Dizzy Dugout

went there and got a gift for my son, we saw a on clearance half inch sized christmas pokémon that had a sticker for .99 and got to the counter and it was $10 :/ … definitely wasn’t worth $10 but i couldn’t upset my 4 year old who was with me.. but just wanted to give my honest review so no one else gets scammed 🙁 unfortunately will never be going back , hopefully it’s not a usual occurrence there.

Store is a huge mess to the point of being dangerous. Asked if there was any pokemon when I walked in to take a look and the guy just said “over there” and pointed. Person who met me behind the counter over there was very kind. However, the singles were barebones and a huge mess. Looking through the items it was hard to even find a place to stand. All of the items were priced well above market when prices were actually listed. Some items in the display case had prices, when I asked about pricing on those, or anything else, the person behind the counter asked another employee what the price was, he would shout “expensive” across the store before clearly looomg up market price and adding around 50 percent on top. Disregarding listed prices entirely, and coming off as if he didn’t even want to sell anything. The last straw for me was when a kid walked in behind us and asked for the price of a 3 pack of Journey Together. They told him $40 (market at the time was ~$22) he told them he only had $30 which would still be way too much, and he was still told no. Absolutely ridiculous. Worst game store experience I’ve ever had, dangerous environment, rude employee, and I feel bad for the kind guy who seemed to want to actually help. You could tell he was embarrassed by the attitude of the guy doing the egregious pricing. Editing to address the owners response. 1. This event was a few weeks ago, but I had specifically asked for singles, and was assured the selection I was looking at was all that was available. The employee said that there was more, but wouldn’t let us look through it for fear it would get unsorted and he didn’t trust people anymore. I would have loved the opportunity to look through more than 10-12 cards in a binder and an unsorted bulk bin. 2. I was checking tcgplayer market price myself. No sticker price was honored and the prices quoted were well over market price. 3. I don’t appreciate you trying to tell me I misheard. The kid was right next to me and I am very sure of what I heard. I wouldn’t give specifics if I was unsure. The only reason I didn’t buy the item for the kid, was at this point I did not want to support the business. 4. The state of disrepair and clutter in the store is well beyond “just got stock in” there was items that were released year ago, trash, and damaged items strewn about on the floor.

Submitted an offer on some pop series packs they had listed on their Mercari. Asking 150 for Pop 1, & they had just sold one for 75 and 80, respectively. Also had a Pop 6 listed for 55 (with an actual tcg player verified value of 34 dollars, 20 dollars over at listing price, without shipping added in either). I offered 95 dollars for my 1st offer to start negotiations,,,,, and they blocked me! No response, just blocked. Shady, rude, cash-grabby, and genuinely pretty wack to do on a negotiating sale site directly off-rip. Seems incredibly disingenuous as a business practice. I wouldn’t trust this place at all based on that kind of behavior alone. At least their online store is 0/5 stars cannot dissuade anyone enough! Edit: in response to the comment from the store I would like to clarify that I made an entirely new account because I was blocked, by your account, after my initial offer. I didn’t handle it through Mercari bc I was unable to as I was blocked. Not sure the conversation you are trying to portray but it is ill-fitting. I didn’t accept the bribery damage control offer (s) they sent me after I left my first review, and as a result, they left their comment to my review shortly thereafter. Unimpressed overall. Also, I was not pressed in the absolute slightest that you sold it to someone else for the fair value. Like I said, I couldn’t buy it regardless because I had to make an entirely new account to interact with you, one that I didn’t plan on verifying just to buy from your shady storefront. For shame to blame me “I know it can be frustrating…bought out from under you” blah blah lol save me PLEASE Moral of the story, I hope you learn to be more reasonable as a seller please.

Have never been to their shop in person I purchased through their Shop on Mercari biggest mistake ever!! For one they purposely made their listing very deceiving showing a picture of 4 bitty pop packs and purposely putting 1xbitty pop so unless you read it very carefully you think your getting 4!! $30 for 1!!! insanely overpriced which they definitely did this on purpose $30 for all four would’ve been a good deal. And when I received the item (received 1 instead of the 4 pictured in the listing)and went to do a return because the listing was so misleading. They Purposely wouldn’t approve it. And then proceeded to gaslight me about how Mercari wouldn’t allow them to answer back. The main problem is they put money over customer service and purposely try to deceive customers. And instead of Allowing a simple return they would rather play games because of greed. We’re already getting squeezed from every direction and Want to try to shop small businesses but I’m noticing increasingly many small businesses are controlled by a high level of greed. So even though people would like to shop and support small businesses There seems to be an increasing problem with customer service and the way small businesses handle things. So then people turn to big box stores run by Billionaires so they don’t have to deal with these issues!!

I used to go to dizzy dugout when I was in elementary -high school because back then the place was always bustling with people, there were nightly tournaments, the tables in the back, as well as back rooms were filled with people playing their favorite card or board games. I went away for college, and lived out of Collinsville for years.then I moved back to Collinsville with my kids, and I wanted to introduce my kids to what was once one of the coolest hangouts in Collinsville, somewhere we could go together and do something we all enjoy (I still enjoy card and tabletop games and my son is getting into them). Something to note as well is I would often come in after they were closing up and volunteer to help them clean for some store credit so I could buy battletech minis, and card packs when I was in 6th grade. Spent a lot of time there when I was younger. When I took my son there, the place was dark and all the walkways were packed to the gills with boxes and what looked like overstock, the once bustling backrooms had been turned into mountains of dusty boxes. It was a bit heartbreaking to see. However after talking to the guy at the front desk, I found out between health issues, and needing to take care of their family, the owners didn't have time to come into the shop much, and they didn't want other folks to host the card tournaments (didn't really get a clear reason why). So the place has definitely fallen from its former glory. I will say the guy at the front desk was very friendly and helpful, and seemed to be doing his best to make heads or tails of organizing the overwhelming inventory. The prices for what we were buying (pokemon cards for my kid) were fair and the selection was fantastic. There are also a lot of incredibly rare/old action figures/collectibles/out of print card packs etc available so it's definitely a huge nostalgia bomb if you're an old nerd like me. Still a great place to visit if you're looking for something in particular, definitely still support them, but was very sad to see the state of the store, and was even more sad to know my children wouldn't get to see the place at its former glory. Still the staff are patient, nice, and helpful when me and my son comes in so we still visit.