“We would rather be the store that people know that if anyone could possibly have something that isn’t popular anymore, we would have it,” Wilson said. “We’re in a society that wants us to consume as much as possible and get out with the old and in with the new, and I think there’s a lot lost with that kind of attitude.”

Wilson, 27, grew up within 10 minutes of East Lansing in Bath Township but patterned the store after small shops he’s seen traveling to Toronto and Boston and similar chains of exchange stores in Ohio, Utah and Arizona.

The trading post and store pays out in cash or trade credit for entertainment merchandise, ranging from dusted-off Marvin Gaye records to Atari or Nintendo systems and games.

Alex Clise, a friend from high school, volunteered to help Wilson move inventory into the store before it opened on M.A.C. Avenue a month ago.

“East Lansing has no video game store to speak of,” Clise said. “This store should fill that niche.”

One year, three buildings

The East Lansing spot marks the third location in a year for Wilson’s store. An apartment fire in the floors above a building he shared in Old Town eventually closed the original store last November.

Three months later, Wilson opened the store in a second location at 1723 Michigan Ave., in Lansing.

“That location wasn’t really the ideal spot for us, but that wasn’t necessarily what we were looking for,” said Wilson, who wanted to get the business up and running despite his insurance company’s ongoing investigation of the fire at the first store.

“We just looked for something that was right, at the time, to get out of storage and get back on out there. I didn’t want to wait for everything to resolve for too long, or (the store) would have died in everyones’ memory.”

Retail space filled about two-thirds of the store on Michigan Avenue, but a small portion of the store behind a half-wall was used as a venue for local bands.

Within a month, Wilson booked three to four live shows per week as a way of drawing people into the store.

Wilson showcases many of the same local bands’ CDs on the first shelf customers see when they walk in the door at the East Lansing store — where he wanted to open his business all along.

Replacing a hip-hop haven

When Replay Entertainment Exchange moved to East Lansing, the shop replaced Code of the Cutz, one of a select few businesses supporting local, independent musicians — specifically in hip-hop.

Jaime Wilkins, former owner of Code of the Cutz, told her regular customers the new store would fulfill the hip-hop needs of her regular customers that shopped for records or took regular scratching lessons.

“There were some very dedicated patrons, customers and friends that came there and worked there,” Wilkins said. “I would’ve been disappointed if there wasn’t going to be anything that would replace Code of the Cutz in terms of a hip-hop outlet.”

The selection of music at Replay Entertainment Exchange extends beyond hip-hop, but Wilson said he bought a good chunk of inventory from Wilkins to meet the expectations of her former customers.

“While it’s good to introduce new things and new ideas to people, your ideas still need to be accessible to your customer base,” Wilson said.

“It’s the customers around you that will dictate what your store should be, and the students will tell us what we’re going to be.”