Mystery Loot Bags. These are bags that we are selling for a suggested donation of $60 that have at least 3 or more games with a retail value between $80-$120. (sometimes with bonus demo games thrown in. These are $60 including tax, so if you have cash, give us a call about 5 minutes before and then when you are down the street and we will bring it out to you.
Ok…two problems with a common solution.
The next month is gonna be a tough one for us as a store as business drops to the floor.
Its a stir crazy time for people who are home from school or work.
We know that new board games are a great solution, and we will be here to give good recommendations, and will work hard this week to see if we can try and become able to take orders online and but for now, we are doing officially unofficial curbside/at the door delivery as a way to keep things safe and still do what we can for you and to stay alive. .
If you can, we really appreciate the support over the next little bit. It means a lot to us, and this way we can be here when this is all done.
Enough…Thanksgiving is for being with people, not shopping….
(This is a mostly a repost…but hey…we’ve been doing the same thing every year)
New this year….We not be offering any savings for our sales this year…we’re doing Givings instead. Instead of trying to out cheap Amazon, we’re opting for going for being good people. There has been way too much of the opposite in the world these days. And the best way I know to deal with selfishness and bullying is with fierce kindness. So from now till the end of the holiday season, I’m gonna ask that you save a little chunk of your gift $$ to spend with us, and in exchange, when you buy gifts from us, together we will give more gifts for those who are a little short of random kindness. Spend $50 or more, put a $10 gift into the big box, $100 and put up to a $20 gift, etc. We have a bunch of great games and goodies that we’ve hand picked for the holidays, including good games for getting everyone off of screens for both thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays.
We are Closed for Thanksgiving…Open at 1pm on Friday the 29th. (maybe earlier depending on when I can get back…but that will be bonus.)
Black Friday =Family Friday
Every year. I do my traditional Thanksgiving thing, and stand up against the marketing Tsunami and become a foolish business guy.
I’m not going to be part of the industry that has done such an amazing job of implanting in our minds that it is SHOPPING time, that we have forgotten that this is a day where our family/friends have often traveled a big distance, are together and don’t have to go to work. Don’t go shopping on Friday (or Thursday night, etc). Not in the stores, not on line, none of it.
Go play!!! Sure, I’m the board game guy, so that’s my auto suggestion, but go for a walk, hike, de-dust the football (and stretch first..those of us who’s memories of being 12 are a few times older then being 12.) But go goof with each other, and have some (gasp) fun! Relax, go back to the leftovers a bunch of times when no one is looking. Or just chill out.
I’m not saying we don’t want and need yer business. We absolutely do. Competing with the near cost prices of Amazon means that every sale from customers who appreciate that we are creating a home for community more then anything else is absolutely key for us. (So save some of your gift money to spend with us). But it does mean that I’m not going to make my sales last 45 minutes so you have no choice but to leave the house in order to get them. We’ll be doing sales all week , but we’ll base them on how many we need to sell at that price so, you can come in this weekend, or next week, etc.
Our big thing is to make sure that we listen and can point you to things that will actually be fun to play and make people happy. (And no fake reviews either. Ok…that was a little shot at Amazon…couldn’t help myself.)
Coming…list to a page of our recommended gifts for this year, as well as any other special stuff. But for right now, just think about special stuffing. (Ok…if you come into the store today, you can get some great games to play over the holiday.)
Back in stock…4 copies of Xanthar’s Guide to Everything–the special Edition!!!
Harry Potter Hogwart’s Battle-Cooperative Deck Building Game: We’ve sold through 3 orders of this great cooperative deckbuilding game that has you take the role of Harry or his buddies to battle to keep the minions of he who should…well you know the rest, from taking over different locations before finally defending the school itself. SOLD OUT
Potion Explosion: My favorite find at this year’s Comicon. This game features a real life bejeweled affect
Evolution,Evolution Flight, and Evolution Climate Change. The first Evolution is one of our staff picks, a great game where you are trying to evolve the most species, eat the most food, or go carnivore eat the most of your opponents
players chose one of (currently) three factions from the Star Trek myhos and go exploring the galaxy in their own particular, how do you say, style. (The Federation gets their success from exploration, the Klingon’s can, literally, not back down from any chance at glorious combat, and the Romulans, slip around, not letting you know which way they decide to go.
The Pandemic folks have a slate of 3 great offerings beyond their normal great coop “Let’s keep the world cured and happy, despite itself” race against unpredictable time game. Pandemic Iberia just came in yesterday. And Pandemic Cthulhu is a great variation that uses the same game play pattern, but somehow feels like a whole new, and very fun game. And then there is probably my fav. game from last year, Pandemic Legacy. Legacy games are this new concept that basically says “what if what happened in the board game we just played today stuck with the game forever…like the board changed, the rules changed, the world changed.” It’s not only super fun, but is one of the best games ever for building a regular game night. There are twelve sealed packets or boxes in the game that get opened each subsequent time you play, so instead of “what should we play tonight” you get “man, what’s going to happen next?!?” Just great…
Kill Doctor Lucky: This is a great game that was out of print until the creator finally hammer-locked the rights back from an utterly disengaged publisher. It’s the exact opposite of Clue….take a minute and let that process. 😉 Yep, instead of trying to find the homicidal miscreant, you are trying to get alone with the wandering doctor where no one can witness your evil doings and grab those honors for yourself.
On top of all those, there are new versions/add-ons for
Harry Potter Hogwart’s Battle-Cooperative Deck Building Game: We’ve sold through 3 orders of this great cooperative deckbuilding game that has you take the role of Harry or his buddies to battle to keep the minions of he who should…well you know the rest, from taking over different locations before finally defending the school itself.
Evolution,Evolution Flight, and Evolution Climate Change. The first Evolution is one of our staff picks, a great game where you are trying to evolve the most species, eat the most food, or go carnivore eat the most of your opponents
players chose one of (currently) three factions from the Star Trek myhos and go exploring the galaxy in their own particular, how do you say, style. (The Federation gets their success from exploration, the Klingon’s can, literally, not back down from any chance at glorious combat, and the Romulans, slip around, not letting you know which way they decide to go.
The Pandemic folks have a slate of 3 great offerings beyond their normal great coop “Let’s keep the world cured and happy, despite itself” race against unpredictable time game. Pandemic Iberia just came in yesterday. And Pandemic Cthulhu is a great variation that uses the same game play pattern, but somehow feels like a whole new, and very fun game. And then there is probably my fav. game from last year, Pandemic Legacy. Legacy games are this new concept that basically says “what if what happened in the board game we just played today stuck with the game forever…like the board changed, the rules changed, the world changed.” It’s not only super fun, but is one of the best games ever for building a regular game night. There are twelve sealed packets or boxes in the game that get opened each subsequent time you play, so instead of “what should we play tonight” you get “man, what’s going to happen next?!?” Just great…
Seafall: So speaking of Legacy Games….the next game from the one of the co-creators of Pandemic Legacy’s next game is a legacy game on the high seas. We only have two of these in stock, so call if you want one.
Web of Spies: So out of the blue, the creator of this game dropped one off to see if we might want to carry it. That I called him back as soon as I could and ordered twelve, should give you a notion of how much we liked it. This is a blend of Star Realms like deck-building with a Risk like hunting down of the five spies of each of your opponents.
Kill Doctor Lucky: This is a great game that was out of print until the creator finally hammer-locked the rights back from an utterly disengaged publisher. It’s the exact opposite of Clue….take a minute and let that process. 😉 Yep, instead of trying to find the homicidal miscreant, you are trying to get alone with the wandering doctor where no one can witness your evil doings and grab those honors for yourself.
On top of all those, there are new versions/add-ons for
This guide is our best, most honest recommendations for gifts for the holidays; based on interest, experience level/age (and budget).
Parents cheat sheet:
TCG or CCG (Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games)
Magic and Pokémon, are what are known as collectible card games. (Think collecting baseball cards, where you could actually play those better cards in a game.) The games are in their simplest form like the old card game War, where players put down two cards and the higher one wins. Each player has a starting amount of life, and they play cards used to attack, defense and respond to try and get the other player to zero (or in the case of Pokémon, to get 6 of the other players Pokémon to get to sleep). What is interesting about the game is that the cards themselves add and modify the rules of the game, creating an evolving set of game play. (That’s why the kids get excited about the new set of cards as they come out, each set adds new possibilities that they can puzzle out.)
From the parent’s point of view, the aspects of the games that are good are encouraging reading, math, and logic skills. BTW…ignore the age recommendations on the boxes…Magic is listed as 13+ …whoever set those levels clearly had no clue about the reality of kids. Pokémon is the usual game that starts kids playing, and it is very common for them to just enjoy collecting the cards without having a clue how to play it. Don’t worry…very normal. We do a Pokémon League on Saturdays where the kids get points for playing and actually get double points for helping the younger/new players figure it out. It’s good to eventually get them to learn how to play the game, because that is when they will start reading the card for real and to start working on the math that is part of playing the game.
It is also good for creating opportunities to learn fair play, though that benefits a lot from our help. Some of the rarest cards can end up being valuable ($100 or more), so talk to your kids about keeping them safe at school, as well as being both careful and fair in their trading with others. Keeping their cards in sleeves (usually between $3.5-$5 a pack) and in a deck box with their name on it ($3-5) will both keep the value of the cards intact and make it less likely for their cards to get mixed up with other kids by accident.
Players (kids and others) love opening up the packs, with that anticipation of finding some treasure within. The individual packs are very fun as stocking suffers or small gifts, but have the possibility of being a disappointing choice as a primary gift, since they are only “good” if they happen to have good cards in them. See the list below for better choices.
The recommendations below are from our staff (and me) and are our best, most honest advice.
Pokémon (age 6-up)
Item Name
Cost
Description/comment
Just Collecting for function
Good
Mini Binders, Pokeballs, and tins
$13-35 each
These have a number of booster packs and either a full art cool card, little Album or toy figure that matches the cool card. These are great for little kids…lot of “oh, ahh” per inch and there is at least one great card in each. This is full of great stuff and really big, so it will open well for max under the tree happy factor.
Better
Tins and “Boxes”(Collections)
$25.99–49.99
All of these have an Ex, Gx, V, etc (the cards they are looking to get in the packs) as well as a bunch of packs to open. Great “Yay” factor for kits
Better
Elite Trainer Kits
$19.99-24.99
These latest tin’s contain Ex (really good) versions of some of the best cards as well as a number of booster packs.
Better
Ultropro Premium Side loading binders
$24-49
These binders load the cards from the sides instead of the tops. Because of that, the cards don’t fall out and it is much harder for other light fingers to take things out without being noticed
Best
Full art Single cards or Ex-Cards or a box of boosters
$15-50 for the singles, $110 for the booster box (36 boosters)
If you know the cool card they are looking for, we can usually help. Otherwise, get them a gift certificate so they can come in and really trick out their decks. Or get them a full box of boosters. While no one really knows what is in each booster, generally each box has a few of the prized full art cards and they WILL be happy. Let us know if you want these since we don’t always have a lot in stock.
Stocking Stuffers
Single Packs.
$ 4-$8.99 each
More fun for new players or kid collectors then advanced players. The more advanced the player the more they will be happy if the pack has good stuff and otherwise it’s a scratcher. Good for stocking stuffers. There are Pokemon special packs up
Card Protectors (Sleeves)
$3.50-$5
Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players-They come in units of 50 which is dumb since the decks are 60. (We try and keep extra sleeves to make up for this…)
Pokémon Binders
$11.99-28.99
Either smaller 4 card per page or larger 9 card per page binders, always a good choice, particularly for younger players.
Deck boxes
$3-7
Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite
Magic The Gathering
Good
Binders
$17-40
Place to put the cards players want to trade.
Better
Commander Decks
$35-89
Most popular way to play magic these days. 100 card decks all set and ready to player.
Best
Fat-Pack/bundles
$40-89
Special box with 8-10 booster-packs, land, life counting die, and most fun for the kids, a full color booklet that shows all the cards in the set as well as having the backstory for the series and some special hints and combinations.
Good
Gift Certificates
$20-100
From the Vaults Sets
$49.99-169
Special Limited sets of foil version of classic cards. These are limited edition sets. We currently have From the Vault Angels (69.99 on sale), Annihilation ($49.99) and a few From the Vault 20 ($159)
Booster Boxes
$120-$259
Booster box of 36 packs of any of the sets of boosters we have in stock.
Stocking Stuffers/Small Gift ideas
Single Packs.
$ 4-29.99 each
Always fun to open, from $3.99 Magic Packs up to $29.99 that we usually try and discurage the kids from buying with their own money, but make GREAT stocking stuffers.
Card Protectors (Sleeves)
$3.50-$10
Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players
Deck boxes
$3-6
Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite
Box of Mini-dice
$15-20
These mini-dice are loved by experienced player to use for counters on the cards
Play-mats
$16-20
Providing a great surface to play on, these mats come in a number of great designs.
This year’s From the Vault is about to come out and people are asking how we are going sell them.
What is From the Vault? These are special super limited sets reprinting some of the best cards in Magic with new art and in all foil versions. This year it it is Angels.
Here is how the lists will work:
“Lock it in List”
10 slots on list
$79.99 until 8/5,
$89.99 until 8/12,
$99.99 until 8/19, $109.99 after that. (subject to change if market price goes way up)
“The big List”
10 boxes to be sold, random selection from list.
$49.99-Extra bonus entries in list awarded for “good customers” (Regular attendees for events, doing lots of business with the store. This is entirely at the discretion of the management. This will also include some recognition of those customers who go out of their way to be welcoming and helpful for new or learning players.)
The
“AC” Raffle
5 boxes
On the 23rd we will be pulling from a raffle to help us raise some funds to get a better ventilation system for the store to help with those extra hot days…we will be doing a bunch of prizes, including FTV Angels, Annihilation some most excellent cards, and Garruk’s axe.
This guide is our best, most honest recommendations for gifts for the Magic or Pokemon player in your life; based on interest, experience level/age (and budget).
Parents cheat sheet:
TCG or CCG (Trading Card Games/Collectible Card Games)
Magic, Pokémon, h are all are what are known as collectible card games. (Think collecting baseball cards, where you could actually play those better cards in a game.) The games are in their simplest form like the old card game War, where players put down two cards and the higher one wins. Each player has a starting amount of life, and they play cards used to attack, defense and respond to try and get the other player to zero (or in the case of Pokémon, to get 6 of the other players Pokémon to get to sleep). What is interesting about the game is that the cards themselves add and modify the rules of the game, creating an evolving set of game play. (That’s why the kids get excited about the new set of cards as they come out, each set adds new possibilities that they can puzzle out.)
From the parent’s point of view, the aspects of the games that are good are encouraging reading, math, and logic skills. BTW…ignore the age recommendations on the boxes…Magic is listed as 13+ and Yugioh is 6+…whoever set those levels clearly had no clue about the reality of kids. Pokémon is the usual game that starts kids playing, and it is very common for them to just enjoy collecting the cards without having a clue how to play it. Don’t worry…very normal. We do a Pokémon League on Saturdays where the kids get points for playing and actually get double points for helping the younger/new players figure it out. It’s good to eventually get them to learn how to play the game, because that is when they will start reading the card for real and to start working on the math that is part of playing the game.
It is also good for creating opportunities to learn fair play, though that benefits a lot from our help. Some of the rarest cards can end up being valuable ($100 or more), so talk to your kids about keeping them safe at school, as well as being both careful and fair in their trading with others. Keeping their cards in sleeves (usually between $3.5-$5 a pack) and in a deck box with their name on it ($3-5) will both keep the value of the cards intact and make it less likely for their cards to get mixed up with other kids by accident.
Players (kids and others) love opening up the packs, with that anticipation of finding some treasure within. The individual packs are very fun as stocking suffers or small gifts, but have the possibility of being a disappointing choice as a primary gift, particularly on the Yugioh side where a box of 24 packs only comes with 9 of the “super” and above cards that the players get excited about. See the list below for better choices.
The recommendations below are from our staff (and me) and are our best, most honest advice.
Pokémon (age 6-up)
Item Name
Cost
Description/comment
Just Collecting for fun
Good
Bundle boxes
$10-20 each
These have a number of booster packs and either a full art cool card, little Album or toy figure that matches the cool card. These are great for little kids…lot of “oh, ahh” per inch and there is at least one great card in each. For little girls, the Keldeo box will make their heads explode from the sheer cuteness of it. (this from the dad of an 8 year old girl)
New/learning players (6 and up)
Good
Pokémon Intro decks
$12.99-13.99
When they first start to play, they really need a deck that has been built for them that works together well. If you want to play with them (which is actually pretty fun), get a second one. (Dad advice…get a set of sleeves for each deck so when the cards get spilled all over, it’s easier to get them back to be usable.)
Knows how to play
Better
Hidden Fates Pin packs
$21.99
These big stocking stuffers have 3 packs and a bonus card. The Hidden Fates is a more rare set that has been hard to find.
Best
Hidden Fates Collections
$79.99-120
These boxes have special rare promo cards and sets of the Hidden Fates Packs. We have about 10 in stock.
Intermediate-Advanced Players
Better
Pokemon Tins-boxes
$21.99-27.99
These latest tin’s contain Ex (really good) versions of some of the best cards as well as a number of booster packs.
Better
Ultropro Premium Side loading binders
$24-29
These binders load the cards from the sides instead of the tops. Because of that, the cards don’t fall out and it is much harder for other light fingers to take things out without being noticed
Best
Full art Single cards or Ex-Cards or a box of boosters
$15-50 for the singles, $110 for the booster box (36 boosters)
If you know the cool card they are looking for, we can usually help. Otherwise, get them a gift certificate so they can come in and really trick out their decks. Or get them a full box of boosters. While no one really knows what is in each booster, generally each box has a few of the prized full art cards and they WILL be happy. Let us know if you want these since we don’t always have a lot in stock.
Stocking Stuffers
Single Packs.
$ 4 each
More fun for new players or kid collectors then advanced players. The more advanced the player the more they will be happy if the pack has good stuff and otherwise it’s a scratcher. Good for stocking stuffers only.
Card Protectors (Sleeves)
$3.50-$5
Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players-They come in units of 50 which is dumb since the decks are 60. (We try and keep extra sleeves to make up for this…)
Pokémon Binders
$4-9
Either smaller 4 card per page or larger 9 card per page binders, always a good choice, particularly for younger players.
Deck boxes
$3-5
Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite
Magic The Gathering
Background: There is a new set of Magic cards printed every 3 months, with some special sets printed in between. They are all still part of the same game.
Beginning Players
Good
Intro Packs
$15
60 card pre-made, ready to play decks and a booster pack. The decks are good for playing with other players, but not good for learning from scratch.
Better
Deck Builder’s Toolkit
$20
A great mini-collection for new players (and one that kids particularly love). Contains 125 semi-random cards good for building decks, 4 booster packs from recent Magic sets, 100 basic land cards, deck-builder’s guide and learn to lay guide, and a storage box.
Very cool
Holiday Gift Box
$20-25
4 Return to packspacks, a special bonus card and the coolest storage box we’ve ever seen. This is a great goodie for any Magic player.
Beginners and Intermediate Players
Best
Fat-Pack Buldles
$42.99-54.99
Special box with 9 booster-packs, land, life counting die, and most fun for the kids, a full color booklet that shows all the cards in the set as well as having the backstory for the series and some special hints and combinations. (Unfortunately most of these were lost in the theft so we won’t have as many as usual.)
Intermediate Players
Good
Draft Gift Certificate
$15
Gift certificate for one of our Draft events. Good for Friday Night Magic or the kid’s Date Night Magic, these events include three packs of cards and an evening playing with the decks built from them. Lots of fun for kids from 9-14 or for experienced players ready for the big time on Fridays.
Better
Izzet vs. Golgari dual decks
$30
Two great decks in one package. We only have a few left
Better
Magic Event Decks
$20-40
These are interesting collections of competitive cards. We have these from a number of sets.
Stocking Stuffers/Small Gift ideas
Single Packs.
$ 4 each
Always fun to open, Return to Ravnica is the latest, M13 is a good staple and there are great cards in the Innistrad set.
Card Protectors (Sleeves)
$3.50-$5
Price is based on style and maker. Keep cards protected and from getting mixed up with other players
Deck boxes
$3-5
Available with lots of colors and styles, pick their favorite
HUGE D20 Life counting dice
$8
An oversized 20 sided die used to keep count of life totals. Available in the 5 different magic colors.
Box of Mini-dice
$7-12
These mini-dice are loved by experienced player to use for counters on the cards
Play-mats
$16-20
Providing a great surface to play on, these mats come in a number of great designs.
Mystery Loot Bags. These are bags that we are selling for a suggested donation of $60 that have at least 3 or more games with a retail value between $80-$120. (sometimes with bonus demo games thrown in. These are $60 including tax, so if you have cash, give us a call about 5 minutes before and then when you are down the street and we will bring it out to you.
carry it. That I called him back as soon as I could and ordered twelve, should give you a notion of how much we liked it. This is a blend of Star Realms like deck-building with a Risk like hunting down of the five spies of each of your opponents.
