Hey, I'm one of the first people to bemoan the endangered status of your friendly neighborhood game shop. It's been... god, more than fifteen years since I last had a decent game shop within a reasonable travel radius (i.e., less than a 30-minute drive). The sad thing is that I was ALWAYS willing to pay full price at a good shop, because good shops give you MORE than just the products - they're wonderful places to go for those of our mindset. But since the beginning of the end of that local shop, I've been forced into online sources (and even then, I'll often wait until I can finagle a trip to one of the few remaining good ones that are MORE than a half hour away, because those are Home Away From Home).
But back when I had a regular group (the one I've had here in the past ten years has gone on hiatus in the last year-plus - too much real life going on, although most of the big developments keeping our members and GM from being able to participate have wound down and we're looking at the impending restart of our regular gaming sessions) that didn't play just D&D, I always made it a point to buy non-big-store (e.g., NOT WotC and the like) RPG stuff at actual stores or directly from the producer. I'm a big fan of supporting the little guy; big stores and online operations (Game Outfitter is a beautiful exception) just don't have, well,
soul. Even big-store products like D&D... well, when I find a bargain, I check it out to see if I can find out where the discount is coming from and if it hurts the retailer I'm potentially buying from. This is something I do even with everyday purchasing - I almost balked when my mechanic told me "no charge" for a few things, until they convinced that it really DIDN'T cost them anything more than a few minutes of their time.
Anyway, now you've given me a hankering to make a field trip to the closest good game shop. Damn you, Fred.
