shopping
Sydney geek shopping (or not)
So I was in Sydney this week for work and decided that I could do something along the lines of the Brisbane geek review I did last time I was there. Unfortunately, my trip to Sydney was a lot more geeky. In Sydney I just managed to hit The Tin Soldier before heading to the airport.
The Tine Soldier
The Tin Soldier brands itself as ‘Australian’s greatest games store’. I’m not sure that’s true but they are pretty good. I’m not sure if it started as a wargaming shop, but that’s certainly the emphasis. And unlike most wargaming shops it’s not all about the Warhammer and 40k minis. There’s a big range of historical minis here, including stacks of really impressive painted ones for sale. There’s a decent but not overwhelming selection of RPGs and a few board games and the like. It’s a nice open shop as well, and the staff are friendly and helpful.What is pretty impressive is the collection of military history books they have in the second room. It’s huge and seemed very comprehensive with lots of things ranging from popular stuff to the Osprey range to serious scholarly works.
I didn’t buy anything (pay day is next week) and it seemed slightly on the expensive side to me but I havent done an exact price comparison to be sure. Upon reflection I’m sure it’s not Australia’s best games shop, although it might be Australia’s best wargames shop and it’s almost definitely Australia’s best historical wargames shop. It is however the sort of gaming shop you’d want to live near – solid and dependable.
Brisbane geek shopping
I’m in Brisbane for a day for work and thought I’d take a break this afternoon and check out a couple of geek-related shops: Ace Comics & Games and Pulp Fiction. This is the first of my travel related shop reviews – I’ll do them as I go to visit places but please note that they’re just impressions from (usually) a single visit. › Continue reading
Getting small print games to the masses
I’ve recently become a rather large fan of Indie Press Revolution. They provide small print games (such as 3: 16, Hot War, Trail of Cthuhlu) for sale online and ship anywhere in the world. Their website is mostly easy to use and they allow you to pay by Pay Pal, thus avoiding those annoying charges the bank give in NZ for changing currency.
Once you’ve paid for the book and shipping they send it out, with everything I’ve ordered turning up with in a week! Considering that Amazon and other large internet retailers usually take over a month this is pretty wicked. They have great customer service (I emailed to mention that I had a book missing from my order and a week later it arrived, with another book in there for free as a sorry!) and are quick to respond.
My one gripe with this great endevour is the price of their shipping to this part of the world. I understand that postage is expensive and living where I do I expect to pay quite a bit. However considering that the price of most books is around US$20-30, paying another quarter of that amount again in shipping just makes things tough. This is with the cheapest option. You quickly get to the point of paying twice again if you use the more expensive options.
However all things considered this is a pretty small gribe as with out this website I would never have been able to get hold of a number of the games I have recently read and utterly loved. Viva la Revolution!