Board games are great. I have bought, sold, and traded for quite a few over the past few years. One thing to know about board games is that their prices can fluctuate wildly. It’s not uncommon to find relatively new games on sale for 30-40% off of the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) on major online shops like Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
Of course, it’s always best to support your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Shop) if they have the game you want. These local shops keep the hobby alive and build the community.
CamelCamelCamel.com: This website provides price history graphs for most products listed on Amazon. You can also specify a price point and receive an alert when the product price falls to that point or lower. If you’re not in a hurry to buy something you can set an alert and pick it up when it reaches an all-time low price. You can see in the screen capture below that Skull (awesome game) fluctuates between 25$ and 15$ quite frequently.
Reddit r/boardgamedeals : The r/boardgamedeals subreddit is full of board game enthusiasts who watch price swings like hawks. You will often see people mention “CCC all-time low” on this Reddit sub. This means that the current price is the lowest price ever recorded on CamelCamelCamel.com.
Here are some of my favorite Social Media Accounts the track Board game deals:
@Tabletop_Deals https://twitter.com/Tabletop_Deals
@Bgl_Deals https://twitter.com/Bgl_Deals
@BoardGamePrices https://twitter.com/BoardGamePrices
@tabletopbellhop https://twitter.com/tabletopbellhop
Facebook Online Board Game Deals Page: https://facebook.com/OnlineBoardGameDeals
These resources are mostly focused on U.S. prices. There are some similar resources available for people in other countries but I am not as familiar with them.
If you’re looking for more (and frankly for practically every reputable price drop source) you can find a list on the r/BoardGamedDeals subreddit page.
Here’s another comprehensive blog post with money saving tips on BoardGameSquad.com.
Of course, if you’re trying to control your spending, or cull your board game collection, avoid all of these sites at all costs. You have been warned.
