JC's Cards and Collectibles

Weekend-only counter inside Rushmore Mall stocking Pokemon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh singles next to vintage and modern sports — Rapid City's best-rated card stop.

JC's Cards and Collectibles operates on a schedule that catches people off guard: two days a week, Saturday and Sunday only, inside the Rushmore Mall complex on North Maple Avenue. Show up on a Tuesday and you will find the gate down. Show up on a Saturday morning and you will find the highest-rated card counter in Rapid City, holding a 4.9 average across its Google reviews.

The inventory straddles two worlds that usually live in separate stores. On the trading card side there are Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! singles and sealed product; on the sports side both modern releases and genuine vintage, the older cardboard that most shops this size no longer bother to stock. That combination makes it a practical single stop for a household where one person collects Charizards and another is chasing a 1980s rookie.

Because the shop is open only on weekends, the owner treats those hours as the whole business rather than a side operation — stock gets refreshed for the weekend rather than picked over across seven days, and the attention per customer is noticeably higher than at a shop juggling a full week of foot traffic. Collectors describe pricing as fair and the conversation as unhurried.

Plan accordingly. Saturday runs 10AM to 5PM and Sunday 10AM to 4PM, with the store closed Monday through Friday. Saturday morning is the strongest window for fresh inventory; Sunday afternoon is the quietest hour if you want to sit with a case. Being inside the mall means climate-controlled browsing year-round, which matters more than it sounds during a Black Hills winter.

Parking is the mall lot, free and plentiful, and the location is minutes from I-90 — convenient for collectors driving in from Box Elder, Sturgis or further out in the Hills. For a Rapid City card shop that rewards planning your weekend around it, JC's earns the trip: small footprint, real vintage, and a rating that no other shop in town has matched.