How entrepreneur Michael Kennedy ’15 turned a hobby into a full-time career with his business, Nerd Nation
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
Michael Kennedy ’15 loves to think of his job as a treasure hunt.
When he first started his business, he visited garage sales and thrift stores, searching
through boxes and shelves for rare video games and collectible trading card games
that other customers may have overlooked. Then, he helped those items find new homes
with passionate gamers.
What started as a hobby has now grown into Nerd Nation, a business with an online presence and two physical retail locations, employing
more than 30 people and connecting with customers across the country.
“This is a fun industry — people come in every day; they’re excited to see new things
that they want, things they didn't know they needed, things that they've been looking
for, for years,” Kennedy said. “We have rare, cool video game stuff that comes in,
and it's always exciting because people will be like, ‘Oh, I've been looking for this
game for three years, and I can't find it anywhere.’”
Discovering his purple pride
When Kennedy was about 10 years old, he remembers his dad winning tickets to a K-State
vs. Nebraska football game.
“We were definitely expected to lose, but he offered the tickets to me,” Kennedy said.
“And I was like, ‘Okay, I'll go.’ We rode in a bus; it was a whole experience, we
got a ride to the game and everything. And Darren Sproles ’05 just went off and just
kicked Nebraska's butt. It was such a cool experience, and then I was just in love.
I was set from that day that's where I was going. I bled purple.”
At K-State, he studied graphic design and digital arts, as well as business and entrepreneurship.
He also made a number of lifelong friends from his dorm floor experience at Haymaker
Hall and later Delta Chi Fraternity. He still chats with some of these friends almost
every day, and has even taken family trips together.
After his graduation from K-State, Kennedy worked in web design and development for
a number of years.
Then during the 2020 COVID pandemic, he started collecting Pokémon cards for fun…and
then quickly realized it was going to be an expensive hobby.
“I always try to monetize my hobbies so that I can afford to do more of the hobby,”
he chuckles. “I ended up finding a YouTube video of people just going to thrift stores
and garage sales, buying stuff there, and then just selling it on eBay. I started
doing that, started to kind of snowball, and ended up really loving what I was doing.
I was selling on eBay primarily at the time, and happened upon a YouTuber that specialized
in selling video games, and I was like, ‘Well, I like video games. I have video games.’”
By 2021, his hobby turned business venture was performing well enough that he was
able to turn it into a full-time career.
Leveling up his business
Nerd Nation now sells products on eBay, Amazon and a live auction website called Whatnot.
The company also has physical retail locations in Shawnee, Kansas, and Manhattan,
Kansas.
“Retail has been probably the best thing we've done for the business; previously,
we were just running this out of my basement,” Kennedy said. “We started in a bedroom,
and then we moved to a larger bedroom, and then we moved to the basement. Then we
moved entire houses because it had a larger basement. We opened retail, and I had
an expectation how I thought we would do per month, and in the first month we did
7x what I expected.”
In addition to having buy offers for more than 30,000 games on their website, the
company offers Pokémon cards, Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana and other collectible
trading card games (also known as TCGs).
Kennedy said that nostalgic games have become a big part of his business. “Our normal
customer is just someone that says, ‘Oh, I found my Nintendo 64 in the closet, and
I want to show my kids or my grandkids this game, but we don't have the game anymore.
So now we have to go re-buy it.’ We see a lot of that.”
On the flip side, people may be cleaning out their storage and come across some games
that they have but no longer need. Instead of continuing to collect dust, those games
can find a new owner through Nerd Nation. You also don’t have to live near one of
the physical stores to sell your items to Nerd Nation; approved buy offers can be
shipped directly to the company.
Kennedy said the business prides itself on making very competitive offers, often above
traditional industry trade-in rates.
“We pay really well; we want to make sure that we treat everyone fairly, so we're
very public about our business,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re always
transparent and honest with people. So whether you walk in and have no idea that you
have a game that’s worth $500, we’re still going to pay you the same amount as if
you did know it was $500.”
Nerd Nation also promotes multi-generational enjoyment of video and card games — whether
you’re 6 years old or 60, you can find joy in gaming.
“A lot of them are trying to show their kids the games that they grew up playing,
and then you know it's cool to see it go the other way around, where the kids are
interested in a certain game, then the parents are gonna play the games to keep them
interested,” he said.
“One of the things I love about this business is the nostalgia behind it. Pulling
an old Nintendo 64, Game Boy or stack of games out of the closet might remind someone
how much joy those games brought them in the first place. Maybe they look up what
they’re worth and decide to sell them to us — or maybe they plug the system back in
and start playing again. Either outcome fits with what I think is one of the coolest
parts of the business: helping people reconnect with games they loved and, when they
are ready to move on from them, helping those games find their next owner.”
Kennedy also is excited to see how Nerd Nation will continue to evolve in the future.
“We're continuing to grow and thinking about what expanding Nerd Nation into additional
communities could look like,” he said.
To learn more about the business, visit nerdnation.us/sell.