For many people, money is tighter than ever these days, and it’s harder to justify spending $80 on the newest grand strategy game, or even $30 on a party game. With the price of games climbing across the world due to inflation and tariffs, finding cheaper alternatives is important to keep game night fresh. As someone who’s both worked at a board game store for several years, and has spent money on my collection both the cheap and the pricy way, I hope you’ll find this guide helpful.

As a warning, many of these options involve buying a game second hand, which often means getting a game with missing or broken components. Whenever a game box isn’t sealed, I recommend opening and checking to make sure it’s not missing any major parts. If it’s a few pawns short, that’s not the end of the world, but if the game board or deck is gone, it’s probably worth passing it up.

Thrift Stores

Goodwill, Salvation Army, and other thrift stores often have sizeable collections of board games for only a couple of dollars. Often, these will lean towards family-oriented and classic games. You’re practically guaranteed to find a chess set and numerous decks of playing cards. Beyond that, you might find some copies of Sorry or Scrabble, and Code Names. However, thrift stores get a lot of eyes on their shelves, so the pickings can get slim when it comes to rarer options.

The biggest highlight of my thrift store hunt were $3 copies of Ticket to Ride, and Codenames. That being said, I have also seen full Dungeon & Dragons board game sets on sale for $5 dollars, so crazy deals can definitely be found.

Garage Sales

At least in the American Midwest, it seems like every one of my neighbors is putting out a full Sears catalog of possessions on their lawn. Board games are not usually the highlight of these, but most will have at least a couple for sale, and maybe have some other cool hobby items to pick up while you’re there. If you don’t live in a suburb, these might be harder to find on your own. I recommend using a site like this one to spot them more efficiently than eyeing yardsigns.

I’ve found this method to be the least reliable, but also the most affordable. Across the four garage sales that I’ve visited this weekend, I’ve seen about a dozen board games, with the highlight being a copy of Pandemic for 2 dollars. 

Game Stores

I worked at a Board Game store for several years in high school, which meant I got to peer beyond the veil of sale. Many game stores have games on clearance, but they don’t always advertise them or put them in a place that’s easy to find. If they don’t have one, you can usually ask the owner if they have any titles they’re just trying to get rid of. The deals on games here will never be as good as getting them elsewhere, but the quality is a lot higher. More likely the games in these sections will be sold roughly at 40-50% off, which lets the store break even on them rather than admitting them as a total loss. Some owners will let you negotiate the price down a little further if you’re buying several.

As a side note, if you look in the dustier corners of these stores, sometimes they have copies of games that have been sitting on shelves for years, and therefore have a price tag that’s nostalgic for better times. Though I already own a copy of Root, I saw a copy of the base game available for $45 dollars at one store, waiting for the next perceptive eye to snag. It runs closer to $60 these days.

The two greatest snags I’ve got at a game store are a copy of Concordia for $25, and the original Star Wars Armada starter set for $50. Both of these games retail for double or triple that. I also got a Warlock terrain kit for about $40 a piece, which I used to build a diorama. 

Facebook Market Place

Admittedly, this is the platform that I have the least experience with. But a casual browsing of postings in my area shows big, bulk collections for sale. The other advantage is that most of these listings will show you everything that they have and the price that they’re expecting, which makes it easier to not waste your time.

The downsides of this, are of course having to deal with strangers online, having to meet up, and being scammed. You can’t really check if parts are missing until you’ve already showed up. And many of these games are being sold at collector prices rather than bargain prices. Seller delusion is real sometimes.

Flea Markets

These usually don’t have board game focused section, but you can occasionally find an odd copy here and there. I’m putting this at the end of the list because, while you’re probably guaranteed to find some board games at one of these places, the density and time that you’ll have to spend looking for the few copies, compared to how few you find, puts it low on my list.

At the two flea markets I’ve checked out, I have not seen a game I wanted to purchase.

Conclusion

Though money and prices are not so friendly these days, it is still possible to build a great board game collection for under $100. You can save a lot of money, if you have a keen eye. I’ve seen plenty of places trying to get rid of great games.  What I won’t be telling you, for purely selfish reasons, is where I get all my magic cards and packs for near half the price. You’ll have to proxy instead 🙂

What about you? Where do you find good deals on games in your area? Let us know in the comments or on the Boss Rush Discord.

Featured Image Credit: Board Game Geek