In the United States there is a massive amount of places that you can buy games from, whether it is from swap meets, Amazon or from your friendly local games store (FLGS) – but unfortunately that isn’t the case here in Australia. The Australia takes well and truly comes into force when it comes to buying boardgames for a few reasons 1. They are usually made a long way away and therefore shipping costs and 2. They are usually pretty bulky to move and store for relatively low profit – therefore only speciality stores will hold them.

So, to where to find games in Australia?

Some of the best places are online sellers with no physical storefront (thereby no sales staff or commercial rent), most of these can be found through OzGamefinder.com which is a site that scrapes all the best prices from all over the web in order to get you the best price. You may find some items on the Amazon store, but much like the rest of Amazon Australia you will probably not find the greatest range or the cheapest prices, especially on boardgames.

A few of the best that I have found so far though are Games Empire, who do have a store in Castle Hill and great customer service and have a flat fee rate for their shipping all over Australia. The second is Ozgameshop who are a UK based company that offer great prices and free shipping for the vast majority of their items. In addition to this there is Mighty Ape, who often have great deals and prices, I would highly recommend getting on their mailing list so that you can be first in line when sales come on.

Other places to buy boardgames and card games in most capital cities is stores with actual shops in chopping centres. There are a few big names like Good Games and Mind Games that you will often find around and these are particularly good for going in and speaking to staff who can give you some good advice about what you may like in particular. My experience has been that staff in these stores are particularly approachable and that they really know their stuff when it comes to helping you out.

I would recommend not to buy through places like eBay (and Alibaba) as you will often find that there are really cheap prices on a few games here and there. The reason that they are really cheap is that they are counterfeits – usually found with games that are primarily built out of cardboard and paper only.