The blog for news, events, releases and commentary from Castle Perilous Games & Books. located in downtown Carbondale IL. New posts every Monday and Wednesday.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Wormy
Saturday, November 9, 2024
D&D 2E
We picked up some more AD&D 2e as well as some decades old Palladium Books supplements for the Palladium RPG. More expensive Items are in our ebay store while books priced $30 or less are on the shelf in the used game section.
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Magic Foundations
Magic Foundations pre-releases start tomorrow Everything but Singles and pre-release kits are available at 10 a.m. with the first pre-release at 5:30. Entry fee is $45. We will not offer pre-release kits for at home pre-release until after 1 p.m. on Sunday
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Acme Comic Novelty Library
Readers of independent comics from the late 1990s may remember Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library, featuring Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid In the World and Quimby the Mouse, among other Ware works. One notable feature was Ware printing the individual issues in different sizes. This set collects the first three volumes of the series but in a standard size.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Asmodee and MAPP
One thing I have always found annoying s companies saying
they take violations of street date and MAP violations seriously but never show
any evidence of it. Legend Story Studies
publishes a list of retail stores that have been suspended, for unnamed
reasons, from selling the company’s Flesh and Blood card game and participating
in organized play events which indicates the company takes seriously violations
of its posted rules by retailers selling the game. Meanwhile, companies
such as Wizards of the Coast, The Pokemon Company and Konami says they take
seriously and enforce their policies regarding breaking street dates and
violating MAP, stores that report violations never see any apparent results
from any reports made. Wizards of the Coast has stated a number of times the company
welcomes reports of street date violations but does not comment on them and
Asmodee NA states specifically in its MAP policy (Section 2:10) that:
“ANA refuses to engage in any communication with Resellers
regarding whether a competing Reseller’s advertised pricing behavior is
consistent with the ANA MAP Policy. ANA assumes sole responsibility for
monitoring and enforcing the MAP Policy and will not discuss such activities
with any Reseller, except for the limited purposes of discussing an individual
Reseller’s own advertised pricing behavior or penalties relating to the same.”
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Disney Lorcana and Melee
The store hosted a Disney Lorcana Shimmering Skies Store Championship earlier this month and the turnout provided yet more evidence that the once hot game is cooling off dramatically. Whereas for our first Store Championship we had people driving 2 to 3 hours to get here and easily an hour for our second one, this event struggled to fill the required 8 seats. All the players were locals that played in our regular weekly league which was certainly good but not even all of them showed up to play, meaning we had to readjust the Melee tournament software to account for the fewer numbers than expected. We managed to do it but we have found that Melee’s tournament software does not make anything easy.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Hako Onna
Hako Onna (The Woman in the Box) is based on a Japanese ghost story. One of the players is the Hako Onna who tries to hide from the other players, until she gets hungry, then she starts hunting the other players. Meanwhile the other players just want to escape the mansion before they fall victim to the Hako Onna. 3-5 players and plays in about 90 minutes
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Cookbooks
In the flood of themed cookbooks getting released, we got in the Brigerton Cookbook today, as well as a restock of the Stardew Valley cookbook. We still have copies of the Critical Role and Dungeons and Dragons cookbooks as well.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Haunted Carbondale Tour
This Friday is our final scheduled Haunted Carbondale tour of the season, though you can always schedule one as long as you have at least 4 people and your schedule meets with Scott's.
On October 11ths tour, we had two interesting incidents happen. During the tour itself, we were in the Main Street office when we heard 3 light knocks that sounded as if they came from the front door, though the people on the tour though they sounded as if they came from a table in the office.
the other incident took place on Sunday afternoon. I was putting away Saluki flags from Homecoming weekend. I was in the freight shipping section of the old train depot and I heard what sounded like two women talking to each other in the southern section of the depot. I could not make out what they said and the conversation only lasted a few seconds. I took a look around inside and outside but did not see anyone but, if they were outside, they could have quickly walked away.
Friday, October 18, 2024
Duskmourn Nightmare Bundle
For $89.99 this is a pretty good deal. You get 2 Duskmourn collector boosters, a $60 to $70 value, 6 Duskmourn Play boosters, a $30 value, 20 foil full art land cards and 2 of 6 promotional cards only available in the Bundle. As of this writing, We only have 6 of these left. The major problem is that the box is not a typical Bundle box as opening it damages the box so that it cannot be used for card storage.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Biff Bam Boom Comics
In case you want to take a look and support small press publishers, take a look at Biff Bam Boom Comics. We met them at Archon and brought in a selection of their comics which we have on the Local Authors shelf and hope to have in the store sometime,
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Pokeween
Come into the store and spend $25 on Pkemon and, while quantities last, get a Pokeween card with a promo pack, sticker, and promo Pokemon card.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Lorcana Store Championship
We will host the Lorcana Store Championship for Shimmering Skies this Saturday at 1 p.m. Winner will receive a Shimmering skies championship playmat and alternate art card, 2nd place with receive the second place playmat and card, 3rd through 8th will receive the card, Players will play 4 rounds, then cut to top 4 or 8 depending on the number of players
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Scenario Kits
We have started making scenario kits for RPGs starting with D&D 5e. each Kit comes with a short scenario, goo9 for 1-3 hours of play and miniatures to set up the encounter, Our first one is on the shelf and only costs $29.99
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Archon
The Store will set up at Archon SF convention in Collinsville Il this weekend. If you are in the area or attending the Convention, stop by and say hello. and mention this blog post for a free die.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Duskmourn
Duskmourn singles go on sale Sept. 27, along with our remaining pre-release kits at $39.99. Will not buy or trade for Duskmourn until Oct. 11 so as to give prices time to settle down.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Character Dice
We managed to restock the character dice sets from Beadle and Grimm's . Out of stock for months, we have all of the D&D character classes but expect to sell out of them fairly quickly.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Duskmourn
We will have the team tournament/two headed giant tournament for Duskmourn tomorrow at 1 pm. After that, our remaining pre-release kits will be available for at-home tournaments. We do ask that you give us your name or Wizards email so that we can register "tickets" with WOTC for them.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Duskmourn
Duskmourn pre-release starts this weekend, well Friday Sept 20th at 10 am. You will be able to purchase boosters, booster boxes Bundles and Commander Decks starting tomorrow. While quantities last, purchase a booster box of Play or Commander boosters and get both the promo card and a Collector booster. Pre-release is at 5:30 Friday, then another at 5:30 on Saturday and a two headed giant at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Each pre-release costs $45 .
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Indiana Jones RPG
Longtime gamers may remember the Indiana Jones RPG from TSR, published in the mid 1980s. It only lasted a couple of years. The problem with the game is that Indy is the best designed character and all other characters, even PCs are not as good as he was so everyone wanted to play an Indy Jones type character.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Being John Malkovich
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Stellar Crown
Pokemon Stellar Crown releases tomorrow, Sept 12, We have Elite Trainer Kits, booster packs, booster boxes and 3 pack bundles available and will have Pokemon play sessions from 11 to 1 on Saturday.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Revenant Society
We got in the Revenant Society RPG today. The concept is that player characters are dead, deceased, kaput, etcetera in Paris during the 1910s or New York during the 1920s. The catch is, they cannot move on until they figure out who killed them and why. Uses the Apocalypse RPG system and only $49.99 for a beautiful hard cover book.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Mystery Dice
We now stock three different types of Mystery Dice. We have an inexpensive set from Foam Brain at $12, another set from Sirius Dice that includes a dice bag and ability coin for $25 and one that comes in a storage box from Black Oak Workshop for $29.99
Monday, September 2, 2024
Horror Comics
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Kid's Magic and Pokemon
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Fibonachos
Fibonachos is a trick taking card game with trump based on the Fibonacci sequence. Play takes place over three rounds. Players score by taking tricks, winning the round and scoring the Spicy Card for that round. Cards in the Fibonacci sequence 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13 become trump cards when the second of that card gets played during the round. 2-5 players, 30 minutes. now in the game library.
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Flip 7
Flip 7 is a card game originally released back in 1994. Player flip over cards and score points based on the number of the card shown on the flipped card. However, if you flip over a second card with the same number, you lose the points you accumulated that turn. The more points the card is worth, the greater the quantity of that card in the deck. Good for ages 8 and up as it teaches number recognition and plays in about 20 minutes.
Friday, August 23, 2024
Commander Party
Anyone who comes in and Plays commander this Sunday will receive, while quantities last, a set of Bloomburrow stickers and a Heriloom Blade card. Remember, there is no charge to play in the Sunday afternoon Commander games.
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Standard Rotation
The following sets rotated out of standard with the release of Bloomburrow
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
Innistrad: Crimson Vow
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Streets of New Capenna
These sets are currently included in Standard Format
Dominaria United
The Brothers' War
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
March of the Machine
March of the Machine: The Aftermath
Wilds of Eldraine
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Murdrers at Karlov Manor
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Bloomburrow
From August 2 through 31, players who participate in up to four in-store Standard events at participating WPN locations will receive one reward in Arena per event played. Players must participate in each event using their Wizards Account that is connected to Magic: The Gathering Arena in regions where Magic: The Gathering Arena is supported.
Once they're registered in an eligible in-store event with their Wizards Accounts, players will be set to earn the following rewards based on the number of events they participate in:
After the first event: one Random Rare card reward
After the second event: one Random Rare card reward
After the third event: one Bloomburrow pack and Ral, Crackling Wit card style
After the fourth event: one Bloomburrow Mythic pack
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Gnome Hollow
Gnome Hollow was one of the hottest games at gencon, promoted heavily by the balloon gnomes and gnome house on display. The balloon gnomes actually wandered the convention where they could reasonably go.
Gnome Hollow is a tile laying game, with elements of both Carcassonne and Takenoko . Players lay tiles in order to build and expand and move gnomes around the garden to collect wildflowers, sell mushrooms and use signpost actions. Harvesting mushrooms allows the player to activate bonuses and collect treasures.
Cost is $49.99. For 2-4 players, taking 45 to an hour to play.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Free Stuff (with Purchase)
Stop in this weekend and spend $25 on Magic and get a promotional Poison Tracker. Spend $10 on Pokemon and get an Oddish card. Spend $25 and get the Oddish Card and a Pokemon promo pack.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Gift Bags
Just a reminder, if you are purchasing a gift here, we do offer free gift bags with your purchase. Just ask and we will be glad to put your purchase in one.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
$99.99 Sale
Until 8:45 tonight, we have a selection of booster boxes of Magic, Disney Lorcana and Pokemon for sale for $99.99
Friday, August 9, 2024
Sale
August 10, we will have a select assortment of Magic, Pokemon and Disney Lorcana booster boxes at $124.99 each. We will also have some Pokemon and Magic promotional items we will give away with $10 and $25 purchase.
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Boomburrow restocks
Should be getting in restocks of Bloomburrow Commander decks, bundles and play boosters later this week. Still have singles in the display case too.
Saturday, August 3, 2024
Bloomburrow
We now have Bloomburrow singles in the display case and commons in a box up by the cash register. Still a decent selection of singles and we have Collector boosters in stock as well.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Comics Value
If you are looking to sell comics, be aware that condition dictates much of how much a comic is worth. chipping of the spine, those little creases along the stapled edge, drops the value of a comic significantly. Grading, or "slabbing" a comic can increase its value tenfold, as someone independently has said this is the condition of the comic on a 0 to 10 scale. Note that grading does not automatically set a price for a comic. That is determined by how much collectors are willing to pay for it.
these days, collectors primarily look for what are called "key issues", books containing the first appearance of a character or a major event in the character storyline, usually a death such as that of Robin or Gwen Stacy. The first appearance of Deadpool, in issue #98 of The New Mutants, sells for anywhere from $200 (ungraded) to $900 (graded and signed).
Friday, July 19, 2024
Bloomburrow
We will host a pre-release for the Bloomburrow Magic set the weekend of July 26. Prepayment ends the 24 of July and the first tournament starts at 5:30 on the 26th. A second one starts at 5:30 on the 27 and we will host a Two-headed Giant at 1 p.m. on the 28th.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
One Piece
Well, we have had people asking for the One Piece Trading card game for months and finally our suppliers managed to get us some. Hope the local demand is still out there. We also received a large restock of D&D Player character miniatures.
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
DCC Day
DCC Dungeon Crawl Classics Day is this Saturday. Come in and you may pick up not only this year's DCC Adventure Pack but, while they last, a copy of last year's as well. We only have a limited number of last year's Packs though so get them while they are here.
We also have the limited edition DCC foil hardcover adventure and the 2024 DCC adventure as well as a few copies of Tales from the Smoking Wyrm, but you have to pay for them.
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Yu Gi Oh Premier Events
The store did not get offered a premiere event for The Infinite Rebellion because we lost OTS Standing. Stores have to run at least 1 tournament of 4 players a month to retain standing and we have only had one tournament fire this year.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Skaventide
The 5th edition boxed set for Age of Sigmar, Skaventide, releases this Saturday. While quantities last, purchase a set and receive a limited edition journal with the two-tailed comet on the cover.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Murder Mystery Games
We just bought over a dozen murder mystery games and added them to the used section. Prices on most of these are $9.99 and $14.99, though we do have one set of three games for $69.99. Playable by 1 to 6 people, these have been played but all of the components were put back in their envelopes.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Declaration of Independence
Store Staff and members of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce will read the Declaration of Independence tomorrow starting at 11 a.m. You can watch on the store Facebook page or even come to the store and watch live.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Love Your Local Game Store
Starting July 5, Buy 3 packs of Modern Horizons 3 Play Boosters (or 1 Collector booster) and get a full art textless Sakura-tribe Elder. Limit one per customer per day.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Commander Pride Event
On Sunday July 30th, the store will host a Magic Commander play event. All commanders will have the Keyword "Partner" and all players will receive, while quantities last, a limited edition Chandra holofoil print.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Cookbooks
We have been surprised at how well themed cookbooks have sold in the store, well except for the Manga Cookbook, which has sat on the shelf for years. We restock the D&D and Critical Role cookbooks regularly and have had to restock the Stardew Valley cookbook 3 times in the past month.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Free RPG Day
Free RPG Day is this Saturday. You receive 2 free items for coming in, 1 for wearing a Castle Perilous shirt, one for showing your Preferred Customer Card, 1 for each 2 stamps you earn on a Castle Card and one if you show us a copy of the store enewsletter on your mobile device.
In addition, we will have a selection of limited edition items. You may select one of each for each $100 you spend on RPGs and RPG related items.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
D&D 2024
Here is a look at what to expect from Dungeons and Dragons for the rest of the year. The article does exclude the Infinite Staircase book, which should ship in early July
Sunday, June 16, 2024
GW Shipping
Although we have not had a similar problem with Games Workshop shipments, it appears that
other stores getting way too many cartons for a simple shipment. Not only do shipments take one to three weeks to arrive, but
when they do, they arrive in multiple boxes, even though they are invoiced on
the same order. One store even reported that its shipment had been broken up
into shipments of one item per box, meaning that a 20 item shipment arrived
packed in twenty different boxes. I certainly hope this is just a glitch in the
system and is not going to become the norm or that someone at Games Workshop
looks at their shipping process and reduces the number of packages per order.
Shipping charges generally accrue per item. Currently orders from Games
Workshop and Penguin Random House ship free so I hate to see the companies
paying extra to ship products to stores in multiple products when it certainly
is not necessary. Companies that charge freight on shipments that fall below a
certain amount, such as Alliance, Southern Hobby and Diamond (though I have
seen some pretty egregious examples of Diamond overpacking orders of single
items) generally pack shipments as efficiently as possible.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Shipping Cartons
I wonder if there is a sale on
shipping carts or some of our suppliers have managed to find a really cheap source for
them. Our weekly orders from Penguin
Random House typically arrive packed in half a dozen or more cardboard mailers
and one cardboard box. This even happens with shipments of our weekly FOC
orders. We put in one to 4 orders a week including the FOC order and receive an
armload of boxes, sometimes only containing one comic and the packing slips do
indicate that these multi-shipment orders do contain our FOC order, split up
into several different boxes.
Friday, June 14, 2024
NPR on Magic
NPR, surprisingly, has a long column looking at Modern Horizon's 3. Over 1000 card treatments in the total set and the writer is concerned about the power of the set. OTJ games could take 30 minutes or more but a game with Modern Horizons 3 could get decided in the first few turns.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Gen Con Trivia
With GenCon coming soon. Pop Insider has published 48 bits of trivia about the history of D&D and GenCon
Sunday, June 9, 2024
Cranial Ram Banned
Even before it was released, WOTC has banned Cranial Ram in Pauper. Too many cheap artifacts in pauper makes the card too powerful. Why no one figured this out in playtesting is a mystery.
Monday, June 3, 2024
Privateer Press
Steamforged Games announced today the company has acquired the rights to the Iron Kingdoms IP from Privateer Press. this includes the Warmachine miniatures game, Iron Kingdoms RPG line, P3 paint line and accessories as well as the novels. Warmachine did quite well from from its launch in 2003 until about 2013, then interest died off drastically, both locally and nationwide. I hope Steamforged manages to revitalize the game lines but it is very hard to do so once a game tapers off.
Saturday, June 1, 2024
Modern Horizons 3 Pre-release
We will only run 1 pre-release event for Modern Horizons 3 on Friday night, June 7 at 5:30. Entry fee is $60. We will provide door prizes and pizza.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Tables
Just a reminder that our tables are open and empty all afternoon. with summer here and no or fewer classes, now is a great time to get some extra table top play in.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Marvel and DC Comics for this Week
Here are the Marvel and DC Comics releasing this week.
Avengers: Twilight #6
Black Panther: Blood Hunt #1
Edge of Spider-Verse #4
Hellverine #1
Jackpot and Black Cat #3
Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #1
Night Thrasher #4
Rise of the Powers of X #5
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver #4
Spider-Boy #7
Spider-Punk: Arms Race #4
Star Wars: Jango Fett #3
Star Wars: Darth Maul, Black White and Red #2
Ultimate Spider-Man #5
Wolverine #50
X-Men: The Wedding Special 2024 #1
Batman: Dark Age #3
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13
DC Pride 2024
Detective Comics #1085
The Flash #9
Green Arrow #12
Harley Quinn #40
The Penguin #10
Power Girl #9
Primer #3
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Memorial Day Sale
On Memorial Day, we will have an assortment of Magic, Pokemon, Yu gi Oh and Lorcana booster boxes on the table in the game library. Lorcana and Pokemon booster boxes will be $99.99, Yu Gi Oh boxes are $49.99 and March of the Machine Epilogue Boxes will also be $49.99
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Memorial Day
since we have had a few people ask, we will be open regular hours on Memorial Day. Stop by after you attend the Carbondale Memorial Day celebration
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Facsimile comics
Both Marvel and DC are reprinting a number of their classic comics, such as the first issue of a notable comic or the first apearance of a character, though why Marvel decided the first appearance of the Puma, a second tier Spider Man foe, deserves a reprint is beyond me. Currnetly, both companies are reprinting their first maxi-series: DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel its Secret Wars. One thing I have noticed is that Marvel reprints their books on the slick coated paper used by today's books while DC is using the news print on which comics were commonly printed during that era.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Yu Gi Oh Rarity 2 Collection
The Yu Gi Oh Rarity 2 Collection arrives and goes on sale tomorrow. $9.99 a pack with the Rarity 2 tournament this Sunday at 1 p.m. $5 entry fee with 2 OTS packs per round won and a playmat to the winner.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Family Vacation Night
The store will be at Family Vacation Night in Murphysboro tomorrow night from 5;30 to 7:30. Stop by our table and pick up a free comic and Pokemon Prize pack and sign up for our email list.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Twilight Masquerade
Pokemon Twilight Masquerade releases this Monday, 5/20. We still have the Build and Battle Pre-release kits and if you purchase one today or tomorrow, you get 3 booster packs along with it. Starting Monday, the kits come without any extra booster packs.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Games Workshop
We have 8 copies of White Dwarf #500 available for the shelf on Friday. Also releasing are the Grombrindal White Dwarf figure, stats for which are in White Dwarf #500 and the Darkfire miniatures game, which is based on the 40K video game.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Disney Lorcana
The fourth Chapter for Disney Lorcana arrives on Friday. We will have booster boxes for $179.99, booster packs for $7.99, starter decks for $24.99 and Illumineer's Troves and Quests for $89.99 each.
Monday, May 13, 2024
Yu Gi Oh Tournaments
We currently run 1 Yu Gi Oh tournament a month, the last Sunday of the month at 1 p.m. We would gladly run it at another time, as long as it does not conflict with our other events, if it would draw attendance. If you are a local Yu gi Oh Player, please let us know when you would like to see tournaments.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Pokemon Twilight Masquerade
The pre-release for Pokemon Twilight Masquerade is this weekend. Purchase a pre-release kit for $35 and get 3 additional booster packs free.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Kevin Boerwinkle
We do not get a lot of game authors or designers in the store, so it is a real treat when one stops by. Kevin Boerwinkle wrote a number of sourcebooks and adventures for 7th Sea and Swashbuckling Adventures back in the early 00s. He was on a roadtrip from the southeastern US to Overland Park KS and his route and Google brought him close enough to the store that he stopped off for a bit and even found one of his books in the used games section.
Monday, May 6, 2024
Vecna Eve of Ruin.
Vecna Eve of Ruin goes on sale tomorrow. If you pre-ordered a copy, we have it on hold for you, otherwise stop by and pick one up.
Sunday, May 5, 2024
40K Trades
We are not taking trades on Warhammer 40K, Age of Sigmar or Fantasy Battle earlier than the current edition as there is little edition by players in older edition products. Nor will will take figures out of the box. We will gladly purchase or offer store credit for figures still in shrinkwrapped boxes or open boxes as long as they are still on the sprue. Unfortunately, we have had very little interest in loose figures and no good way to store them as bitz.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Free Comic Book Day
Come in on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. Get two comics just for coming in and two more if you come in costume. We will have a list of other ways you can get additional free comics as well.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Storyteller's Thesaurus
If you like writing fantasy and/ or science fiction, you should take a look at the Storytellers Thesaurus and Storytellers Dictionary. Both of them are books designed to help fantasy and SF writers looking for the perfect words.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Legacy of Destruction
We will host the Legacy of Destruction premiere Yu Gi Oh event this Saturday starting at 10 a.m. We would like to host tournaments but no one has shown up for the last three. If you want us to host tournaments, you need to let us know when and make sure they do not conflict with other events.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
WotC CEO Resigns
The CEO of Wizards announced her resignation today, effective April 26. No indication as to why. Aside from March of the Machines: Aftermath, the company has done extremely well with only that one misfire on her watch
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
new Comics
Our UPSe shipment was delayed about 4 hours but we did get new comics out and in people's hold files. Took a while but they got done. Also receiving FCBD books for May the Fourth.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Light turnout for single player pre-release events this weekend on Friday and Saturday, with only 5 players in each event. Rather surprisingly, Sunday's 2 headed giant had the strongest turnout, with 4 teams playing. Cowboy attire was best represented on Saturday, with 3 players coming in Western garb.
We still have plenty of product for OOTJ, although we will not be putting out singles until this Friday
Friday, April 12, 2024
Cryptid books
Surprisingly or maybe not, we have sold through books on cryptids with surprising regularity. Maybe it is the haunts of the Big Muddy Monster located only 7 miles away. Of course, as with many bipedal cryptids in the US, the BMM only made one appearance 50 years ago and has milked that one appearance for attention for decades.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Something Is Killing the Children
got in a big collection of Something is Killing the Children back issues which are now bundled in the back issue room, except for the more expensive ones, which are currently behind the counter until we process them and a 4th print of #1 , which is up on Ebay. Stop by and take a look at them and other back issues when you get a chance.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Free Comic Book Day
so far we have Dane Johns, Isaac Hicks, Roman Rathert and the irrepressible Brian Morris as well as the Southern Illinois Ghostbusters and Hutchinson Motorsports appearing here for Free Comic Book Day. We hope to have the Southern Illinois Roller Gremlins and Humane Society of Southern Illinois as well.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Outlaws Pre-release
We are lining up some pretty nice prizes for the drawings at this weekend's pre-releases: limited edition Magic poster, foil promo packs and an oversized Resplendent Angel card
Monday, April 8, 2024
Dark Tower
Thinking about electronic games from the last century reminded me of probably the most storied of them, Dark Tower. It sold for about $40 back in 1981, which was quite a high price for that time. Over the next 30 years, complete working copies of the game got very hard to find with working ones selling for over $500. Resurrection Games reproduced the game a few years ago and even that version is selling for $220-$300.
Saturday, April 6, 2024
Omega Virus
Picked up a working copy of Milton Bradley's Omega Virus talking electronic game. Electronic talking games were very popular during the 1990s, with Dark Tower the most sought after, still commanding a price close to $400 for a working copy. Omega Virus was available at the 1992 Gencon and I remember seeing dozens of people walking the halls of the building with a copy of the game. It was the first mass market game I recall seeing a publisher bring to Gencon.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Pokemon
New Pokemon releasing tomorrow. We have limited quantities of the IONO Premium Tournament Collection and the GrafaiaiEX box.
Friday, March 29, 2024
Outlaws at Thunder Junction
Pre-release weekend for Outlaws at Thunder Junction is April 12. We will have pre-release events at 5:30 on the 12th, 1 p.m. on the 13 and a 2-headed Giant at 1 p.m. Each event costs $45, although if you prepay for 4 kits by the 7, they cost $35 each. A single kit paid for by the 7th costs $40.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Modern Horizons 3
We have been checking the prices for Magic the Gathering Modern Horizons 3, releasing this summer, skipping over Outlaws of Thunder Junction, which, surprisingly, at least to me, has far more interest among our customers than Murders at Karlov Manor (We still have difficulty explaining just what Murders at Karlov Manor: Clue Edition is. “Where is the board” is the most common question.). However, since Thunder Junction has prices close to those of Murders of Karlov Manor, I wanted look at the pricing for Modern Horizons 3, to see how it compared with the jaw dropping pricing for last summer’s Commander Masters. Although the prices for Modern Horizons 3 are high, at least compared to a current set of Magic such as Murders at Karlov Manor, they pale In comparison to the prices Wizards of the Coast charged for Commander Masters. T
he store will be able to sell a Modern Horizons 3 Play booster for
under $15 and still make a pretty good profit, whereas Commander Masters
boosters, both draft and set, still must sell for over $20 apiece to make a
marginal profit. Even the Modern Horizons 3 Collector boosters will sell
for a reasonable price, at least if one considers the price of a Lord of the
Rings Collector booster reasonable.
After looking at the pricing for Bundles and Commander Decks, it appears
prices for Bundles and Commander Decks have shot upwards, with keystone pricing
for Bundles a bit over $100 and keystone for Modern Horizon 3 Commander
Decks a whopping 40% up over the Commander Masters’ Commander Decks.
If you want to keystone pre-release kit pricing, )yes, there will be a Modern
Horizons 3 pre-release), stores are looking at right around $70. For a
pre-release event, that is pricy. Unless pre-order demand spikes sharply, the
store will likely take its normal number of Bundles but cut back significantly
on Commander Decks and pre-releases there was already significant price
resistance to the pricing on Commander Masters Commander Decks.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
HeroScape this summer
We have been looking forward to the re-release of HeroScape,
this time from Renagade Studios, who have happily gotten the rights to most of
WotC’s boardgame catalog, allowing them to get games like Axis and Allies
and Robo Rally back into print (See “Heroscape
2024 Product Release Calendar”). Unfortunately, Renegade, for whatever
reason, has decided to release 2 different versions of the game, a Standard
unpainted version which will go into distribution and a Premium Painted version
available directly from the company for an extra $100. Unfortunately the first
time Heroscape released, very few people bought it as a game. Customers
bought it for the miniatures and terrain, both of which were painted, which was
comparatively unusual for the time. I remember a number of buyers added the
figures to their collections for use in various fantasy and SF roleplaying
games while Battletech players, especially, glommed onto the terrain
because it fit the scale of Battletech perfectly, allowing them, and
other miniatures players, to create elevation in a way that flat hex maps did
not. HeroScape Sets were a great deal for miniatures players 20 years
ago. I will be interested to see how players respond to the new sets,
especially the unpainted and more common version.
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Disney Lorcana
Ravensburger announced a 2 week embargo on online sales of Disney Lorcana starting with Ursula's Return. The game arrives in stores on May 17th with no sales online until May 31. Stores may list the game online and take pre-orders and prepayment and can let customers pick up the game after paying for it on the website but cannot ship mail orders until the 31st.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Early Release for D&D
Wotc Announced this week that it would restart early release for D&D books, beginning with Vecna: Eve of Ruin. Vecna releases officially on May 21 but WPN stores, such as us, will have the book on sale on May 7th.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
National Pi Day
For March 14 (3.14 Get it?) you will get a promo card with purchase of $25 of either Pokemon or Magic and 10% off on Math Fluxx. We will also have a limited amount of free pie available as well.
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Fallout Sellout
We got in one booster box of Fallout Collector boosters and, even with limiting it to 2 boosters per person, we sold out in less than a day. According to our supplier, this is the first Magic set in years they needed to allocate. I hope there may be a second printing of the collector boosters but, based on past experience, I doubt it.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Fallout
Universes Beyond Fallout goes on sale tomorrow. Wal-mart broke street date on Commander Decks, releasing them on Wednesday. We only have a few boosters for the set and are limiting them to 2 per customer.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Will Eisner Week
Will Eisner Week is celebrated is year to remember Will Eisner, considered the creator of the graphic novel, essentially a book length original comic book. Books such as Gender Queer, Ducks and My Favorite Thing is Monsters can be classified as graphic novels, since they are written and drawing as a self contained whole. Eisner Award winners such as Saga, Bone, Monstress and even Maus could be classified as trade paperbacks, since they were originally released as comic books, or in the case of Maus as part of a comic anthology, before getting collected into book form
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Magic Store Championships
Due to request from several Magic players, we have moved the date of the Murders at Karlov Manor Store Championships from Saturday at 1 p.m. We have moved the Fallout event to Sunday Commander at 3 p.m.
Monday, March 4, 2024
Carpets
Don't be surprised if the carpets feel a bit damp tomorrow. We had our semi-annual shampooing of them Monday night and it can take a day or so for them to fully dry.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Will Eisner Week
March 1 through 7th is Will Eisner Week. Will Eisner, creator of the Spirit, is widely considered the father of the graphic novel, which is generally defined as a book length comic book, while a trade paperback is a collection of several individual comic issues which form a complete story arc.
To celebrate, we are offering a 10% discount on all graphic novels and trade paperbacks, both used and new, through March 7th. Castle Cards may be applied to your purchase, as well as your Preferred Customer Discount.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
The Dyatlov Pass incident
Always thought this would make a good storyline for a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Something prosaic like an avalanche was probably the cause but encountering some of Lovecraft's creatures would be possible, especially in a frozen remote area like the Urals
Thursday, February 22, 2024
ConCave
The store will set up at ConCave in Bowling Green Ky this weekend. If you are at the convention or in the area, stop by and say Hi. Show us this post and score a free die.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Lorcana League Play
We will continue the stopgape league through the end of Februrary, then start the season 3 league on the first Wednesday in March.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Lorcana Chapter 3
We expect to receive Lorcana Chapter 3 Into the Inklands this Friday, Feb. 23. Unless someone cancels their pre-orders, we will have boosters and decks for the shelf but no Troves or Gift sets. It will be interesting to see how much demand there is for this set as online prices have dropped significantly for booster boxes.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Birthday Party
The back game room will be closed from 1 to 5 tomorrow for a birthday party. Birthday Party? Yes, we will host birtday parties for you fociues aroeund D&D, Miniatures painting, Magic the Gathering , Pokemon or superheroes. Room rental runs $200 for up to 8 people with us assisting in set up and clean up, as well as running events if you so choose.
Thursday, February 15, 2024
D&D Releases for 2024
We finally received details on the D&D releases for this year.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin releases May 21. It is a adventure taking players across the entire D&D multiverse
The Making of Original Dungeons and Dragons releases June 18 and covers the history of the devlopment of original D&D during the 1970s
Quests from the Infinite Staircase, a collection of original A&D 1st edition adventures updated for 5 the edition. The adventures range from levels 1 through 3.
Player's Handbook 2024, a revised version of the 5E Players Handbook releases Sept. 17, although I would bet we will see copies for sale at GenCon
Dungeon Master's Guide 2024 will release November 12th.
The updated Monster Manual will release Feb 18 of 2025.
Alternate covers will be available for Quests from the Infinite Staircase and Vecna: Eve of Ruin. No word on the others yet.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
34th Anniversary Celebration
We will host our 34th anniversary celebration this Sunday fromnoon to 6 with our $1000 drawing at 4:30. OUr guests will include Cape girardeau Author Breanna Bright, local Artist Isaac Hicks, rune Reader Rachael Smith and Tarot Reader Amelia Methana. Spend $10 with any of them and get an extra ticket for the drawing.
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Murders at Karlov Manor
all of our instock Murders at Karlov Manor go on sale tomorrow. However, we will not be taking any trades on cards for the set until the 23 as we figure it takes about 2 weeks for card prices to settle. A YuGi Oh ! card from Phantom Nightmare that was $80 on Wednesday has dropped to $70 a day later. We do not want to take cards only to find they have dropped in value by 10 to 20% within a few days.
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Quarter Century Secret Rare
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Magic
Following up from the previous post, the 1 deck and 2 boosters sat on the edge of the cash wrap for about 3 months until Gencon. Magic blew up at the 1993 Gencon with people playing the game anyplace they could find a flat surface. The first person to visit the store after Gencon snapped up our Magic and asked for more, setting off an unfulfillable demand that lasted until after Fallen Empires.
Monday, January 29, 2024
Metazoo shutters
Maker of the Metazoo TCG has abruptly shut down. The company got a lot of attention during the early years of its 4 years run with 1st edition boxes selling for hundreds of dollars. Last summer they were touting the acquisition of the Hello Kitty license and were offering a premium bundle with a MSRP of $150. Then on Black Friday weekend, the company sold those bundles for $30, really undercutting the distributors that bought into the product
Apparently, it has been at least six months since the company has fulfilled any pre-orders placed through its website. So much for its hopes of becoming the next Pokemon
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Magic
As long as I am reminising, when Magic the Gathering first came out, our sales representative for our supplier could not explain what it was. "Well, it's this card game and you buy decks and booster packs for it and construct a deck from them." This was before anyone had any idea about what a booster pack was or what "Construct a deck" meant. As the encouragement of our supplier, we brought in 1 deck of Alpha and 2 booster packs. Not boxes, packs. And they sat there. And we almost forgot about them.
Saturday, January 27, 2024
D&D at WalMart
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Murders at Karlov Manors
Here is a breakdown of where to find what cards in Murders at Karlov Manor. Melik, Refoged Researcher; Tomik, Wielder of Law; and Voja, Jaws of the Conclave will only be found in pre-release kits and cannot be used during pre-release events, although they are legal in other tournaments than the pre-release
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Ravnica Remastered
We and disribution are sold out of Collector boosters for this set. We only have about a dozen Draft booster packs left and are not sure if we will be able to restock when we sell out of them.
Monday, January 22, 2024
Bloom off Lorcana
It looks as if the bloom is off the Disney Lorcana
rose. Restocks of Chapter 2 Rise of the Floodborn boosters hit store
shelves this week and, based on the price drop for booster boxes online, some
people ordered way too many of them. Prices for sealed booster boxes are
hovering in the range of $140 to $150 per box with Chapter One booster
boxes selling slightly higher at about $160. We will have to see if the trend
continues with the Chapter Three Into the Inklands set. From the pricing
I am seeing for pre-orders of Into the Inklands, it appears this pricing trend
for Disney Lorcana will continue. We are going to see pricing
significantly above Ravensburger’s MSRP for the initial release of a set
followed by a drop of 40% in prices upon the receipt of a subsequent release of
the set. Since we only see Troves and Gift Sets at the initial
release, we are still seeing them selling for significantly above MSRP, but not
decks and booster boxes.
Friday, January 19, 2024
Pre-order Declines
. I have noticed , and have seen confirming comments
from other stores, a noticeable drop-off in preorders of booster boxes,
especially draft. Our pre-orders on draft boxes have dropped to nil and our
pre-orders on set and collector boosters of new sets of Magic the Gathering
have dropped by 80%. I am not sure how much essentially making pre-release
weekend into release weekend has to do with this, but it does not appear to
have helped. Online sellers cutting the price on booster boxes to $10 to $20 over
costs does not help, although, since most online sells appear to adhere to the
restriction that they cannot sell until the official release date, that does
give brick and mortar stores a bit of a leg up. I am not sure if a week’s delay
in receiving product outweighs the extra $40 to $80 the customer pays instore
for a booster box. I have read of some stores eschewing the sale of booster
boxes altogether, preferring to sell Magic by the pack, which offers a better
margin, albeit with a bit more labor and smaller sales. A few stores have even
said they opted to drop Magic and other TCGs altogether, preferring to
shift their focus to other non-collectible games that generally require much
less effort to sell.. if you are going to sell TCGs, and make that your focus,
you must invest in a decent singles selection, play space and organized play,
all of which cost extra money. Magic has gone through a slump like this before.
Of course, there were not so many variations of Magic for retailers to consider.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Star Wars Pre-release Kit
The store received a pre-release kit from Fantasy Flight
Games for the company’s upcoming release of its Star Wars Unlimited
Collectable Card Game. The kit comes with a poster, a window cling and a
couple of sign up sheets for those interested in the game to leave their
contact information. Foregoing my doubts regarding the viability of the game,
there are a few problems with the materials I would like to point out. Before
diving into those though, I do want to mention that I wish other companies
would provide materials to stores sufficiently far in advance that we can use
them to promote the game. That being said:
1.
Window Cling—the provided window cling is about
18’ by 12” which is a bit big to affix to any in-store glass surfaces. It is
designed so that the back of the cling, rather than the front, adheres to the
window. The only glass found in most stores are the front windows, maybe the
door and display cases inside the premises. No store is going to want to put
the cling on the front of a display case, as that obscures the view of the
items inside, rather defeating the purpose of a display case. A front window or
door would be a perfect place to display the cling, save for the fact that the
back side is the side designed to adhere to the glass, meaning it would have to
go on the outside of the door or window, where the weather will likely pull it
off in a few hours, leaving it lying on the sidewalk or street. Designing it so
that the front of the image clings to the window means stores can place it on
the inside of the glass, keeping it on display longer.
2.
Promotional Poster—While I am a big fan of
promotional posters, I am an even bigger fan of well designed promotional
posters (See “A
Tale of Two Posters”) which the one for Star Wars Unlimited is not.
First, the poster gives the viewer no indication as to what it is promoting. It
features artwork, not photos mind you but artwork of the three iconic Star Wars
heroes: Luke, Leia and Han. So far, so
good. Anyone who has paid attention to pop culture over the past 50 years
should recognize them, although it seems to me a photo of them would be even
more recognizable. Maybe the actors or studio would not include actual
character photos with the license (This happened at least once before. When
Thunder Mountain Games released the Highlander Trading Card Game lo
these many years ago, they could not get the rights from Sean Connor to put a
photo of his character, Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos RamÃrez, on a card, so Thunder
Mountain Games just used a black silhouette instead of a photo, along with the
name and card effects). That is a minor caveat though. My major problem with
the poster is that it tells me nothing about the product. A customer glancing
at it has no idea what Star Wars Unlimited is. No mention of a
collectible card game, no pictures of cards, not even a QR code an interested
customer could use to find out more. Is Star Wars Unlimited a boardgame,
video game, RPG, comic, graphic novel, Funko POP line? A poster is a great
opportunity to sell your product or at least generate interest in it, but it
has to give the customer some indication as to why they should be interested.
Maybe we will get a second promotional kit with some
materials further helping to develop interest in the product prior to the
release. I hope so as I would like to see the game do well.
Monday, January 15, 2024
Open Today
Friday, January 12, 2024
Carbondale Eclipse Card
In case you want to get an early start on your upcoming Eclipse festivities, we have a free "Carbondale Eclipse" Cards Against Humanity card. Just stop in and ask for one.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Ravnica Remastered
We have had a few people call inquiring about pre-release events for Ravnica Remastered. There was no official pre-release for the set, as it is not a set in STandard roatation. What happened was that Wizards Premiums stores, as one of the benefits of that status, got their boxes in a week before the general release and were able to sell and run events the weekend of Jan 5th.
We will have our draft and collector boosters in this Friday and will run a draft on Saturday the 13th at 1 p.m.
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Player Materials
I really hope WotC decides to publish more player focused materials for D&D this year. Of the four releases in 2023, only Glory of the Giants and Planescape had any player character materials. Players still bought the books but it seems a shame to shell out the $60 for a book with only a fraction of the book aimed at players, which make up the far larger segment of the market
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Deck of Many Things
We will recieve the alterative cover of the Deck of Many Things this Friday and should have them available for purchase at 10 a.m. The regular cover, for whatever reason, has been delayed.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Internet Sales Growth Continues
1.
When I questioned my marketing students this
past semester as to what percentage of retail sales currently occurred online,
their guesses ranged from 25% to 70%. The actual figure, as of 2022, was 14%
but it ticked up sharply this year, reaching 14%, with online holiday sales
seeing an increase of some 58% on the Saturday before Christmas over the same
day 2022. Concurrent with, or in response to, this I expect to see even more
stores moving to the retailtainment
model, not only selling games but offering more events beyond the card
tournaments that are a fixture now. More stores will incorporate parties and
food service into their model, even offering alcohol sales and consumption when
local laws allow.