RESTORING GAMES & PUZZLES, PIECE BY PIECE

Jamie Lichty (he/they) discovered his first special interest very young, when his parents introduced them to their first board game, The Secret Door, around age three.  

Lichty fell in love with board games, and, decades later, this love spawned their business venture, Please Play Again, a queer and trans-owned business, where he buys, sells and repairs used board games and puzzles.  

“I was having trouble finding a job and was frustrated because I was trying to save up to start this business and I couldn’t even find a job to support myself at all. And then I asked myself, ‘Why do I need to start with a store front?’ So, I went to Goodwill and picked up some board games,” Lichty said. 

He first started selling games on the marketplace section on Board Game Geek (BGG), before deciding to do their first in-person market three months later, during an open house at his mom’s studio SeeingSquared in Elmira. 

“My mum’s really into puzzles and so when I told her what I was doing, she wanted to know whether I’d include puzzles. I was a little hesitant but then my mum offered to check puzzles for me and I said okay,” Lichty said.  

Lichty came well prepared for that first market with around 100 games and puzzles repaired, checked for completeness and prepared for sale. The business quickly grew, and now Lichty’s done more than ten markets and sold puzzles online, shipping them as far as Germany, Sweden and Argentina.  

One of the things Lichty quickly learned was that, when it came to puzzles, customers were a little mistrusting when told all the pieces were there. Lichty said that despite offering reassurance, some customers did not trust that the puzzles were complete as described.  

“From that experience, I came up with the idea of taking photos of the completed puzzles that I post on my website alongside the box, and I can show customers at markets,” Lichty said.  

As the inventory grew, the number of puzzles Lichty had on hand quickly outgrew the number his mum was able to test for him. They then began reaching out to community members at events like Spectrum’s game night or their Spectrum on the Spectrum night, a community group for autistic queer and trans folks, looking for volunteers to test puzzles for free. In exchange, the testers get to build a new puzzle. 

Environmentalism is also one of the core tenants of Lichty’s business. Whenever board games or puzzles finds their way into Lichty’s care, he finds ways to repair them. This includes doing box repairs with book tape, repairing worn puzzle pieces with paint touch-ups or glue on lifting corners, replacing missing plastic pieces by 3D printing new ones and replacing missing tokens by reprinting and laminating them.  

Another core tenant for Lichty is accessibility. Lichty believes that gaming and puzzling should be inclusive for everybody, and, as a result, he has started updating listings on his site, sourced from the Meeple Like Us project website, to include information for those with colour blindness or accessibility needs, whether they be visual, physical, cognitive, emotional, communication, socioeconomic or a mix of the above.  

“I wanted to learn more about accessibility stuff because I’m autistic. I know some people have different accessibility needs, and so, anytime a customer needs something swapped out to make it accessible, we are happy to do that for free. If I can make it so more people can enjoy the same game, I’m here for it,” Lichty said. 

“It is my personal belief that there is a board game out there for everyone. People who don’t like board games just haven’t found the right one yet. [I]f someone is curious, I’d love to help them find a game they’d enjoy, and, if I don’t have it in stock, I’ll do my best to track it down for them,” Lichty said.