Local Shop Spotlight: How Level Up Games Built a Pokémon Destination Inside a Pennsylvania Vendor Mall
Level Up Games went from selling video games to a Pokémon-focused shop in Shippensburg, PA. How it trades, sources imports and builds community.
By Jamie Budesky · Editor, Card Grading News ·
Much of the trading card hobby now runs through screens. There are online marketplaces, live-stream breaks, and grading submissions that start and end with a shipping label. Local card shops are still where the hobby meets in person. They're where new collectors learn what a clean card looks like, where trades happen face to face, and where a Saturday afternoon can turn into a regular group.
Level Up Games in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, is a good example of how a small shop has built that role. It started by selling video games and became one of central Pennsylvania's Pokémon-focused stores. It did that from a compact booth inside a vendor mall.
From video games to Pokémon
According to the shop's published history, Level Up Games began selling video games in 2019 and became an LLC in 2020. In 2024 it joined The Red Rocker, a vendor mall at 15 Hershey Rd in Shippensburg, and shifted its full focus to the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
The shop describes its space as compact. It's organized around binders of singles sorted for browsing, shelves of sealed booster boxes and Elite Trainer Boxes, and a small table area where collectors can compare pulls, trade or play. Because it sits inside The Red Rocker, shoppers can walk in from the rest of the mall. When Greg, who runs the Level Up counter, isn't in, Red Rocker staff can help with purchases and pickup orders.
Imports are the draw
What sets Level Up apart from a typical hobby counter is how much international product it carries. The shop stocks sealed Pokémon TCG product and singles in English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indonesian. Its FAQ calls international products "a key part of our selection and a differentiator" in the area. The shop says it sources directly from trusted channels in Japan, Korea and China, alongside U.S. distribution and partner businesses.
Imported product can be harder for U.S. collectors to judge for authenticity, so authentication matters. Level Up offers a written authenticity guarantee on everything it sells. Its listed checks include print quality and materials, comparison against known genuine references, packaging and seal review, and "experience-based review of foreign-language products." Graded cards it resells, from PSA, CGC, BGS and others, also carry the grading company's authentication.
Beyond Pokémon, the shop carries other trading card games, including One Piece, Disney Lorcana, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Riftbound and newer games like Azuki TCG and Elestrals. It also sells Nintendo games and consoles, which is where the business started.
Published buy and trade rates
Not knowing what an offer will be is a common frustration when selling to a card shop. Level Up posts its general rates publicly on its sell and trade page. All of them are for Near Mint condition:
Item | Cash | Store credit |
|---|---|---|
Cards $10 and under | 65% | 70% |
Cards over $10 | 70% | 75% |
PSA 10 slabs | 70% | 75% |
Sealed product | 70% | 75% |
Credit put toward Pokémon singles gets an extra 10% bonus. The shop says the rates are guidelines. Final offers depend on demand, rarity and condition, and newly released sets may get lower offers because their prices swing more. Other posted rules are that payouts can't be split between cash and credit, unused credit stays on the customer's account, and bulk, code cards and heavily damaged items aren't accepted.
The shop publishes rates for video games and consoles too, as percentages of PriceCharting value. It lists specific deductions for problems like Joy-Con stick drift or a missing Switch dock.
Rewards, referrals and pickup
Level Up runs a points program called Poké Perks. Customers earn 200 points per dollar spent online or in store, and in-store buyers show their Red Rocker receipt to get credit. Points convert to store credit, starting at 10,000 points for $1 off. Its referral program gives a new online customer $6 off their first order and gives the person who referred them $6 in credit.
Online orders can be picked up in store for free. The shop says orders are usually ready within 4 to 24 hours, and orders placed before 2 PM often qualify for same-day pickup. The shop is closed Wednesdays and open until 7 PM on Thursdays and Fridays. Its store policies page lists current hours.
A weekly meetup
The shop's most visible community effort is its free Pokémon Trainer Meetup, held every Saturday from 2:00 to 4:30 PM in its event area at The Red Rocker. According to the event page, it's family-friendly, open to all ages and experience levels, and requires no signup. Attendees trade, play casual matches, ask questions and show off pulls. The shop also mentions Pizza & Pokémon nights, which it announces on its Facebook page.
Events like these are how many collectors first learn about condition, and eventually about grading, by seeing cards in hand instead of in listing photos.
Why local shops and online hobby businesses should work together
The Card Grading News team shops and trades at Level Up Games regularly. From covering the grading industry every day, we think local shops and online hobby businesses should work together much more closely than they usually do.
The case is practical. Grading companies, marketplaces and hobby media all depend on collectors making informed decisions. Local shops are often where those decisions start. Collectors inspect a card under real light before buying it, get a second opinion from someone behind the counter, or trade older cards toward one they want to submit. Online businesses, in turn, can send readers to trusted shops and explain fees, turnaround times and service changes to the customers who walk in the door.
A strong regional shop grows the local collector base. That's the community every hobby business, online or offline, eventually serves.
Visiting Level Up Games
Level Up Games is inside The Red Rocker at 15 Hershey Rd, Shippensburg, PA 17257. Store links, social channels and current giveaways are on its Find Us page.
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Disclosure: Card Grading News is published by TCG Treasury LLC, which also owns CardGrade.io, an advertiser on this site. Our team are regular customers of Level Up Games. We weren't paid for this article, and Level Up Games had no editorial review. Details come from Level Up Games' website as of September 25, 2026, and can change.