This past holiday season Topeka welcomed an additional option for shoppers on Wanamaker. Vintage Stock is a retail entertainment store, featuring new and used video games, music, movies and collectibles.

Assistant manager Caralee White described Vintage Stock in comparison to local competitors, several of which are only blocks away.

“We’re like if Hastings, CD Tradepost and everywhere else got together and had a baby,” she said. “We’re knocking them out, we’re bigger, we’re better and our variety is a lot larger.

White explained that business started out slow, but is confident that this was just because of a lack of awareness in the Topeka community. To tackle that problem Vintage Stock produced a commercial, a strategy White said has brought an increase in business.

Vintage Stock employees peg variety as the big difference between their shop and other entertainment stores. With an extensive collection of video game software and hardware including original Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation I, II and III titles, Vintage Stock offers choices for game collectors and traditional gamers alike.

“We’re the best place in town, our variety is so much better then anywhere else,” said White.

More than just a movie and game shop, Vintage Stock also has a wide array of collectibles. Comic books, baseball cards, action figures and many other new and retro items are sold, bought and traded everyday.

“We get nearly all of our used products from our customers,” said White. “We buy a lot of used products, we pay anywhere between $800 and $1,200 a day.”

Buying products at Vintage Stock is easy for customers because of the generous trade-in policy. When selling old stuff, customers are offered an additional 50 percent for trade-in credit as opposed to cash. Credit good for any of the store’s varied stock.

“I enjoy this type of store, used video games and anything ‘old school’ is pretty cool,” said Vintage Stock customer Mike Mendes who appreciates the variety Vintage Stock brings to Topeka’s retail business.

It’s pretty nice to have some competition, to have another place to go. It’s a cool store. They have some pretty decent prices here too.”