BIGMAGIC 秋葉原店 — Local services in Tokyo

Your experience at BIG MAGIC Akiba is very much hit or miss - if you are lucky, you will encounter friendly staff who will assist you with your purchases and/or queries. Otherwise, be prepared to face grumpy and rude employees who will not hesitate to speak to you in a condescending manner.

I've been to this shop multiple times over the years, and it has always been a game of chance when it came to customer service standards.

The shop is small and cramped, but they display a host of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) products, including singles, packs, playmats, and assorted trinkets.

Prices are reasonable; they are not too expensive.

All in all, BIG MAGIC benefits from being situated right next to the JR Akihabara station - they are in a prime location, which allows MTG players and customers to easily access the shop; this is even more pertinent to foreigners, as they don't have to spend too much time location hunting.

If you want a better experience, with a (far) greater selection of cards and (much) better customer service, try Hareruya at...

Avoid this place if at all possible.

They inflate the prices drastically on popular items (Blue/Red Challenger deck is 6000 yen, the rest are 3000 yen, and War of the Spark boxes are 16200 yen) and are only interested in gouging as much money from their customers as they can.

English support is minimal to none. They also do not stock the vast majority of products in their store (They have no albums/binders and no dragon shield sleeves for example) and they won't order in products for you either, just tell you to go to their online shop where you need to pay a nice fee for delivery.

On the plus side, they have a large amount of (overpriced) MTG singles, and a very good stock of anime/cartoon sleeves, ranging between 800 and 2500 yen.

The store is also tiny and cramped, with small alleys barely big enough for one person.

Really, just skip this shop unless you are desperate for singles before...

Unlike most of the reviews here I don’t have bad things to say about this store. The tablets accept English and Japanese card names when searching for cards. They pick cards relatively quick given the selection they have. All singles I’ve purchased have been perfect with one discounted by the clerk because he didn’t think it was perfect but it last the one in stock. If you are looking for singles then they have them at market prices that are in line with most shops in Japan. In fact I’ve seen cards there cheaper than other stores a few times. I haven’t had any rude experiences either. It’s a clean legit shop that caters to deck builders who know what...