Dragon King Hobbies — Local services in Vero Beach

I don't even know where to start with this scam shop. I was going over the reviews for this place. There were roughly 10 reviews sporadically over the past six months. A few days ago were about 20 5star reviews showed up at the same exact time. These are all obviously fake. Just report them if possible. And please do give an honest review if you have been there. This is just sickening.

LFGS means local friendly gaming store. These are stores that mainly specialize in trading card games With tables and seating to play games and products for sale as well as paid events. This is the worst I ever seen in my entire life and I have been to over a dozen. This is a LUGS which stands for local unfriendly gaming store. They have tables and seating but you are not allowed to play games.

Do not spend your money at shops like this. Buy your products elsewhere. They are anti-fun and know nothing about trading cards playing or collecting. Contrast that to some of the great stores I can name that were established by owners who have played trading card games for decades and competed and still go to competitions and play with their customers. This is not a legitimate shop. It's incomprehensible why they're even in this business.

They also tend to close very early. Everything about this place is opposite of a real LFGS where you may come in and play wherever you want and stays open late with some past midnight.

I just want to clear up some possible misconceptions about EDH Commander. Wizards of the Coast setup sanctioned events for EDH with no sort of tournament competitive regulations aside from using the same regulations for mainstream events that are all competitive. This caused a bit of a problem so that many enthusiasts have complained about stores trying to charge money to play EDH casually. So it may not necessarily be a competition. Which means it would not be legitimate. No legitimate store will charge you to play EDH casually. Go to any LFGS and they will almost certainly have EDH on their schedule for play at no charge as with everything on their schedule that isn't a tournament. Other than maybe D&D which rarely might have a fee to participate in a campaign. If an event does have a cost, it will only be for a...

The staff were incredibly friendly, but the space is very cramped and I had a hard time just perusing the display cases and shelves because I felt like I was constantly having to move to stay out of other peoples' way.

Dragon King Hobbies seems to carry the most of Pokemon cards and Funko, but they do have a little Yu-Gi-Oh and a healthy stock of sealed and singles for MTG. Prices (at least for MTG) were on the high side. It seemed like pricing for singles (mostly Duskmourn) was either way too high or "about right" against TCGPlayer. I'm guessing they priced the singles a week or two ago (which may as well be a decade for a brand new set like Duskmourn).

Cost of a Duskmourn Play Booster:

Davinci's Dreamworks: $4.99 BestBuy: $5.49 Dragon King Hobbies: $5.99 Target: $6.99

That's just one example, but that trend holds true for other, more expensive items too.

As I said about Davinci's Dreamworks, Vero Beach is a tough market, and TCGs have thin margins. Yet, it seems like both of these LGSes dedicate a lot of time and energy to inventory and trying to sell product, and I think it's a losing strategy in the long-term. I realize you have to sell product to be in the good graces of Wizards of the Coast and The Pokemon Company, but the most successful LGSes where I now live seem to be nailing the "atmosphere" component, and generating revenue through other means (e.g. selling food/snacks- but that only works if people are staying in your space for hours at a time playing, and you need space for that...). I absolutely cannot stand going to an LGS with difficult/limited parking and cramped retail spaces. I'd have spent more time (and probably more money) at both LGSes if I had room to breathe.

The website has the previous address and no phone number I can call, so I just had to hope that the address on Google Maps is correct...

Terrible. We had to leave because we were told we can't play. They only let you play one day per week. Small location. So you can't play when there's an event going on. Which would be fine. But even worse you can't play when there's no event going on. Which makes absolute zero sense.

They have pack war event that is pointless. Because you don't even actually play as you would a real draft. It's some form of gambling. But regardless of playing or not, the packs aren't even useable because they pretty much do worthless Japanese packs.

Then there's a weekly paid Commander competition where you get a pack or something to play. But there is not even a prize for winners. Apparently, they're not even setup with WotC to do competitions.

But for those who do not have a decent deck that could be viable in a competition, which is most everybody, what if they want to come in to play and have fun? You can't. There is just no playing at all if you're not paying to join an event. I do compete in EDH, and I have a deck for it. Just wouldn't do it here in a paid unsanctioned event. Although, I would come and play casually if they allowed it.

Staff is great and friendly. But this entire operation is highly unprofessional. They have no phone setup. No wifi. Maybe they'll eventually have it. But it has been way more than long enough to set it up.

You can go to Sky High 15min away and play anything you want anytime they're open. It has a larger space. So even if they're having an event, you can still just come in and play whatever you want. Even if you are not participating in the event. As soon as I walk in the door, there's somebody who wants to 1v1 me in Commander. Just like every single normal shop.

This shop in Vero Beach just makes no logical sense. It's just a pointless shop. Best to keep going to Ft...