Star City Comics & Games — Local services in Hollins

we are a family of collectors and me and my best friend have been going here for years and haven’t had any issues with this place ever (besides some high prices occasionally but still reasonable). the workers have always been great and nice and we have loved spending our time and money here. we recently brought some funko pops to sell for the first time and chose this place because we trusted them. we brought over 30 pops with the majority of them being an almost complete demon slayer, a large dragon pop, a full k-pop collection and a few stragglers including a plastic wrapped joker pop. we were expecting a decent price on these due to the demon slayer pops being in high demand and the mint condition of the pops (we purposely only buy pops will minimal to zero damage for value purposes). first off, we were extremely lowballed, receiving a price about equal to $4 a pop (including a flocked special edition pop and the large dragon pop which was valued at $60 online). while we were extremely disappointed at the offer and the no negotiation policy, we understood that business was business and declined the offer and was told to pick up the order. when we received our funko pops back however we were absolutely livid at the condition they left them in. all the funko pops had been opened and the pops obviously removed and put back in, almost all of them had some sort of damage such as smashed in corners, ripped flaps, dents, etc. also, the plastic wrapped joker pop pin (which we gave to them wrapped) was returned to us out of the plastic wrap and completely smushed. i am so so so incredibly angry and disappointed with this place after we gave so much of our money to them over the years and the opportunity to buy our pops that they would completely have no disregard for other people property and collectibles that we have been collecting for years. i don’t even understand why they would feel the need to take the pops out of the box to begin with, but to damage them to the extent they were damaged after we gave them to them with little to no damage seems to be either completely disregard for their customers or a deliberate attempt to damage pops in order to lower the value price to validate their lowball offer and get us to accept it. we will absolutely never ever be back here and spend our money here ever again and will be telling all of our family and friends who are avid collectors to never ever buy from or sell here again (but again, this place will probably not care since they seemingly care so little about their customers anyways). i hope you know that you have ruined our belongings and have cost us money by what you have done to our things. absolute shame on...

I have shopped with SCG through their website for a little over a year so I think it is a good time for me to give them a review. My experiences of purchasing with them have been great so far. They securely package all of the products that I buy from them, whenever I needed to reach customer service (particularly by email) I received a response no later than 24 hours unless it was a weekend, and I appreciate that they offer various shipping methods and more so that when you create an account you can track your purchase history and manage other account things easily.

Another thing that I appreciate about SCG is that I am a sporadic and spontaneous shopper i.e. I have the tendency to make multiple purchases of cards within a given day. A few weeks back I made 2 seperate purchases in less than 24 hours and they sent me an email stating the would combine the orders and credit the shipping cost of one of the order. I dig that!

The only thing I have against them is the pricing. You can purchase through TrollandToad, TCG Player, ABU Games, Channel Fireball, etc, and find lower prices on cards. For instance, I just purchased a 75 card Bant Humans deck through TCG Player that totaled $236 including priority shipping. At the time of the purchase I also compared it to what I would pay through SCG and by shopping at TCG Player I saved an estimated $30.

Part of me is inclined to think that given the fact they run alot of events throughout the year, have X amount of employees, and pay for articles written by MtG players every week, I could see in part why their prices may be higher compared to their competitors. That said, in most instances I am willing to pay a few extra dollars (depending how much those extra dollars may be) to shop at SCG.

In conclusion and as of this writing I would recommend SCG over their competitors, but if you are tight on money or are looking for cards at a cheaper price, there are cheaper places to...

Little secret about Roanoke, VA is that it is a hub for some of the best Magic the Gathering competition out there. Some people drive 3-4 hours away to come play here. The FNMs actually feel like events! I admit that I get my butt thoroughly kicked some days by some of the players here because they are good enough to have made the Pro Qualifying Tours. Despite that, most people are very polite and cool, even if I don't have a chance in beating them. It is generally better to come in with a deck that is ready made for competitive standard as there are people who have built the mono reds and other decks ready made for competition. The SCG website lists some of the decks used to win their Pro Qualifying Tour so that would be a great place to look for a deck build. When starting out, it is generally better to do their drafts or pre-release events. Draft is always available on Fridays. The store has standard competition events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Modern events occur on Wednesday. Commander occurs on Friday. Their Pre-release events are awesome as they have their own custom playmats and the artist who makes them will be present that day to sign them (Andrea Radeck).

I will also add that the staff is excellent and always willing to answer questions. If I want singles immediately, they have a means to provide them very quickly. They can also be ordered online and picked up at the store for free. I have enjoyed coming to this store and it has been one of the best experiences I have...