What's your favorite local game store?

[roytheodd]

Hmm... my favorite game store in Los Angeles would have to be Areo Hobbies on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica. Gary has been running that shop for at least 20 years and the man knows of virtually every RPG related product ever made. I've been going to his shop for all of my gaming years (around 20 of 'em now) and his shop has never lost its character of being a rummage-type shop. That is, he's got heaps of goodies, but you often have to dig to find them. When I was young he was the source of old and hard to get stuff. He had an ability to produce obscure materials from a box you just dug through. He has a great, low-key attitude and is sort of reluctant to sell his wares. I've found that you can question him about things and he seems to always know the correct answers.

I now live in the east bay of California and I haven't found one shop that meets all of my needs. Games of Berkeley is reputed to have once been a reputable gaming shop... I find it fair to middling though. Dr. Comics and Mr. Games is probably my favorite, but they don't have much in the way of card and board games. EndGame is good too, but his shop is also more specialized in a certain direction, thus making Games of Berkeley my source for one stop shopping. One of these days I'll hit the Lotto and open a game store to put them all to shame.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

The only one here in Charleston, SC is The Green Dragon ( at least that I'm aware of)... Pretty good all around, decent prices, staff tends to know a thing or two, and though I've never used it, they have a gaming room in the back. Nice selection too!

There is also a Hobbytown USA that carries some RPG stuff, but not much... and it's like a 30 minute drive each way...

 

[Thorntangle]

The Game Parlor in Chantilly, VA http://www.gameparlor.com/ (plug, plug - discount?)

Certainly one of the biggest, well-stocked game stores I've seen. Lots of miniatures, old and new. Every game system imaginable. The only downside is that their idea of a bargain bin is $2 off the cover price of the 1995 baseball almanac

 

[BluWolf]

I would agree with Thorntangle, Games Parlor is probably the best in the DC area, even though its out in BFE.

When I was growing up in South Florida, I used to go to a place called the Comic Exchange, out on Oakland Park Blvd.

It was a great store. I'm curious if its still there?

 

[Davelozzi]

Maerdwyn,
you beat me to it -- I was planning on starting a similar thread but instead of just naming favorites, I was going to try to get people to give the pros and cons of the stores in their area. That way we'd have sort of a directory of game stores, which would be great to have when visiting different places. I've found lots of classic stuff used in random stores that I found as I was just passing through some places. At any rate, if anyone else thinks that'd be a good idea, let me know via email and we can either start a new thread or maybe I'd even throw something more solid together on a spreadsheet or Word document or something.

At any rate, without hijacking (sort-of) your thread any further, my favorite store around the Boston area is Your Move Games in Davis Square (Somerville). They have two decent size rooms of merchandise - a great selection of rpgs, including lots of D20 stuff, as well plenty of miniatures, especially by Games Workshop. The employees are very helpful (once you manage to edge into their conversation) and are always happy to order anything that they don't have in stock. They have a large playing room with several tables, sell snacks (soda, candy and ice cream) and don't mind when you bring your own food (or order out for food to get delivered to you in the store). They also have a small room with computers that you can use, although I'm not sure what games are on them as I've never checked it out. Best of all, they're open to midnight all week (maybe not on Sundays). The only thing that I think they could do to improve is carry a selection of used games.

Second favorite is Pandemonium Books & Games in The Garage in Harvard Square (Cambridge) which has a great selection of RPGs (including used stuff) but only a minimal selection of minis. Plus the aisles are small and the store is usually pretty crowded so you always tend to feel like you're in someone else's way.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I usually get my gaming stuff at L.A Mood here in London. Good selection and will order what they don't have with no hassels. Staff is pretty knowledgeable (moreso about comics than gaming) and friendly.

We also have an Imperial Hobbies and it blows chunks, it hardly gets new stock and sells old products at full price.

Turlogh you hit it on the head here. I do all my RPG buying at LA Moods now (and have been for the last 3 years). I love the Game Consumption Card! (Buy ten RPG products and get a gift certificate for 10% of the value of your purchases). The staff knows me by name and are always friendly. Gord Mood (Larry [the owner]'s son) seems to know the most about RPG's and he's a fun guy to talk to.

The guy who runs Imperial Hobbies is an a**. We took to calling him Dave "Carnage" Carnie in homage to the state of his store. What a pigsty! We used to do contests to see who could get out of the store the fastest without having to listen to him talk about his vasctomey (no, I'm not kidding).

 

[dagger]

I'd have to say Dragons Lair here in Austin.


That is until I open my own store

 

[Davelozzi]

Games of Berkeley is reputed to have once been a reputable gaming shop... I find it fair to middling though.

Agreed. I have lots of friends in the bay area and travel there pretty frequently. I discovered Games of Berkley about four years ago and they had a great selection of RPGs (as well as boardgames and the like). When I went back on my last visit about a year and a half ago, the RPG selection had dwindled to almost nothing, and it seemed as if they were focusing even more on the boardgames, puzzles, etc.

Gamescape on Divisadero in S.F. is a great place to pick up some used stuff. Last time I was there I left with 3 out of 4 parts of the old Slavers A series, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Secret of Bone Hill, and one or two other classics.

 

[Wolfspirit]

Dragon's Lair

I have to agree with mouseferatu, Dragon's Lair is probably the best shop in Austin that I've seen. I wish I had that discount though

My only qualms with it are that parking is sometimes a problem (especially when they have tournaments) and they don't put enough stock in internet based information. A couple of times I've said "Just trust me, you're getting soandso tommorow", and one of the salesguys was dead set on convincing me that Kingdoms of Kalamar was written/created by Wizards of the Coast.

Heh, oh yeah. They're pretty much the only place that understands/oders D20 products (a couple of other places only carried things with the Wizards logo on it :b)

 

[dagger]

It helps Dragons Lair having a chessex/alliance warehouse thingy right here in town to.

Ill be by there tonight around 8 30 to pick up a MageKnight booster, maybe ill see one of you two there.