Get ready, Morton—the Nerd Pros are moving in and are ready to deliver the most popular fandoms to your fingertips! A local, family-fun gaming store, they are here to help you whether you know what “aggro” and “French vanilla” are or don’t know the difference between a pack and a deck.
A self-professed lifelong nerd himself, Marcus Read has been a Star Wars fan since it came out. “I first saw Star Wars in a drive-in movie theater, and I was hooked,” he shares. “My parents got my brother and I some of the figures and a few playsets, but we mostly set up old books and Encyclopedias and built our own battlefronts.” Marcus got into the Star Wars Trading Card Game, and people started gifting him collectibles or letting him know when something came up for sale. “It just grew from there.”
From Collector to Seller: Morton CCG Shop Owner Has Decades of Experience
In order to have a successful tabletop gaming store, you need to know the product. Collectible card games, or CCGs as they are called, have complex rules and thousands of cards—some worth a pretty penny. Marcus has been selling collectibles on eBay for decades. “I started selling on eBay back when it was the East Bay Company, so a really long time!” he shares. He has 100% positive feedback as well, so you know he is doing right by his customers.
A pastor for over 30 years, selling on eBay started as a way to supplement his income to support his family. “Believe it or not, pastors don’t actually make a lot of money usually, so it was nice to have something on the side to help make ends meet,” he explains. “One of the things I learned while being a pastor was that people make connections over games. It was really fun to make friends and meet people by playing trading card games like Pokémon, Star Wars, and Magic the Gathering.”
Collectible Card Game Store in Morton
So why start a physical store? As they say, behind every great man is a woman with an idea…or maybe just a woman who wants her husband’s collectibles out of her house? In this case, it was a bit of both! “When I retired from ministry, my wife asked me, ‘If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?’ Without hesitating, I said, ‘I’d want to open a card store,’ says Marcus. “She took that idea and ran with it, and before I knew it, she had found a space for rent. She also said something about wanting her kitchen table back…”
Nerd Pros in Morton will have all your gaming needs, with a strong focus on CCG play. They also carry sports cards and memorabilia, like autographed jerseys. With a deep knowledge of CCG, they have carefully chosen their inventory to include the most popular games such as Pokémon, Magic the Gathering and Disney’s Lorcana. “We have some very select board games that are all play tested by us, so we know they are fun,” adds Marcus, “some vintage video games, tabletop games and some select comics. We have a great relationship with other local gaming stores across the U.S., so if there is something special someone is looking for, we can most likely track it down or order it in.” Look for Yu-Gi-Oh, Flesh and Blood, Neopets, Garbage Pail Kids, One Piece and more!
And for those looking for D&D accessories in Morton, they will carry those too, including dice and unique dice towers. “We are especially proud of our local artists who have created gaming-inspired products,” shares Marcus. “We have an entire ‘Cozy Gaming Corner,’ with handmade soaps that have dice in them, custom candles and custom dice boxes. We also have a large section of bulk cards of all kinds for people to dig through. Who knows, you may just find a real treasure!”
Gaming Events in Morton
The thing that Marcus loves most about all these games and fandoms is the community aspect. “They bring people together,” he shares. “It doesn’t matter how old you are or young. Games are something we are naturally drawn to. As kids on the playground, we played games, made stuff up, and built friendships and community out of it. Games still have the power to do that today. Whether it’s a board game, a trading card game, a tabletop game or a video game, it gives people a chance to be themselves and have an adventure together.”
To that end, Nerd Pros will have community events, including tournaments, build-a-deck nights, trading card nights, nerdy crafting nights and how-to-plays. “We are super excited about our how-to-play nights because they come with a starter deck of whatever game we are teaching people to play,” Marcus shares. “You do have to sign up for those and pay the registration fee, but you get to keep the deck!”
Want to know how to be a Game Master? Nerd Pros will teach you at special events, along with how to build character sheets, paint mini-figs and more.
Nerd Pros is having its grand opening on Saturday, May 3, 2025, just in time for May the Fourth—since Star Wars was what started it all! Stop in, say hi and get freebies that day, including some Pokémon cards for kids.
“We want to create a space where people can come and hang out and have fun,” Marcus shares. “Learn something, make a friend, play some games. It’s absolutely going to be a place that will make you feel like a kid again, no matter what your age is, and take you back to that feeling of anything being possible.”
Nerd Pros
171 Main Avenue. Morton
Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Select Sundays – follow them on Facebook and TikTok for dates!
nerdprosgaming@outlook.com
