Bookstore treats D&D books like Playboy
- Thread starter Altalazar
- Start date
Vraille Darkfang
First Post
Mystery Man said:
WW's books in ceratin areas are considered 'mature' only. Usually, only Black Dog gets the Mature warning, but some areas consider all of WW worse than ANY porn video.
Second,
Theft sucks. Where I used to live, one of the local bookstores stopped carrying RPG's due to the massive theft. The massive theft is very bad because it hurts people's impressions of gamers and hurts the hobby as a whole, as fewer people are willing to stock Gaming books due to theft.
I hope that if the do catch anybody lifting gaming books, they prosectue them as much as possible. Even if it's some 13 yr old who's doing it for a thrill.
While, I've never intentionally stolen any gaming stuff, I did have 2 wierd experencies. The first was when I was going to a gaming store in KC. I just noticed the sign & went in to take a look. There was one other guy hanging around the old Box Sets. Anyway when I went off he wondered off. I picked up the Maztica Box Set. As I was driving off, I saw the other guy run out & I thought he gave me a rude gesture. When I got home, I noticed the tape holding the box set was loose & stuffed in the Box was all the other Maztica stuff TSR produced. I'm still not sure wether the guy stuffed the box, planning to buy it later or the store just assumed it all went in the box to begin with.
I also got a mint copy of the 1st ed Manual of the Planes (with Cthulu) for list price (15 bucks) a few years ago from I store I'd never been too (I just assumed they didn't know the value of what they got, like antique hunting). The next time I went to the store 2 years later, they had a tattered, beat up MotP for 120 bucks. I'm not sure if they wised up since I'd been there, or if the employee on duty just flipped it over, looked at the list price & charged me what it said.
werk
First Post
Theft was my first thought. I know a lot of kids had 'free' books when I gamed in high school.
My second thought was the parental advisory on the BoVD and BoED.
This thread makes me remember my old days of hiding my books from my God-fearing mother when I first started gaming in middle school. I was seriously more afraid of her finding my D&D books than my prOn.
My second thought was the parental advisory on the BoVD and BoED.
This thread makes me remember my old days of hiding my books from my God-fearing mother when I first started gaming in middle school. I was seriously more afraid of her finding my D&D books than my prOn.
Dr. Harry
First Post
ColonelHardisson said:
Actually, I checked at this site:
http://minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm
and a $20.00 book in 1985 (in the U.S.) would be equivalent to $36.17 now, so that has stayed roughly the same.
My brother-in-law got drawn into gaming through Magic, and one of the first opinions he developed (though not through personal misfortune) is that "you've got to always be watching your stuff in a crowd of gamers or someone will steal it from you". I wish that I could have contradicted him.
It might be the number of young, foolish thrillseekers, or it could be the socially maladjusted gamers who aren't the majority of players but who we all seem to run across with disturbing frequency.
I 
t may be that the store keeps them behind the desk as a shoplifting deterrent. If the store doesn't have the "detector" at the door that may be a good reason.
:\ A few of my friends have capitalized on "free" D&D books due to the lack of security, especially when they are very expensive.
Besides, there are still some bad misconceptions about D&D that I'm suprised are still believed by a lot of people. It sucks but people are easily duped with "The Wizards First Rule".
t may be that the store keeps them behind the desk as a shoplifting deterrent. If the store doesn't have the "detector" at the door that may be a good reason. :\ A few of my friends have capitalized on "free" D&D books due to the lack of security, especially when they are very expensive.
Besides, there are still some bad misconceptions about D&D that I'm suprised are still believed by a lot of people. It sucks but people are easily duped with "The Wizards First Rule".
shaylon
First Post
I know when I steal I usually "cross the border" to Michigan and I steal exclusively from Barnes and Noble.
Weird situation, not sure what the deal is but I would guess that theft is the issue.
Lansing, there a college there? (I know East Lansing is MSU, not sure how close your store is to there though)
I wouldn't worry too much about it although I am surprised to hear it's a B&N that is doing this. They carry lots of stuff that is considered questionable material, namely 2600 magazine, so it is a bit of a shock.
-Shay
Weird situation, not sure what the deal is but I would guess that theft is the issue.
Lansing, there a college there? (I know East Lansing is MSU, not sure how close your store is to there though)
I wouldn't worry too much about it although I am surprised to hear it's a B&N that is doing this. They carry lots of stuff that is considered questionable material, namely 2600 magazine, so it is a bit of a shock.
-Shay
Altalazar
First Post
shaylon said:
Yes, East Lansing is about 15-20 min from Lansing. The funny thing is, there are a few bookstores right across from MSU in East Lansing and none of them do that. There is also a gaming / comics store right by campus, and they just have a tag system. I'm not sure if they have theft troubles.
I've never stolen a book. I've also never had one stolen from me, in all my years of gaming, sometimes with well known gamers (to me) sometimes not. I've never heard of any sayings about watching your stuff with gamers. Maybe it is just because most everyone I've gamed with was a grown adult, or was at least over 18. Even when I was younger.
There's still got to be a more creative way to deal with it than just putting it all behind the counter.
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
It really really sucks that so much gaming stuff gets up and walks out of stores like that.
But, y'know, I have to say, when I go to browse the RPG section at a B&N, very often, I'm confronted with Maladj Teens sitting in the aisles.
Back in high-school, I didn't game regularly because the hardcore gamers in the area were all the outcaste punk types who thought they were badasses because they smoked and "knew karate" and generally tried to raise hell because they thought they'd gotten a bad deal. I gamed with those types once, and when a book went missing out of my bag, I never did again. When my brother got to that age he became a Maladj Teen ... hung out with that crowd, which oddly enough, included alot of the same guys after they had dropped out of highschool.
He'd have them over to the house, things would go missing. Silverware, computer games, watches, CLEANING SUPPLIES ... whatever was handy. He wanted to deny it was his friends, but it was just stunningly obvious. A clock on a table sits there for five years, day after his gaming group meets in the next room, it's gone ... "I dunno where it is." So -I- banned them from the house. My folks just complained, I threatened to break heads because I was tired of my stuff going missing. Several gaming books, some games, my freakin' watch... He got into it too: One day in the garage we come upon a spill of blue powder. What's blue? Find a five gallon container of ancient lithograph toner off to the side by some other chemicals. Go to put our coats away, sitting in the coat closet are FIVE identical old army-issue longcoats ... and NONE OF THEM FIT ANYBODY. Him and his friends had broken into some army surplus store in the middle of the night, stolen anything light enough to carry ... WHY? Who the heck needs five gallons of toner for a 70s-era copy machine?! They'd also broken into a semi parked outside and stolen a handgun and some personal effects.
Apparently somebody got pinched trying to use the stolen credit cards, and with a gun stolen out of the semi they leaned on the guy pretty hard and he flipped on everybody. Brother got picked up not too long after that and the family basically said: "Have fun in jail." He was able to plead out to only 'accepting stolen goods' since they couldn't prove he was in the store, but the time the guy caught with the gun got scared him straight after that, even though he only got community service himself.
Seems to be a rural thing, to be honest. Like since RPGs get this whole "Devil's Game" rap in the bible-thumping regions the maladjusted losers of the area decide to play to further their "I'm BAAAAAAAAD" image.
--fje
But, y'know, I have to say, when I go to browse the RPG section at a B&N, very often, I'm confronted with Maladj Teens sitting in the aisles.
Back in high-school, I didn't game regularly because the hardcore gamers in the area were all the outcaste punk types who thought they were badasses because they smoked and "knew karate" and generally tried to raise hell because they thought they'd gotten a bad deal. I gamed with those types once, and when a book went missing out of my bag, I never did again. When my brother got to that age he became a Maladj Teen ... hung out with that crowd, which oddly enough, included alot of the same guys after they had dropped out of highschool.
He'd have them over to the house, things would go missing. Silverware, computer games, watches, CLEANING SUPPLIES ... whatever was handy. He wanted to deny it was his friends, but it was just stunningly obvious. A clock on a table sits there for five years, day after his gaming group meets in the next room, it's gone ... "I dunno where it is." So -I- banned them from the house. My folks just complained, I threatened to break heads because I was tired of my stuff going missing. Several gaming books, some games, my freakin' watch... He got into it too: One day in the garage we come upon a spill of blue powder. What's blue? Find a five gallon container of ancient lithograph toner off to the side by some other chemicals. Go to put our coats away, sitting in the coat closet are FIVE identical old army-issue longcoats ... and NONE OF THEM FIT ANYBODY. Him and his friends had broken into some army surplus store in the middle of the night, stolen anything light enough to carry ... WHY? Who the heck needs five gallons of toner for a 70s-era copy machine?! They'd also broken into a semi parked outside and stolen a handgun and some personal effects.
Apparently somebody got pinched trying to use the stolen credit cards, and with a gun stolen out of the semi they leaned on the guy pretty hard and he flipped on everybody. Brother got picked up not too long after that and the family basically said: "Have fun in jail." He was able to plead out to only 'accepting stolen goods' since they couldn't prove he was in the store, but the time the guy caught with the gun got scared him straight after that, even though he only got community service himself.
Seems to be a rural thing, to be honest. Like since RPGs get this whole "Devil's Game" rap in the bible-thumping regions the maladjusted losers of the area decide to play to further their "I'm BAAAAAAAAD" image.
--fje
WayneLigon
Adventurer
Mystery Man said:
Probably because someone looked through 'Montreal by Night'. I have a very high squick level but I'm telling you, if I knew nothing at all about RPGs and someone brought that to my attention, I wouldn't have ordered any WW material for the store again
I'm curious as to what the B&N owner will say; the B&N here has all their RPG stuff out in the open. But gaming books, bibles and one other section I forget top the list on the 'most shrinkage' areas in booksellers.
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