Safari Pearl — Attraction in Moscow

When walking in staff was immediately rude. We offered greetings and smiles and got met with cold shoulders. Went in looking for pokemon cards with 2 of our kids (8yrs and 12yrs) . Both have saved up money to buy their own cards. Once we picked one pack out and asked for another we were told it was one item per GROUP. Which is absolutely insane. So neither of my kids got cards. When asked why it wasn't per person we were told because scalpers and claimed they wouldn't have product if they allowed groups to buy more than one thing. 🙄 Funny they want to talk about scalpers when they have scalper prices. Over 100% mark up on products. The new Prismatic booster bundle for $70 when it's $30 retail. Basing your prices in a retail store off of scalpers prices online is shady and only hurts the market.

I tried to distract my kids with some other neat fidgets and asked about a couple and a lady with short hair was glaring at my children the whole time and would only reply with snort snippy answers. We tried to look around a bit but at this point both of my kids felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted to leave. Disappointed is an understatement.

We will not be returning or recommending this store. We will stick to Hodgins and other...

I play a lot of Magic and typically go to Hodgins, but today I decided to check out Safari Pearl. The store is wonderfully set up with walls of board games and tables to play. When you walk in you are greeted by a sweet white dog with a ball in her mouth. An easy 5 stars just for her! I also very much enjoyed their catalog system (kiosk) which you would view online by the way! I learned that I could buy a card from home and then pick it up. This will take some getting used to, nonetheless, it beats spending hours sifting through boxes and boxes of "overflow." "Why four and not five stars Bruce?" Great question! While everything seems great, I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of stock. I kept striking out when looking for what should be pretty standard products like dice and MTG challenger decks. The staff (and maybe owner?) were nice, but they were not very knowledgable about MTG which made the experience a little disappointing. Perhaps I've been spoiled at Hodgins? So, I ended up having to drive to Hodgins where I found everything I needed. I guess I should have gone there first? If Hodgins had a cataloging system and a puppy dog to greet, it would be my forever shop! 4 stars and a smile...

In my original review, I basically said that I was being ripped off by the way they do card trade-ins here. I was wrong. I had it explained to me today that they have a system that looks at more than just TCGPlayer for their prices. I originally assumed that this store went with the same system I’ve seen at every other store I’ve been to. I will say that this does mean, in my experience, you will get less for your trade-ins compared to other local stores, but it doesn’t mean you’re being ripped off. They do however accept cards that are less than $5 in value, which is pretty great considering some other local places won’t take them.

I still feel that one member of the staff makes me uncomfortable at times, and today seemed to get defensive when I asked about how cards are priced. Other times I’ve been here the individual made me uncomfortable by using non-verbal signals of “oh great” whenever I bring in trade-ins.

Even after visiting today and being happy with a purchase, I don’t know if I can recommend going here, at least for Magic trade-ins. Other stores have wider selections of cards to trade for and make, at least for me, feel more welcomed when...