The Monstore

Store hours on their website and google are wrong, only Unilocal hours are correct. Drove 30 minutes to a closed store.

Love this place great environment BUT NO PUBLIC WI-​FI SERIOUSLY IT’S 2016! 5 stars if the get wifi.

The people are helpful, I’ve never had a question they couldn’t answer.
I come here all the time to play TCG. It’s a great environment for anyone new or old that plays any type of tcg or table top game.

I was searching for a specific item and a friend of mine mentioned that they had it one left at the Monstore and it had been sitting there for months. I live over an hour and a half away and I couldn’t make it there till the weekend so I decided to call them. The item had been sitting there for months but I still wanted to see if they could set it aside for me or let me pay for it online/​over the phone because I really wanted it for the weekend but they wouldn’t. :(
I could have ordered it online for cheaper but I wasn’t sure it was going to get to me in time.
I know it’s a lot to ask if it was something that was hot and selling fast but it’s something that they couldn’t move for months and it wouldn’t have been a problem. It would have made me a regular customer but it’s turned me off from the store. That, and I was also left sweating in the heat with Austin C in the review below me.

Left us sweating in the heat in order to open right at 12pm, when he unlocked the door in front of me he didn’t even open, then we browsed around for 10 minutes and he didn’t even say hi. Pricing was high too. Pass…

Absolutely fantastic store. I feel welcomed and valued as a customer. I love FNMs here, they are huge!

Being new to Magic: The Gathering, everyone there was really nice. They explained to me how to play, and also created a deck for me. I love the space they have for just playing card/​board games. Only down side is it’s a bit pricey.

Absolutely by far the best gaming store! They have a demo game section to test any new games and the staff happily teaches you how to play! Also they have a huge variety of products from board games to card games to war hammer. Plus they have tournaments almost every day with amazing prizes! I highly recommend this store to anyone!

I absolutely love this place. They have the best selection and customer service of any other store in the area. The themed game nights are awesome, as well as the special events. I go here over anywhere else.

I am not sure why there are so many negative reviews here. I am coming here all the way from Los Angeles, CA every Tuesdays and Fridays to play because they are the ONLY VENUE offering FREE Magic The Gathering event participation, and I go specifically to play the Modern format.
Even the competitive stores around Los Angeles don’t offer this option to play for free… am I the only one sharing this sentiment? Not to mention they have Warhammer play terrain open for everyone to play and additional tables to Demo Board Games with you and your buddies for free! No other stores that I know have open board games for you to play test before buying lol. It’s like a man cave, and you can spend all your free time here and still have fun with it lol.
Their inventory is HUGE. In fact, it is MONSTEROUS pun intended. You can buy or use store credit you win from tournaments to buy individual card pieces to upscale your deck or even buy packs to gamble your luck into something that might get you there faster by trading it back to the store for store credit.
Honestly, the store has endless options, and hosts all the tournaments you can think of, including Yu Gi Oh! The judge remembers you by name too or tries to after just a few visits! That’s super customer service imho. So give this store some more store credit-​literally. Lol it deserves it!

Not recommended. Very disappointed. Was trying to order some cards on their website, and I had a problem with placing the order so I called into the store and spoke with the manager. He walked me through the process and quoted me a price for some cards I wanted to order. As we were discussing he, he said everything was in stock and that he was trying to «fix» the pricing discrepancies between the website and what was quoted to me. During this phone conversation that lasted over 10 minutues, he told me the cards were «sold» during our phone conversation and that he couldn’t sell me the cards anymore. Good customer service would entail him offering me the cards to sell to me since I was already in the process of buying the cards and only needed to call in due to issues with the pricing. I think that this manger removed the cards from the website and made up some bogus story about having sold the cards conveniently during our conversation. Will not be doing business with this store again.

I was very disappointed in this store. I went here six times, over the course of six months, hoping my experience was just a fluke. It turns out that it wasn’t, and this store has major flaws. Now I normally don’t take the time to write a review, but my experiences were so unpleasant, I felt compelled to share. And I didn’t feel it would be fair giving a negative review unless it was a regular occurrence, hence my five other returns to the store.
When you walk into the store, it is pretty big for a game store, organized, and kept up well. My first complaint is once you are inside the store, there is only one or two employees seen, and they do not acknowledge your presence. They seem to spend their time at the Magic counter, and too preoccupied at the register or talking with another customer about Magic related items to even know there is a new customer wondering the isles at their store. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes until I can get a «can I help you with anything?»
My second complaint is the stores no return policy, even if you never left the store. I bought card sleeves, and heading out I realized they were the wrong size. I went right back to get the correct size. The correct size ended being a few dollars cheaper. They exchanged the sleeves out, but refused to refund the difference. They would only allow store credit.
My last, and biggest complaint, is how the employees there are very rude. While I was at work, I had my non-​gaming wife go into the store to pick up some European size card sleeves, for a game I have. The card dimensions I gave my wife were 57×89mm. The employees proceeded to tell my wife there is no such card sleeve for that size. I am sorry, but just because you do not know about it, or carry it in your store, does not mean that what my wife asked for does not exist. My wife, being a non-​gamer and intimidated, did not know it was a standard European size, and if the employee was well versed in games other than Magic, he would have recognized the card size as such. This particular employee continued to ask my wife why she was looking for sleeves. She proceeded to explain that it was to sleeve for a board game. This employee explained to my wife that the reason to sleeve is to protect the cards value, and gave the example of Magic. Again, wrong. Yes, that is a reason, but there are many other reasons to sleeve. For instance, the game I wanted to sleeve was for a hidden role board game. If the cards get nicked, torn, or bent in any way, you run the risk of people knowing your identity.
The store owner seems to want to branch out beyond Magic. They are getting a decent selection of other board and card games. Their prices are just standard MSRP. However, their customer service is severely lacking. I suggest the Monstore stick to what they know, Magic.

Wow. These guys really have everything, and I mean everything. I came here after a shipping mishap with a playset of Magic: The Gathering cards; I needed 4 Minotaur Wizards, ASAP [obligatory moment of realizing I’m such a nerd in that statement]. After driving to three stores and calling countless more, I was directed to The Monstore. I asked if he could call The Monstore for me to make sure they had the cards since it was 30 minutes away. The guy just chuckled and said, «They’ll have it. They have everything.» We got there and and was immediately overwhelmed with the size of the store. It’s comparable to a warehouse. A warehouse for every game and hobby you could think of and even more that you didn’t. I snapped up my Minotaur Wizards plus a few others.
Although I did pay top dollar for the cards, I didn’t really mind seeing as I spent all evening looking for those damn magic-​wielding cows.

Inquired about a book via Facebook and the clerk got back to me right away, a lot more then I can say about some of the other LFGS. Talked to Nathan and he helped me reserve a copy of the book that they had in stock. Price was a bit high however I was eager to get the item so I didn’t mind. Nathan was knowledgeable and pleasant, I will most likely shop here again.
Thanks!

What to say about the Monstore?
Monstore has that reputation amongst a lot of MTG players at Frank and Sons for being the shadiest and unhelpful shops around.
Their Montclair location is absolutely no different than their booth at Franks.
Every single card (from common to legendary) has a price. I’ve been to different TCG stores where they’ll cut customers some slack and do 4 commons for $ 1, but I guess they’ve never heard of that here. Don’t expect any deals here either, they base their prices exclusively with asking prices on eBay, regardless of how useful or sought after the card actually is. Prices on accessories are ridiculous as well. Their prices on dice, sleeves, mats, HP Tickers, and the usual sort are outrageous.
As for the Unilocaler who got his cards stolen, Monstore is notorious for dealing with stolen items. A&N Sports Cards over in San Dimas had a few decks getting stolen from FNM Players only to pop up at the Monstore booth at Franks. When confronted, they started on legal technicalities and customer privacy nonsense. Typical lies to cover their tracks.
Live & Learn and stay away from this store.

Who is Monstore? Monstore (the store location for CCG unlimited) is a card store that serves the local Magic: the gathering, Yu-​Gi-​OH, Pokemon, Cardfight Vanguard, and Wargaming/​Boardgame communities. Monstore holds one of the largest player bases in California, including large Friday Night Magic events, and high level tournament play trough events like Star City IQs, GPTs, and their in store invitational series.
If you are a magic player, Monstore is where you want to play. Each Friday they hold both a Modern FNM (12 — 16 players), and a standard FNM (50 — 70 players). They always play full Swiss, offer 100% store credit prize payout, and a free booster of the latest set with entry. If you drop out early, they are always firing booster drafts, and other side events.
Worried about rigged events, etc, well don’t! Monstore’s Head Judge for magic events is very experienced area judge (level 2), who you might have seen head judging area PTQs (250+ person tournaments). In addition, the amazing group of local judges, including Bryan De La Torre (the scorekeeper, and store employee) are always there to help… Just raise you hand and ask for help.
If you need singles they are their to handle your needs, including standard, legacy, modern, and EDH at reasonable prices (TCG Mids). Like to open packs? They have a great assortment of the latest packs, including standard and modern sets.
Playing at Monstore is a ton of fun. From the friendly staff, to local players, you will always find a good time at the shop!

I’m primarily a Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player, so I’ll talk about my MTG experience mainly in this review. I say that because they sell so much stuff here, and I really have no idea what they are, at times, so don’t get the impression that all they sell is MTG.
Fantastic selection of Magic: The Gathering products: singles, sealed products, sleeves, etc. This place has the best inventory in this area, other than Frank&Sons, (but F&S is a different beast altogether). The staff is very helpful, knowledgeable and a majority of them play the game too, so you can ask them for advice.
They give a pack to everyone who enters any of their sanctioned tournaments, which is nice, plus 100% payout (in store credit) makes for a good prize pool. FNM’s get, on average, 50 people. They have Standard and Modern FNM’s these days. Once a month, they have a Super FNM — which draws close to 100 people — the prize pool is always foil versions of hot Standard/​Type 2 Cards. They have Legacy on Sundays, but the crowd isn’t as big on Legacy Sundays as they are for FNM (8 – 20, I’d say). If you are looking for a place to get better at MTG, in preparation for GP’s or SCG events, I’d say this is a good place to go for FNM’s. All tiers of decks are represented, I feel. It’s always a challenge to play in the FNM’s. The MTG community ranges from casual to competitive players. EDH players abound. Lots of trades going on.
Lots of tables; not just for MTG, but also for other games — there’s a dedicated group of L5R players that come here, for example.
The store is very spacious. They sell other stuff, too, and recently they’ve been expanding their table-​top game inventory (Warhammmer, Malifaux, etc.). I oftentimes watch people play Warhammer, but I have no idea what’s happening. The people seem to be having fun throwing around 25 dice… that’s good, right? People also come here to paint and show off their little models. It’s cute.
You can also borrow board games and deck-​building games to try them out before you buy them. I’ve discovered a few awesome games this way, which I’ve ended up purchasing myself. The staff, as well as the community in the store, are always willing to show you how to play a game and to make recommendations based on what type of games you like to play. I certainly would not have given deck-​building games like Munchkins, DC, Ascension, etc., a try if not for the people at the Monstore — and now I love playing them.
All in all, I do like this place a lot. They have an excellent selection for the games I love to play. The staff is super-​friendly and helpful. The place does get busy during large tournaments and events, but that’s expected.

So the prices were great on individual cards and they had all kinds of old boosters etc. that you could buy.
I actually came down for the Dragon Maze pre-​release and the place was PACKED. FNM went right up until midnight and then pre-​release was supposed to get started, except it didn’t. they weren’t ten twenty or even an hour late. It was about 1:30 before we got cards and started deck construction. It was about FOUR AM before the SECOND ROUND was over. People were dropping like flies heading home. So it’s great if you can just physically stay awake long enough to wait people out, I’m sure you’d have won something because there were 96 people who were signed up.
Unfortunately, I’ve got a friggin job that I worked at all day and had to drive home. So I bailed at 4 and went home.
Once things got started, the event moved at a fairly decent speed and the people I were playing with were nice. It was my first ever Magic event. I don’t know if I’ll be back for events. I heard gameology, right down the street runs a much tighter ship in terms of pre-​releases, so I may go check them out.

Met these guys at ORCCON 2013, they only had a couple of tables but thier prices and selection was great. The guys are super friendly and can help you find what you need and if they don’t have it and it’s avaialble they can order it for you. Can wait to visit the store and check out the full selection.

I had my collection of Magic worth about 3 – 4 thousand dollars stolen about a month ago. There was a police investigation and eventually caught the guy who actually broke in. But none of the stuff was recovered. The Monstore was one of the shops we gave a list of noteworthy cards to keep them alerted. The police also interrogated all the shops at Frank and Sons. The Monstore was the most reluctant to give any information out.
Recently, a friend of mine discovered they bought most of the cards. I called to inquire about this and they said that they only bought a few of the altered cards. When I actually went to the store, I discovered at least one of my whole EDH collection out on display WITH some of the noteworthy cards. They were very round about in replying to anything and lied to some of our questions.
I would be wary of going to this place.