Our Story
Who are we?
We’re 3 friends and business partners who grew up in the 90s and helped get the Pokémon TCG off the ground – not that they needed our help, but we were hooked! Now some 20 years later, we’re back to revitalize that passion. After starting and operating an online business for multiple years, we decided to expand by pursuing a passion project - opening a Local Game Store (LGS) / TCG hobby store.
What is Top Shelf?
Our vision for the store is different than what you'd expect from a typical LGS. We’re building something awesome, unlike any store you’ve been to before.
Our space is an open concept store with both a luxurious play space featuring our custom felt-wrapped tables, as well as a lounge-style seating to kick back in. You won’t find singles in our store, but our friendly, knowledgeable team is here to help with all your hobby questions and needs. Instead of walls of singles, we focus on having real conversations, curating an authentic community, and hosting awesome events that make the hobby more rewarding.
Interested in discovering new trading card supplies to store, show off, and protect your precious collection? We’d love to showcase favourites from our extensive collection and find the perfect product for your needs.
Looking for specific products or games? Let us know and we’ll do what we can to get them in your hands. We can special order products even if we don't typically carry them.
Wanting to learn more about the ins and outs of a trading card game? We’re more than happy to spend time getting you up to speed and sharing our insights so that you can dive into playing or collecting with confidence.
Hoping to connect with new players and like-minded collectors? Join our discord community and look forward to a variety of events including casual play, tournaments, pre-releases, drafts, trade nights, learn-to-plays, build & paint nights, and much more!
Top Shelf is all about the experience. We invite you to check it out for yourself; we’re confident that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Where are we in our journey?
Following the soft launch of our concept retail store in summer 2021 (Phase 1), in fall 2023 we officially moved into Phase 2. From our original retail floor space of roughly 250 sf, we expanded the store to around 1200 sf by combining with the unit next door. We completed a full rebuild to create a unique space where you can hang out and enjoy your favourite hobbies. We're excited for you to experience our store, and we'll keep working to continue elevating the Top Shelf experience.
When Phase 3?
You’ll just have to wait and see. For now we're excited to grow our Top Shelf community and establish ourselves as Canada's premier trading card & hobby store. So come check us out and join us on our journey! If not one of the owners - Colin, Jan, or Mo - you’ll meet one of our store managers, Matt and Ricardo, or one of the amazing members of our growing team - Tariq, Julian, Lucas, Fern, Enzo, and Juan.
