D&D 5E Amazon or Local?

[Desdichado]

Depends on what $20 means to you, I guess. I wouldn't do it, but I'm a stingy old codger who doesn't like to part with my money for ephemeral things. I'm also not super excited to be thumbing through the book today so getting it earlier doesn't help me much.

For that matter, I'm still not sure if I actually like my local gamestore that much anyway.

 

[Desdichado]

50$ is not that expensive. In Europe, I get my book from the store for 35€ or so. About the same money I paid for the 3.5 book. 10 years later, with 1.5% inflation that is actually cheaper.

But depending on your income, 50$ may still be expensive and 20$ off seems a good deal.

Compared to what? Gaming with the 3e books when they first came out? ($20) Gaming with the SRD? ($0)

$50 is expensive. It's not a lot of money in an absolute sense (although it's not trivial either) but compared to what I expect RPG products to cost, and what I can get them for generally, it is.

RPG products have gotten a lot more expensive in the last few years. They way outpace inflation over all.

Same is true to an even greater extent for miniatures games, if you're into that hobby.

 

[drjones]

I bought my books local and it has turned out to be a good thing:

Pros:
Got it early
I like the store and want it to be there and stock D&D
got 20% off for preordering
When my PHB broke I just had to bring it in and got a replacement without any problem for free.

Cons:
Jeff Bezos needs a new pair of diamond shoes.
Could be cheaper
Waiting for stuff builds character
Might have to talk to human if I leave the house

 

[the Jester]

I don't have a FLGS. I do have however, a couple of local game/comic shops that are not friendly at all. Rude and arrogant more like. The one closest to me in particular is full of the Arrogant. However they get my begrudgingly minor business as they are the only local place that can supply certain needs (some comics, or if I need some quick gaming supplies). In some ways it's pretty cool to have such a neat store not too far away. On the other hand I probably wouldn't miss them if they went out of business. I've tried repeatedly to like them and give them the benefit of the doubt, but (save one employee who is rarely there) the shop is full of employees who make the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons look pretty tame.

Have you considered talking to the owner? Letting him know that he could be getting more of your business by having better employees might help improve the situation. On the other hand, it might not, but at least you will have done your level best to help them become your FLGS.

 

[halfling rogue]

Have you considered talking to the owner? Letting him know that he could be getting more of your business by having better employees might help improve the situation. On the other hand, it might not, but at least you will have done your level best to help them become your FLGS.

The owner is part of the problem. It used to be owned by a pretty cool guy but at some point he was out of the picture. It took a while to figure out who the new owner was, and when I did I realized it was the new (newest?) owner who rains down the snidey smugness the most. They do have one guy on staff who is really cool and helpful and everything everyone else there isn't. He was alone one day and I told him that I always enjoyed it when he was working and how the others were rude, etc. Being the good employee he didn't throw his friends under the bus, but then again he didn't come to their rescue either.

The funny thing is that I didn't realize how bad it was until I visited a game store out of state on vacation. It was such a cool place, very similar products to my local store, but the folks there were great. They were really busy but still took time to answer questions and look stuff up for me. They got my money. I think it's important to have people there who are passionate about comics/games/etc, but not to the expense of customer service. I'd rather deal with someone who doesn't know anything but is willing to find out rather than someone who knows everything and tells me how much they think I don't know in the process.

 

[TerraDave]

Got my MM about an hour ago. Oh. So. Pretty.

It was worth it for me.

The major city I live in did not have a local game store for a while. One of the last ones (in an inner, accesible, suburb) was actually a WotC Store, remember those? Of course I remember when we had that ne, and the funky place we you could get everything, including, say, star fleet battles stuff from the early 80, still in shrink wrap, and the comic book store right in the city that had by contemporary standards a big RPG section, and the walden books...

But anyways, the major city now has this one. Clearly driven by board games, of which their selection is vast, but for RPGs I counted at least seven different games/lines they supported--all of which seem to have full color hardback books. You don't have that mass of GURPS, WoD, Shadowrun (and of course D&D) supplements that you would have back in the day, but still a good variety.

And they are quite friendly.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

At I have a bit of a dilemma that I hope you guys can help me out with. I've already ordered the monster manual from Amazon, but have recently found out that my local game store has it early as a WPN store. So my question is, is it worth paying the extra $20 just to support them? Or should I wait a week or so and get it for cheaper from Amazon?

I try to follow a principle of enlightened self-interest when shopping: I will support good local stores with my purchases preferentially over Amazon or other non-local retailers in order to help ensure that I continue to have good local stores. It may cost me extra cash, but (to me, at least) having a local retailer I can go to is soooo much better than some voice on a phone or a website.

 

[DMZ2112]

My wife and I were just talking about this the other night. She's something of an Amazonaut, and I commented that I was moving in that direction myself, but I still support my FLGS because it's more about paying for the privilege of visiting the destination than it is for the product.

If you don't have a destination, or if visiting it is not a privilege, then by all means, take the Amazon discount. Bad local commerce is no local commerce.

 

[aramis erak]

after shipping, the price difference for me would be less than my "I run demos for the store" discount.

But even then, I'd still buy local, because the FLGS does a lot more for the gamer community than just sell games.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

One of the reasons I've been lurking around here is because my Not-so-FLGS has let me down. I've tried discussing RPGs and comics and games, looking for opinions etc and more or less am just setting myself up for their Snide. So if i go in, like I said, it's for something quick and cheap, or to browse first hand some game or book I'll be purchasing from Amazon. I don't talk to anyone if I can help it.

I think it is a bit rude to say that you don't like your Not-so-FLGS, but you're happy to use them to browse books that you then buy online. I'm not a small business owner, but I imagine that type of "customer" (well not really, since you're not buying anything) would frustrate me as they're just using me as a library.