Goblin Games — Local services in Manhattan

Let me start off by saying that this review is solely based on who I was told the Owner is and how he behaves with customers and MTG products. I recently moved to the area and was excited to check out the new LGSs around me and find a great community.

My first visit to this store, about two months ago, went pretty okay. My friend who moved with me and I met the owner, which we didn't know was the owner at the time. The Owner answered most of our basic questions: Trade Policies, what they based prices off of, events, which format was popular, etc. That was until he learned that we weren't really there to buy anything, it seemed. Once it was established that we weren't looking to make a purchase, he started to shrug us off and talk to, who I assume, were regulars. It was a Saturday, so, it had a few other groups in the store. Okay, maybe he was just busy or having a bad day and didn't want to deal with us anymore, but the other person approaching the counter wasn't making a purchase either. Not the best interaction, but something that could be shrugged off and forgiven.

My second visit was amazing! Again, my friend and I, along with others we brought who had never been to the store, made another visit. It was then that we met the sales person Chris. He was great and the owner should really take notes from Chris on how to properly treat customers. We explained we were new, which was a delight to Chris. He was happy we were there and readily pointed out anything we may need help with. We explained that we were prior competitive EDH players, which he responded to gleefully, showing us the fancy binder of shiny things and the EDH staples box and other things we might be interested in. We made a few decent purchases, nothing too big, but a couple hundred dollars worth, buying some new commander product, sleeves, a few singles and a couple other accessories. We left pretty satisfied with the service and our purchases thinking, 'Okay, the first time was just a fluke.' We were wrong.

The third visit is where we learned the guy from our first visit was the owner. We show up, and to our delight, Chris is behind the counter! He immediately remembers us, welcomes us back. This time we were here to make some major purchases because, after selling a good bit of our collections to fund our move across the country, we were ready to get back into competitive commander. We asked for one of each fetch land and few other key pieces to fill out our crazy combo decks. We were easily to over a thousand dollars in cards between our respective piles. So, we busted out our trade binders, to help lower the cost on our end, but were ready to spend some serious money. Cue the owner walking out of the stock room. He sees our piles and that we plan on making some trades. He takes over the sale from Chris. Chris explained to us that he is the owner and likes to conduct the big trades. Okay, understandable! Then it moved downhill from there.

He started refusing cards we had pulled out, which is his right as the store owner and completely understandable. The ridiculous part was that he started scoffing at cards and rolling his eyes, rather than respectfully explain that the cards we wanted to trade in were too expensive and wouldn't move that fast at the store, which Chris later explained. The Owner then continued to mock what we brought into trade. My friend and I looked at each other and immediately started putting things back that we didn't need right away. Which brought more scrutiny from the owner, complaining that he now had to re-sort and put everything back. Disgruntled, we bought a few things that we needed right away and thought would be hard to find. Still, a little in over $200 in purchases. We left rather disgruntled.

Our fourth visit was today. We came in, wanting to give one more chance, planning to make some major purchases. It was more of the same from the Owner and I only made my purchase today because it was a hard to find card and I'd rather get it in person. I wish Chris the best during his tenure there, but I...

Let me start off by saying if I could give zero stars I would. I’m sure this review is going to generate some hate from the regulars at goblin games, but this was my experience and people should be warned! Over the past year I have been going to this shop and giving it large amounts of business, easily over a thousand dollars and that is being very conservative. I thought this loyalty of patronage would gain me some type of respect and/or appreciation, this was not the case. After my last experience at goblin games I will never set foot back into that store. I had brought a few cards into the store for credit. I had done this in the past and never thought I was being cheated. Joey, the store owner had told me the day before in front of my friend and his employee that he would give me 175.00 for the two cards. The next day I went in with those cards and a few more to see if they would take them as well. I told that same employee I had brought in the cards we discussed the day before and a few more, thinking he would give me the 175.00 for the two, plus whatever the other cards were worth. I had an idea of what the total credit would have been with all the cards. The odd thing was is after looking at the cards, he didn’t tell me how much credit he was going to give me. It was only when he whispered to Joey, I overheard I was only getting 160.00 for all the cards. Hearing this I asked to verify how much credit I was going to get for the trade. He repeated to me 160.00, 160.00. I guess he thought I couldn’t hear him whispering it to Joey. Knowing that the store gives 75% of a cards value in store credit I did some math. The number this employee was giving me was ridiculously low. I went off of tcg player price listings the difference in credit was 203.00 for the cards at mid and for low it was 177.00 The day before the value of just the two cards had been 175.00 and I had brought in 5 more cards, so I mentioned this to the employee and he said “oh joey said 175.00?”I thought to myself, well you were standing next to him yesterday when he said it. It was at this time he thought it was important that I knew I wasn’t getting full trade in value for some of the cards, not during our transaction mind you, but after. Not giving a customer full credit for an item is something you may want to let them know right off the bat. It was at this point I told him I wanted my cards back. That I wasn’t going to allow myself to get burned and basically let him steal from me. I left the store and went home and confirmed my math. I called joey and told him what had happened thinking he would take into consideration just how much business I give him and tell me he would talk to this employee or something. Instead he “Tried” explaining what had happened and told me that this certain employee who will remain nameless, is aggressive when it comes to getting cards for the shop which is good for him he told me, I guess that’s one way of putting it Joey. Ill simplify it though. He is a conniving sneak thief! As if that situation wasn’t enough, certain types of formats i.e. standard and draft get preferential treatment over anyone else in to store. You will quickly and rudely get kicked form a table and find you have no place to go, but home. Basically if you’re not paying an entrance fee for standard or draft you’re a third rate citizen. It’s far too easy for me to order my cards from amazon or eBay. I may have to wait a few days but at least I won’t have to deal with blatant thievery. Please take my experience into consideration before going to goblin games, or at least be mindful when getting store credit, especially when you are dealing with an...

I have visited this establishment several times, and at both places they were set up. The first few times was when they were in the Mall, and more recently at the new shopping center area beside Little Ceasers and Marshall's. Each time was exactly the same, no one greeted me or my family as we walked in, each person at the counter was more focused on bad mouthing a customer's cards that they were selling or lost in their own world talking about other things such as why they don't like certain game systems.

My most recent visit just solidified the reason that I will not be going back there. I walked in asking about a game and some models that went with the game and the person at the counter looked at me like I was a burden and was completely clueless about the original question I asked. The other worker was obviously new and couldn't help me either. I was just blown off basically and made to feel as if I was interrupting them, which was not the case as I was the only customer in the store.

To sum this all up, this store is more of a place to go and hang out if you play games that the staff are knowledgeable about. It is a very clickish atmosphere and staff does not seem very knowledgeable about 40k, and they do not have a very good selection of these items. It seems as if they have a few models only to appear as if there is an demographic that is welcome there. I would not recommend visiting, even for a...