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Welcome to Games By James |
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Written by James Beaudrie
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Sunday, 04 October 2009 14:10 |
Here is a little history of me and a look into the future of Minnesota’s largest and oldest game store chain.
Well folks, if you are from the Twin Cities and play games you may know me from a great number of game related stores, conventions, and tournaments. Over the last 14 years I have worked for Drew’s Cards and Hobbies in Elk River, Games By James Northtown, opened my own Game Stores in Brookdale Mall, Crossroads Center in St. Cloud, and in a couple of places in Elk River. I later worked for Games By James Mall of America, and again at Northtown GBJ, I worked with Outpost 2000 helping to run tournaments, and I consulted out at Unicorn Games in Oakdale for a time.
For the last 7 years, I have built a company of mine, Big Games Supply, into the single largest supplier of Magic the Gathering cards in the upper Midwest. I purchased most of the game inventory from the dying Shinder’s Chain which included pallets of Magic cards and much more. I also created a uniform pricing structure to Magic the Gathering cards for the Twin Cities amongst most local card/game shops.
Then, about a year ago, I brought one of the 4 Games By James ownerships back from the verge of bankruptcy. I purchased the store that made me fall in love with retailing games, the Northtown Games By James, as well as the Rosedale store. Since then, I have reopened the Maplewood Games By James location and have opened the first ever Games By James with play space and tournaments in the 30 year history of the chain: Games By James Tournament Center Coon Rapids.
I am the youngest owner ever of a Games By James and still full of big dreams and determination to take the chain to the next level. From the ashes of Shinder’s, Games By James has officially taken over the single gaming card market to which they once had a firm grip. We have over 3 million cards for your gaming pleasure and we are obtaining more collections often. If you think stores that sell nothing but puzzles have a greater selection of puzzles than us, think again. Games By James now has the largest selection of jigsaw puzzles in the state, hands down. We truly have everything you could want from a game store and are bringing in more products all the time.
And just wait until next year ….. I plan to aggressively expand Games By James past the confines of major indoor malls in more ways than one. We have plans to host the first ever Games By James Gaming Convention. GBJ is planning to host over 50 events, seminars, and tournaments at the largest game convention in Minnesota: Con of the North. We have plans to open several more Tournament Centers in the near future. And, so much more that I cannot talk about yet. But, please check back often on our forums for more information on your favorite game store chain: Games By James.
In closing I want to thank my best friend, Ken, for moving a Bunnies of a long distance to the icy state of Minnesota to help me organize and run my life’s dream. And remember folks, “We are very serious about FUN”.
James Beaudrie
Owner/CEO/ Buyer
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 10:19 |
