Look at an Italian game store's interiors... • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Look at an Italian game store's interiors...
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Alexander
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 12:49 pm

...guess what store is and who is the owner

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28697569@N ... 91/detail/

I did the photos for the new web site

PS: the store is my own, La Grotta di Merlino (Merlin's Cave) and I am the proud owner. Open since 1997, not an easy task I assure you :roll:

MetaSigma
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 3:44 pm

Very nice.

Looks like your RPG shelving is about to collapse, though!

Ithaca Dragon
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copycat
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 3:45 pm

I see some games there I wish I could find in a store here. Damn. Always out of reach.

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Badmike
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 4:32 pm

Looks like a nice, homey, comfortable store!

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jasonw1239
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 5:00 pm

Very nice. The kind of store that I like to visit and take time looking around.

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Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 5:44 pm

Looks great!
Need to put that store on my visit list next time I am in Italy... :lol:

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Tharizdun
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 6:37 pm

Looks like a fine store. The stores in Europe and the UK are way better for some reason

Ask me about my new M16!

MetaSigma
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 7:13 pm

I dunno about that. Our local store is comparable.

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Katchoo
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 7:36 pm

Very nice!

I'd definitely shop there, if it was located near me. ^_^

~Kat ^_^

JasonZavoda
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 7:45 pm

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:I dunno about that. Our local store is comparable.

There is an RPG store in Dover?

Alexander
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 6:59 am

Thanks guys!

misterspock
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 7:54 am

You should open up a franchise out here in the U.S. :idea:

MetaSigma
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 7:57 am

JasonZavoda wrote:
There is an RPG store in Dover?

Actually yes, but I was referring to "your" store, I guess, up in Newark, DOKs.

There's a new one down here called "Our Game Table", which mostly caters to the board game and CCG crowd. There was the inappropriately named "Superior Comics" (it was mostly RPGs, and not superior) until a few years back. The RPG side closed down, the comics side moved out and expanded a bit.

But the Days of Knights is comparable, and since I'm from the Newark area originally and it's only an hour away, I still think of it as local. I get up there fairly regularly.

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Alexander
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 12:26 pm

misterspock wrote:You should open up a franchise out here in the U.S.

By the way I added three photos...

AD&D Toys: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28697569@N ... 916358291/

AD&D Toys 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28697569@N ... 916358291/

I hasten to add that these sets are NOT for sale! I have placed a couple of signs informing customers and visitors (and law enforcement officials...) that toys are just for exhibition.

Dice and dice accessories: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28697569@N ... 916358291/

I have placed the dice and dice accessories toward the glass case's openings and in the back various vintage miniature sets, all painted (Citadel's Lord of the Rings minis, Citadel D&D minis, TSR Conan minis, Snarfquest minis by Ral Partha and so on).

xRalphx
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Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:43 am

Very nice ! I'm in the north of italy beginning of july so I'd love to stop by.

What's the website ?

Alexander
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 5:31 am

xRalphx wrote:Very nice ! I'm in the north of italy beginning of july so I'd love to stop by.

What's the website ?

www.grottadimerlino.com but it's in process of being redesigned...

ashmire13
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 6:25 am

WOW! I would leave your store with no money if I ever visited... :lol:

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FormCritic
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:56 pm

Your store looks pretty cool. You have not neglected the active gamer portion of the store...so missing from the Barnes and Noble approach to game sales. I looks like the kind of place gamers could adopt as a tribal hangout.

The local game stores that manage to stay in business do so only if they are supported by a large miniatures wargaming community.

The miniatures are where the money is at...at least in this region.

Also, I've noticed a tendency for game stores to go downhill once the store owner reaches the point that he is no longer an active gamer. If the store staff is gaming while they run the store it makes for a more enthusiastic community.

Wonderworld Games in Burien, Washington was a good example. When I first visited them they were an active gamer store...going great guns. (For instance, the World of Synnibarr RPG was published by Wonderworld Press, Seattle, Washington) I bought low number DRAGON magazines and Warhammer 40,000 miniatures there.

When I last visited them, a few months before they closed up, their store was a warehouse of stock from other game stores that went under. The game tables were lost under piles of stuff the staff no longer even knew how to locate. You literally could not buy anything because the staff did not know where it was anymore.

Now, their store literally is a warehouse, and exists only on Ebay.

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

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