MTG Big Box

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Winter has finally arrived at our little corner of the county.  Just yesterday we raked a bunch of leaves and retired the day with still green lawns.  Today however, we woke up to an accumulation of nearly six inches of that white frozen cr@p.  We are hoping to get to our local gaming shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario latter this evening for Friday Night Magic but if it does not stop snowing, it may be too dicey on the roads.

Anywhoos - for today's post we wanted to yatter a bit about those big box stores and our favourite game, Magic: the Gathering.  We are fiercely loyal to our local card shop for all our sealed product and when we are looking for a single we can't seem to catch at the store or through trades, we rely upon MTG Mint Card who have always come through in our hour of need.  Supporting your LGS / WPN is critical because without them, there is simply no game in town (except your own kitchen table group).  Having said that, we personally know quite a few people in the States and Canada who simply do not have access to a LGS and have to rely upon those big box stores.  Today, we did an brief 'moment in time' survey on the two large giants Target and WalMart in our City.  The prices and observations may not be at all accurate but represent our own opinions formed at the stores.  Our biggest grief was that sometimes you just could not determine the product price without having to walk it over to a scanner.

Wall-Mart
Poor selection, disorganised but reasonable pricing.
Fat Pack $49.92
Commander Decks $34.92
Clash Pack ?
Intro Packs $19.92
2-Pack Boosters $10.92

Target
Good selection, a little disorganised and comparable pricing to that of the 'other store'.
Fat Packs $49.99
Commander Decks ?
Clash Packs $34.99
Duel DEcks $24.99
Tool Kit $24.99
Event DecK ?
Holiday Gift Box ?
Intro packs $18.99

Booster Packs $4.99

At the time of our visit, we were mildly surprised that both stores still had 'older' product.  Unfortunately neither store had the new Commander 2014 product available even though it had been out for approximately two weeks.  In the past, we were happy with Walmart in that they carried 'non-game' MTG related items like officially sanctioned t-shirts and those stickers.  If you were looking for supplies, both options had rather slim pickings. 
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