Dragons Keep — Attraction in Provo

Edit: from 5 to 1. Original comment below.

What makes or breaks a local game store is staff. Any building with some tables and some cards can be suitable for a Magic shop, but having knowledgeable, helpful staff is the only thing that separates a game store from a McDonald’s play room. I’m sad to say that there have been changes to the staff at Dragon’s Keep Provo and it is for the worse. The people that work there are not bad people but they don’t enhance the experience in any way. One person they recently hired had actually made me very uncomfortable and now I don’t go there anymore. They transferred Kyle (the name of the guy mentioned in the original post) to another store and now it’s very hard to connect with staff. The teenage girl they hired was the straw that broke this camel’s back. She knows nothing about Magic, comics, or board games. She is loud and interruptive and rude. If she just didn’t know stuff and kept to herself that would be fine, but she is always interrupting games to try to insert herself in conversation. She has from time to time “playfully” taken people’s property and taunted them with it. If you know anything about Magic, some cards can be extremely valuable and most players are protective of their cards and equipment. It is supremely disrespectful and wrong to handle another person’s property without permission. She was also responsible for banning an extremely loyal and long time customer because he insulted her (Not me).

The reason these things are so important is because a local game store isn’t just selling cards and comics, they sell a culture. The culture that is being cultivated there now is not conducive to fun— the heart of games and comics. Kyle now works in the Spanish Fork location, so I would highly recommend making the trip there rather than this location or consider Game Den in Provo. I would encourage all to avoid this location now.

OP: (No longer true) I love coming here to play Magic. Its really close to my house and it’s easily accessible. The staff really makes this place. Typically the people that work here are knowledgable and super helpful. Sometimes they transfer staff to other locations and it is sad! You get so connected with them from coming and playing often. The guy that works there now is really cool, down to earth, and helpful. He’s always willing to help you find stuff or find out information for you. I think his name is Ryan? He’s a tall African American guy who you wouldn’t think would be into the things that they have here but he is and he’s super understanding about things he’s not. He provides excellent service and good advice. Definitely recommend coming here.

The prices are good and fair. I’ve never felt cheated here and I love how nice everyone is. The culture here is good too. There are a few players that take themselves too seriously but overall the playgroups here for standard and commander are awesome. I haven’t played the other formats here yet but I’m sure...

First a little backstory- I’m a 40 year comic book collector who’s in-laws live in the neighboring town of Heber City. For the last few years I’ve made a trip to this shop during the holidays and have always left happy. Yesterday I spent 6 hours going through approximately 100 long boxes of filthy, unorganized books (all of which were issues I had seen in previous years visits, 1/2 of them with no bags or boards, upside down, backwards and or in head high boxes I had to lift myself. Many issues had missing covers. It is the kind of collection you would expect to find a county flea market. In previous years I was checked out at either $5 a book or $10 a book which was fair. I found approximately 50 books and a new Marvel short box to hold them in. At the check out counter the employee opened up ‘mycomicshop.com’ and began “pricing” the books at top of market, I explained to him my previous (positive) experience(s) there and that I had made special arrangements to spend the day there and that I was visiting from out of town. At this point the “manager” stepped in and told me “yeah we get ripped off all the time so this is how we do it now”. I explained to him that I was happy to pay a lump sum total and was denied. So, essentially I spent 6 hours in finding the only 50 books of any value that they didn’t even know they had in the first place. I was planning on spending $1k between the books I had found and on board games my wife and brother-in-law had selected as holiday gifts for the family. We all agreed we were treated rudely. This is a despicable practice and undermines the essence of the “hunt” and comic collecting in general. I feel sorry for the good people of Provo that this is there only comic shop. In the 6 hours I spent there none of the 3 employees (1 hourly 2 owner/managers) attempted to engage me or even say “hi” I ended up leaving, angry and frustrated. It would have taken at least another hour and a half for them to look up each individual issue and then grade and price the books that would be $5 box books anywhere in the world. The practice of last minute pricing is not only unfair to the customer but reflects the laziness of the owners and their lack of respect for the comics in their bins. Collectables are only worth what someone who loves them are willing to pay. Avoid...

I like Dragon's Keep in general but I wouldn't go here to sell your cards.

I took a big box of magic cards to sell here since I didn't want to piece them off individually. I know that when you sell cards in this way you get maybe half of what they're actually worth in store credit and maybe a fourth of their value if you want cash for your collection. I like games so I wanted store credit.

So after taking them in they asked if I could leave my cards there so that they could price them out and then they'd call me with an offer for the collection. They were busy and I generally trust the folks who run the store so I left them there and called back a few days later.

When I called back to see how much they could offer for my cards they gave me a super low number, lower than I knew I should get even for selling them at a game store. So I politely declined their offer and went to pick up my cards.

I got to the store and they gave me my box and just as I was on my way I decided to check the box. It seemed like there were less cards than I brought in. I started flipping through them and the higher value stuff (I'm not an idiot when it comes to cards worth) was straight up missing.

I went to the person working and told them that cads where missing. They immediately became nervous and said that maybe the cards got "accidentally mixed into their inventory". Well they started looking through piles and sure enough cards I knew I had taken in started popping up in their higher value piles that they needed to put prices on. I told them a number I wanted in store credit to correct this issue and they gave it to me no questions asked.

Now this very well could have been an accident to which they did make an effort to make me happy and fix the issue. However I felt like they had intentionally thought they got lucky with someone who they could squeeze a couple extra bucks out of. Again probably an honest mistake since they are usually very cool but just be very careful when you sell your cards in bulk to game stores.

Other than this Dragon's Keep is pretty cool, though it is pretty smelly in there and they might want to light some candles...