Where do you buy books?

[Shemeska]

I have Amazon prime. So yeah, almost exclusively online. In fact the only books in the past 4 years that I have not purchased on Amazon proper were some Shadowrun books that Amazon wasn't carrying, and when I was at GenCon and a book was making its debut there and I wasn't willing to wait an extra week or so for it to be released elsewhere (I managed to snag two copies of Eclipse Phase that way).

 

[Keldryn]

I'd love to support local game stores, but when Chapters Online discounts their hardcovers by 34%, I can't justify the extra expense.

 

[Mistwell]

This is actually a two fold question. First off I wondered what proportion of gamers that use EN World purchase from an actual game store and what go online for the cheaper options?.

Well, if that is what you were getting at, then I'm afraid you failed to include an important option.

I purchase at Borders, using their club discount coupons which give 30-40% off, which is the same amount that Amazon discounts the books.

So, I buy locally, and it's the cheaper option.

You should probably scrap the poll and redo it with local big box discount store as a different answer than friendly local gaming store.

 

[Dimitri Mazieres]

I buy exclusively online because, well, I don't have a FLGS

 

[darjr]

I buy mostly at the store. Many of the books I buy are not on amazon and I get my FLGS to special order them. I'm there at the store playing a ton anyways.

There is at least one FLGS here that discounts (I think a lot) if you play the related game in question in the store.

 

[Holy Bovine]

What few books I buy nowadays I get at both my FLGS and online (mostly Chapters some Amazon). My buying patterns are low right now as we try to get our finances in some kind of order.

 

[fireinthedust]

If I'm buying, I'll usually try to support my local store. They have fairly good prices, and chop them often enough.

However, DDI means I almost never need to buy anything, per se. The CB is great, and covers what I need on a regular basis. I havn't gone through the MM1, let alone 2.

What I do buy is cheaper versions of minis: Bag o Zombies was great, and Skeletons; I'm waiting for them to get Bag o' Goblins and Bag o' Orcs, and some size Large minis (like Bag o' Ogres). Because I do this, my local store is inexpensive enough for me.

I don't get into card games, or random mini collecting, or anything else I see as a money-suck.

Actually, I did some calculating: did you know I could get a contractor-level drill and 215 assorted drill bits (including for steel, concrete and tile, etc.) for the same cost of about three regular-priced books? And I can make money off of them to cover those costs, which I won't ever get back with my D&D books!

Regardless of whether you order online or through a store, RPGs are a money suck for anyone but successful game designers (and given their lifelong habits, I doubt it's much profit even for them). This is more a question of whether you're sucking slightly less than the other posters on ENworld!

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I'm lucky in that I have a great FLGS that I buy nearly 100% of my gaming books from, The Guardtower. It's about a 30 minute drive one way from where I live, but worth it IMO.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I live in Japan and hte only gaming stuff I cold get at local gaming stores are Dungeon tiles and miniatures, both of which I have very occasionally bought there.

English language rulebooks are all from Amazon Japan, which is great except for their preorder wonkiness.

 

[jdrakeh]

Mostly online, though I did buy a copy of the most recent Dreamlands book for CoC and Mongoose's Runequest from the FLGS a while back.