Proportion of your rpg purchases online/FLGS
Almost always online. I always comparison shop, but the bulk of my purchases end up at alldirect.com. Since I'm always buying over $99 the shipping is even free! Only thing is that it sometimes takes a while for things to show up on their list, no preordering that I've found yet, and it's pretty much the big shops (but I've been surprised sometimes).
It was Amazon before that pretty consistently - and even recently when that ridiculously low price for dragonomicon showed up. Just discovered overstock.com and have added that to my "make sure to check" list.
My last purchase was Eberron, though, and given the reports about the missing pages I went to a local bookstore so that I could flip through it to know I was getting a good copy.
My FLGS shopping ends up being used second-hand materials - if it's in good enough condition it's new to me so I'll pick it up. Seeing as they aren't really "F", nor as "L" as I would like (though certainly a lot closer than some of you must drive), and they don't give me any discount on new stuff (unlike the 30-40% off at alldirect, or even the 10% I'll get off a books-a-million) I can't motivate myself to give exclusive patronage there. Shoot, even their second-hand stuff is less of a deal these days so that my visits have been getting rarer.
It was Amazon before that pretty consistently - and even recently when that ridiculously low price for dragonomicon showed up. Just discovered overstock.com and have added that to my "make sure to check" list.
My last purchase was Eberron, though, and given the reports about the missing pages I went to a local bookstore so that I could flip through it to know I was getting a good copy.
My FLGS shopping ends up being used second-hand materials - if it's in good enough condition it's new to me so I'll pick it up. Seeing as they aren't really "F", nor as "L" as I would like (though certainly a lot closer than some of you must drive), and they don't give me any discount on new stuff (unlike the 30-40% off at alldirect, or even the 10% I'll get off a books-a-million) I can't motivate myself to give exclusive patronage there. Shoot, even their second-hand stuff is less of a deal these days so that my visits have been getting rarer.
d4
First Post
almost entirely from my LGS (which unfortunately has been getting less and less F over the past year or so...).
i can probably count on one hand the number of gaming purchases i've made online, and they've generally been things that either aren't available through normal distribution or i didn't trust the LGS to order for me. (Sidewinder: Recoiled and Darwin's World 2e being the last two i purchased online.)
i can probably count on one hand the number of gaming purchases i've made online, and they've generally been things that either aren't available through normal distribution or i didn't trust the LGS to order for me. (Sidewinder: Recoiled and Darwin's World 2e being the last two i purchased online.)
haiiro
First Post
I'm about 50/50. Overall, I prefer shopping at my FLGS (The Underworld, in Ann Arbor, MI; great store) -- I like to browse, I like the "now factor," the folks who work there are nice, etc.
When money's short, or I'm not that excited about a book initially -- or a book's really expensive -- I usually buy it online.
When money's short, or I'm not that excited about a book initially -- or a book's really expensive -- I usually buy it online.
MonsterMash
First Post
Probably 90-95% FLGS, but I'm lucky in having 3 decent games stores in London and less stuff is on amazon.uk without as big a discount as the US site. On-line is mainly likely to be e-bay, rather than an actual retailer.
Well, i answered "all at FLGS", but that's not precisely true. First of all, i've bought a reasonable number of PDFs, and those i have to buy online. Second, i buy quite a bit at conventions--mostly used/OOP stuff, but also some of the small-press games that i either know or suspect the FLGS won't be able to get in. Third, probably more than half my gaming dollars go to used RPGs, and none of the 3 FLGSs in town have used games, so that means one of the 7--yes, count 'em, 7!--used bookstores in the area that carries used RPGs.
As to buying online: personally, Amazon won't get my money (for books, CDs, RPGs, or anything else) unless i can't get a local shop to sell it to me--and with 3 excellent FLGSs, Borders, Barnes&Nobles, and something like a dozen independent bookstores in the area (and probably Waldenbooks and/or B Daltons--haven't been into the mall in years), that's yet to happen. Similar reasons to me not giving WalMart my money--until i'm convinced that the business is good for society in the longterm, i'll refrain from supporting it. Not preaching, just 'splaining.
As to buying online: personally, Amazon won't get my money (for books, CDs, RPGs, or anything else) unless i can't get a local shop to sell it to me--and with 3 excellent FLGSs, Borders, Barnes&Nobles, and something like a dozen independent bookstores in the area (and probably Waldenbooks and/or B Daltons--haven't been into the mall in years), that's yet to happen. Similar reasons to me not giving WalMart my money--until i'm convinced that the business is good for society in the longterm, i'll refrain from supporting it. Not preaching, just 'splaining.
Turanil
First Post
In fact I agree with you on that. However, since I can get, for the same amount of money, three books on amazon instead of two in my FLGS, I have made my choice. I fear that eventually such a choice will generalized over all of society, and who knows what society will look like in 20 years? (But I hope that in 100 years it will look like in Transhuman Space
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