Family Friendly Game Stores

 

 Yesterday's post does tie into what types of games are appropriate for a store to stock and what qualifies a store as a “family friendly game store” , a significant topic of conversation amongst game stores mid decade when Cards Against Humanity sales boomed   https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/31544/rolling-initiative-rpgs-cah-ygo-philosophy-store. Store owners discussed as to whether to stock Cards Against Humanity and its offshoots or not. On the one hand, we had store owners who saw themselves in the position of gatekeepers and curators, working to select the best games available for their customers and , while they did not dispute the right of those other games to exist, did not want to expand their product mix to include the new “offensive party game” category. On the other hand, other store owners looked at the demand for CAH and its offshoots and decided that given, the number of calls received weekly for the game taking the money made much more sense than continually telling customers they did not stock the game and sending them to Amazon.

It would appear that, given the trend in the offensive party game category, those store owners that decided to add Cards and its ilk to their product mix made the right decision early on.  With Cards available for purchase in Barnes and  Noble and Target alongside Jenga and Harry Potter merchandise and dozens of games that adopted the “judge format” popularized by Cards Against Humanity (and before that by Apples to Apples but the CAH publishers never mention that) in both safe and “Not Safe for Work” formats, such as Exploding Kittens and Unstable Unicorns, it is not surprising that, if there is enough customer demand, a poop or other bodily function themed game will, with little discussion, make it onto store shelves.

Poop Games

 

Well, given that the most popular toys in 2020,  and the most popular item in toys for last year all featured poop, I guess it is not too surprising to see games coming out in the hobby  channel  with poop as a major feature of gameplay https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/47402/pegasus-spiele-reveals-poo-poo-pets-release-u-s-hobby-channel Mass market games, primarily aimed at kids,  have featured poop and other gross out topics such as farting,  pimples and boogers for a couple of years now so I guess  hobby channel games ,  wanting to attract kids, who have loved gross things for decades,  should look at this as a trend worth following, though the most successful of these games appear to focus on the tangible or audible aspects, rather than the game play. Dunno if there is a market for these sort of games in the hobby channel as the only ones I remember having any success were Breaking Games’  Poop and Neat Games Too Many Poops which sold OK but not great. Personally,  I would much rather see Euro Games’ Grass or Khemper Games’ Weed or Deluxe Weed become much more readily available in the hobby channel. We sold hundreds of copies of both over the decades before the legalization of cannabis (and still sell quite a bit of Stoner Fluxx) in many states. Now that its use is much more widely accepted and legally available at the state level, though still illegal at the federal level, seeing a game company make a strong push  to bring either or both back into hobby distribution seems a timely move.

Games Workshop shortage

 Just got word from GW that our order of the Dark Angels codex has been capped at 2 copies, so if you want one, scheduled to arrived for sale on Feb 6th, let us know ASAP.

Kaldheim

 Kaldheim pre-release starts tomorrow. We have a limited number of draft booster boxes available at $129.99 and some prerelease kits for a $30 tournament entry fee. The rest of the Kaldheim materials go on sale on Feb. 5th.

GW Ordering

Due to demand for their products, shorthandedness at the warehouse and supply chain problems, GW has been allocated and selling out of their new releases the weekend they release. In order to "alleviate" this problem or at least minimize its effect on you getting the new products, GW has asked us to email orders for its new releases on Friday afternoon, thus allow us to get orders into the que earlier and increasing the likelihood of us getting them. They have moved to releasing new products every other week so if there is something on the list that you want, let us know by 9 p.m. Tuesday.  Next week's releases are: COMBAT PATROL: DARK ANGELS SPACE MARINES PRIMARIS ERADICATORS SPACE MARINES BLADEGUARD VETERANS SPACE MARINES STORM SPEEDER NECRONS PSYCHOMANCER WH UNDERWORLDS: KHAGRA'S RAVAGERS (ENG) WH UNDERWORLDS: KHAGRA'S RAVAGERS (FRE) CODEX: DARK ANGELS (HB) (ENGLISH) CODEX: DARK ANGELS (HB) (FRENCH) DATACARDS: DARK ANGELS (ENGLISH) DATACARDS: DARK ANGELS (FRENCH) THE DEACON OF WOUNDS (HB) DAWN OF FIRE: THE GATE OF BONES (PB)

Key Person

 If you are running a business and are the sole proprietor, or running it as an LLC or some other form of ownership which relies on one person to handle most of the business operations and decisions, you have what  is called a "key  person" and need to decide  how to handle what will happen in the situation that person is not able to carry out their duties. 

The thing that got me to thinking about this is a local Carbondale business, Chicago Hot Dogs, which has operated in downtown Carbondale for two decades and is now up for sale. One of the owners, Sang Eun Lee, died in a boating accident last November and without a plan to handle continued operations, the business is up for sale as it appears his wife does not want to or cannot handle the business alone. So if you are a small business and the sole owner, do you have plans for what happens if something happens to  you?

Something to consider is "key person" insurance, which is insurance that pays out in the instance that someone designated an indispensable part of the business becomes unable to perform their duties.

Death Guard Update

 If you pre-ordered any of the Death Guard items they arrived today and  your order is held behind the counter. As noted earlier, we got allocated on several items but will see if the have come back into stock tomorrow

Death Guard Update

The latest information from Games Workshop regarding Death Guard is that we can expect the books and miniatures to arrive Monday. Not sure what the delay is since customers who pre-ordered the Codex directly from GW have already received the book. 

Death Guard

 Our shipment of the new Death Guard codexes and related materials is running late. Typically, we would have received them by now and have them processed and out for pickup and purchase on Saturday but due to the vagaries of the supply chain, they have not arrived yet. .In addition, we have heard that a number of stores got allocated on the miniatures and codexes. Our rep did not say anything about this so we hope that we receive our full order.

Brzrkr

 For those of you who have been waiting on Brkrkr, here is the latest update

• BRZRKR #1 will be delayed 1 week for FOC and On-Sale Dates to ensure retailers have a PDF and all cover assets, along with additional marketing support, to make an informed decision.
• New FOC Date: February 1, 2021
• New On-Sale Date: February 24, 2021
• 1:1000 INCV Variant has been added, which will be illustrated by Jonboy Meyers and signed by Keanu Reeves.
• DEC208555 BRZRKR #1 C & DEC208556 BRZRKR #1 D will be FULL FOIL, open-to-order variants of the Rafael Grampá and Marks Brooks covers, respectively.
• These two covers will be on-sale March 10, 2021 to ensure allocation does not occur for retailers who place orders for these items.
• We have added an additional 1:100 INCV, 1:200 INCV, and 1:500 INCV for this issue and more information and cover art will be revealed throughout next week!

Perfection Fallacy

 Whenever the semester starts  I always send out an email to the students about the concept of the "perfection fallacy". The perfection fallacy is the belief by people that everything will always work out perfectly. A classic example is starting your car. You walk out in  the morning, put your key in the ignition and 99 times out of 100, it starts up perfectly. What do you do, though, on those extremely rare occasions when the key does not start the car? Keep turning it in the hope that eventually it will catch? Pound the dashboard and yell curses as if that will do any good? Do you have a back up plan for the rare times when that happens? Is the Uber app installed on your phone so you can call for a ride? Do you have a friend you can call to give you a lift?

In the case of a game store, what do you do if that order you expected to arrive does not show up? Most of the time they show up when expected but what do you do when they do not? Do you have a phone number to call to see where your product is or do you have another project to work on instead of checking in the shipment?

A common example I cite to students is setting aside time on Friday to finish up assignments, then finding out the internet crashed or they feel sick or their kids are sick? What happens then? The best way to avoid falling prey to the perfection fallacy is to plan ahead. If something has a deadline, endeavor to start it ahead of the deadline so that, if something interrupts, you still have time built into your schedule to accommodate the delay.

Hasbro Sales for 2020

 This look at Hasbro sales for the third quarter is pretty interesting. https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/46853/big-gains-hasbro-gaming-q3. Total sales for the company are up 11% for the year, including a 19% drop in April , May and June https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/46203/hasbros-total-gaming-sales-down-19-q2 and a 40% increase in WOTC sales in the first quarter https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/45666/hasbros-total-gaming-business-up-40-q1. D&D sales for the third quarter are up about 20% and Magic sales are up  “double digits” , although the company did not specify what percentage of those revenues  came from digital sales of the product line. So looking pretty impressive so far for the year and, based on the interest showing in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Commander Legends, not to mention Commander Legends Green, I expect to see Hasbro/WOTC closing out the year up by double digits. 

Tasha's Cauldron

 

Well, the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything reinforced my long held belief that player accessories outsell DM accessories by a factor of, oh about 10 to one or so.  Case in point, we blew through our order of 25 copies of Tasha’s Cauldron in about 2 days and have yet to sell one of the Wilderness DM Screens.. Wizards, more player sourcebooks, fewer $50 campaigns. We have ordered heavily on Candlekeep Mysteries but not as Heavily as on Tasha's

Death Guard Releases

 Releasing Jan 23. Please let us know if you want one by this Monday night at 9 p.m.  as we put the order in on Tuesday and will go light on them, esp. the Data Cards.

Codex: Death Guard (43-03)   Format: Hardback, 96pp Languages: English, French The essential book for any Death Guard player in Warhammer 40,000 Includes new rules for fielding Death Guard armies: –  3 Matched Play Death Guard Secondary Objectives, 6 Warlord Traits, 9 Relics, 6 Psychic Powers of the Contagion Discipline and 31 Stratagems Also includes Death Guard specific Crusade rules, including:   –  Agendas, Requisitions, Battle Trait tables, rules for Chaos Boons and Spreaders of Disease Also includes a code to redeem the codex on the Warhammer 40,000 App (43-03) US $50/ CAN $60 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Death Guard Lord of Virulence (43-77)   Contains 1 multipart plastic Citadel Miniature Essential purchase - A HQ choice for the Death Guard Provides positive modifiers to friendly models, and negative effects upon nearby enemy models   (43-77) US $35/ CAN $45 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Death Guard Datacards (43-04)    A set of handy Datacards for use in games of Warhammer 40,000 alongside Death Guard armies Contains 52 cards for various Death Guard abilities:  7x Core Stratagems, 38 Death Guard Stratagems and 7x Psychic Powers   (43-04) US $25/ CAN $30 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Combat Patrol: Death Guard (43-75)   A perfect way to start collecting a Death Guard army Contains 39 existing, plastic multi-part miniatures: –  1x Typhus, 1x Biologus Putrifier, 7x Plague Marines and 30x Pox Walkers Approximately 55% added value   (43-75) US $140/ CAN $170 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Death Guard Miasmic Malignifer (43-78)   Contains 3 separate pieces of terrain, a Miasmic Malignifier, a Pox Furnace and a short pipeline that can connect to other two terrain features A Fortification option for Death Guard armies   (43-78) US $60/ CAN $70 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Death Guard Poxwalkers (43-76)   Contains 10 multipart plastic, single-posed miniatures A Troops choice for use in Death Guard armies A multi-purchase unit that can be taken in squads of 20 Previously only available in the now-discontinued Warhammer 40,000 Dark Imperium boxed set   (43-76) US $35/ CAN $40 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21 Lord of the Dark Millennium (BL2888)   By Dan Abnett Containing well over thirty stories and charting a legacy over twenty years Related products: Warhammer 40,000 Languages: English Format: Paperback, 672pp   (BL2888) US $18/ CAN $20 For sale in your shop on Saturday 01-23-21

Siege of Terra: Fury of Magnus (BL2882)   Graham McNeil Format: Hardback, 256pp Languages:  English Second Novella spin off of the Siege of Terra Series Related products: MK III Space Marines, MK IV Space Marines   (BL2882) US $27/ CAN $32

Back Issue Comic Prices

 A Batman #1 CGC graded 9.4 just sold for $2.2 million.  However the thing I want to point out is the price on the CGC graded 8.5 Captain America #1. It sold for $384,000, a very respectable sum. However , last year, a CGC graded 9.4 Captain America #1 sold for $915,000. Less than one grade level differentiated the 2  books and yet the higher grade comic commanded a premium of 140%. Also, a graded comic will command a value of 2 to 3 times that of a non-graded copy of the same book. Why? Because someone with some authority has evaluated that comic and has a reputation of expertise in the field.

Condition is extremely important when selling comics. If you find a box full of comics in a storage unit, they generally will not have been cared for and will not command the price premiums that you hear comics in some cases selling for.  If you run across comics and think they are worth money, here is the grading scale that CGG uses when evaluating comics

Dice

 As we have a whole lot of RPG players entering the hobby  and they all want dice, we have expanded our dice offerings with more dice cups and dice towers. If you have watched any of the online RPG shows, you will have notice that many of the players and DMs like to use dice towers in order to more randomly roll their dice and control where they roll. If you still like to roll your dice, we also have a selection of fold  up dice trays in assorted colors. We also just restocked metal dice and have a pretty large selection 

Kaldheim Pre-release Kits

 Just a heads up, we are getting 54 pre-release kits for Kaldheim and we have already "sold" 28 of them so just a little more than half.. If you are interested in one or more, contact us pretty soon.

Kaldheim Changes

 WOTC announced some changes to configurations for Kaldheim booster packs (again). Draft Boosters will have a snow covered land instead of a regular land and a33% chance of a foil card. Set Boosters will no longer have "connected" sets of commons and uncommons but instead an "assortment" of 7 cards and a5% chance of getting a "foil stamped signature" Art Card. 

D&D Sessions

 Since we have had more people wanting to play Dungeons and Dragons and , due to the possibility of COVID-19, we want to keep sessions small, we will offer 2 additional weekly sessions, one on Saturday at 5:30 run by Syd and one on Monday at 6 p.m. run by Brandon. If you already play in the Wednesday or Friday games, we ask that you skip these two so that other new players can get a seat at the table. In addition, we are moving the Friday D&D session back half an hour to start at 5:30 p.m.

New Pokemon

 Yes we are getting the new Pokemon sets in.

No we are not sure when.

No we do not know how much they will cost. We will look at our cost and how much other places are selling them for.

Kaldheim Set Boosters

WOTC has made a few changes to the Set Boosters for Kaldheim. You can read about them here.

No D&D

 Syd is unable to make it tonight so we have had to cancel D&D for Friday night. Expect to see her return next week.

Game Room

 Just a reminder that, due to our desire to mitigate the possibility of people catching COVID 19, we do ask that you call at least two hours ahead and confirm that there is space for you to play. Due to D&D games, we generally do not have space on Wednesday and Friday and, starting this week, we will likely not have space on Thursday as well, unless you want to play with the boardgame group or in the Star Wars RPG.

Cards

 We have sorted all of our rare and uncommon Magic cards first by color and then alphabetically. We are keeping the boxes behind the counter so we can quickly search for cards. We will gladly pull boxes  out for you to look through but only one box at a time.

Kaldheim Boxes

 Through Jan 24 or while quantities last, our pre-order prices on Kaldheim booster boxes are:

Draft--$109.99

Set- $129.99

Collector $249.99

Comic Values

 We posted an article back by the comics indicating how much condition can affect comic, and by extension card, prices. In addition, media attention drives pricing as well. For example, a copy of Iron Man #1 in near mint condition, graded at 9.6 or 9.8, sold a decade ago for about $3000. Today, thanks to the success of the Marvel movies, the same book sells for around $18000. However, an average quality copy, graded at about a 5 or 6, sells for only about  $300.

Queen's Gambit

 We will probably not restock chess sets except for the roll up mats and plastic pieces. The Queen's Gambit on Netflix stirred up a lot of interest in chess the past few months and we sold out of all of our wooden board style chess sets, which had set on the shelf for months if not years. the silicone mat style sets sell about 1-2 sets a month so will continue to stock those but the demand for the wooden boards will likely fade as Queen's Gambit gets displaced in the viewer's mind by whatever the hot new "thing" is.