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SoloFalcon1138 wrote:That's my point: if you have one, use it! Otherwise, great use all the discounters you can find! I'd say over 80% of my minis were purchased at FLGSs, the other 20% were eBay purchases of out-of-print pieces or pickups from buddies.

Let me ask you a serious question..... Are you married and or do you have kid(s)? I ask this because I do and money is tight so I need to stretch my hobby dollars as far as they go. For me this means I buy almost exclusively from online discounters or Ebay.

For me it is simply a question of limited amount of money and wanting to get the most for my dollar. I don't worry about how well my local store is doing. I wish them well and once in a while I will spend a couple bucks on something I need right away like paint or I'll grab a Wargames Illustrated from them.

My FLGS is almost always 10% cheaper than whatever i could get online. Plus, it has the added bonus of being close, being populated by non-TFG's and buying from them doesn't leave the feeling that I somehow cheated.

there are 2 or three stores within a reasonable distance of my home. Only one of them gets my patronage, simply due to the fact that they have a better location, and that the staff actually know what they are selling. the other store has a better area to play in, but because they have almost no parking, and what is available is metered, its not worth it to try and play there.

i miss the FLGS i had while i was in school. Massive play area, (could easily have 4 apoc games going at once) and from what I was told, quick turn arround on special orders. I only found this shop AFTER my army had been stolen, so i never bought any minis there. i did support them with purchases of other games though (i got my Munchkin collection up to Munchkin impossible through them, and 6 fatpack card boxes full of magic)

My FLGS (Borderlands Games) ias awesome. Friendly staff who actually know the games they sell (and even I, game ADD extrordianaire haven't heard of all of them) and host awesome tournaments

I shop there way too much for someone on my budget

I dont buy anything online unless its out of stock at my local GW, its a fair sized store with lots of shelf and gaming space and all the staff are friendly. We dont have any other model shops round here anymore that support wargaming but they are good for scenery bits and stuff.

brettz123 wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:That's my point: if you have one, use it! Otherwise, great use all the discounters you can find! I'd say over 80% of my minis were purchased at FLGSs, the other 20% were eBay purchases of out-of-print pieces or pickups from buddies.

Let me ask you a serious question..... Are you married and or do you have kid(s)? I ask this because I do and money is tight so I need to stretch my hobby dollars as far as they go. For me this means I buy almost exclusively from online discounters or Ebay.

For me it is simply a question of limited amount of money and wanting to get the most for my dollar. I don't worry about how well my local store is doing. I wish them well and once in a while I will spend a couple bucks on something I need right away like paint or I'll grab a Wargames Illustrated from them.

Do you play at the LGS or even use the LGS as a means to meet new people?

I see the benefits of online shopping, but there are also benefits to simply putting
off purchases until I can afford them. So far the Local Shops have been great venues,
so I do most of my purchasing from them. I've done the math on how much I'd
save online, and really if the money were all that tight I'd simply purchase less.

I'd still buy it at the stores because they're fostering a community of gamers.

malfred wrote:

Do you play at the LGS or even use the LGS as a means to meet new people?

I see the benefits of online shopping, but there are also benefits to simply putting
off purchases until I can afford them. So far the Local Shops have been great venues,
so I do most of my purchasing from them. I've done the math on how much I'd
save online, and really if the money were all that tight I'd simply purchase less.

I'd still buy it at the stores because they're fostering a community of gamers.

Ill play the other side of that. Not everyones store has a good selection or a good community. Mine is a good example of that. The owner/employee(s) have been friendly, however the people who are there playing look at you like you walked in on a Masons meeting when you come in. The store only plays 40k, WHFB, and FoW. They only carry product for them and not much of it. It is very poorly marked from the outside. They have been open for 2 years and I didnt know about them until a couple months ago...and found them through the GW website. I drive past the strip mall they are in several times a week.

Just remember not all LGS are created equal, and some of us have ones that just arent worth bothering with for very much...

The reality is that we don't have a cheap hobby and nobody really wants to pay more for stuff whether it's a model or a loaf of bread.

Myself, I play tourneys at my FLGS, so I buy what I can there. That means paints, modeling supplies and newer stuff. My out of production stuff such as older Ork models and my Witch Hunters (which have all pretty much gone to direct order up here) and the oddly packaged models like the Sister Hospitaller get bought online. At any rate though, I support the place I play at when I can.

I wouldn't call GW a FLGS, its a GW.

So why wouldn't I buy from the interweb?

I pay 10 euro's a year for a ten percent discount, seems fair enough. They stock Micro Art, Max Mini, GW, PP and many brands of paint like Vallejo. They also have the odd tournament and gaming tables you can use.
All that service is worth the 10 euro's membership

My gaming store is fine. It there are very few kids there, I like the staff, and many of the players I have known for more than a decade. I even worked there for a Christmas many moons ago.

I support the FLGS because I don't want it to go away. Buying online makes face-to-face customer service a thing of the past, and in retail, a personal connection is so much better than a 10% discount.

And if you are a good enough customer, you can get that discount from the FLGS as well, and not pay shipping.

Other bonus, it isn't a GW store, but a genuine GAMING store.

I am blessed to have one of the best FLGS in the business, the owner does massive sales a couple times a year, tons of play space, stocks whatever we ask him to, and even throws out the smelly kids, no really just the other day he told some fat smelly feth to get out of his store until he showered. As a result he has a rabidly loyal customer base people drive hours out of their way to buy from him.

I think when store owners go out of their way for their customers, the customers will reciprocate. So if any of you are ever in the Rochester NH area be sure to stop by Jetpack Comics, seriously one of the best in the biz.

Id honestly rather pay a table fee than feel beholden to purchase at retail.

Also when I make big purchases, read new army, I'm going to go looking for a discount. 30% off of a $400.00 purchase is a bit much to pass up because I like my FLGS.

I am always up front with the LFGS's around here though I give them the chance at my business before I go shopping online and most of them will meet or exceed the online discounts if given the chance and if the purchase is big enough.

Mattlov wrote:My gaming store is fine. It there are very few kids there, I like the staff, and many of the players I have known for more than a decade. I even worked there for a Christmas many moons ago.

I support the FLGS because I don't want it to go away. Buying online makes face-to-face customer service a thing of the past, and in retail, a personal connection is so much better than a 10% discount.

And if you are a good enough customer, you can get that discount from the FLGS as well, and not pay shipping.

Other bonus, it isn't a GW store, but a genuine GAMING store.

I get a discount and a face-to-face costumer service

I don't think there are more than two or three FLGSs in the whole of London.

malfred wrote:

brettz123 wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:That's my point: if you have one, use it! Otherwise, great use all the discounters you can find! I'd say over 80% of my minis were purchased at FLGSs, the other 20% were eBay purchases of out-of-print pieces or pickups from buddies.

Let me ask you a serious question..... Are you married and or do you have kid(s)? I ask this because I do and money is tight so I need to stretch my hobby dollars as far as they go. For me this means I buy almost exclusively from online discounters or Ebay.

For me it is simply a question of limited amount of money and wanting to get the most for my dollar. I don't worry about how well my local store is doing. I wish them well and once in a while I will spend a couple bucks on something I need right away like paint or I'll grab a Wargames Illustrated from them.

Do you play at the LGS or even use the LGS as a means to meet new people?

I see the benefits of online shopping, but there are also benefits to simply putting
off purchases until I can afford them. So far the Local Shops have been great venues,
so I do most of my purchasing from them. I've done the math on how much I'd
save online, and really if the money were all that tight I'd simply purchase less.

I'd still buy it at the stores because they're fostering a community of gamers.

I only play at mt LGS at most 4 times a year and I have met people there before who I have gamed with but I have a group of people that I game with that are not associated with the LGS. So no not really. I do not see the LGS as offering me anything that is worth extra money. Now I still probably spend around $200 a year there but that is a small chunk of my hobby money.

Tmonster wrote:I pay 10 euro's a year for a ten percent discount, seems fair enough. They stock Micro Art, Max Mini, GW, PP and many brands of paint like Vallejo. They also have the odd tournament and gaming tables you can use.
All that service is worth the 10 euro's membership

Subcultures I assume?

BrookM wrote:

Tmonster wrote:I pay 10 euro's a year for a ten percent discount, seems fair enough. They stock Micro Art, Max Mini, GW, PP and many brands of paint like Vallejo. They also have the odd tournament and gaming tables you can use.
All that service is worth the 10 euro's membership

Subcultures I assume?

+1
exactly, best shop in town

Tmonster wrote:

BrookM wrote:

Tmonster wrote:I pay 10 euro's a year for a ten percent discount, seems fair enough. They stock Micro Art, Max Mini, GW, PP and many brands of paint like Vallejo. They also have the odd tournament and gaming tables you can use.
All that service is worth the 10 euro's membership

Subcultures I assume?

+1
exactly, best shop in town

Hell yes, good staff, excellent range and just an all round great place to hang out.

My FLGS was ok, used to have 3/4 tables and a painting/modelling section, plenty of merchandise, friendly staff who knew what they were on about...
Now it seems there's only 2 gaming tables, both reserved for fantasy, even when the store is deserted, and it seems every weekend day is beginners day, so of course the store is full of half- interested kids who end up never coming back, but who still get priority on tables over me and my mate who are members, and have been going in for nearly 6 years.
Otherwise, can't complain...

My LFGS is a toymaster, which stocks about one hundred lines, GW paint, and some bits and bobs.

It's toy store, so no gaming there, although even there I'll buy the odd thing from him, paint, got a box of Daemonettes the other day to practice green stuff on etc.

I could have got it cheaper online, but its nice to have the odd impulse purchase. He is twenty mins away mind, so I only get in there a few times a year.

Get most of my stuff online at Maelstrom.

Sergeant Horse wrote:always support the FLGS, its the only way to keep promoting new people to play the game as well, thus ensuring its future and having future opponents, tourneys etc.

False.

I haven't set foot in a store to game in years ( got tired of TFGs, bad stock, and gamer funk) and yet I have gotten quite a few people into gaming in that time.

I have also started and promoted independent gaming groups, run events at cons, etc..

Others I know have done the same.

All gamers don't NEED game stores to play or promote/grow their hobby, just the lazy ones...


It becomes a sort of sad, symbiotic relationship in which gamers expect the store to spoon feed them events/opponents/space/terrain, and the stores expect blind obidience regardless of the quality of the service they offer...

Gamers can do lots of things independently to grow gaming, and many "game stores" continue to operate using the same flawed model that has spelled the doom of countless game stores before them and will consume many more in the years to come...

I'm lucky enough that my FLGS is one of the larger online retailers as well, and have the same pricing in the store as they do online. Before them though, I really only bought stuff locally if I was in a hurry or it was an impulse buy. On the same hand though, I typically don't play within the stores either, as I have a small gaming group that I stick with.

I'm probably a minority, but due to the way I play, just having tables is not enough to warrant me paying list or higher than list prices for most of my purchases. I've always had my gaming (be it RPGs, board, or wargaming) centered around playing at friend's/aquaintence's houses, rather than a store.

My LGS is WHW.

It's busy on Sat and Sun mornings, but aside from that I can go at almost any other day and there's guaranteed to be, ooh, let's see, 50 tables free, all fully terrained.

The shop holds quite a lot and with the main GW warehouse on site they can have anything in the model range within a couple of hours.

The staff are really friendly too, they stuck a pack of Skaven Cards behind the desk for my other half, to make sure they didn't sell out before she got one.

Oh and Bugman's Bar. Can't go wrong with having a beer with you battle, haha.

Yes, I'm quite spoilt with my LGS.

I do order stuff online, but I also support my local store whenever I can. Luckily for them, they also carry Magic and D&D, along with other games, so they're doing pretty well

My local gaming store does things just right, IMO: they have plenty of gaming space (20 or so tables) with plenty of terrain, and they offer a 20% discount if you play in the weekly league. The league costs $10 a month, but pays out 80% in store-credit prizes, and the other 20% goes to maintaining the terrain.

I have a great time running the league, the players seem to have a great time playing in it, and I almost always see a few of them picking up some GW product on league night, so the discount and environment are definitely increasing sales.

If any of you live in the Portland Oregon area, I highly suggest that you check out Guardian Games.

My FLGS is awesome. The shop owner (on the day of my birthday) ordered too many beastmen battalions, so had one for half off.

Best B-day gift ever.

I have yet to discover a wargaming store in brunei. I doubt they exist. Closest one I know of is in malaysia.... I sometimes ponder a trip to kuala lumpur just to rebuild my warhammer collection.

My LGS is a GW.

The prices are 50% more than the rest of the world.


Why the hell would I ever buy from there?

H.B.M.C. wrote:My LGS is a GW.

The prices are 50% more than the rest of the world.


Why the hell would I ever buy from there?

because you enjoy the sounds of pain your wallet makes?


i try and pop in the local store once a month or so and pick something up, even if its just paint
the owner is a fairly cool person to talk to, and sometimes i like to be able to just browse around and look at things in person instead of questionable net images