Changed my tune on expensive playmats after ruining two cheap ones

I always thought spending more than $15 on a playmat was a waste until I spilled coffee on my third $12 mat in six months. Finally dropped $40 on a GameGenic mat with stitched edges and a rubber base, and it's held up through 20+ game nights without curling or fraying. The surface texture actually keeps cards from sliding around too, which my friends noticed right away. Anyone else find that going cheap on table stuff just costs you more in the long run?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenh561mo ago

Three months ago I watched @allen.kai try to shuffle cards on a bare wooden table and four of them shot off like hockey pucks. He swears by his $60 mat now but won't admit the cheap one was the problem. I had a similar moment with dice trays last year - bought a flimsy cardboard one for $8 and it collapsed mid-game spilling d20s into someone's chili. Now I've got a leather one that's survived two years and a move across state lines. The coffee stain on my current mat is from my own mug tilting over, but the mat itself wiped clean in two seconds.

bennett.evan1mo ago

Is it just me or do those cheap accessories always find the most spectacular way to fail at the worst possible time?

-1

allen.kai1mo ago

Might as well have been lighting money on fire with those cheap ones, right? At least the expensive mat doubles as a nice placemat now when you're eating chips.