Jumping Frog Games - Sutter Creek, California

Etienne Pieterse

If you’re looking for a welcoming place to enjoy Magic: The Gathering, this is not the store for you. My experience here has been nothing short of appalling, and it culminated in being banned simply for practicing free speech and expressing valid grievances. Yes, you read that correctly—I was banned for daring to voice concerns about the blatant mismanagement, unprofessionalism, and unethical practices happening in this store.

The owner, Matt, clearly cannot handle any form of criticism, no matter how justified. Instead of addressing issues like poor event management, unclean facilities, inconsistent pricing, and a complete lack of professionalism, he chose to silence a paying customer. The fact that grievances—shared by others, mind you—were met with a ban rather than any effort to improve speaks volumes about how this place is run.

The store itself is barely functional. Events fall short of WPN standards, the environment is far from welcoming, and the store practices are, frankly, shady. Promo packs being “won” by store employees? Dirty floors and poorly stocked shelves? Inconsistent pricing based on whatever mood the owner is in? None of this inspires confidence or respect from the community.

What’s worse is the owner’s attitude. Complaints about distributors, broken promises about holding products, and a general unprofessional demeanor make it clear that the store is run more as a personal hobby than as a professional business. If you bring up any of this, be prepared to be ostracized.

This store is the epitome of what happens when leadership refuses to listen to its community. Instead of growing and adapting, it chooses to stifle feedback and alienate players. If this is what the local Magic scene has to offer, it’s no wonder people are moving to online platforms or supporting stores outside the area.

Save yourself the frustration—go anywhere else for your Magic needs. There are plenty of stores and online retailers that will offer better prices, cleaner environments, and actual professionalism.

Riley Van

The other three people who recently posted complained about being ostracized.
After insulting players personally.
Mocking employees.
The “freedom of speech” that one of the reviews mention? Was calling people slurs.
The prices are literally at the average.
Not sure what they are on about the prices changing. The prices are announced and obvious.
The store needs to be better cleaned.

Mystic Vanguard

I would like to state my grievances are not unwarranted nor are they only felt by myself. I have long looked for a local store to play Magic: The Gathering at.
Only to find the owner is rude, the employee is an absolute buffoon and not very smart, not to mention… chronically online.
It’s truly fun when you find a pod of 4 and don’t have to interact with the employee or owner. At that point it’s just fun to play with your friends.
Events are run somewhat okay but definitely not to WPN standard. The owner knows very little about magic. The employee has “won” promo packs at the store on commander nights.
Now these seem like nitpicky things, but I’ve been to multiple stores, large, huge, medium, small, and even minuscule like this one. But a lot of these things are what magic players look out for.
If you’re looking to play magic in a fun environment, just host a video discord call for commander or start your own store for that matter.
For WPN events in a small town though this is the best it’ll get for Amador county.
I hope these criticisms aren’t taken lightly and are taken with the spirit of wanting to improve for the magic community at large.
If you want to get sealed product just go to an online retailer, 9 times out of 10 you’ll get it cheaper than here. I won’t be spending money except for events which are the only reasonably priced thing there.
Part of a growing community and for a store is to make it a fun environment and a fun and fair place. This store is far behind with the times in those regards.

Now on to other aspects, the employee Riley is extremely unprofessional and is standoffish. At times he has yelled in the store while playing magic instead of manning the counter. This is behavior which should not be at a workplace even if it is a game store.
The owner Matt, is also just plain rude and unpleasant. He complains about his distributor constantly and is just genuinely unprofessional. He says he will hold product for some people and then simply doesn’t hold the product. He never has definitive numbers and marks up and marks down the prices based on what other vendors are pricing and then it’s not even competitive pricing.

From a business standpoint (as someone who has run a business before), it’s just sad to see the conduct of the owner and employee in a hobby shop selling what is part of one of my favorite hobbies. The floors and shelves could use cleaning, more variety would be appreciated, more professionalism would go a long way, and just doing better based on reviews and people’s reactions with things would go a very long way.

Thanks for reading!

Jimmy

While I would have given a solid 2 star (or maybe even 3) instead of a one star review for this place, I will have to rate this at a one for the time being. The shop owner Matt and the way he runs the place are my biggest gripes about this place for a few reasons.

First off, he keeps garbage ALL OVER THE PLACE in his shop. It's an honest pig stye in there and the community is so used to it that they just trudge around the mounds on the floor or step over it. I could understand if it was specifically behind the counter but this trash encroaches into the play area, right behind the front door, next to the bathroom, seriously everywhere.

Secondly, he cannot take constructive criticism. AT ALL. I was banned from the store mainly because I messaged him about how the store championship was run (which was not to WOTC standards). He didn't have a conversation with me, waited until I came to the store for an event, and promptly banned me when he couldn't materialize a strong argument apart from "you did so and so at my store and not at any others". I am an outgoing individual verbally, so simply because I mentioned something at his store, doesn't mean I didn't do it elsewhere. It means that specific scenario hadn't occurred yet, and he couldn't fathom me being equal at different vendors.

Third, don't bring up anything with a dollar value in his store if it's not agreeing with his prices. Mentioning TCG market or even hinting to how you came into possession of something worth anything in his store with the intent of selling WILL cause him to personally take offense. He marks product up by an exorbitant amount, and when I brought up how MSRP was coming back, he took offense to that as well, as if I was directly saying that he needs to change his prices (as if I wasn't just being enthusiastic about wizards of the coast finally changing their control on the magic marketplace). Talk about selling or other stores in general will get you in trouble; he has a big head about his monopoly in the local area and won't stand to hear otherwise.

Fourth, Matt claims to be here strictly for the community, and that's why his store is only open on Friday-Sunday. I could understand this, if he didn't mark up his product to the sky and complain when you don't support that. There have been multiple conversations I've been in and overheard where he talks about how the store barely makes any money each year, and quite frankly it's because of his marketing and store diversity. The majority of his income is from magic the gathering and perhaps a bit of Pokemon, and these are the only markets he hosts events for. And even then, if you go and support these events, it's not enough for him. Going in, buying boosters, supporting every event he has had, and playing with the community wasn't enough to override a couple of comments about how his higher dollar items just weren't within my range to afford purchasing. In essence, he gatekeeps people that don't wish to spend their paycheck on his hobby of a "hobby shop". His heart isn't in it, and his product reflects that. If you're planning on joining into the trading card community, I greatly suggest driving to Hobby Shop Pine Grove or Golden Pants Games (a new store in Jackson) because they are far more welcoming to anyone and both plan on hosting events for multiple games and can back it, rather than Jumping Frog's measly 2 and a half afternoons a week that they're open, if they even have an event going on.

Coming in as a new face in September of '24 and being banned in December has been eye-opening, and I suppose that while I had hope it could've been something fun, people in a position of power will always do their best to keep their surroundings how they are. Change is good sometimes, but people like Matt will prevent that from happening when they can. I appreciated the community at Jumping frog, and I hope to see them outside the store, but for the time being this place is a mess and I suggest taking your business elsewhere regardless of if you're a short or long term customer.

Chris Cottle

Great location very friendly and knowledgeable. Owner tries hard to help everyone out and keep this location open to support the gaming community in this county. I would definitely shop here again and again definitely would miss this place if gone.

Guybrush Threepwood

Friendly and knowledgable staff with a well stocked shop. Board games, cards, die sets, and miniatures. They also host Friday Night Magic and weekend games. We need a shop like this in the county!

Kat Russel

i love it here my nerd friends play magic and they have lots of board games and cute toys. it gets hot tho sometimes but the people here are friendly and wveryone has beards.

Kid Helios

This stores owner was kinda whiney and knows nothing about magic. You should pick a better location, advertise better, and have better hours before you complain to me man and genuinely dust that store it’s bad