Elegant Octopus Games — Attraction in Tacoma

updated 4/6/2025 It's sad to see the one star reviews from people, especially those who haven't really rated any other businesses. 🤔 If you're a gamer of any kind, you know that scalpers can ruin our fun & this causes little-to-no product availability in game stores...so don't be mad if what you're wanting is out of stock. [This last happened for me during MTGs LOTR set. Everyone and their mother started buying boxes so the supply/demand was insane.]

Does Elegant Octopus price gouge? No. They are a small business. They need to make a profit in order to stay in business BUT that pricing is well within market: TCGPlayer: Tarkir Collectors Box $344.99 Elegant Octopus: $329.99

Look, maybe those 1* reviewers caught Elegant Octopus having a bad day ... maybe it was those 1* reviewers first time at Elegant Octopus ... regardless, we only know one side of the story. As someone who is there weekly (sometimes twice a week), someone who chats with the employees, someone who goes in to buy products and crack open packs....someone who is a gamer....THIS STORE is worthy of my original 5* review below.

*Easily the best game store if you belong to the LGBTQ+ ♡♡ (SO accepting) ♡♡ we like to go here because we play Magic the Gathering. They have one of the largest selections of all of the game stores that we've been to when it comes to packs/ boxes! Their singles selection is also worthy. ( be sure to use the two kiosks near the back to check for singles!!) Aside from Magic, they have a few board games, pokemon, video games, and a few other nerdy things. This is definitely a game store you...

Went to The elegant octopus on December 5th looking for a complete copy of Pokemon Platinum I asked the employee at the counter if they had a copy they ended up finding one the copy was $250 I asked why the price was so high when the market price is $165 I told the employee that it sells on average and regularly on eBay for $160 to 170 they told me they don't price off of eBay they price off of price charting and then said plus 30 to 50%, didn't understand what that meant at first then I looked up the price on price charting and it said it was $165 market price and then he told me again plus 30 to 50%. So the item is marked up close to $ 90 over market price which is ridiculous. games are way too overpriced at this store. by the way no game store I have ever visited has ever paid more than 50% cash of the market value for the items you sell to them so if market price is $165 for a game they might pay you 50% of that best case. so if they sold it for $165 they make double their money if they paid 50%. but they feel they have to add an additional $84 just dishonest and unethical there's no justification for that. I urge people to look up the prices before buying anything if they ever visit this store I will never visit the store again and will never recommend the store to anyone . So in total not a good place to shop in my opinion. prices are overpriced ridiculous percentages and it's not fair for customers to pay those percentages over market price just for a business to stay...

I've been to all the game stores in the Tacoma area, and this one is overall my favorite. Prices are a fair bit higher than market, but that's to be expected for brick and mortar. They also have a generous rewards program which brings stuff more in line with market value. I've had a wonderful experience with almost all of the employees every time I've been in, and always found them to be extremely patient and helpful. Unfortunately, the older gentleman that works here is incredibly rude and condescending, to the point where I'm not even sure if I feel comfortable returning in the future. Despite spending a very significant amount of money at this location over the past few years, I was treated as if I was a scammer after they sold me a defective game (the only time I have ever attempted a return for any reason). Fortunately the owner was kind enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, but the employee continued to make snarky comments and treat me like garbage even after that.

Admittedly none of the other reviews seem to mention this, so it's possible that I did do something wrong or otherwise misinterpreted the situation. But as you can probably tell by my lack of reviews, it's extremely rare that I actually leave a business...