Online board game seller Boardlandia shuts down after tariffs add “unsustainable burden” to company’s existing challenges

Online board game retailer Boardlandia has become the latest tabletop-related victim of the skyrocketing US tariffs on Chinese imports, with its owners announcing they have closed down the business.

Tim and Karissa Fendt, who took over ownership of Boardlandia and its namesake brick and mortar store in 2017, said in a statement that the tariffs had added “an unsustainable burden” to existing financial challenges being faced by the business.

They said that despite pouring their “personal savings, our time, and countless hours of hard work into Boardlandia, striving to overcome these obstacles”, the China tariffs – which currently stand at 145% – had left the pair with “no viable path forward” for the company.

The Fendts added that physical retail store Boardlandia Appleton, which is independently owned and operated and a separate entity from the online store, was not part of the closure.

Boardlandia was launched in Appleton, Wisconsin a decade ago by Tim Ceman, after three years of him running online shopping, trading and forum site boardgametrader.com.

Karissa and Tim Fendt bought the business two years later, and built the online arm into a popular, highly-regarded operation that went toe-to-toe with larger operators such as Game Nerdz, Cardhaus and Miniature Market.

The statement from the Fendts said the pair were committed to shipping out any unfulfilled orders for which they have the necessary stock, but did not say how they will approach refunds for pre-orders or currently out-of-stock items.

It added, “Please know that this outcome is not what we ever envisioned. We are not walking away from a thriving venture.

“This closure is a direct result of circumstances that have become beyond our control, and it carries significant personal financial consequences for us as well.

“We understand that you, our valued customers, may have questions and even concerns during this time.

“We want to assure you that this was not a decision taken lightly or with any intention other than to responsibly address the financial realities we now face.”

Board game business from across the industry have been scrambling to adapt to President Trump’s soaring tariffs targeting China, which have risen from 10% to 145% in just two months.

Publishers, designers, manufacturers, retailers and distributors alike have been bracing for price hikes, job losses and the potential shuttering of their businesses due to the tariffs because of the industry’s huge reliance on Chinese manufacturing.

Other early casualties of the tariff hike have included Spirit Island publisher Greater than Games, with parent company Flat River Group laying off the vast majority of its subsidiary’s staff and suspending new projects.

A few days earlier the president of Trekking the World publisher Underdog Games, Nick Bentley, said the company had laid off almost the entirety of its staff – himself included – saying the owner was “shrinking the company to almost nothing to give it the best chance of keeping the lights on during the tariff tsunami”.

Last week Merchants Cove and Coloma publisher Final Frontier Games revealed it was shutting down with three crowdfunding projects worth nearly $1.4m still unfulfilled, claiming that CMON failing to pay for an agreed Chinese localisation of one title was the “final nail” in its coffin.