Time for some reader feedback - which traditionally means that Sam, and only Sam, will respond.
Where do you purchase your games from - both online in the virtual wibbly wobbly world, and offline in the dingy bricks and mortar establishments ?
Of course this is more aimed at either online places that ship to the UK, or places that are geographically situated somewhat near to Norwich, but, the more the merrier, so don't let that stop you revealing your best game retailer in Antarctica.
Do you have any sure fire great places you continually shop at, or get good service from and could share with everyone ?
Or perhaps you ARE a games selling establishment, and would like to take the opportunity to promote yourself ?
If we get enough responses it might be nice to form a list of places that people like - or dislike - as although I have a half decent list of places to go to, sometimes it can feel like a bit of a struggle to get that oh so hard to track down out of stock purchase. And some game places do a great job of hiding themselves away in a corner you never knew existed.
So, spread the word. Where do you buy from ? Good prices, bad service ? Vice versa ? No opinion, just give me my damn game ?
Playing board games since 2005ish. Every Monday & Tuesday evening at St. Andrews Brew House/Louis Marchesi.
10 comments:
I tend to shop online on amazon as it tends to have a good range and at alright prices. Though feel guilty that it's not supporting brick and mortal stores. So occasionally will buy from the games room or langleys. But either I'm really unlucky or simply not buying the right games, cause can never find what i'm after and then it takes weeks to wait for them to stock it. But its hard to compete with online prices in this day and age.
Well I'm purchasing in the U.S. so I tend to use coolstuffinc.com or fairplaygames.com or timewellspent.com
There is no decent game store in Houston, Texas, though if you ever make it to Austin Great Hall Games are worth a visit....and I found a couple of great stores in the Pacific Northwest too lol
I prefer browsing in shops but due to cost/selection often end up going online. Norwich has some great little game shops like "The Game Room" and Athena Games" had a decent selection when I looked in. Langleys also has a decent selection to browes through. There is also a great shop in Cambridge called "Inner Sanctum" which has a great selection.
I used to get my games from all sorts of places including ordering stuff from shops in Germany or stocking up on games at Essen. My game purchasing has declined massively over the past few years and now most of my purchases are either things I've been mulling over for a while and I happen to see in the Games Room or sometimes an impulse buy, also from Duncan in the Games Room. I buy so infrequently that saving a few quid isn't a massive deal when I can look at the physical products and have a chat with Duncan.
I sometimes order games online if I'm not heading into Norwich, or I'm buying a quite a few items (often including gifts). I like to buy from Shire Games (based in Stoke), which has a nice feel as I the owner Nick Fisk is a friendly and sociable chap - he sends a weekly news letter, posts regularly on the Geek and Twitter and I'm even a member of the Shire Games Fantasy Football League, despite never having set foot in Stoke. Prices are good - especially as you get free shipping when spending over £50. IGUK is also good and usually one of the cheapest around.
Also NoBoG regulars get 5% off in the Games Room.
Nice, I didn't even know Athena Games existed, now I do.
I know what you mean about not finding what you want in high* street shops Ewan, I tend to only visit games shops either in desperation or one off curiousity. These days I am all about the online ordering.
I tend to overwhelmingly use gameslore - http://www.gameslore.com/ which usually have awesome prices and a big fat warehouse full of stock, but I also go here and there. Recently I picked up some stuff from spirit games web site http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/
For US ordering, I do on occasion go to CLS games in atlanta - who's only online presence is in board game geek http://www.clsgames.com/, but they often have a pretty good inventory of harder to get stuff - shipping is extravagant to the UK tho. I also have been known to hit up https://www.funagain.com/, who also have a huge selection
A few places I use on the continent at random, incl. http://www.sheepgames.be
Used iguk in the past, eh, so so service with them for me, will use, but only when push comes to shove.
The Games Room for the most part. Happy to spend a few extra quid by visiting an actual shop.
When times are tight I'll buy from Book Depository (super cheap!).
Ah, almost forgot, tripped over this site http://boardgameprices.co.uk/ which is particularly groovy for finding those always sold out type games.
http://www.boardgameguru.co.uk often has limited numbers of hot Essen games for good prices straight after. Postage is a bit high so better if buying more than one or two games.
Ebay can also be really good - especially if you just want to buy one game. Many of the online shops also sell on Ebay and often have free delivery which can make it cheaper than buying directly from their own site.
I always shop around for each individual game I want to buy and look for the cheapest price including delivery. Sometimes I end up adding a few impulse items to my cart to qualify for a discount or free shipping etc. I have used IGUK, Gameslore, Shire Games, The Book Depository, Amazon...
I tend to buy from whoever is the cheapest on-line and has the game in stock. I do tend to check gameslore first.
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