Where to find materials for your board game prototypes

Heyho my fellow gamers,

Now... I'm going to talk about how to find different useful materials for your board game prototype.
We now it all starts with a prototype - and this is the phase where you want to keep your expenses as low as possible while maintaining a fairly convincing prototype.

So - where should you go and pick up materials for your next board game prototype? I have a few suggestions that I've been somewhat successful with.
 

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The $1, €1 or "Tiger" stores...
You probably already know them.. this is where you find cheap Halloween costumes, the 1 trip umbrella, crazy straws, b-movie DVDs and the list goes on!

These stores are stuffed with things you wouldn't need in 1000 years... But but but... there's also a hidden treasure lying around waiting for you to discover it :)

Many of these stores have generic board game pieces for Domino, Two of a kind, 4 in a row, Stratego and so on.
 

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Flea markets and charity shops
This is probably where you get the most for your hard earned bucks. In flea markets you'll be lucky to find old board games or toys that you might use..

Furthermore there are always a lot of hobby stands and people with same interests - so you'll also be sure to find "alternative" ways of creating or developing your board game prototype.

Why not use cheap pearls for resources, or use the backside of a jigsaw puzzle for board.
There are many alternative ways of refilling your stock of prototype materials ;)
 

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The local ebay variant
Yea I know... ebay might not be the easiest place to find cheap board games or materials - It's all collector's edition or full packages of some sort.

But you might have a "local ebay" of some kind.. a newspaper or a website. You can be lucky to find people here selling out of old storages or the likes...

And in general
Be on the lookout for sales in your local toy store, book store and so on.. It'll really help you create cheap board game prototypes :)

Happy gaming to you all!
 

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