Above: A variety of games and accessories in store. Below: Gorilla Games owner, Gregory Draudt. (Courtesy of Gorilla Games)
Gregory Draudt has been buying and selling video games since the dawn of eBay in 1999. “I wasn’t even an adult yet, and I had to convince my dad to let me use his credit card to make an account,” he says. Ever since, Draudt attends conventions annually to sell the games and merchandise he collects. “Doing conventions became a large part of my annual income, and I depended on it heavily to survive, despite also having a regular nine-to-five job as well,” Draudt says. But those conventions came to a sudden end when the pandemic hit in 2020. “So when the whole world shut down, I was hit very hard financially.”
Determined to provide for his family, Draudt figured rather than waiting for conventions to resume, he would acquire a storefront and sell his surplus game stock. So in 2020, he opened Gorilla Games in Raymond.
In two years, Gorilla Games has become a go-to destination for retro gamers and hardcore collectors alike. Hundreds of games from across the decades line his shop. Customers can also find game-related merchandise like T-shirts, plushies and even capsule machines called Gatchapon, which are usually only found in Japan.
Many of his customers are nostalgic for that sense of excitement they had playing games from their childhood. And they are willing to pay to relive those memories. “The rarest game we’ve had in the shop was a complete in-box copy of Earthbound for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The box itself is worth roughly four to five times what the game cart is, and the cart can sell up around $400. I had someone offer me $1,200 for just the box,” Draudt says. It’s these rare gems that draw customers to his store, Draudt says, with sought-after games fetching upwards of $600 to $1,000.
Opening a store during the height of the pandemic proved to be rocky. But people being stuck at home quarantining eventually worked out in Draudt’s favor. “The Wii, Guitar Hero and Rock Band were really popular during this time as families that were stuck at home would game together,” he says. Since then, Gorilla Games has experienced much more success with monthly revenue increasing steadily throughout 2022. For more information, visit gorillagamesnh.com.
Written by Nathan Felsburg, a student at University of NH-Manchester and a participant in the Young Reporters Project, a joint venture of Business NH Magazine and UNH-Manchester to introduce students to business writing.