I've patronized a few Play It Again Sports in two other areas of the country, and I can say without…read morereservation this is both the biggest/best stocked store I've been in, and they had the best staff of any PIAS I've been to. They are loaded for bear right now with winter stock - vast arrays of skates, hockey gear, skis, snowboards, and accessories. They tend at this location to stock ONLY what is demanded for the season, so if you're selling something from an off-season or are looking for a bargain tennis racket in November, you will be disappointed.
They do full-season rentals on equipment, which seems to me like a great way to wade into a new sport. Their buyback scheme is as follows: when you bring a used item in, they will price it. If you leave it on consignment to sell, you will get 50% of the price, when it sells. If you want to take trade-in credit right away, you get 40% of the value. If you want to get cash on the nose right away, you get 30% of the value. I looked at the range of conditions and availability for skates (which we were shopping for today) and the price range seemed quite decent for what they had.
I waited for our skates to be sharpened, and observed them helping some skiing and snowboarding customers and handling a buy-back transaction, and they seemed very thorough, professional, and knowledgeable.
The used prices aren't ultrabargains, but it's difficult to really find a specialty store that deals with used goods. You have your thrift stores, used car dealers, and other than that you're left with Craigslist and garage sales for the most part. So I think this is a pretty good niche, and for the ever-growing and changing-of-interest kids, a great great resource.
They'll have to wow me on repeat visits for me to get up to the lofty five stars, but a promising four stars for now.