The Soldiery Games & Cards

One of America's oldest game stores, this Clintonville shop on High Street stocks Magic and Pokemon cards, minis, and RPGs with weekend hours to 11PM.

The Soldiery predates the entire trading card hobby. Founded in the 1970s as a wargaming and miniatures shop, this Clintonville storefront on North High Street was selling lead soldiers and hex maps years before Magic: The Gathering existed — and when cards arrived, the shop simply added them to one of the deepest gaming inventories in Ohio. Few Columbus card shop destinations can claim customers who have shopped there across five decades.

Cards today hold their own alongside the shop's legacy categories. Magic and Pokemon sealed product and singles share the floor with an enormous selection of historical miniatures, board games, role-playing books, dice, and modeling supplies. The stock skews wide rather than hyper-curated, which makes browsing here feel like an expedition — regulars talk about finding out-of-print games and odd accessories that vanished from other stores years ago.

The rhythm of the week matters at The Soldiery. Doors are closed Mondays, open 10AM to 8PM Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, and stretch to 11PM on Friday and Saturday when the back tables host game nights that have run in some form for generations. A 4.3-star average across nearly 650 Google reviews leans on the staff's institutional knowledge — these are people who can identify a 1980s miniature by silhouette and still walk you through a modern Pokemon set list.

Parking sits behind the building off High Street, and the surrounding Clintonville strip makes it easy to pair a visit with the neighborhood's cafes. For collectors who care about the history of the hobby as much as the current chase set, this Columbus institution is a destination in itself.