Player 1 Services: Home of the Largest Unique Pokémon Collection

Player 1 Services is the only Pokémon-based store in Kensington, Maryland, according to the Pokémon Event Locator. The store owner, Ben, is a big-time Pokémon collector. He entered the Marine Core at 17 and had little time to play cards. However, after 5 years of service, he gathered up quite the collection. In fact, according to Guinness World Records, he has the largest unique Pokémon card collection at 50,000 cards which he expects to exceed by the end of 2024. According to Guinness World Records, the previous record was 32,000+ cards by two Danish brothers.

A unique aspect of Ben and co-owner Rose’s store is they specialize in Pokémon. They take special orders for products like Lorcana, Magic: The Gathering, and One Piece, however, their retail space is all Pokémon. Ben’s passion for the game is second to none. He’ll travel to other countries to acquire cards in languages other than English. He tells us he’s looking forward to visiting France, Italy, and Germany to do just that. Blastoise is his favorite Pokémon and it also serves as his prized possession card.

Building A Staff That Serves Its Customers

The demand to play Pokémon at the store is high. Events will max out at 50 players resulting in Ben’s desire for more gaming space. He notes that ~70% of people only collect the cards while ~40%-60% play and collect. He would love to have sanctioned events that could support hundreds of people, but finding the same to do so is no easy task. He’d like to purchase the space from three businesses that occupy the same building. While Ben is hopeful, only time will tell if those businesses move locations. With the extra space, the events would be triple in size. Having a secondary space for events has crossed Ben’s mind, however, he says doing so would result in unsanctioned events. The goal would be to have sanctioned tournaments supporting hundreds of people.

Ben and Rose employ a very knowledgeable staff. They all know how to play multiple Pokémon formats. Moreover, the staff holds events on Wednesdays teaching kids and adults how to play the game. Rose spearheads these teaching events through the “Pokémon Club”. The club features 1-4 kids per counselor for 5 hours. They’ve developed a module process where kids learn and develop critical thinking one day at a time. Ben has three employees who operate the counter while others handle online orders. Pulling cards for customers is the number one priority, Ben says. Overall, business has been good, but “it’s a lot of time”, Ben tells us. However, he loves it so much that he’ll spend his days off at the store. Additionally, he’ll play with his friends at the store when they close at 10 p.m. and wrap up sometimes not until 2 a.m.

Player 1 Services Makes It Easy For Customers To Acquire Cards

With 2 million Pokémon cards in store, Ben wants to make it easy for his customers to acquire the cards they desire. He believes that access to cards is the best thing for any store dealing in tradeable card games. However, saying no to something from a distributor he acknowledges is difficult. Doing so has not resulted in the loss of revenue.

“Amazing venue, unmatched anywhere I have seen in the world for single card sales. Great team, loads of playing space, and huge expertise in the staff to swap/trade/buy. 100% recommend!“

Lindsay Craig, Customer review on the Player 1 Services Facebook Page

As shown in the featured image above, BCW boxes are available in-store for players to build decks in 10 minutes, as Ben notes. The only scenario where it can take a little longer, he says, is if players need a specialty card like a holo rare. The image above also showcases the new chairs with padding added to the store. These recent upgrades add comfort for his players compared to the previous wooden chairs. Moreover, there are 6 million cards that are not in the store. Ben is looking into custom storage cabinets to make more of his inventory available to customers. He tells us there are people in the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with disposable income to spend and trading cards is right up their alley.

A Business That Specializes In A Single Game

While Ben’s primary responsibility at Player 1 Services is handling larger trade-ins, he’s available as many hours as needed. In a fitting quote, he says, “I dream about Pokémon cards.” Ben says that by specializing in Pokémon, they buy more sealed products than any other store. That specialization has removed the need to get the name out of the store. Ben tells us that the Player 1 Services name is a culmination of gaming and video games in its general sense, but he posits the question, “Who doesn’t want to be Player 1?”

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