It's GameTime! — Local services in Los Angeles

Got some elite trainer boxes from here. Sadly, most of the packs felt like they were tampered with. My son seemed to be struggling with opening some of the packs. I grabbed a pack and tried to open one myself and I had a bad feeling as the packs did not open as they normally should. The seems felt stuck together. On the last booster pack I grabbed my phone to record how my son was struggling to open the packs. At least I could try and capture the disappointment. I also went through remains of the packs afterwards to recorded how difficult some of them were to pull apart and added that to the video. I posted the video to a few popular TCG forums to get opinion from other collectors on the matter and was told by everyone that it appeared that the packs were resealed, undeniably. ( it's on youtube v=E8tszFS-G6g )

Always a controversial topic. I'm always hesitant to make these kinds of accusations. Paid $90 each for these boxes, which you can normally find for $50 and often less. Expecting them not to be tampered with.

I returned to the store.

I presented some of my evidence which I thought was quite compelling. The owner brushed it off and said that it looked normal. He assured me that there was no way that tampered boxes could come from his source. Which he assured me was one of the largest distributors in the country. I tend to agree with that. Seems impossible to believe that tampered boxes would come directly from a major source. They would never take such a risk? I asked for a refund and the owner denied saying that the boxes are useless to him as they had been opened. I can understand that - if items were not tampered with. I've never returned opened packs before. The owner offered to replace one of the elite trainer boxes which was nice. He grabbed a shipped package direct from the supplier and opened it. All the elite trainer boxes were in absolute pristine condition. I had realized at that moment that the box I had received was in less than pristine condition. When purchasing I distinctly remember inspecting the plastic but somehow missed the fact that the box had frayed corners and sides under the plastic wrapping. With the plastic wrapping perfectly intact. How could it be that the box was frayed under the plastic wrapping that was shipped directly from the distributor? The owner blamed that on bad shipping. If a store receives damaged goods from a supplier he just accepts it?

In any case. I cannot out of good conscience support a store where I feel like items were tampered with. I'm sure others have had a good experience here. I like to support local shops. I have been here multiple times to look around and buy singles with my son in his quest to build his ultimate deck. But I...

I love supporting my local shop-- but this is the third time I've been disappointed visiting this shop, I'm fairly certain it's been the same gentleman helping me each time. I asked about getting started LotR set options, was told "I have no idea". When I asked about lands, he said the jumpstart packs had lands, but didn't explain it has all the lands you need for limited (all packs come with at least 1 land, he didn't clarify). The two jumpstart sets have different themes, which he didn't explain. I got 6/8 of my jumpstart packs were duplicate themes because I didn't know to spread across both jumpstart series.

I asked about Lorcana, another "I have no idea".

I mentioned I needed a few minutes to think about my options. He said okay and then sat there staring at me, making me feel pressured to make an immediate decision.

I tried to make a little small talk, got one word answers.

Overall it wasn't a welcoming or helpful experience. If I have to do all my research online, why bother spending the extra money going to a local shop? I make a point to spend money at local bookstores and card shops because I'm glad they're there and want to support them. But come on, maybe learn a bit about the products so you can help newbies (or someone like me who has been out of magic for more...

A friend and I went because they had DnD items. It's a pretty nice shop. When we went, on a saturday afternoon, it seemed like they were playing Magic: the gathering. There were about 8-10 tables and it was pretty busy. Perhaps a little cramped with the tables but we were able to maneuver around just fine. They had a lot of different card and board games. I can't say too much about the other stuff, but they did have a shelf of dungeons and dragons items. They had all the books for 5e as well as figures that you can paint and some that are from different companies. They had a lot of dice, dungeon master screens and spell cards. The service was fine. The man running the shop at the time seemed friendly and approachable. We heard him calling out some time or setting up some MTG thing before he rang us up. From what I could gather on just going there once, he seemed to know his stuff. Really have no major complaints. Seems like a cool...