Piles of Pokémon cards loitering on Lawrence Savoy’s kitchen table led to his wife Andrea’s encouragement to “do something with this,” Lawrence relates.
So last fall he took them downstairs and entered the realm of livestreaming. The couple is now up to six employees and a meatspace gaming venue and store: Trading Cards Factory.
The downtown shop, seating nearly eighty players, has drawn both U-M students and townies of all ages for tournaments in Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood, and several others.
“There’s this one kid that comes in and just dominates our Pokémon tournaments right now. I think he’s maybe like ten, eleven years old,” Lawrence says. “He’s got his Pokémon hat on and he’s got the zip-up hoodie that he wears. He just comes in, like, poker face. He just stares you down.”
Store manager Alex Bergey helps curate the retail selection, sold at MSRP and modulated to keep cards in stock in support of gameplay. Andrea runs the business side, while Lawrence oversees the livestreams that provide most of their revenue. He’s also the cofounder and CEO of Spike Neuro, an Ann Arbor company developing ultra-thin carbon fiber implantable electrodes for brain-computer interfaces.
Trading Cards Factory satisfies “my nerd side,” Lawrence says. “You have to have your day job, and you have to have your hobbies.”
Trading Cards Factory, 401 E. Liberty, ste. 1A. (734) 469–5826. Tues.–Sat. noon–8 p.m. Closed Sun. & Mon. tradingcardsfactory.com
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