through a large box and a small box of bulk because I was a little tighter on time. This time, I had gotten around 85 cards, with a good few foil cards in there. I had dealt with the same guy from my most recent experience and he talked down to me just as much then, however, he was accompanied by another employee who was actually quite nice. The way the pricing was handled that time was that anything the "Pokemon expert" thought was worth checking prices for, he would pull out and scan, otherwise the card would sell for a nickel which was a lot more fair considering once again, the cards were mostly commons and uncommons. I was able to walk away from that trip having only spent $45, so I had paid nearly double what I paid the prior week for cards of similar quality and quantity. The employees have told me that they barely look through the bulk boxes which is evident having seen some of the cards in them too. In the boxes I'd seen there was a foil Fossil set Dragonite which was promptly placed in a display case when I told them it was in with the bulk as well as a foil Rocket's Hitmonchan, and a foil Blaine's Moltres. Going off of the employees' word, and the evident lack of checking for cards of value through the boxes, I don't understand why each and every one of the cards I went for had to have been scanned into what seems to be the most predatory of pricing sites. Very disappointed, hesitant to...

Brand new game store in eureka. Good guys that run the place. Pricing follows the trend of using TCG market pricing to price singles, so if you’re curious how much that foil etched showcase wandering emperor costs…it’s $236 (at least right now, at 512AM on 5/28). They’ve got table space and events. Last time I was in, they still had a ton of singles to sort. So their accessible inventory will be growing over the next few weeks.

Eureka now has 4+ card/game shops, 2 of which use TCG pricing (next level games being the other). So at this point you have no excuse not to at least try and buy locally, even with gas at $6-7.

Of the other shops, Next level has a very good singles selection and a lot of table space. North coast role playing has very very limited singles (they don’t really want to be in the singles game). Sports cards and more has good singles (but no TCG pricing as of April 2022). I know this place and next level will take your buy list and let you know what they’ve got from it. Besides that, you’ve got lost coast wizards in Fortuna, and hidden oasis in mckinleyville. That’s 5-6 card shops within 30 minutes. So buy local and support your brick and mortar card shops so you have a place to actually play the dang game!! Like put your deck list in the TCG player app, then export it and email it out to the LGSs. Then buy it at the LGSs…so that the LGSs will be around for you to play that deck at the LGSs. It’s not hard, and it’s the right...

I’ve been hesitant to leave a review because this shop is one of the few that has a solid stock of Pokémon cards. However, after several visits, I feel it’s important to share my experience. Unfortunately, it seems like they don’t place much value on the care of their cards, nor the customers. The cards are kept unsleeved and are often stacked haphazardly, regardless of their value. I’ve seen high-priced cards turned into pringles and still sold at near-mint prices. It’s only after the cards are purchased that they get sleeved.

Additionally, the staff often appears annoyed when asked about Pokémon cards, almost as if it’s an inconvenience. It feels like the focus is mainly on Magic: The Gathering, and that’s clear from their attitude.

Also, the store also has a lingering unpleasant body odor smell that makes it uncomfortable to shop for long. If you’re in search of Pokémon cards, I’d honestly recommend looking elsewhere. I just don’t feel that this store gives the same care and attention to Pokémon as they do to...