Jan. 20, 2021

A consignment shop for “nerdy things” has expanded and also added a gaming lounge.

Nrdvana has leased an adjacent space in a retail center at 49th Street and Western Avenue. The retail side, which opened in April 2020, has moved into the former flower shop, and owner Patrick Wilson created the Nrdy Brdy Lounge in the original space.

“We are a retro gaming lounge and card table lounge where you can actually come and play any board game you like, so everything in this space is actually provided for the space,” Wilson said.

Nrdy Brdy offers a basic membership for $35 a month, which includes 30 hours of console gaming, unlimited tabletop gaming and fee-free trading card tournaments such as Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. More expensive membership levels offer more hours of gaming.

Members can reserve games, and they can bring along a friend to play “as long as they’re doing what you’re doing,” Wilson said. He describes it as a family-friendly space.

There’s also daily pricing for Sunday through Thursday.

“You’re paying a membership fee to be able to enjoy the history of gaming without having to directly pay for the history of gaming,” Wilson said, noting that Nrdy Brdy has 1,000 video games.

“We have everything from the first Nintendo to Xbox Series X that you can play on. We have several Nintendo Switches; Segas; PlayStations: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5; Xbox: Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox Series S. We have Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U.”

For board games, “we have everything from Monopoly to Twilight Imperium or Rory’s Story Cubes, which is for kids with 15-minute games, to eight-hour sagas that you can come and play with your friends.”

Wilson plans to keep adding to the inventory.

“We’re not going to have every single game you want right away because that would cost millions,” he said. “But we are going to have a lot of suggestions where patrons can actually vote on which games we’re getting next.”

That applies to board games too, he said.

“There’s 100 board games, and new games are being added weekly. There’s thousands of possible games that you can have, but we wanted to invest in some of the newer games that people think are fun like Catan and Ticket to Ride, as well as Monopoly and other games like Pandemic.”

Customers can bring in a game to sell through the consignment shop and put the money they make toward a membership, giving them access to all kinds of games to play in the lounge.

Gaming cubicles are set up to be COVID-friendly and provide some privacy, Wilson said. Headphones are provided.

The shop sells Coke and Pepsi products and energy drinks, and Wilson said he might pursue getting a beer license. Players can have a pizza or other food delivered, he said.

Hours will match the store’s until demand drives a change.

“If it’s super popular, and the customers request better hours or different hours, even overnights on weekends, we’re going to be willing to do that.”

The store at 2109 W. 49th St. opens at 10 a.m. daily and closes at 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, midnight Friday and 9 p.m. Saturday.

On the new Nrdvana side of the store, Wilson said he has used the additional space to better display consignment items. The shop also carries items made by his wife, Carissa. Her Foxing Crafty merchandise includes custom embroidered products such as blankets, pillows and jackets.

He’s also using the extra space to display and help sell artwork for local artists.