I visited our local game shop. It is old.

cranberries wrote: I went to the Compleat Strategist years ago while attending a conference. My favorite thing about old game stores is discovering stuff I haven't heard of. But now, thanks to that one large online database, it's almost impossible to discover anything that is 1)new to me and 2) a decent game.

I remember while at a conference taking the train in Chicago across town to visit some venerable old game shop that was full of old games, RPGs and expansions, and buying a copy of Through the Desert.

I'm going to Portland, Oregon in March for a conference, but don't know if I'll stop by any game stores, because what is the point?

Skip the games. Go to Powell's City of Books.

dysjunct wrote: If you don't have a play space and the community that comes with it, you're just another store that can't compete with Amazon.

This is 100% accurate. Why go to a local game store when you only have to wait two days to get the same item from amazon for cheaper? I frequent two stores in my area "The Gamer's Den" in Cambridge MN and "The Crimson Dragon" in Lindstrom. I go to both to play games- mostly X-wing these days but just started up a BB league. Since I play games there and enjoy having the space to meet-up and the owners are good people I spend money there.

The Gamer's Den is clean and organized with a good selection of recent stuff and usually a clearance bin of older stuff. I bought my copy of War of the Ring there for $5! They also have a decent gaming space and it is owned by a Man/woman married couple (who are really into FFG boardgames) and employees knowledgeable gamers 2 other women and a dude. I point this out, because in my experience game stores have been full of nerdy guys and I think it is neat that there is a large female presence both behind the counter and in the game space. Also makes me feel okay leaving my teenage daughter there. It has some Norm and Cliff type regulars that are always there. Some are nice and pleasant some (okay mostly one) are creepy no-social skills gamer game always dressed in black other than his dandruff.

The Crimson Dragon is the weirdest game store I've ever played at- it is a combination yarn- game-cheescake-tearoom-fudge-guitar lesson- yoga studio- space for rent-hair saloon. The owner and his wife own the whole building and rent out various nooks and crannies as well as bigger spaces (yoga studio) that are also used for overflow gaming. The place has stuff everywhere and has the dusty/ faded ancient games. Matter of fact when we mentioned that we wanted to start a blood bowl league the owner pulled out some 2nd edition Chaos Dwarfs and Dark Elves still in the boxes. One guy bought the dwarfs. The owner is a miniatures fan and is always willing to join in and even out numbers- the place has charm. You can have six people sitting around knitting in one area and 4 other people flying spaceships in another.

I am participating in a Blood Bowl league at the Dragon (My halflings won the first league match against Chaos Dwarfs 2-0 thanks!). Which is an excellent example of the need gaming space, because BB is not that awesome as a one off game. On a bit of a tangent The owner was just talking about how GW is selling the special pitches online only and the special characters are going to be forge world (which apparently is also only direct from GW) so not super supportive of FLGS- on the other hand they sent him some BB Swag for the tourney.

There's a chain in Illinois (and spreading) called The Gaming Goat that is absolutely killing it by offering competitive prices to Coolstuff and Miniature Market while maintaining a low pressure atmosphere.

I'm shifting careers and gonna open one of his stores very soon. I used to go to Jeff's first store for the occasional FNM back in 2011, but he moved with the market from Magic towards board games. Pokemon TCG is huge now too.

I used to scour game stores for older OOP stuff - I remember finding a copy of ADVANCED CIVILIZATION with the original price sticker still on it, flipping it for a quick sale for 4 times what I paid for it.

But those days are over. All that stuff has been scoured out - or more likely, the store went out of business . And as Michael mentioned upthread, failure to move obsolete stuff is often the reason stores run out of cash. All the stores I remember finding out of print stuff at have gone out of business - not a coincidence.

The Crimson Dragon is the weirdest game store I've ever played at- it is a combination yarn- game-cheescake-tearoom-fudge-guitar lesson- yoga studio- space for rent-hair saloon. The owner and his wife own the whole building and rent out various nooks and crannies as well as bigger spaces (yoga studio) that are also used for overflow gaming. The place has stuff everywhere and has the dusty/ faded ancient games. Matter of fact when we mentioned that we wanted to start a blood bowl league the owner pulled out some 2nd edition Chaos Dwarfs and Dark Elves still in the boxes. One guy bought the dwarfs. The owner is a miniatures fan and is always willing to join in and even out numbers- the place has charm. You can have six people sitting around knitting in one area and 4 other people flying spaceships in another.

Our old store has a good comics collection as well as a lot of vinyl collectibles, in addition to LARP armor. I love eclectic stores like this and wish there were more of them. If I were crazy rich I'd open something weird like this with the sole goal of breaking even one day.