Family gaming shop opens in Broadview Village

by Dan Holland

For brothers James and Joe Gerbic, opening Gold and Glory Gaming shop at 7991 Broadview Rd., in the Broadview Village shopping plaza, came as a natural progression of the siblings’ enthusiasm for a hobby they both grew up enjoying.

“We sell anything from trading cards to board games, including Pokémon, Magic, U-V-O, some Digimon; all sorts of different ones,” Joe explained. “Dungeons & Dragons items take up about half the wall right now, whether it’s books, miniatures, dice – anything like that.”

“We’ve been playing board games with our family on Sunday nights for as long as I can remember,” said James. “I grew up playing Magic and collecting Pokémon cards. I just loved played board games growing up.”

Joe’s hobby of buying and selling Pokémon and other cards and attending trade shows became a full-time venture two years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the home remodeling industry in which he had been working.

“I was making good money selling cards online,” he said. “I was traveling to shows around the country going to trade shows and buying and selling cards for the last two years. My wife would travel to trade shows with me, and we were thinking that the next step would be to open a store. The store is the more consistent thing, but I needed a partner.”

James, who anticipates becoming a new parent in late September, was entertaining a career change at the time when Joe approached him with the idea of opening up a local gaming shop.

The business, which opened July 30, recently hosted its first board game night – a weekly event the two hope to expand upon.

“We’ve had a lot of interest with couples coming in for board game night,” said James. “During our first event, we had roughly 10 people come in and play various board games. There’s always a good demand for people coming in and playing their respective card games, Pokémon, Magic, U-V-O. There’s interest in all of those.”

The store’s location, with numerous adjacent businesses, has accounted for a good portion of walk-in traffic so far.

“Parents stop in at Marc’s and have their kids with them, and it seems like a lot of kids are somehow into Pokémon nowadays,” said James. “Many of our patrons have seen us while they were on their way into Marc’s or another business in the plaza and decided to stop in.”

The duo felt the location would be ideal to best fill a gap to meet local customer needs.

“There aren’t many card and game stores in the area,” James explained. “We’re smack dab in the middle from where you would have to travel a significant distance in any direction to hit another card store. We feel we’re in a good location to serve everyone in Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Parma, Seven Hills, North Royalton, Independence and beyond.”

The owners are hoping their new venture will soon become a staple in the Broadview Heights business district.

“Being family-friendly is our approach so that we can draw families into a place where parents feel comfortable with dropping their teens off to play in a Pokémon or Magic tournament,” said Joe.

“We want everyone to feel welcome to come in and play board games, make new friends and ask about different games,” added James. “We’re not at an expert knowledge level with all board games, but we can at least point people in the right direction based on their experience level. Feel free to come in and ask questions; we’ll be happy to answer all questions that we think we can. We want people to be engaged with everything as much as possible.” ∞

Photo: James and Joe Gerbic’s new business, Gold and Glory Gaming offers a wide seletion of trading cards and board games. Photo by D. Holland.