at the risk of grave digging, I wanted to praise the wonderful selection you can find at "the dragon".... its been around 30 years since the group of gamers started the moonlighting store in Downtown Flint.
as players they knew what to stock because it was what they themselves would buy.
Because almost all had jobs, they didnt need to live on the profits so most of the profits were returned to stocking the newest games
this also allowed them to be satisfied with out of the way places, lower traffic areas.... lets face it, the major part of the crowds just don't go for D&D/Magic:the Gathering/miniatures etc so high traffic isnt going to be that helpful.... but word of mouth would.... and that first store was in a store-front that was scheduled to be demolished for the coming downtown revitalisation in 5-ten years but who would rent a store they know they need to move out of? (someone who likes the low rent) and the plus..... the store was just two blocks from the Flint Campus of the University of Michigan thus most traffic was someone connected to the UofM including lots of game playing students
one thing missing in the pictures above are the gaming tables that were made by the owners.... to allow the games to be demonstrated and have weekend tournements
when moving day came the tables also went to the Davison (ex) dance studio with more space for more inventory and more playing area
it is sad to see the tables removed from the newer stores but the out of the way "must drive" location doesnt have the walk in traffic that the first two stores had but it looks like they used the extra space for even more inventory
if you like playing the esoteric or even mainstream FRP you got to see what the genre has by visiting Red Dragon Hobbies
one more new thing.... the snow on Al's roof, he's gone white since i last saw him... Hey Al, say Hi to Mickie for me
Magic and I actually recently found a store that looks similar to this one in Grand Rapids, right around the corner from my apartment! It's called White Cap Comics and Games. They have a huge selection of strategy games, they have comics, action figures, cards, various gaming supplies, and it's in a warehouse-type space, so they have a ton of tables set up for gaming. It's a pretty sweet place. If anyone is in the Grand Rapids area, definitely check this place out. http://www.whitecapcomics.com/
@ Wags, whitecaps is cool, and has a lot of D&D books, and probably one of the better places around town for that stuff. There are also a few other shops around Grand Rapids:
1. Grandlan in the city which is a lan gaming store which also sells a few boardgames, a few comics and a few D&D books.
2. Goldmine comics, which sells primarily comics and magic cards, and has D&D books and the like as well.
3. AlphaPlayers, a store for just magic cards that has opened up recently.
4. Legends sports and games, the store I primarily play at. The store is mostly a sports store, but has all your MTG needs and runs the best tournaments in town (imo) and soon will be moving to a 150 person game room. The goal is that they would start up a PTQ in the near future for MTG.
Currently I like legends the best, all the stores are approximately the same size, besides grandlan which is by far the smallest (for magic at least).
I didn't know you lived right there... Maybe I'll have to visit you and magic sometime when I head on out to whitecaps!
Comments
Bah, I was waiting for the right moment to play those words
Like "Hey Thrax, I saw your boner". That wouldn't have sounded awkward. Nope.
as players they knew what to stock because it was what they themselves would buy.
Because almost all had jobs, they didnt need to live on the profits so most of the profits were returned to stocking the newest games
this also allowed them to be satisfied with out of the way places, lower traffic areas.... lets face it, the major part of the crowds just don't go for D&D/Magic:the Gathering/miniatures etc so high traffic isnt going to be that helpful.... but word of mouth would.... and that first store was in a store-front that was scheduled to be demolished for the coming downtown revitalisation in 5-ten years but who would rent a store they know they need to move out of? (someone who likes the low rent) and the plus..... the store was just two blocks from the Flint Campus of the University of Michigan thus most traffic was someone connected to the UofM including lots of game playing students
one thing missing in the pictures above are the gaming tables that were made by the owners.... to allow the games to be demonstrated and have weekend tournements
when moving day came the tables also went to the Davison (ex) dance studio with more space for more inventory and more playing area
it is sad to see the tables removed from the newer stores but the out of the way "must drive" location doesnt have the walk in traffic that the first two stores had but it looks like they used the extra space for even more inventory
if you like playing the esoteric or even mainstream FRP you got to see what the genre has by visiting Red Dragon Hobbies
one more new thing.... the snow on Al's roof, he's gone white since i last saw him... Hey Al, say Hi to Mickie for me
1. Grandlan in the city which is a lan gaming store which also sells a few boardgames, a few comics and a few D&D books.
2. Goldmine comics, which sells primarily comics and magic cards, and has D&D books and the like as well.
3. AlphaPlayers, a store for just magic cards that has opened up recently.
4. Legends sports and games, the store I primarily play at. The store is mostly a sports store, but has all your MTG needs and runs the best tournaments in town (imo) and soon will be moving to a 150 person game room. The goal is that they would start up a PTQ in the near future for MTG.
Currently I like legends the best, all the stores are approximately the same size, besides grandlan which is by far the smallest (for magic at least).
I didn't know you lived right there... Maybe I'll have to visit you and magic sometime when I head on out to whitecaps!