Breaking News
Local News

IM games shop draws crowd for 30th-anniversary Pokemon cards

By MARGUERITE LANTHIER, Staff writer 4 min read

IRON MOUNTAIN -- A few dozen people began lining up about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday outside the Bored Bard Games on Ludington Avenue for the 30th-anniversary Pokemon card set release.

"It's exciting. It's a big turnout for the 30th anniversary of Pokemon," owner Erik Wilson said. "There are different releases that we have. We do a lot of 'Magic the Gathering' and 'Pokemon' and different trading card games. So whenever there's a new release for those, especially if it's something that's highly anticipated, we get a crowd for it."

The cards are first released in Japan, where Pokemon originates, so it gives U.S. players an idea of what is coming out, said Rocco Bertucci, who was one of the first in line along with Trevor Schettler and Jacob Nisiewicz.

Bertucci said he is a certified "professor" for Pokemon International, which means he judges and organizes tournaments. He has been a professor for about three years, but has been involved with Pokemon since he was 9 years old.

"I have to take tests and re-certify every year. I had to have a background check. We have to run so many events a year. I'm not an employee of Bored Bard Games, but I run all of their events for Pokemon. This is probably the biggest one he's (Wilson) gonna have in a while because of the 30th anniversary. That's literally what the set's called."

Releases to the U.S. used to take years, he said, but now the wait is three to six months. Besides being part of a game, Pokemon cards are also collector's items and often resold online to other collectors.

Bertucci isn't sure how he became interested because he's been playing so long, but he was also interested in video games, and Pokemon started as a Game Boy video game. Pokemon is a strategy game with cards, but it's difficult to explain, he said.

"It's different than say a board game, because in a board game, everybody has preset pieces. You have the pieces in your deck you've built yourself and you have to determine what you think will be the best deck," he said.

Bertucci said interest in Pokemon card games has increased in the area, especially the past four or five months. Games used to attract about eight regular players but as of June, there were 81.

"Mostly I just wanted to bring this to the community because it was a good part of my life growing up. I wanted to give that opportunity to other people," he said.

In 2007, the year he graduated from Kingsford High School, Bertucci won a state Pokemon tournament and "a big backpack full of prizes. They gave me a plane ticket to nationals that year, which was the Origin Gaming Convention in Ohio. And then they paid for my hotel, my entry fee into the convention hall. I've won thousands of dollars in prizes over the years playing this game," he said. When he isn't involved in Pokemon, Bertucci works as a freelance artist.

Bored Bard Games offers many different games for people to purchase and they are also welcome to play them at the store. Wilson said he plays games he sells, but added "it's hard for me to get super involved in something so deeply because I have to kind of be a jack of all trades and dabble in every game that we do and there's a lot of them. But Pokemon is definitely one of the biggest things that we do here and it's really exciting to see."

———

Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.

Starting at /week.