So how are your general toy shopping experiences? Is your nearest

I do my shopping at my local TRU since I work there. Other than that, I do the majority of my shopping online since it can be cheaper and easier.

>>6160950
I live in suburban Philadelphia and probably have dozens of Walmarts, Targets, Toys R Uses, frickin' K Marts, etc. But I do all my shopping for new toys right here online.

There isn't shit for import toys in stores in this region. It's nothing like the time I went to Seattle and blew $350 in ten minutes when ic came upon International Model Toys.

We do have a decent fleamarket/thrift store scene in this area though and sometimes you'll be able to track down old non-import stuff if you want it.

I live in the Inland Empire in California

there are about 3 Targets, 3 Walmarts, 3 TRUs, 7 Gamestops, and 2 K-Marts within a 15 mile radius. There's Frank & Sons less than 45 minutes away, but I'm too lazy to drive there. The downside is that there's a lot of scalpers in the area, so there's a slim chance of getting rare figures.

I don't bother with Mom and Pop shops anymore, most just sell Funko Pops, old plamo, and domestic stuff; that, and the fact that neckbeards flock to them, meaning it either reeks of BO, neckbeards are hovering over me, owners give me the stink eye, or a combination of three.

I do most shopping online, Amazon, Pokemon Center, Amiami, HLJ, Amazon JP, and NY (last resort).

San Antonio TX

2-3 TRUs in driving distance, walmarts and targets every mile of road, yet none of them have stock of anything good. Anything sought after is grabbed quick, never restocked, or get a shelf full of crappy pegwarmers they never discount.

Better to just buy online and avoid the hassle.

>>6160960
Funny I live in the same area and feel your pain. You ever try to make it an effort to go to NYC at all? I just hop on the Trenton line to the Transit Center and in about 2 hours or so I can get good access to some imported stuff. Nothing will beat online shopping for sure but there is just something about having something in front of you that I like.

>>6160950
I'm a mile away from a Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Five below and TJ Max. 13 miles away from a TRU.
Normally I just shop online however with Prime and Amazon's predorder system it's just easier. That and they get deep discounts faster than stores usually.

Rural Ohio here.

Only 2 Walmarts, 2 Gamestops and a Walgreens within 15 miles, Kmart closed last year. Nearest TRU and Target are 30+.

So I'm mostly online at this point.

>>6160977
This. Live in the East Bay, surrounded by stores and scalpers. I still look though...

>>6161128
oh shit another ohio anon

maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to leave

15 minutes to the nearest Walmart, which can barely be bothered to stock toys anymore. Same for Gamestop but they mostly carry shit I don't want, and their import toys tend to cost about 50% more than I can order them from eBay for.

Some Family Dollar & Dollar General stores around here but their toy selections are pretty crap. Kroger likewise carries very little.

1 hour to Target, TRU, etc, but why waste the gas money on no guarantee of finding anything?

Plus I tend to gravitate more towards older toys now which I have to buy on eBay.

Boise Idaho.

I have a TRU, target, a few walmarts, and a few fred meyer within a 10 mile radius. There's also 2 local stores for just Lego. There's a store called Anime Haus that sells imported japan merch. Then there's a place here called Time Zone Toys with 2 locations. They buy and sell old toys.

I pop in Time Zone Toys at least once a month, usually more. I've been to Anime Haus here and there and bought some of the more interesting gashapon. TRU I visit rarely. Though I did go there 2 days ago and buy one of those Neca Alien Eggs in a carton, GID version.

I don't really visit the department stores just for toys like I used to. They have nothing I want to collect.

What I collect has changed a lot since I started, so even though there's some cool local spots to go, I'd say like 95% of my toy buying is online.

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>>6160950
I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There's a Toys R Us about 10 minutes away. about 90% of my toy collecting comes from local comic book stores and flea markets in the Detroit area. It's a fucking blast in the summer cause some of the flea markets have really good shit. There are some good toy shops in the area as well.

I buy a lot of shit online too.

Cross junction VA.
I have to drive 30 minutes to get into town, but once I am, there is a ToysRus, 3 walmart, 2 targets, and 3 game stops. We also have a couple of walgreens that have shitty toy sections.

The only thing I collect that can bought in a retaill store is Marvel legends, and I have a hard time finding anything that I want in store. I have a prime membership so I get most of my hasblo garbage from Amazon. The rest of the stuff I collect I get from sellers on facebook, The Chosen Prime, Ami-ami, HLJ, and in a pinch BBTS, although I hate giving them my money.

>implying I will ever show this side of me to normies in public

Online only.

>>6160950

I have to buy everything online. Only thing within a good 100 miles is 2 Walmarts (both in opposite directions), which always have piss poor stock for anything.

I live in the middle of nowhere.

Concord, CA
I have 2 TrUs, 3 Targets, 3 Walmarts in my area. The only thing I have had to order online was a Jacob Frye Assassins Creed figure.

Small town in Washington state

>Poor as dirt so by the time I actually get around to saving up for what I want it's at least four times the price because it's "vaulted" or whatever dumbass word they use for it which forces me to save up for something else and the cycle repeats. See countless Lego sets and a few wrestling figures (Finn. Fucking. Balor.)
>Nearest toy store worth a damn is at least an hour away so toy shopping physically is usually an all day affair making it inconvenient, this is all even if you can actually find the fucking shit you want
>Online shopping is a pain in the ass because I have to use prepaid cards which requires calculating shipping to make sure I'm not going over the balance, plus it's inconvenient because I have to travel for an hour to go to the fucking store to get a card
This is hell. I'd get out of this hobby if game collecting wasn't ten times worse because all a game needs to spike is one asshole on YouTube making a video about it.

>>6163315
>Boise
Holy fuck, how do you people even get around? I was down there for vacation in September 2016 (On a route to St. George Utah to go to the Grand Canyon) and the roads were so crazy in design we spent two hours trying to get back on the freeway to the point where we were passing red lights and speeding intentionally to get us pulled over so we can get some damn directions. We went to the closing Hastings and I bought a Sting and Silver Surfer Pop (Hey they were only $5 each).

>>6160950
Most of my collection is Hot Toys and NECA, so it's bought online.

But for Star Wars 3 3/4, which I also collect, I work at a Target so I buy stuff there usually. From there there are two walmarts that are both 10 minutes away and a third that's 15 minutes away. There's also a second and Charles that I like to stop at once a month for vintage Star Wars and occasional comics.

>>6161049
I'm in Bucks County so really I could drive to NYC too if I wanted to spend the money for all those tolls and parking.

I still won't bother, though. Online shopping is far far more comfy than being in public transportation and being in cities. I have something of an illogical phobia of them too, especially NYC. I know, I know, I'm more likely to die near home.

I live in socal, and not far enough away from frank n sons that scalpers don't just ruin everything.

There are SO many scalpers here that it's not worth your time to even try searching bog box stores for anything of value.

The best I have is a store called Cape & Cowl that gets stuff in a reasonable time, sells used figures, and doesn't have stupid markup like most other places.

Ever since they opened I don't even go to frank n sons for toys, just old games.

I live in the northern side of Chicago proper. There aren't really that many good toy stores here, really, and I moved forward from the one nice comic shop I could find. Mostly I do my toy shopping online, my local target never restocks anything good, and the toys r us isn't worth the hike because they don't stick anything I want.

Ottawa Ontario.
TRU and Walmart never get new waves when they should for Hasbro stuff. Lego is the only thing well stocked and looked after.

>>6163758
I can only assume you're referring to the one way roads in the city. I grew up in Washington in cities all around the western part before I left 7 years ago. So I got used to navigating these roads by hanging out in Seattle a lot. Which has even worse road design IMO. Both cities have/had the same problem: rapid growth faster than city planning can keep up with or in some cases they just didn't care.

Oh and Hastings, I did get some cool things there over the years. The closing sale was kinda sad. Made me think of being at the KB closing sales.

>>6161049
>>6160960
You think Philly is bad? Try the midstate.

I think there are 4 WalMarts, 2 Targets, 2 TRUs within an hour's drive. Soviet grocery stores, all of them. But it's not like there's untapped demand. People are just really cheap, like won't pay more than half price for anything cheap. I used to wonder why distribution was so fucking bad until I realized I was the only one buying anything. Now that I'm 99% online, they don't have to stock anything.

And Bucks county? What a hole. You have ZoloCon but it attracts some of the poorest collectors I've ever seen.

>>6164843
Even the comic shop I go to won't stock toys unless it's super hot (yet another Memepool, slutty Harley Quinn, etc) or you buy an entire case (because he can't move 8 figures either). I think the rise in prices over the last few years is half corporate greed and half demand collapsing. And it's going to get worse before it gets better.

why do so many people live in the middle of nowhere?

>>6164858

Because it's too expensive to live on either far side of the States?

>>6164858
>why do so many people live in the middle of nowhere?
Sorry, do you know of some "free relocation project" which is willing to pay for me to move?

>>6163929

I live in the far western suburbs and its no better here. Walmart, Target, and Meijer don't restock the few domestic lines I care about worth a damn, and we have fuckall for import stores.

I guess there's that one overpriced as fuck place full of bootleg crap and marked up gunpla in chinatown. They've had a PG wing zero so faded you cant read the box in there for like a decade.

I just order all my weebshit online.

>>6164843
>You think Philly is bad?
Oh suburban Philly's great for regular stores like Walmart, Target, etc. I can easily reach one of each within five/ten minutes and ten of each within an hour. It's really just the lack of specialty stores for such a huge metro area that I'm bemoaning.

>And Bucks county? What a hole. You have ZoloCon but it attracts some of the poorest collectors I've ever seen.

Hnm, never even heard of that con. Probably won't go but it's interesting to hear of a con that's not either in fuck off nowhere or in North Jersey.

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>>6160977
Currently attending University in the Inland Empire and I know exactly that feel.

Anyway, Have 2 Targets, 2 Walmarts, 3 Gamestops 1 K-mart within a 15 mile radius that I would visit, which never had anything good except for some Halo figures that were on clearance at one of the Targets 4 years ago. There was a mom and pop shop that was always empty with people but was filled with some nipanesse toys at one of the local malls. There was this overpriced figma miku that had a thick layer of dust on the box that was shelved with old gunpla. Some Middle age lady gave me a good broken english yelling for turning the box to see the back of it. Never again will I enter a store like that. Plus the IE has a fuck ton of weird people that forget what personal space is. Oh yea, that store closed down a couple months later. Go figure.

Online buying is my go to. It just makes things a lot more easier. Paying for shipping and the waiting process is another story.

>>6163359
>flea market
>Detroit
Sounds brown and spooky

I live in Canada basically a third world country in terms of getting things that aren't basic needs. Anything other than basic cheap star wars toys, lego, super heroes or cheap gaming toys is impossible to find. Basically forced to order online as the few non-baby toy stores that do exist in Ontario are far and few between with limited stock. Even as a kid collecting basic tier shit like halo figures it was extremely difficult to find anything due to how long it takes for shit to restock here.

Sadly due to having to order online probably like 20% of the time sellers just forget Canada exists and refuse to ship here without huge price jumps.

>>6164858
Because small town life is comfy. I live near Denver and I honestly can't wait to move to a small town. My only requirement is a movie theater and a Walmart, and towns of 3000 people have those.

>>6165267
enjoy your neighbors snooping on you and thinking you're up to no good if you don't attend church.