Happy New Year, folks. I went to three of the recommended shops, and here's what I observed as an Ang Mo visitor, coming from Seattle (the US metro area where both WOTC and Paizo are based).
Paradigm Infinitum -- This place is near Somerset MRT stop, in an older shopping center that's a bit scary/sketchy looking compared to most of the business areas in Singapore (e.g., it's pretty empty, dark, dingy, and has a lot of condom stores!). The store itself, however, is nice. When I came in, folks were actually playing a game (yeah!) and said hello. The D&D collection, so far as I could tell, was all 4e, and I think completist for 4e. The rest of the collection was very similar to what you'd see in a typical Seattle game store -- lots of minis and lots of gamer-focused board games, such as variants of Axis and Allies, Britannia, Diplomacy, etc. All the customers I saw appeared to be Singaporean men.
Absolut Comics -- I don't remember precisely where this is. In one of Singapore's many, many malls of the Central Business District, to my impression. This place was PACKED with customers and full to the brim with comics. The RPG collection, at least what I found of it, was on the floor, being closed out with 50% off stickers. It was mostly older 3e materials. I don't recall any 4e materials. Some of it was for other RPG's, too. Most of it is stuff I'm already familiar with (either own it or decided not to long ago), but I bought one item I hadn't seen before, a module from Fast Forward (not the best, but meh.) I think I was the only non-Singaporean there, but in gaming circles it's probably interesting that a noticeable percentage (20%?) of the customers are females.
Comics Mart -- This in the mall that connects to the City Hall MRT, I think. Anyhow, it's a very upscale mall that connects to Swissotel - The Stamford, and one of my buddies who gets to Singapore regularly on business trips stays near there. Comics Mart was fairly quiet when I went in -- two workers and a few customers, who were a mix of locals and ang mos like the mall itself. This store had what I'd term an impressive selection of both 3e and 4e. Probably all of the 4e books (e.g., about the same as Paradigm, perhaps a few things less) and a really solid 3e collection, including several book that I think are no longer available in Seattle (complete this and that). They didn't have Complete Arcane, though, which I was looking for. I think they even had some Pathfinder books, but not the Pathfinder Beta.
They also had a lot of D&D novels, including some older ones -- I picked up "The Savage Caves" (the first novel with the 3e iconic characters), which I've been looking for for a while now. I also picked up for $2 a Living Greyhawk adventure. I don't think those are meant to be sold, but it was after it was valid anyhow, and I took this as a good side that Comics Mart might be involved in organized gaming. Anyhow, I thought this store was pretty cool.
As for pricing policies, like I said, everything in Absolute Comics dwindling collection was 50% off -- I think they've given up on RPGs. At Comics Mart, the one item was $2 (can't beat that!) and the other they calculated (fairly) from the USD to the SGD price -- no price was marked on it in SGD. That's the same thing I've seen done in London gaming stores, and charging face value for old stuff is pretty standard in Seattle gaming shops, so I think it's perfectly normal. I didn't buy anything at Paradigm (not into 4e), so I don't know their prices.
Happy gaming, Singapore!
物:图书，手机，数ç
