Bits n' Mortar

 

1)      .  Bits ‘n Mortar doesn’t get nearly enough publicity as it ought but this consortium of small RPG publishers still has their program in place, allowing registered brick and mortar retailers to give a PDF of their products to customers when said customer purchases a hard copy of the RPG.  We have customers who purchase Crucible 7 and Arc Dream RPG products specifically from us on a regular basis specifically because we participate in this program.If you Purchase a small press RPG from us, ask if it falls under the Bits n' Martar program as you could get a free PDF of the book if it does.

Bits and Mortar

 

For those not familiar with it, Bits and Mortar is a program set up by almost 20 (at last count) RPG publishers including Cubicle 7 (publisher of Victoriana and Dr. Who), Evil Hat (Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files), Pelgrane Press (Esoterrorists, Trail of Cthulhu and Mutant City Blues) allowing retailers to send a free PDF of any paper RPG from a participating publisher.  The store sells the hard copy, gets the customer’s email and can immediately send them a PDF.  We’ve sold a number of Evil Hat products as a result of this program.  Ideally, we’d see heavy sellers of PDFs such as Steve Jackson Games and Pazio Publishing join the program.  I have spoken to some people at SJG, notably Jackson himself and he seemed interested, saying he would look into in.  Pazio seemed less so, likely because Pathfinder PDFs are a steady revenue stream for them.

Three Things for which I am Thankful

Since this is the season in which we traditionally give thanks, not that we shouldn’t do it the other 11 months out of the year,  I wanted to note four things (aside from health, friends, chocolate, etc) that make me thankful:

1)       Other Retailers, both local and distant. While ‘tis true that life would certainly have remained simpler not having 3 other game retailers open up within 15 miles of us within the past year, I have found them in the area has made me focus more on our product mix and determine what elements of our marketing strategy to emphasize and what to de-emphasize.  Result, our revenues did take a hit over the past year but have now climbed back to the point that they equal sales prior to the other stores opening in the area.  From retailers more distant, I can usually find at least one idea or product to integrate into the store’s marketing mix every month,  often moreso.  Visiting the websites and physical locations or reading the blog posts or online musings from stores like The Fantasy Shop, Gnome Games or Black Diamond Games, among others, proves a useful 15-30 minutes of every week.

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3)      The Bits ‘n Mortar program.  Bits ‘n Mortar doesn’t get nearly enough publicity as it ought but this consortium of small RPG publishers still has their program in place, allowing registered brick and mortar retailers to give a PDF of their products to customers when said customer purchases a hard copy of the RPG.  We have customers who purchase Crucible 7 and Arc Dream RPG products specifically from us on a regular basis specifically because we participate in this program.

4)      Munchkin (and Steve Jackson Games). The base Munchkin game still sells reliably week in and week out over a decade after it first released.  Unlike some other game lines (cough-X-wing Miniatures, DiceMasters-cough), Steve Jackson Games manages to keep the almost the entire line in stock through distribution and, although they have run special sets through Target and Barnes and Noble, I have not seen them participate in any deep discounting or “Buy One, Get One Free” silliness such as appeared on the Target website last week.

Why I Went to the GTS and What I Found There

Just flew in from Vegas and boy, are my arms tired!  Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week, try the special.  Every year, when time for the GAMA Trade Show rolls around, I, along with many other retailers, ask myself if it is worth the money and the time away from the store. Making the decision this year was especially hard since, as I noted last week, with National Pi Day and the Dragons of Tarkir bracketing the event, I had to fly out instead of taking my usual road trip and I HATE to fly.

So was it worth it? A resounding “Yes”. Not for the seminars or the manufacturer presentations or even the Big Box (and I really hate to break it to GAMA but some of the stuff in there just ain’t gonna sell), though. As a friend pointed out, I can find out most of that information through the Interwebs, if I spend enough time.

 Nope, what makes it worth my time is the opportunity to hang out, talk with and (especially) listen to, the smartest people in the industry.  At meal times or just in the hall way or wandering around the exhibit hall, I will bump into someone who says something that gets me to view a game or product line differently or gives me an idea on how to improve the store. However, most people go there to look at new stuff, which is why the lines get so long outside the exhibit hall before it opens. I really didn’t see anything product wise that knocked my socks off (You may have found otherwise. Please send an email to ICV2 if you did), though I did notice the Donkey game people had moved to a less visible section of the exhibit hall and I never did spot Privateer Press. Oh, and WOTC really wants stores to up their look.  There were, however, two programs that interested me and one trend that has me a bit worried. This week, the two programs, later in the week,  the worrisome trend.

Program #1—Bits & Mortar.  Although this one has been around for a couple of years, I was glad to see publishers still supporting it. For those not familiar with B&M, it allows retailers to give their customer a free PDF of a participating RPG when the customer purchases a print copy. The customer buys the hard copy, gives the staff their email, and staff emails a link to the PDF. Pretty simple and I have lost track of the number of RPGs we have sold as a result of this program. The big drawback is that the participants are all small press publishers but it does not cost anything for stores to sign up and it can help sell RPGs from companies such as Cubicle 7, Evil Hat and Arc Dream. 

Program #2—Envoy Program. This program , on the other hand, debuted at the GTS. The program plans to provide stores with trained Heralds to demonstrate products from a large number of small press game companies.  Demonstrations are generally considered the best way to sell games but most small press companies do not have the resources to mount a viable demo program and most retailers have neither the time or staff to adequately demo the hundreds of games a store might carry.  The Envoy Program proposes to deal with these problems by providing Heralds (at no cost to retailers, I imagine there is some charge to the publishers) to visit stores to demo games from publishers participating in the program. The idea sounds great in theory but I would like more detail on the training the Heralds get, as I have seen some really good demo people over the years as well as some downright horrible demo people ( A really bad demonstration years ago is the reason I never played the Legend of the Five Rings TCG). I have high hopes for this and saw lots of signs at the GTS indicating smaller publishers had signed on with the program. On the company’s website, it shows over 40 companies have already signed up and just over 50 stores.  More information is available at www.dexposure.com/envoy.

3 Things For Which I Am Thankful

Since this is the season in which we traditionally give thanks, not that we shouldn’t do it the other 11 months out of the year,  I wanted to point out four things (aside from health, friends, chocolate, etc) that make me thankful:

1)      WOTC finally pulled the plug on Kaijudo. Yes it was a good game. Yes, I know at least one store did really, really REALLY well with it. However, for every store doing good with it, I can point to 25, including us, that did not. Not for want of trying though, either on WOTC or on our part. We received more promotional material for Kaijudo than we did for Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon or Cardfight Vanguard combined. We ran events almost every week that the same 4-5 people attended but product sales were infinitesimal. Now, I hope, WOTC will take the promotional dollars it poured into Kaijudo and spend them promoting Great Dalumuti, Gullotine, Acquire or some of the other great boardgames in its catalog. Unfortunately, even now I can hear some marketing genius at WOTC say, “You know, if we just did this with DuelMasters…”.

2)      The Bits ‘n Mortar program.  Bits ‘n Mortar doesn’t get nearly enough publicity as it ought but this consortium of small RPG publishers still has their program in place, allowing registered brick and mortar retailers to give a PDF of their products to customers when said customer purchases a hard copy of the RPG.  We have customers who purchase Crucible 7 and Arc Dream RPG products specifically from us on a regular basis specifically because we participate in this program.

3)      Munchkin (and Steve Jackson Games). The base Munchkin game still sells reliably week in and week out over a decade after it first released.  Unlike some other game lines (cough-X-wing Miniatures, DiceMasters-cough), Steve Jackson Games manages to keep the almost the entire line in stock through distribution and, although they have run special sets through Target and Barnes and Noble, I have not seen them participate in any deep discounting or “Buy One, Get One Free” silliness such as appeared on the Target website last week.

And since ‘tis the season for giving:

4)      The “TableTop Bump”. Though the TableTop bump was more like a hiccup in season 2, it seems to have returned for season 3, though not to the levels of season 1. Most stroes reported Tokaido hard to find and our sales of Forbidden Desert increased significantly with the uploading of last week’s episode. Seemingly any TableTop show with either  Anne Wheaton or Felicia Day proves especially strong in selling the featured game as they play off Wil Wheaton so well.