MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – After four strong years of business, Iron Golem Games continues to be a top seller of collectible cards and board games in Marquette. The store highlights games like Magic The Gathering and Catan, as well as Gundam buildables, while also offering an accessible space to play and connect.
A majority of its products are internationally shipped from India and China. Many companies with sole manufacturers in these areas halted production over the past year, following tariff uncertainty in the spring.
Joseph Baker is one of the store’s three owners. He says Iron Golem went through a shift in not just its products around this time, but in labor as well.
“There were about two or three months where I was getting some kind of email or letter from one of these companies saying, ‘we can’t offer you products anymore,’ I’d get one every week,” he explained. “Even if they didn’t shut down, there were price increases and price changes, different portions manufactured elsewhere; all of that change accounted for more working hours of ordering different products and repricing when it came in.”
These adaptations spread across the store and through its community, resorting to ordering smaller and more affordable games from other distributors, rather than bigger box sets, and paying it back by offering more tournament events for its customers.
“It doesn’t just affect the cost of things that we’re bringing in, it can affect the cost of stuff we have on the shelf now,” said Baker. “So we’ve bridged the gaps with ordering stuff, by pulling out stock that we had held on hand rather than offering different things. We’ve also shifted to running more events instead of trying to get as much product, stuff like that.”
Baker says the past year took a lot to overcome, but the business has done well with the adjustment.
“It’s nice that things have stabilized for a while,” he said. “Things aren’t changing all that much right now, but for a small business, all the effort in dealing with the changes was a big challenge.”
Iron Golem Games is located on 329 W Washington St Suite A in Marquette. More information can be found on irongolemgames.com.
