Level Up Games In Glen Burnie, Maryland

According to the Wizards of the Coast Store & Events Locator, Level Up Games is one of two Glen Burnie, Maryland stores. Store owner, Luke, started his gaming journey when he was 6. The first game he played was Pokémon. However, he took a hiatus from card games until he was 16. As time progressed, Luke realized he enjoyed buying and selling cards more than playing the game, which he didn’t feel he was very good at. Buying and selling cards was a way to make extra money for college. However, after attending nursing school for two years, Luke says he had found it boring.

Before launching the store in 2021, Luke had worked vending for a company on the Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix circuit. During this time, he never envisioned opening a brick-and-mortar store. He was hesitant about varying factors doing so compared to selling online. However, the larger inventory with a physical location presented benefits. Therefore, Luke would partner with a colleague from the Grand Prix circuit and open the store.

Employee Responsibilities & Community Buying Patterns

Currently, Level Up Games has 8 employees with 2-3 of them running online sales. Luke notes a handful of his employees are customer-facing. They receive training in all tasks besides buying. Only a limited number of employees purchase products for the store. Luke’s primary responsibilities involve managing cash flow, record keeping, taxes, and online relationship building. One of the lessons learned is being comfortable with risk and moving on when something doesn’t work out.

Luke is down on sealed products due to the low margins, but he says that Level Up Games sports the deepest and broadest collection of single cards. He maintains a philosophy of always buying more cards whether from locals or when attending conventions. Due to the number of enfranchised players in the Glen Burnie area, there’s always demand. He says those players don’t necessarily purchase sealed products as much as they buy singles because those new sealed products aren’t appealing to locals. From his experience, those players prefer buying the individual cards that are important to them. Furthermore, players interested in sealed products buy packs from different sets. This type of buying is a good thing financially for Level Up Games, Luke says.

How Level Up Games Handles Low Margins

Luke shares that a couple of years ago (as of 2024), there was an advantage to being a brick-and-mortar store for sealed products. You could open sealed products profitably, however, it is now a very steep hill to climb, he says. Luke notes that if you sell Magic: The Gathering Collector Boosters, it’s one way to offset the generally low margins of sealed products. When analyzing those low margins, Luke says that Yu-Gi-Oh is the worst and Magic: The Gathering is the second worst. The issue with Yu-Gi-Oh he says is maintaining stock for an extended period due to how often reprints occur. Finally, while he points out that the margins for Pokémon are better than Magic: The Gathering, One Piece has the best margins of any other game.

From a business standpoint, Luke feels that buying and selling singles has become much easier due to the rise of marketplaces. For cards not purchased in the store, he can pivot and sell them on TCG Player instead. However, he does question the lack of standards to sell on TCG Player. For example, Luke shares that he stopped buying from the site for personal use after a seller canceled his order. As a seller on the platform, he believes you differentiate yourself by the breadth of your inventory, your feedback percentage, and the number of sales.

“Adult and child me are so happy right now shout out to Level Up Games Maryland for having an amazing collection.”

Johnny Melissari III, Customer Review on Level Up Games Facebook page

The Benefits of Brand Loyalty

Luke states that a benefit of his store location is brand loyalty. The location was previously the spot of the store, MTG First. This store was very well-known to those in the area. The location has existed for about 10 years, he says. To bring in new players, they’ll run smaller local events. Luke feels the draw to Level Up Games is its unique boutique feel. They churn through their card inventory and focus on out-buying and out-selling anyone in the area. Interstingly, Luke has witnessed Pokémon players breaking out and visiting other stores. However, Magic: The Gathering players tend to do the opposite from his experience.

One venture he’s looking into is attending non-Magic: The Gathering conventions. For example, he’s looking at conventions geared towards sports cards and collectibles.

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