Deep Dive Games is bustling throughout the week with tables of families and locals looking to have some fun while playing tabletop games and trading cards. Many customers come to the shop’s daily tournaments, while some are interested in its extensive collection of single trading cards and games, such as Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering.
Deep Dive Games, located on 908 E. State St., opened in August 2024 to provide the tabletop gaming community with a space to play any game of their choosing. The shop offers a wide array of games, such as role-playing games with dice and figurines, card games and board games like Catan.
The tabletop gaming community has grown exponentially since the birth of trading card games in 1993, when Richard Garfield made history with his creation of Magic: The Gathering. The people who were once seen as having a unique hobby are now part of a billion-dollar industry, with the non-sports trading card market being valued at $6.4 billion in 2022.
Eric Smith, manager of Deep Dive Games, grew up in Athens and enjoys supplying the area’s gamers with game nights and tournaments. Smith strives to bring fun and give back to the community, holding charity tournaments every season. Recently, Deep Dive Games posted on Facebook about its tournament for the Athens County Food Pantry, which raised $600.
Smith said he enjoys providing the younger generation with a safe space to learn about trading card and board games, especially with the amount of card scalpers and resellers ruining the fun for genuine fans and players. Sundays are designated for family Pokémon, where kids can learn to play in a forgiving environment with their parents.
“Pokémon is very inaccessible right now, it's in a very bad spot,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, there's scalping, and adults are buying up all the product and then kids can’t get a hold of it. That's a big thing for me. We give a lot of free stuff to kids.”
Deep Dive also provides education for customers, with its “Athens IRL” group, a collection of parents, kids and healthcare professionals encouraging screen-free fun and building connection over games. The group hosted a meeting Saturday for parents to learn about online gaming and artificial intelligence, led by Ohio University Esports Program Director Jeff Kuhn.
Smith went to school with Braden Spencer, owner of Deep Dive Games, who helped Smith open the store in Athens. Smith said he was thinking of opening a game store and called Spencer for advice, since he had already opened a Deep Dive Games location in Georgia. Spencer convinced him to open up a Deep Dive in Athens, and Smith got to work creating an environment where residents could thrive.
The store holds a tournament almost every day of the week, and its schedule can be referenced on its Facebook page. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are for Magic: The Gathering, and Sundays and Mondays are for Pokémon. Tuesdays are for the chess club, and the shop also holds a night for board games and Warhammer, a strategic tabletop fantasy game, Thursdays.
Deep Dive’s single cards are priced by TCGPlayer, which Smith said is well known for having the best way to get the average price on a card, as it has its own system based on market data. It auto-updates the system every day, so cards are always the best price for customers.
Single card prices range from $0.10 to $689.70, based on this pricing system.
Smith said the shop is popular, and it has about 79 guests at the tournaments. There are tables and chairs available for customers to get comfortable and enjoy their games. Although the community loves to show up for the store, Smith said people often get nervous about being the first ones to arrive for a game.
“It could be studied how whenever people are interested in a tournament or interested in an organized game of any kind, they are often worried or anxious about going to be the first people to show up and kind of see what it's about,” Smith said. “If no one wants to put their foot in the water, no one's gonna swim.”
Caleb Smith, a frequent customer of Deep Dive Games, said the shop is perfect for family time, and he often brings his wife and kids to play Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer and Pokémon. Caleb Smith said he comes almost every day, for the people as well as the good times.
“It's one of the few places left that you can just exist, and there's no expectation that you're going to spend money,” Caleb Smith said. “People do obviously, because when you like a place, you're going to want to spend your money there. But there have been many times where I've showed up and I didn't feel like spending money. I just wanted to hang out and play a game, and I could.”
Declan Herbert, a junior studying cybersecurity, also enjoys Deep Dive for its organized selection and friendly environment. Herbert said he is just getting back into the trading card and Magic scene, as he stopped playing when COVID-19 hit.
“The staff just want to sit down and help you with stuff, just talk about the hobby,” Herbert said. “It's just a place where I can just browse, not really feel pressure, ask questions, because I don’t know what I’m doing now sometimes.”
Deep Dive Games is open every day. On Sunday through Thursday, it is open from noon to 9 p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays, it is open from noon to 11 p.m. Stop in for a night of games or a new shiny Pokémon card.
