Hello everyone!

Today I went on a 15km walk around Toronto to visit some stores who might like to join with BSGames in selling Mathemagician’s Duel. Normally when I go outside for a day, like to the beach or park, I’d put n sunscreen. But today, since I was just walking around town going into stores, that didn’t occur to me. Now my forehead and nose are ridiculously red. Also, my feet are sore, as are my shoulders from carrying my bag. But it was all worth it, because I met some great people and saw some awesome game stores! I’m going to tell you the highlights of my trip:

I visited The Swag Sisters toy store on Gerrard street at Coxwell. What a wonderful place! I got there shortly after it opened, and there were already people in there shopping. It was difficult for me to tell which were regulars, because Guy (properly pronounced the French way) was so friendly and welcoming to everyone. Seriously, I loved talking to Guy. The store is crammed with toys, puzzles and games of all sorts, and they sell ice cream, which was popular on a hot day like today.

Guy enjoyed Mathemagician’s Duel and even made the great suggestion that we mention on the box that we are a Canadian-designed product, because many of his customers like to support local businesses. I certainly look forward to visiting the store again, and I highly recommend it to anyone nearby looking for a great toy-shopping experience.

Another store that I FINALLY got to visit was 401 Games. I hear about them all the time but had yet to go in and see what they were about. The store was spacious and they had a lot of games! There were several staff members about, and they all seemed to be helping and chatting with customers. I talked to Dylan and he happily stepped away from his work at the counter to let me show him Mathemagician’s Duel. We had a great little demo, and he also expressed his enjoyment and interest in the game. He was fun to talk with and the store had a good atmosphere. He also expressed interest in starting up Designers’ Night again with the opening of the new location at Bloor and Yonge. I will definitely attend once those get going. And on the way out, I got a friendly “bye” from another staff member.

My last stop before I had to rush back to Parliament St. was A & C Games on Spadina (at College). I almost missed them, because I had remembered their address incorrectly and was looking on the wrong side of the street. But I am sooo glad that I didn’t give up, because this place was cool! In fact, because the website features video games heavily, I wasn’t sure about going in, but they do mention board games on the site, so that’s why I added them to my list.

I went in and was greeted by the friendly staff. I feel bad now that I forgot to get the name of the staff who helped me initially, because he deserves a shoutout for being so helpful. The first thing I asked about was the video games, because they have old games from all the old consoles! They had an Intellivision! That’s the first one I had! And they had games for it! Seriously, If you’re kind of old and like video games, you have to check this place out! Okay, you don’t have to be old, but the nostalgia will get you if you are!

They had more that weren’t in boxes, but I didn’t get a picture of them. And I owned most of those ones, too. Unfortunately, they didn’t have on display any games for the 3DO, which I still own.

Anyway, this digression was similar to the one I had in the store. Once I explained why I was actually there, he told me I needed to speak to Luigi, who, it turns out, was on break. So I decided to have a cold drink and wait. I think he came back early from his break, and immediately approached me to talk. We sat and had a demonstration game, and also a great time. You’d think demoing the same game might get boring, but the right player just makes it fun all the time! Another great game, another great chat. It turns out that Luigi is also the owner of Nerdgasm!

I really wanted to stay and chat longer about games, but I had to hightail it out of there for another commitment.

I stopped in at some other nice stores, but the owners weren’t available at that time, so I didn’t get to sit down and have a chat and play Mathemagician’s Duel with them. I did leave a business card, though, so hopefully I will be able to feature their stores in another blog about visiting.

Thanks for visiting us here at BSGames, and remember to ask you local store about carrying Mathemagician’s Duel, or set up your own preorder. And if you have already preordered, THANK YOU! Now go tell all of your friends and we’ll thank you some more.