Insight into our name change
The Road to Mox Boarding House
Posted on July 2, 2014 by Jordan Short
We’ve come a long way since opening up our first storefront in the University District in 2001. Back then we had a cozy little shop with about 500 square feet of retail space. There weren’t a lot of bells and whistles, it was a little crowded, and we only sold Magic cards. Still, we had a lot of fun and met some great people who are friends and customers to this very day. And business was good! Before you knew it we were outgrowing our little store.
In 2005 we moved to Greenwood and set up Berserk Games as our storefront. When we opened Berserk Games, we wanted to offer a more complete game store than one that simply sold Magic cards and decided that Card Kingdom might give the impression that all we had to offer was Magic: the Gathering. So for the first time we had two names; one for online and one for retail.
Moving to Ballard was a big leap. Our store grew several times over and for the first time we added food and beverages. Café Mox provides everything you’d need for an evening of gaming. It turned out that when people talked about our store they talked about Card Kingdom. So we went back to our roots. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. People love Card Kingdom and Café Mox and we love them back for helping to make this dream into a reality. But once again, having two names led to a little confusion. Sometimes people didn’t even realize we’re the same business. We discovered that we were just making headaches for ourselves by having two names for what was, essentially, one store.
So we needed a name that spoke for both sides of the business. We wanted a name that was big enough to capture the essence of everything we had to offer, felt fun and inviting, and above all, was memorable. We also wanted to playfully convey that board games were half of the fun. Thus, after much tinkering and debate, we named our new location Mox Boarding House.
Mox Boarding House will be the name of our Bellevue store opening in Fall 2014. Card Kingdom and Café Mox in Ballard will retain their current names; for now. We want be sure that Mox Boarding House works for both stores before we make any changes in Ballard. And, of course, Card Kingdom.com will always be Card Kingdom. No reason to change our online identity. Mox Boarding House will also have a strong online presence with store and event info, gaming related articles, video tutorials and more. It’s a place we hope you’ll love and we can’t wait to show you all the surprises we have in store. Stay tuned!
