Great store with very friendly and knowledgeable staff who are extremely welcoming! They have a…read morewide selection and will always get you what you need! The game nights they host are great, and the later hours are really great for people who work till later in the day!

This place is your typical gathering place for board gamers (mostly tabletop RPG). They do carry a…read moresmall selection of board games for purchase and a separate rack of games you can play before purchasing (or just for fun). They have an extensive collection of figurines and paints for games like DnD, Pathfinder, etc. as well as handbooks and various rulebooks/info books for these games. The people are super friendly! The prices of games and books here, from what I looked at, were about $10 cheaper than other stores! Also, it's open late every night for fun. Only 4 stars because it smells like microwaved leftovers.

Friendly folks, and smells great if you like incense. One note, though - the only games they carry…read moreat this point are collectible card games. Oh, well...

I saw the place while out and went in looking for a specific miniature for D&D. The inside is very…read morenice and the play area is set up well. The staff were all very helpful and quick to offer assistance. They didn't have the mini I was looking for but I will definitely be back.

Best video game store in the area. Huge new and retro selection, great prices, and great customer…read moreservice. Much better selection than disc replay, and everything I've ever bought has never had any issues.

Friendly service! Great little game shop. We were warmly greeted when we came in and they had a…read morenice variety of retro games.

Conveniently located in downtown Champaign near the Illinois Terminal (Amtrak, MTD buses) and a…read morestone's throw from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, Exile on Main Street has a fantastic selection of new and previously loved vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes, and more. I recently met the owner, Jeff Brandt, at the store while my partner was on the hunt for Taylor Swift and Charli XCX vinyls. Jeff was immediately attentive and we struck up conversations about Taylor Swift, the positives and areas of improvement downtown Champaign could use, the area's history as a musical mecca, and much more. It was easy to see how much love and sweat equity he's put into the community and the store. An adjacent vintage store has closed but Exile regularly hosts pop-ups, underscoring its community-first vibes. When you're looking for vinyl finds, skip online, Target and chains and support institutions like Exile on Main!

This is the THE record store to visit in Champaign-Urbana. Yeah, there's Record Swap if you want…read moreused classic rock or See You Vinyl with their dozens of records, but Exile is the place to be. The store itself has an interesting layout that promotes exploration and discovery. There's a nice mix of used and new vinyl, (mostly used) CDs, and even some cassettes and VHS tapes. I'd say Exile's strengths are all things indie, major artists from the 90s onward, classic rock, and a bunch of niche stuff. I like to find reissues of 90s and 00s electronic stuff there, and they typically stock new jazz releases from Blue Note and some of the other big labels (not a huge selection, but everything they have is good). Of course, this is just my perception. You'll find each genre well represented. If you don't see what you want, the owner is happy to get it for you. He's a great guy with a deep knowledge of music. He actually has a whole section that he's selling from his personal collection, which is an interesting category. It's like a bunch of great titles that have been out of circulation for a long time. Overall, this is a fun place to find good music. Check it out.

This is my favorite place to take visiting grandchildren. I give them $10 - $20 each and let them…read morebuy a bunch of stuff. Then they spend the rest of the day creating something out of it all. They love it and are so proud of their creations!

What a special store this is. The concept and mindfulness from this store is very lovely…read more You can get reused items that can be repurposed at a student friendly price. I've gotten a jar for my utensils, post cards, and even sand paper.

I came in with gold and silver items, and I was shocked at the low ball offer from the shop owner…read more For the whole lot, the proprietress, offered 40% off the melt value of the items. One item, a ten ounce silver bar was bought for $240.00 in 2022. She offered only $200.00 for it! I would have made a loss on the item even though silver per ounce sells for nigh $39.00/ounce. I had in total 50 francs and 1 ducat in gold. Using a quote of $3450/ounce of gold and having about .57675 of an ounce would have yielded about $1990.00 in a fair market value outside of listing fees and so on. The whole lot in mkt value was somewhere near $2500.00. The lady offered about $1580.00 for the whole lot. Please avoid this shop at all costs. This person does not want to make a fair profit; she wants to make a killing by taking you for a sucker. I was very angry, but I left w/o making a scene.

I recently discovered this local outlet and am very impressed with their selection, pricing,…read morefriendliness and professionalism. A welcome bonus is there are usually other like-minded collectors in the shop which adds a sense of fraternity and comradery. I will definitely be giving them my business in the future!

Be careful if you are taking things in to sell. Be VERY careful. Not the best place to sell things…read more In fact, a BAD place. The buyers, though, will find almost everything they are looking for. Usually, the prices are good. But forget about the "swap" part. A very uneven playing field that.

I was incredibly impressed with the selection of new vinyl, and the selection of vintage vinyl was…read morepretty good too. Staff seemed friendly and polite, everything was clean and organized. The issue is the pricing. I prefer to buy in a store and support independent record stores and small businesses. I have my limits though. Not sure how he can get away with charging 20-300% more than other sellers. My record store day I bought for $26 he had for $45, my RSD I got for 35 he had for 50. The Zappa broadcast I bought for $8 new sealed he wanted $40 for, another I got for $13 sealed he wanted $40 as well. Most the vintage vinyl was worth half what it was priced at. I know you've got to pay the rent and I know prices are higher brick and mortar, but why are your prices higher than stores in downtown Chicago? Highest priced store I've ever been to, and I'm a traveler, I go to a LOT of record stores. I could have easily bought a couple dozen albums if they were even 20% cheaper, but I left with nothing and very sad that I had to pass on so much good stuff. I guess you can build a pretty epic collection if you don't price things to actually sell...Went online and bought what I wanted for 30-50% less than he wanted. Didn't feel good about it, but I'm not going to be ripped off just to support indie record stores...

Every university town requires a shambly old bookstore with overflowing shelves whispering wisps of…read morearcana to all who pass its portal. This is Urbana's. My favorite thing about this particular emporium of tomes, though, is that the kindly gentleman who owns it is a dead ringer for a beloved childhood fictional character, Professor Branestawm.

The best part of used bookstores is the element of serendipity. I find books I have loved that I…read morenever knew existed, and would never have known to search for them. New bookstores, in my view, are very limited in scope -- the owner has a particular taste, majority of titles (not counting classics) have been published in the last 1-5 years, from major publishing houses, almost everything has been on the NYT besteller's list. Very little element of surprise, few hidden gems. Used bookstores have so much more serendipity, so many hidden gems, so much more variety. And Priceless Books has this element of used bookstores, but twice as much as any other used bookstore I've been to. And I've been to a lot! On every road trip, if I'm just passing through, I check out their used bookstores. This one's special. Yes, it's messy and there's piles of books on the floor blocking the path (definitely not a wheelchair friendly store). Yes, you have to crane your neck to view titles up on the shelf. Yes, the store clerk is not gregarious (but does have a twinkle in his eye). But it's worth it! I have found so many books that my here that my life feels more complete having read them, and I never would have known of them if not for this store. This can be said of many a used book store, but Priceless Books just has more of it, and it's something special.