Grognard Games Batavia — Local services in Batavia Township

I'm putting a 2 star review here because at first I really liked this place. I've been able to get many an MTG pack here, as well as sleeves and singles for my decks, at reasonable prices. However, with the release of the Final Fantasy MTG set, mixed info was given to me at different dates, and have been left feeling like I was almost a victim of scalping. Scalping. From a local game store.

For context: I went into Grognard Games around March this year, asking them to put a collector booster box, a play booster box, and two commander decks on hold for me to purchase when it was released. They informed me that they were estimating a cost of 450 for the collector booster box, about 80 for each commander deck, and 200 for the play booster box. They also informed me that I would have two weeks to purchase the held items once they arrived at the store. I was fine with that at the time, and asked them to put my name in for those items.

Come mid-May, I received a call saying that the collector booster box would instead be 650, the play booster box would be 250, and one of the two commander decks I wanted would be 100 (the other being 80 as estimated). I would've been ok with the play booster box and commander decks being those slight amounts higher, but the collector booster box being 200 dollars more than initially estimated is ridiculous. I asked the woman on the phone what those prices were based on, and she said they were based on "market prices online." I spoke with a few out-of-state friends about this, and they told me they felt like I was being scammed. I asked Grognard to hold one of the commander decks and the collector booster box anyway, hoping I could save up enough for the collector booster box by the time release came around.

Just today, I received another call, stating that the product would be ready to pick up and purchase on Friday (tomorrow). I was then informed that if I did not purchase my items BY THE END OF THE WEEKEND, that the product would be put back up on the shelf, "due to the popularity of the set." So instead of two weeks, I get three days?

Overall, my experience with the Final Fantasy MTG set with this store has been horrible. I was told one thing, only to be flip-flopped around on after a couple of months just because the popularity of the set caused prices online to skyrocket. I will no longer be doing business with Grognard Games, and I wouldn't recommend anyone go here to pre-order any new sets whose prices might skyrocket online due to popularity, because (at least to me) it feels like they will change their prices to make as much money off of you as they can.

I understand needing to make enough money to stay afloat and have a bit of a financial cushion to keep the shop open, but providing a price estimate and pickup timeline to someone one day, only to hike the prices and give a smaller pickup window "because of popularity" at a later date is not great business practice. Really taking advantage of people's FOMO here with the "buy it sooner at a higher price or we'll sell it to someone else" policy.

TL;DR - Be discerning with your wallet, and keep an eye out for inconsistent pricing and business practices. If you purchase products here, you could...

“If it’s on our buy list, we’ll buy it.” I called ahead and asked about the process and told them the cards I was going to bring in. Brought the cards in after doing the buy list submission and was told they can’t buy them. Card value is too high and they are not accepting Star Wars unlimited anymore. They can also only do cash buys if it’s a few hundred dollars. I brought in a card that they have listed on their buy list for $1,163.28 cash or $1,1512.26 store credit.

Besides that, crew was super nice. If you have no intention of bugs high dollar items that you have listed on your website,...

Grognard Games Batavia is fantastic! The employees and owner take their time to help each customer to the best of their abilities, and it never feels like you're being rushed out.

They have a good amount of table space for card gaming, and a few large tables for miniature gaming.

Grognard also has a large selection of games, accessories, and hobby paints for sale.

Magic the Gathering, Lorcana, Star Wars Unlimited, Warhammer40k, BattleTech, D&D, and more available there!

Definitely a great community of employees and regular players alike!...