JC's House of Cards — Local services in Huntsville

By comparison, High Ground Hobbies is much friendlier and has excellent food, on top of all the sealed or singles you could want. Recommend them instead. 1/5 stars due to JC's store owner’s possibly unethical decision-making, sour disposition, and shoddy customer service as noted in other reviews. The owner possibly even banned me for giving a review he didn’t like, walking back his story numerous times in the process since this occurred, as SS's showcase. While I normally give stars for the positive amenities in a store, the overall attitude of the owner and the incredibly negative environment he creates make it a 1-star for me due to his abysmal attitude. The atmosphere is palpably different when he is in a room. He even went flying into another store recently to publicly complain to owners when they scheduled an event at the same time as one of his events. This attitude is cancerous for the local gaming community as a whole. I initially gave this store 5/5 stars years ago. I then changed it to 4/5 stars after a few visits and simply stated that the owner was very short in interactions. I continued to show up, advocate for its’ good points to my friends, and spend my own money there regardless. I still did, until today; I will never again do so and sincerely hope you all make your purchases online or go down to High Ground Hobbies, which I recommend. I tried to sign up for an event long after the fact and was denied. Why? Fast forward to the Sealed Baldur’s Gate draft event I attended on release, which supposedly led to the ban. I had a new player in my pod. Our pod finished drafting last due to this player. I helped him out with his deck building and the draft process overall since he was new, which took a lot of time. We were then told our tables by the organizer; I picked up my cards as fast as I could, as did the rest of the pod, but again, we only had just finished drafting. Out of the recommended time for sealed deck construction (MTR Appendix B — Time Limits: Sealed Deck—20 minutes for deck registration and 30 minutes for deck construction) we had less than 10 minutes flat to work with, and my whole pod had to scramble as a result. For Prereleases and sealed deck events that take place on the weekend of a new set release, 15 additional minutes for deck construction is recommended, by the way. The employee running the event was talking to a girl at the counter. He ignored me until I hailed him multiple times, then was slow to check me out. I returned to my seat, had no time to use the sleeves I bought, and moved to my pod as quickly as possible, taking less than three minutes to do so. Nor was I the last player to be seated in my pod alone, let alone all the other pods. We began to play before most other pods, so the claim I slowed play was ridiculous. I hailed the organizer twice unsuccessfully, and on the third time got his attention and let him know that he should start the timer since everyone was playing; he was too busy talking to the aforementioned girl to notice. This was enough to have the organizer messaging the store owner due to what I can only perceive as a fragile ego. I received a DM the next morning from the owner stating I was unwelcome at future events. I responded to ask why. The story changed constantly; it started as being a “problem”. Then it was "slow play", "holding up the event, and later “bullying”. In one DM, the owner stated he was “gonna give the benefit of the doubt” after "talking with my employee”. Then a person named Luke left a 1-star review. He doubled down, possibly insinuating that Luke was a friend of mine. His tune changed completely from considering lifting said ban. He was potentially trying to create whatever narrative he needed to fabricate a moral justification for a ban, solely based on Google Reviews he didn't like about his store. Finally decided to change my 5 to 1 today as a result of the ongoing ban for things I never did. Jeff doesn't enable a fun gaming environment, no matter how much $ he throws at it. Hope you enjoyed...

Just moved here from Michigan with my fiance, job for the military as I'm sure is the case with a great many of people here in Huntsville.

I stopped by JC's to kill some time since time spent sitting in a hotel room while a house is being prepared to move into is rough.

First things first the place is well organized, well ran, and clean. You can tell right off the bat that the employees and staff take some time to make sure the cards are organized. Not only are their boxes upon boxes of cards sorted for purchase but there are very comfortable reclining leather chairs in the back so that you can do this sort of perusing comfortably. I have never been to a card shop where I could take a box of 600 cards, sit comfortably in a leather chair and relax while I looked for cards that interested me.

I will say their selection is mainly magic the gathering but as a pokemon collector their selection certainly isn't bad and their buy/trade in prices are the best I've seen in a card shop.

I casually chatted with the owner and several of the staff members as I killed a couple hours and while he stopped quickly to handle customers as they came and went, he was very polite. The owner is the type of guy who is going to give you a honest, direct, and fair answer. He won't give you a flowery round about half maybe sort of answer. Which is a breath of fresh air.

They've been around for years and it's obvious why, because they care about their customer base.

If you're looking for collectible cards, this is the real deal, definitely check this place out.

Update 9/10/2022

They now have an additional section in the back of the store dedicated to buying and selling traded in games and gaming systems including old nintendo and sega systems,...

I really liked the store the first time I went there. Staff was attentive. Prices were market or less. Lots of bulk Magic & Pokemon to go through. Neatly organized cards to $1, $5, $10+ bins behind the counter that are viewable. Active community engagement.

However, after my latest visit I do not think I will return. TCGPlayer pricing on bulk - i.e. scanning each bulk card either be it by staff or myself (with a 10% discount) isn't something I've ever seen. It's not something I can support. This change seems to have happened within the last month. I completely understand this might help them do better trade-ins for people, but if you're not going to stick it in a binder and it truly is bulk - I'm not sorting through boxes for that price and wait time. If I'm going to pay TCGPlayer prices for bulk I will buy from TCGPlayer and not dig through bins with 100's of cards.

I've been to cards stores from Denver to Memphis to Nashville and I've seen stores that list the majority of their stuff online on TCGPlayer - that's fine it's readily searchable online and they can pull anything I want quickly as its all organized behind the desk or back office not a bin I had to dig through. However, I've never seen...