Where did you first buy your D&D stuff?

[Jack Daniel]

I started out with a Denning black box purchased from a KB Toys in Michigan City, Indiana in the late 90s, followed shortly by a black-cover AD&D 2nd edition PHB and DMG (I never had a Monstrous Manual in those days) from a bookstore in that same mall called Reader's World.

 

[Undertaker Sheep]

Short answer: either eBay or my friendly-but-sadly-not-so-local-gaming-store.

Long answer:
I bought my first D&D book from eBay in (I think) 2010. I think it was the 3.5 PHB, but it might have been the entire core 3 (each from a different seller). I had been previously running my campaigns using the SRD, and it felt magical to have those books in my hand. For a long time, I was a DM who didn't even know D&D had books!

But those were all in used condition. The first mint D&D books I ever bought were 4e books when a gaming store 30 min away had a ''we need to get rid of 4e so buy 3 and pay for 1'' deal. Despite some of the good ol' 4e hate that had rubbed off on me from the internet, I bought the PHB, the two DMGs, and 3 Monster Manuals (or the first MM and the two Draconomicons), just to give it a fair shot.

I ran a session for one of my players, who had bought the PHB + Heroes of Shadow + Arcane Power, that night. It lasted well into the morning. I was surprised at how much we both liked the system.

That pleasant experience kept me coming back for more. I have bought almost all of my 4e and Pathfinder books either at that store or through people I met at that store.

Yours truly,

Someone relatively new to the hobby who feels like the odd one out in this thread.

 

[Pickles JG]

Softback PHB from Games Workshop Birmingham in 1979 ish.

 

[Steely Dan]

I was given the complete set of 1st Ed books from my older brother in 1987, later purchase were done at Waldenbooks in the San Fernando Valley, CA. Then I moved to Maui in 1990, and started buying from bookstores and a really groovy comic book store. Moved back to LA in 1993, and made most purchases at the Iron Grenadier gaming store in the San Fernando Valley.

Stopped playing around 1994 due to a Magic addiction, then moved to London, UK (where I currently live), in 2001 (also got back into D&D with 3rd Ed), and now make my purchase at The Orc's Nest and Forbidden Planet in Leicester Square.

 

[Mercule]

I picked up the Red box (BECMI, before CMI were released) at Walgreen's. Actually, I should say that 10 year old me begged my mom to get it.

 

[fanboy2000]

I started playing while I was in "A" School after I joined the Navy. It was 1995, probably, when I bought my first books. I don't remember the first book. Likely it was the PHB or some such when I was going to Nuke school in Orlando. Probably got it from the Barns & Noble near the base.

I'm probably different that I started playing as an adult (or as near an adult as an 18 year old is) during the late 2e period. Like, who does that? Anyways, I started buying in full force after I got back from deployment in early 1996. There was a game store/hobby shop in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area that I bought most of my books at. Early purchases were things like Planescape, Champions of Mystara, and the Lankhmar books. I bought the AD&D Lankhmar book before I'd even heard of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Now I own all the Swords books. But not then.

I dropped out for a little while, thinking D&D was uncool and WOD was the shiznit. Then 3e sucked me back in. I've never looked back.

 

[Shiroiken]

I got my first set of books from my first DM. He had to leave the game for IRL reasons. He had (just about) everything for 1E, so the first I bought myself was the 2E PHB at Waldenbooks.

 

[was]

They did not have a game shop in my home town. After I got out of the service, my little brother introduced me to the game. We had both moved to a much larger town/city. I got an old, beat-up copy of the 2nd ed. PHB from him. I still have it. My later purchases were also at a Waldenbooks at a mall about 20 minutes away.

 

[ExploderWizard]

My first D&D materials came from a K&K Toys about 20 miles away from where we lived. I picked up the Moldvay basic, and Cook/Marsh expert boxes along with B1, B3, and the Dungeon Geomorph (set 1 to 3).

 

[Zhaleskra]

Bookstore in a redundant mall. The reason I call the mall redundant is because it was built next to an existing mall that was already close enough to where I lived at the time. Both malls still exist, the bookstore is gone.