We will open regular hours on Memorial Day with both Pokemon at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m and D&D at 5:30 to 8:30 . If any remains, we will extend the Yu Gi Oh Lightning Overdrive Premier event until 6 p.m.
We are still accepting pre-registration for the Pokemon Chilling Reign Pre-release on June 5th. $25 until Wednesday June 2 and $30 after that.
We are also still taking prepayment for Modern Horizons 2 until June 6th.
We are still running the Yu Gi Oh Lightning Overdrive Premiere event this weekend through 6 p.m. Memorial Day. $20 gets you 5 boosters, a limited edition Field Center card and a ticket for a chance to win one of two playmats, a promo card or a Flaming Vortex Wall Banner. Indicate on your ticket which of the items you would like to win if your ticket is drawn and give us contact information or contact us after 6 p.m. Monday to see if you won.
You may enter multiple times and have multiple chances to win.
We are running the Yu Gi Oh Lightning Overdrive Premiere event this weekend through 6 p.m. Memorial Day. $20 gets you 5 boosters, a limited edition Field Center card and a ticket for a chance to win one of two playmats, a promo card or a Flaming Vortex Wall Banner. Indicate on your ticket which of the items you would like to win if your ticket is drawn and give us contact information or contact us after 6 p.m. Monday to see if you won.
Every semester for my Principles of Marketing class, I have my students survey over 1000 Southeast Missouri State Students regarding their social media use, so If you want to reach a college student, these are probably the best platforms to use. Unfortunately, unless you make your messages compelling, they are likely going to swipe right or ignore them. After all, just because you put the message out does not mean anyone will read it. So here they are in order, along with some comments as to why:
1. Snapchat--used to keep in contact with one another. For a lot of students has replaced texting. Very easy to ignore advertisements though
2. Instagram--People like looking at pictures. Much more so than text only
3. TikTok--not even on the radar last year. Now a very popular way to spend time. Has replaced YouTube for a lot of students
4. Facebook-Viewed as used by parents and grandparents. Students don't use it as much for them selves and a number only keep accounts active because their parents and grandparents do.
5. Twitter--not visual. Lots of text and can be hard to follow.. Viewed as primarily used for news. Easy to lose the context of messages.
Discord was also referenced but was not referenced enough to reach the top 5. Linked In is also used but primarily for job searching so if you are trying to reach college students, Snapchat or Instagram are probably your best bets.
Chilling Reign is the next Pokemon set releasing. We will host the premiere event starting June 5th. Players may preregister for prepay up until June 2 for $25 per kit. After that the price increases to $30
Releases November 19th
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Hidden Arsenal - Chapter 1 Box Display (8)
Learn the legends and experience the story from the beginning with Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1! It’s been over a decade since the Hidden Arsenal era began, and now,
Duelists can obtain historic cards from the first four Hidden Arsenal sets like they’ve never been seen before and learn the stories behind them in this epic collection!
Bolster the Ice Barrier strategy from Structure Deck: Freezing Chains with even more “Ice Barrier” cards! Flood the field with the army of the Ice Barrier!
Fortify your Fabled Deck with many core cards integral to any Fabled strategy! Capitalize on discarding cards from your hand and gaining powerful effects! Make sure
to utilize the new “Fabled” cards that were featured in Blazing Vortex!
With tons of new additions in Ghosts From the Past, Dragunity Duelists won’t want to miss this chance to find some of the most sought-after “Dragunity” cards from
the Hidden Arsenal era. Unlock the legend of this powerful WIND-Dragon Synchro strategy!
Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1 also features:
• Worms… FROM SPACE!!!
• The Allies of Justice who fight against them!
• The normally peaceful Naturia!
• The proud dinosaurs known as the Jurrac!
• And much more!
All of the cards in the original Hidden Arsenal series were either Super Rares or Secret Rares, but in Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1 many of them can be obtained as Ultra
Rares! Each box will have 2 standard Ultra Rares and 4 colorful Ultra Rares. The entire Ultra Rare pool is available in blue, green, purple, and the standard gold.
Each Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1 box will contain one of several special collectible dice. As a special bonus, Duelists can also learn the legends of the Hidden Arsenal
world! Each box will come with an insert detailing part of the Hidden Arsenal story, officially available in English for the first time!
Each Hidden Arsenal: Chapter 1 box contains a total of:
• 1 Secret Rare
• 6 Ultra Rares (2 standard Ultra Rares, 4 colorful Ultra Rares)
• 30 Commons
• 1 Hidden Arsenal Storyline Insert with Game Mat
• 1 Special Collectible Dice
Similar to WOTC's recent pre-releases, we are running an At-home pre-release for the new Force of Will set, Assault on the Demonic World. You can get 1 prerelease kit of 6 boosters and 2 promo cards for $30. If you get 6 kits, you will receive 1 playmat. If you get all 12 kits you will receive two playmats, as well as all the boosters and promotional cards.
We hope, by the time of the release of the next set, to safely have in store releases.
Here is an update on handling events from WOTC
Beginning May 28, we’re temporarily enacting the following discretionary WPN in-store event policies. These policies are supplemental to the overarching WPN Terms and Conditions . They are optional, temporary, and should only be applied in accordance with local laws and regulations:
1. You do not have to run in-store events. Running in-store events is voluntary and you will not be penalized in any way if you choose not to.
You should only host in-store events if you are able to do so safely, legally, and responsibly. Events reported during this period will not count towards your play metrics.
Q1 2020 metric snapshot will remain in place until further notice. All scheduling options for Prerelease, including in-store, via webcam, on SpellTable, and at-home will count towards future Prerelease allocations equivalently.
We will inform WPN members before any events begin counting towards play metrics. At that time you will have a full year to rebuild your metrics. We will then base promo and product allocations on whichever is higher between your live metrics and the metric snapshot. Theros Beyond Death will be included in Prerelease allocation determinations until two Prereleases have occurred where metrics are counted.
2. You may impose additional health and safety requirements for entering your store and/or events.
WPN policy normally requires that WPN events are open to anyone allowed in your store. Under the WPN Discretionary Policy, this has been temporarily changed. You may impose additional entry and player requirements that you judge as necessary to provide a healthy and safe environment for play. As a friendly reminder, it is up to you to ensure compliance with applicable local laws and regulations when making these decisions.
3. You may modify Magic: The Gathering tournament rules and procedure as needed to provide a safe environment for play and ensure compliance with local health guidelines and regulations.
You are allowed to make good faith modifications to tournament rules solely as they relate to providing a safe play environment. You are responsible for ensuring these modifications comply with applicable local laws and regulations. It is up to you to determine what modifications, if any, to adopt, but here are some examples of what is allowed:
Players may only shuffle or cut their own decks
Cards must remain on the owner’s side of the table when control is changed
Cards attached to cards owned by other players should not physically touch
Mechanics that require an opponent to search a player’s library, hand, or graveyard are performed by the owner displaying that zone to the active player without cards changing hands
4. You may host in-store events for private groups.
You may offer private events for groups. You may also host off-hours events. This pertains to all event types, including WPN programs and non-programs. Any private event you host should always follow the WPN Code of Conduct and comply with the basic terms of your WPN membership. You must provide a safe, welcoming, and inclusive play environment for all customers, including minors.
Van Richen's Guild to Ravenloft releases tomorrow. If you preordered a copy, you may pick it up when we open at 10 a.m. If you didn't we still have copies of both the Alternative and regular covers available.
We have seen a lot of interest in this book, likely because of the player content it provides.
In case you are looking for some D&D , we do have openings for the table on Saturday evening from 5;30 to 8:30. Our regular DM will not be her on Saturday but we are looking at having a substitute DM in to run a one shot game. We will not have a game on the 29th as our DM will run our monthly painting workshop from 1 p.m to 3 p.m.
Wondering why you cannot find toploaders except at 4 to 6 times the regular price online and virtually nothing here in the store? According to the manufacturer, it is primarily due to the demand for PPE. Seems toploaders and much personal protective equipment are made of the same type of plastic so the plastic that would normally go into card supplies instead winds up in PPE, causing the shortage.
In case you want to look at the list of games we have available for in-store play or for you to rent to take home for a week, you can find the list here.
Pre-pay for your Van Richten's Guide, either standard cover or limited edition by Sunday May 16th and get a free set of dice at the time you pay.
I find it rather strange that, in the midst of an epidemic,
a large number of still operating game and comic retailers have reported that
this past March was their best March ever in terms of sales with a number
commenting it was their best month ever in terms of revenue. Here, sales increased over 110% from March
2020 when Illinois started its lockdown. We had to close to foot traffic on
March 21 as the state deemed us a non-essential business, and boy that hurt,
both in terms of sales and emotionally. After all, who wants anyone to get
called non-essential? The store wound up
down about 25% from 2019, making it comparatively easy to beat March 2020’s
figures and post a triple digit sales increase. However comparing March 2021 sales
to March of 2019 showed an increase of just shy of 60% with March 2019 our best
March ever. In fact, March 2021 proved
our best month ever, up double digits over any other month in the store’s
history. So how come?
Stimulus payments—A
number of stores attributed their increased sales to the stimulus payments
incorporated into the COVID-19 relief bill. Although that doutless had an
impact, we started seeing noticeable sales increases of 20-30% better than the
average day, even pre-pandemic, the first week of March. The stimulus money did
not start hitting people’s bank accounts until mid-month, with some people
reporting their received it within two days after the bill got signed into law
on March 11th. Still that was over a week after stores started reported
outsized sales increases. While the money definitely had an impact during the
latter part of the month, it does not account for the increase in sales during
the first half and 2020’s stimulus money had hit customer accounts too long ago
to account for this sales surge.
Tax refunds—People
who had filed early did start to see tax refunds flow into their accounts and
that extra money always sparks a surge of spending. However, customers started
getting refunds in February and March just as they do every year, so there is
nothing different about their filing this year that would account for the sales
surge. In fact, the IRS has pushed back the due date for this year’s income
taxes to May 17 so procrastinators and those who use a paid preparer (who,
based on my experience take longer to file than doing so yourself) have even
longer to delay filing and getting their refund.
Pokemon and Magic—Pokemon sales has been ridiculously
strong for the past several months and the release of Shining Fates followed by BattleStyles
a couple of weeks later really juiced
revenue, especially for those stores that had bulked up on their orders and received large allocations of both
sets, with gift boxes selling for two to three times MSRP on the aftermarket.
Similarly, TimeSpiral Remastered proved in high demand, with a
number of stores selling out of their allocations on pre-order, meaning none
hit the shelves, even as cash hit the store bank account.
Spring—After
winter and a really nasty late February, people seemed to respond to the really
nice weather and just wanted to get outside and go someplace. We saw an
increased amount of foot traffic during March and almost all of those customers
left with an armload of boardgames, rpg books or a sack of TCGs.
GW announced the Third edition for Age of Sigmar for later this summer. However, in the release, GW specifically said that, while the core rules will get reworked, all of the current Battletomes will remain usable with this edition.
For you comic book collectors, we purchased a collections of about dozen boxes of comics including about 30 Supeboy comics from the late 1950s and early 1960s, as weell as a number of Bronze Age Adventure and Superbox books.
The Necromunda items below will go on sale this comic Saturday. Unfortunately, unless something changes we were capped at 1 each so let us know quickly if you want any
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WOTC announced today that it is lifting its ban (local restrictions permitting) in in store sanctioned play as of May 28th. We will wait and see what infection rates are in Illinois and what government recommendations are before deciding what to do.
Someone several 5th edition D&D books and campaign notes in their yard. From what they said, they though someone had stolen a backpack, found the books in it and dumped them. We have them. You can claim them by telling us what books they are.
We bought a large collection of pre-2000 Magic cards over the weekend. Have several Revised Dual Lands and a number of other high end cards from the period. No Power 9 though.
This Friday night at 6 p.m .ET, WizKids will host an online painting session to paint the Red Slaad figure included in their most recent paint night kit. You can watch the session here on YouTube this Friday or we will be streaming it on the store TV.
If you are a Doctor Who or Arrow fan, we picked up a few standees from the series this weekend. $19.99 each, save for the one with the Doctor and Amy, which is $24.99. Cannot restock these once they sell so if you are interested, get them quickly.
