The owners of Nicodemus Cards & Gaming pose inside the business’ new location at 118 W. Market St., Warsaw. From left: Diana Hadley, Mark Liddell and Michael Hadley. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — A local card and gaming shop has moved to downtown Warsaw.

Nicodemus Cards & Gaming will open at 118 W. Market St. on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The business was previously located at 1131 E. Winona Ave., Warsaw, and the move to its new location where AlignLife Chiropractic & Natural Health Center was prior means there’s a lot more space for Nicodemus to operate.

AlignLife recently moved from Market Street to its current location at 311 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, to have more space as well, said its Office Manager, Beth Schaaf.

Regarding Nicodemus Cards & Gaming, business co-owner Diana Hadley said its old Winona Avenue location was about 800 square feet total; the new spot is around 2,800.

“We were just completely and utterly out of space,” said Hadley’s husband and store co-owner Michael Hadley. “We can’t believe how much stuff we actually had in that place because we haven’t bought anything new really, and … we’re already filling this place up.”

Michael said the Market Street location provides room to “expand into other areas.”

That includes space for playing games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, with a whole room at Nicodemus’ new location being dedicated to that. The Hadleys explained the space is large enough to host official registered gaming events.

There’s also office space for a subsidiary of the business, Black Cat Auctions. The Hadleys said a friend of theirs who owns part of it, John Premetz, is a licensed auctioneer.

“We’ll be taking consignments on mainly sports collectibles and cards and things like that and he’ll host (online) auctions,” said Michael.

Both Hadleys added being downtown is just a better location in general to attract business, with third co-owner Mark Liddell saying it’s better to be connected to the community downtown.

Hours will be the same as they were at the previous location for now: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

However that could change if the business adds events.

“Like I know if we do gaming, like board games or Yu-Gi-Oh! … then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we’ll probably have extended hours … to give people time here to be able to play,” said Diana.

With the move, the owners have opted to change the store’s name to Nicodemus Cards & Gaming. That’s to avoid confusion regarding what items they carry and accept from the public.

“We had a lot of people coming in like, ‘Y’all take coins?'” said Michael.

“When we opened the original store, the goal was … this will be a fun thing to do to take up a little bit of spare time and maybe we can cover the rent. And it just really blew up,” said Michael regarding business, adding that Liddell is moving to the area to help out more with the store.

Michael said customers have driven down from southern Michigan just to shop at Nicodemus.

“We’ve just always tried to be customer-centric and friendly,” said Michael of what he hopes Nicodemus continues to provide for people.

Diana said she hopes the store can bring people together.

“There are so many kids in the community that want to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and none of them know each other. So we want to be a place where they can come together and they can meet people and then have more friends,” she said.