The Wizard’s Guild has changed ownership, and two employees are now in charge.
Todd Grace owned Wizard’s Guild, a specialty retailer of card games, board games, miniatures and comic books on 19 W. Washington St., for about 12 years, but sold the store to Audrey Kisilewicz and Chase Davis on Jan. 1.
“There was a rumor going around that the store was going to be shut down at the end of 2016, so my partner and I decided we would take on the challenge of buying it and making improvements,” Kisilewicz said. “The rumor ended up being false, but the owner works a full-time job somewhere else, so we thought it would be better with people who could devote all of their time to the store.”
While Grace owned the store, he worked in private practice, before becoming a judge in the Athens Municipal Court a year ago. This change in occupation hindered his ability to be at the store as much as needed.
To set her plan in motion, Kisilewicz set up a GoFundMe to raise enough money to buy the store. When she discussed her plans with Grace, he thought it was a good idea and sold the store to her officially on Jan. 1. As of Tuesday, Kisilewicz's GoFundMe has raised $1,470.
“They bring a good amount of energy to keep the store running,” Grace said.
After purchasing the store, Kisilewicz and Davis started working on improvements.
“We are going to keep a better eye on inventory, do better marketing to the college crowd on campus, we picked up more space; we used to own the place next door that was turned into an attorney’s office, we are now working on getting that space back,” Kisilewicz said.
Wizard’s Guild will also have private gaming rooms that can be rented, Kisilewicz said.
The new owners have short term goals for Wizard's Guild including themed game nights, new items in the store and some organizational projects.
Kisilewicz has some longer-term goals for the store as well.
“Things like projectors for the private game rooms, iPads with demo games and an upcoming board game console that lets you play with physical pieces on a digital board the size of a whole table,” she said.
The Phoenix Nest, 540 W. Union St., is another gaming store in Athens that occasionally works with the Wizard's Guild.
“I just hope they will continue to be the primary game shop in Athens and keep up the legacy that the store has always maintained,” James Harrod, the owner of the Phoenix Nest, said.
“I hope there’s not too many changes made, that would be bad. But, I think it’ll be a smooth transition from owners because they were employees there, so they were taught by Todd.”
