I have had good dealings with NKG, but yeah lately their prices are getting a little steep.
Although it's water under the drawbridge the Titan Games folks dropped the ball twice on me. Technically only once, but I was acting as a go-between to try and get a true 1st DMG they had for someone to her husband who games, and then get it to Gary to autograph.
They were slower than dogshit and it ended up falling through because of it, so to quote GLaDOS: "...who will not be mourned. Not be mourned."
"Peace Is Our Profession"
"Relativism is flatfooted, and orthodoxy packs one hell of a punch." - Kellri
you pretend to be living inside a classic fairy tale
I have purchased hundreds of books from Troll & Toad over the last year and a half.
What I like about Troll & Toad:
- wide selection
- for eBay purchases, they give 10 days (last year it was 14) to pay, so I can buy a bunch of items (20 to 40 books) over two weeks and combine on shipping to make the per book shipping cost very low
- for a large number of items I'm interested in prices are usually reasonable (old Hackmaster, basic D&D, 1st & 2nd ed D&D, Dragonlance 3.5 books)
- when I have had to call their offices, their staff have been friendly and helpful
- I have been able to return items and get a refund
What I do not like about Troll & Toad:
- out of hundreds of books purchased, about 10 of those books turned out to not be in stock after I bought them on eBay. Sometimes it was due to the item in stock not matching the quality on the eBay sell page (for example, I buy a VF copy of an item but they have to cancel cause it turns out the item in stock is only F; sometimes I wish they would have just sent me the Fine item if the Very Fine item was not in stock), other times they sold all of their stock of the item and just didn't update their inventory.
- in 2009 and most of 2010, more than just a few times their quality ratings were off. The only negative I gave them was when the shipped me a copy of basic D&D Quagmire had been advertised as "new in shrinkwrap", but which turned out to be used and re-shrinkwrapped (though probably by whomever they bought it from). This problem seems to have improved in recent months, and they now include a small note with each item indicating which employee graded the item.
-more than a couple of times I have had to return an item because the quality was off or they just sent the wrong item. If this happends once or twice that's okay, but after a while it feels like a hassle to package and return items. Though at least they are good about it and will even re-imburse on return shipping costs. One recent example was when I purchased two copies of Hackmaster's I2 "Crypt of the Lizard King" but they sent me two copies of TSR's I2 "Tomb of the Lizard King".
- if an item originally came with inserts or separate maps, you can't always be sure that the item from Troll & Toad will include all of those items unless it is in original shrinkwrap (assuming of course that the shrinkwrap is original).
Overall I like Troll & Toad. For me, their selection and in some cases reasonable prices outweigh the irritations. I am hoping with their new quality control system things will improve.
I like Noble Knight Games as well. Their prices tend to be on the high end for most items, though sometimes I do find a low price. But one thing I can always trust about Noble Knight more than Troll & Toad is their product rating system; how they describe it is what you will get. If part of an item is missing or damaged, Noble Knight will provide full disclosure on the sale page for the item. I like how the Noble Knight web site is set up and the information included about each item. I have purchased many items from Noble Knight and I cannot recall a problem.
