- At various points, Adventure Gaming has been ranked No. 1 in card volume and No. 3 in total value.
- The shop is moving next month to a larger location between Dunham’s and Spencer’s in the mall.
ZANESVILLE – Adventure Gaming is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — trading card distributors in Ohio.
Its journey to more than 50,000 online trading card sales, and a 100% customer rating, has a secret weapon that lends itself from the technological future.
The gaming shop inside the Colony Square Mall is owned and operated by Ron Smith. It has what’s called a Roca, a card-scanning sorter that automates image recognition and uploads inventory onto a specialized online marketplace called TCG Player.
It can go through 1,000 trading cards in about 90 minutes and became a game changer for Adventure Gaming’s currently listed 16,000 unique cards and 264,000 total cards.
“Online sales are very strong,” Smith told the Times Recorder. With the Roca’s help, Adventure Gaming has become one of the state’s largest card sellers. At various points, it has been ranked No. 1 in card volume and No. 3 in total value.
The online listings are valued at around $1.2 million, Smith shared, but it only represents around half of the store’s inventory, with at least 500,000 total cards in stock.
The card prices can vary. Rare, in-demand cards can skyrocket into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, some of which are available for in-person collectors at the shop. More common cards can run as low as 12 or 13 cents.
The Roca helps the shop stay at the forefront of a red-hot trading card market that favors popular franchises like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering (MTG), Yu-Gi-Oh!, Disney Lorcana, Flesh and Blood, and Final Fantasy.
But Adventure Gaming is temporarily delisting many of those online cards to focus on another milestone.
What’s new at Adventure Gaming?
The shop, averaging between 1,500 and 2,000 transactions a month, has become one of the mall’s biggest drivers of sales and foot traffic, Lake mentioned, and it needs more space.
Adventure Gaming is preparing to move from its current location, down toward the JCPenney end, to a new spot within the mall between Dunham’s Sports and Spencer’s. This will nearly double its space to just shy of 8,000 square feet and gain the capacity of around 112 people.
The packing is underway, hence decreased listings, and the move is expected to start and finish in September, Lake said.
As it moves into its new spot, Adventure Gaming will also start emphasizing some new franchises and hobbies, like Lego and trading cards for League of Legends and Gundam. Its first allocation of One Piece cards is expected sometime in the fall, he added.
Family matters
Adventure Gaming is a family-owned local gaming store with six staff members, including some family members. Lake took over ownership of the store earlier this year.
Lake has enjoyed video games, trading cards, and fantasy fiction for most of his life.
He earned his first Nintendo Entertainment System selling popcorn as a Boy Scout. It came with the action set that included Duck Hunt, he noted.
Early memories with his dad revolved around taking down notes and creating hand-made maps on graph paper for some of the video games, while his mom drove his passion for reading and is why he still loves fantasy.
It’s also resulted in a family tradition for a weekly gaming night that still carries on to this day.
“We grew up with this stuff,” Lake said.
What’s hot?
That nostalgia might be one big reason why many of the trading cards now have exploded in popularity, Lake noted.
Millennials were the first generation to have many of today’s well-known franchises and media available to them as children.
The cards are oftentimes the off-shoots of video games (Pokémon and Final Fantasy), anime and manga (One Piece and Dragon Ball), and even Tamagotchi-style virtual pets (Digimon).
For example, Pokémon briefly started as just a video game when it was released in Japan in 1996. The first roster-building game involves the player exploring the fictitious Kanto region, collecting creatures, and battling them against trainers and gym leaders.
By the time it was released in the United States in 1998, the trading cards had already been released in Japan as well, coming around six months after the game.
The cards have supplementally elevated the franchise with some of its earliest and now most desired sets, like Base Set, Jungle, and Fossil, featuring the first generation’s 151 original critters.
Now, nearly 30 years later, Pokémon is at the tail end of the ninth generation’s cycle.
“We’re at the point where everything Pokémon is going insane,” Lake said.
The trading card market most recently exploded in January 2025 when a set called Prismatic Evolutions was released, touting desirable holographic illustration cards of the popular Eevee Pokémon and its eight different evolution types.
The fever pitch continued in May with a set called Destined Rivals, but there were signs of waning interest with the most recent double set in July, Black Bolt and White Flare.
There were between 250 and 300 collectors standing outside the gate for Destined Rivals’ release, Lake shared, and only around 10 to 15 for Black Bolt and White Flare. Lake believes collectors became frustrated with the price point and the two unique collections of cards hitting at once.
It’s part of a multi-year cycle that Ron has noticed over the years. Sometimes a single set, with around four to six released per year, catches fire and reinvigorates new and old collectors, like Prismatic Evolutions or 2023’s 151 set.
Momentum dies off about a year after the red-hot sets, as the company overwhelms collectors.
The market could be headed toward oversaturation, especially with another double set, Mega Symphonia and Mega Brave, scheduled for release on Sept. 26.
Then, it’s a waiting game. The market starts correcting and quiets down for a year or two before exploding again, Lake explained.
In addition to the cards, Adventure Gaming also sells video games, models and collectibles, like Funko Pops and Warhammer. It also hosts Dungeons & Dragons every Sunday.
Adventure Gaming is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 to 8 Friday and Saturday, and noon to 6 on Sunday.
It can be reached by calling 740-297-7781 and emailing adventuregaming9000@gmail.com. You can also follow it on Facebook.
Shawn Digity is a reporter for the Zanesville Times Recorder. He can be emailed at sdigity@gannett.com or found on X at @ShawnDigityZTR.
