Mop Top & Beardie, a new trading card game shop, held its ribbon cutting with the Jones County Chamber of Commerce April 9, and welcomes all gamers to check out their shop.
The shop is owned by Reson and Aislynn Holt and Amy and Jeff Van Coney. It is located at 4274 Gray Highway, Building 1, Suite A in Gray next to Jane’s Asian Market, and is open Tuesday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Reson Holt, one of the owners, said he isn’t originally from Jones County, but he’s been a part of the community for 10 years now. He said he’s from Florida originally, and they moved to Jones County when he was called to be a pastor at Greenwood Baptist Church.
“This is what we call home. I love the community,” he said.
“There’s this great aspect of people who love each other, connect and are willing to help each other. We moved away from family, but our kids inherited aunts, uncles and grandparents here.”
He said they were excited for the ribbon cutting and for people to check out the new gaming shop. The owner said he can’t wait to welcome more people into the new business.
“We’re really excited for the community to have another place to be able to hang out, but also to get into some areas of interest not everyone has here.
“We were excited to cut the ribbon, because this is a big new adventure for us,” Holt said.
He said without a store like Mop Top & Beardie, people are having to drive to Macon to play games.
The demand for it is in Jones County, so he wants those residents to be able to play these games in their own community.
“We are a TCG and more shop. TCG stands for trading card games, and those games include things like Magic the Gathering and Pokémon,” the owner said. “We do tabletop games, which are games like Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons.
We also have a room dedicated to console gaming, particularly to Nintendo Switch and multiplayer games such as Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart and more.”
He said people can play any kind of trading card games and board games. Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic the Gathering are some of the most popular trading card games to play. He said people can even come set up Monopoly to play.
“Magic the Gathering is what most people play in the community, but there is a large Pokémon audience, too. Some people just enjoy collecting the cards.
There’s also a learning experience with these cards. It teaches logic and reasoning skills, reading comprehension and math skills. There’s a lot of great opportunities for teaching,” he said.
Holt said these games reach all ages. He said he is selling pre-constructed sets to build card decks up and individual packs. He said he has figurines available for purchase and different items for the cards themselves. The owner said his prices are reasonable.
“My oldest son and I started a YouTube channel in 2021where we would open Pokémon packs looking for rare cards and cards to build our decks. We liked the branding of the name and decided to carry it over to the name of the store. I have a beard, so I’m Beardie. My son has a head full of crazy hair, so we went with Mop Top for him,” Holt said.
The owner said it’s free for anyone in the community to come in and play, except for tournaments. He said tournaments will have an entry fee. He said they will have a schedule, but right now they have Tabletop Tuesdays where people can come in and play board games, Free Play Wednesdays, Pokemon Thursdays, Friday Night Magic, which is Magic the Gathering, and Saturday is for tournaments.
“My favorite thing about this business is the people,” Holt said.
“I love being around people. The purpose of this store is to bring people together to play games. It’s exciting.”
For more information about Mop Top & Beardie, visit www. moptopnbeardie. com, call 478-5785024 or email moptopnbeardie@ gmail.com.