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Where to find books, boxed sets and modules in Toronto area
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Post Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 8:50 am 
 

I recently got into AD&D and started collecting in July. I've tried the usual avenues of kijiji, facebook marketplace and ebay. kijiji and facebook don't have much and while ebay does it gets quite expensive with shipping and duties/taxes. But I haven't had much luck find RPG shops that carry old stuff. I've been all around Lake Ontario, from Toronto to Burlington around to St Catherines and into the US at Buffalo, on through Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown and back into Canada at Kingston, working my way back west to Toronto. I've been as far north as Barrie and west out to Kitchener/Waterloo and on to London. I've found maybe 5 places with anything substantive. I tend to check out TT gaming, CCG and comic book shops. Never found anything at flea markets or used book shops. Fan Expo recently came through town, but there was nothing there either.

Any recommendations?

  

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Post Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 11:45 am 
 

A while back I bought a bunch of old 1e and 2e D&D stuff incl French language versions from a store called Le Valet d'Coeur. I was in Montreal at the time. Unfortunately I don't think they have other locations outside of Montreal.

  


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 1:10 pm 
 

Interesting. Looks promising. Trip to Montreal could be a good idea, potential for a few stores out that way.

  


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 4:05 pm 
 

The best source to find vintage RPGs in Toronto is "The Sword & Board" located near Bloor & Dufferin. I haven't been there in quite some time, but the last time I was there, they had a whole wall of photocopier boxes full of used RPG items. I found about a half dozen shrinkwrapped AD&D modules during my visit. I only went through their boxes labelled D&D, but they had a few dozen other boxes of used RPG items, so it's possible you could find something of value if you devote the time to search through them. My visit was about 4 years ago before the RPG market became "hot", so it's possible everything has been picked clean, but definitely worth a look.

Another potential source of items is "The Hairy Tarantula" on Yonge just south of York Mills. It's a mix of RPGs and collectable card games, however, this store used to be heavily into RPGs back in 80's/90's. I first went there in 2019 hoping to find some vintage D&D items but, unfortunately, it was all modern merchandise. However, back then if you asked a staff member about their old inventory, they would escort you into the "off limits" store basement to browse. I remember there were literally stacks of books and boxes everywhere. I bought some great vintage items that day at an extremely good deal. The owner of the store is a bit of an eccentric though, and when I went back there a few months later, I was told that the owner had forbidden access to the basement even to store staff, so I was out of luck. I would love to get a chance to browse through everything as there was a TON of vintage stuff down there. The Hairy Tarantula also has a store on eBay where they sell some used vintage items and even in their listings descriptions they admit to "...we have a plethora of inventory that is out of print. If you are looking for a rare, or hard to find game, or comic book, you have come to the right place. Anything we don't have currently as an active listing, please feel free to email us and we can look over the hundreds of thousands of items we have in stock to see if we can make it available and at what price we would be selling it for." The hoard is real, but unfortunately, inaccessible to browse anymore.

Good luck on your searches!

Richard

  


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2025 5:44 pm 
 

Zenonmarfat wrote in Where to find books, boxed sets and modules in Toronto area:The best source to find vintage RPGs in Toronto is "The Sword & Board" located near Bloor & Dufferin. I haven't been there in quite some time, but the last time I was there, they had a whole wall of photocopier boxes full of used RPG items. I found about a half dozen shrinkwrapped AD&D modules during my visit. I only went through their boxes labelled D&D, but they had a few dozen other boxes of used RPG items, so it's possible you could find something of value if you devote the time to search through them. My visit was about 4 years ago before the RPG market became "hot", so it's possible everything has been picked clean, but definitely worth a look.

Another potential source of items is "The Hairy Tarantula" on Yonge just south of York Mills. It's a mix of RPGs and collectable card games, however, this store used to be heavily into RPGs back in 80's/90's. I first went there in 2019 hoping to find some vintage D&D items but, unfortunately, it was all modern merchandise. However, back then if you asked a staff member about their old inventory, they would escort you into the "off limits" store basement to browse. I remember there were literally stacks of books and boxes everywhere. I bought some great vintage items that day at an extremely good deal. The owner of the store is a bit of an eccentric though, and when I went back there a few months later, I was told that the owner had forbidden access to the basement even to store staff, so I was out of luck. I would love to get a chance to browse through everything as there was a TON of vintage stuff down there. The Hairy Tarantula also has a store on eBay where they sell some used vintage items and even in their listings descriptions they admit to "...we have a plethora of inventory that is out of print. If you are looking for a rare, or hard to find game, or comic book, you have come to the right place. Anything we don't have currently as an active listing, please feel free to email us and we can look over the hundreds of thousands of items we have in stock to see if we can make it available and at what price we would be selling it for." The hoard is real, but unfortunately, inaccessible to browse anymore.

Good luck on your searches!

Richard


I've been to both. The Sword & Board has quite a good selection. Unfortunately the manager makes the buying process impractical. He refuses to allow inspection of items to see if they are complete and in good shape and insists that everything has been priced "according to condition and completeness" as though their were a universal consensus as to the value of a module missing a map and having highlighter on pages 2 and 3. Items are not consistently marked as complete/incomplete and even when they are marked, these labels have proved inaccurate. Attempts to reason with him have been fruitless and he insists he can't run a business if people are allowed to inspect items. If he isn't there and it's just staff you might be able to inspect an item, ymmv.

Hairy Tarantula is great. Very good people there. Most of their inventory has been sold off and they rarely get 1e/2e materials back in.  The staff were willing to let me look at items they hadn't listed on ebay yet so I got first dibs. They're always willing to negotiate on price and are quite reasonable.

  

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Post Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2025 6:52 pm 
 

I'm doing some downsizing of D&D and also lots of other RPGs so if there is something you are looking for let me know.

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