Rodman Comics is a fun place to stop by and look around. Rod has a wide selection of new and…read morevintage comics. A great place to fill the holes in my collection. Each time I stop by I feel welcomed by Rod. Always a warm smile and a greeting. Great customer service and all the time.

Great staff that knew my comic's background and was interested in my priorities in a comic.read more

Awesome place nice people 1$ comic books are amazing you should come until you are brokeread more

Honestly, really good collection. There are a lot of magic cards there. Service was nice. A very…read moreincredible amount of funko pops I will say. Even though it is a sick funko pop, I paid 18$ for a anbu itachi.

staff is nice there is a great selection of just about everything i love going to jays it is very…read morefun and its not to expensive and they will give you a great price when selling things there.

Jay's CD & Hobby stores are probably my favorite establishments in all of Des Moines. I'm a huge…read moreretro junkie so scouring through old video games, music, trading cards, etc., is one of my favorite pastimes. This location in particular, is probably my most visited one, but also my least liked of the three. Even so, it's still a great store. When it comes to retro and vintage items, you can always find exactly what you're looking for on sites like eBay. The fun part of Jay's, is not knowing what you want and just browsing. More times than not, I don't buy anything from this location. The selection of items is usually better at the other locations. That's the only reason it's not a 5-star rating for me. Value wise, I think their prices rival eBay, and you can buy it on the spot instead of waiting for shipping. Staff always seems friendly and helpful also.

I stopped by with my sister for the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour 2026 and I was so excited when she…read moretold me there was a game AND books shop. I was there for the books but I also found a bunch of cool games I've only seen people play on YouTube. The selection of books - especially the more obscure SciFi and Fantasy books - blew me away. It was certainly not disappointing. While we were there, there was a Lorcana gameplay night going on in the other side so it was hopping. I also had a lovely conversation with Emma and she gave me some recommendations I'd not heard of. Pricing was clear for items and browsing was smooth. Can't wait to go back!

This shop was amazing and honestly so much fun and such a great gaming experience. While I'm more…read moreof the video gaming type, there were still so many neat things to check out here that I stayed entertained and time flew by. They have an incredible selection of dice, books, and board games, all of which are in great conditions. The employees were kind and helpful. There were even tables on one side for folks to enjoy gaming together which was neat. Overall it was a great place to check out and I will definitely be back.

Amazing selection, super friendly and helpful staff. And some of the cleanest bathrooms I've ever…read moreseen at a game store!

Cool niche place to go to. Lots of collectibles and board games that you wouldn't find in a normal…read morestore. Worth a look around.

Quest Haven just opened during the summer of 2024. The owners, locals who went to school here and…read moreare part of the community, have added a few twists to this bookstore. As you can see from my pics, they are still a bookstore. But not to be out done by the online book seller favs, you can open the QR code (see my pic) or punch in bookshop.org and reference Quest Haven to order your books online and support this local store. (A fun fact, if you open my pic of the QR code on your desk top monitor, you can open the QR code with your phone while in photo mode pointed at the QR code.) But you can also see at the rear of the bookstore, there is a soda station. As you can see from my pic, they offer several flavors, leading to a ton of flavor combinations. As we head into winter, they'll probably be offering hot beverages. In the middle of the store there are racks of comic books. This has to be one of the few places where you can actually shift comic books to find the adventures of your latest hero or character.

For your nerdy subculture things, The Core was pretty much the only store available in the entire…read moreCedar Valley area for awhile. Now there's another comic book store, but this one still reigns supreme in terms of selection available. The Core sells tabletop gaming items for Star Trek, Warhammer, Star Wars, and others. It has a huge selection of comic books (it takes up most of the store). For people like myself, it also sells adorable things like the neat Pop! toys as well as more serious (and expensive!) collector's figurines. They also have a huge selection of Magic The Gathering cards, and you can purchase by individual cards as well. They also have a small selection of snacks and other items available for purchase. Along with that, The Core has playing tables as well. When I stopped in, it was Friday Night Magic. I'll also say that, out of the 25-ish people in the store, I was the only female, and it was slightly off-setting (though I'm used to it in this type of store). Their Friday Night Magic was pretty active, though, so it looked like a lot of people to play with. I picked up a Star Trek game, and prices were fair. It was only a dollar more than Amazon, and for that, I'm happy to support local business. Store interior decor (and exterior) is a bit drab. There's literally merchandise on every available surface of the store. There's a huge selection, but it doesn't strike you as a "fancy" place or anything. It's well kept-up, but it doesn't seem to go out of its way to be nice. Employee was friendly enough while checking out. Didn't demean or talk down to me because I'm a female. He seemed a bit bored with his job (or maybe busy since it was so packed), but I have no complaints. Final thoughts: It's not as amazing as nerd stores you can find in larger cities (such as Ames), but this is pretty much the best you'll get in the Cedar Valley area - and it's not a bad store. They have a decent selection of nerd things, and they have events for those that like to gather and nerd out. As an odd note, though, I'm not sure I've ever seen any bathrooms here, so it may require leaving the building and going somewhere else for that.

They have a little of everything and great customer service! Tons of new and collectibles in…read morefantastic condition.

Located in the UNI downtown area and near-ish to Sidecar Coffee and other bars, this is the newest…read morecomic book store to come into the area. However, be aware that that's exactly what it is: a comic book store. Many times, a comic book store will also have a lot of other nerd toys like gaming supplies, figurines, playing cards, and things like that. Limited Edition Comics isn't like that. They're a comic book store through-and-through. They have a very small selection of tabletop accessories for Star Trek and Star Wars games as well as a couple of board games to choose from, but that's about it. Everything else is comic books, and they definitely have a huge selection. As I'm not a comic book fan, but instead, I enjoy the "nerd supplies" like the figurines or tabletop accessories, this was a bit of a let-down. It's a pretty small store, and as far as I can tell, the playing tables are downstairs while the upstairs is the shopping area. Also, to add to the weirdness, the upstairs also seems to include a barber shop. There were people getting their hair cut while I came in. There were also a bunch of people having friendly conversations, so it seems like there's a group of people who probably come here regularly. Since they have tables and whatnot downstairs, I'm assuming they probably host local tabletop gaming or card game tournaments. Nothing was going on at the moment as far as I could see, but it did look like they had space downstairs. From the prices of items I compared to Amazon, their pricing is usually within $2 of what Amazon wants, so very fair pricing. Definitely worth purchasing locally. Wasn't greeted or really acknowledged while in the store. It's a pretty small store, so it felt a bit awkward to not be acknowledged, but it did allow me to browse in peace. No one was outwardly rude or giving me "the outsider!" looks, though, so it's possible that greeting customers is not usually within their usual procedure. Parking here is standard parking for a downtown-ish area. There is a small free parking lot down at the base of the hill of the street, but it's a small walk to get to the store. You also could park curb-side if you wanted to, but I didn't find it a problem to walk to the store instead. Final thoughts: If you love comic book stores, you'll probably enjoy Limited Edition Comics. It's a great comic book store, but don't expect a lot of the other "nerd toys" that usually come along with comic book stores. I probably won't come back, but that's mostly out of personal preference for something other than comic books. Not a bad store, though.

Like to visit comic stores while traveling and this caught my attention. Located off busy street…read morenear University. Walking up stairs there is a huge Millennium Falcon ship hanging up in lobby which the owner gladly shares its backstory. Actually is a barber shop that evolved into comic store and small pop culture vibe. Heavy on comics with some light assortment of DC and Marvel statues. Clean and laid out well within the space confines. Worth checking out the place. Mostly enjoyed chatting with owner about Star Wars.

Service here was pretty sad. The employee did not greet customers and provided poor interaction…read more She wasn't paying attention and also took forever to check us out. Book prices are amazing here, though. I have trouble understanding how they stay open with prices so cheap. If you don't care about customer service and want cheap books, I'd recommend book warehouse.

I was really excited to see Book Warehouse in the Outlets of Des Moines. The store is fairly large…read moreand has a lot of good books. However, I did not see any any newly released books though. A lot of the books were 60% off and because I had a coupon for the store I was also able to get an additional 20% off one item. I purchased a book that was retailed at $27.99 and after all the discounts it ended up being less than $10. What a great price! Much cheaper than Amazon too! Service was fast and friendly here. I'd definitely recommend any book lover to check this place out.