Shadowmanse
Apr. 9th, 2008
01:04 pm - Local Gaming Store LFG To Fight Amazons
From this thread: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=1
Yesterday, on a tip from a customer, I went to check out Amazon's website. They're offering the D&D Gift Set-all 3 books-for $62.97. That's with free shipping (as long as you don't mind it shipping over 5-9 days). To put things in perspective, it's a $34.95 book selling for $20.99 each. Assuming a 50% margin, that's a profit to Amazon of $3.52 per book. It's also #69 on Amazon's books sales rank. Yippee for Wizards.
I can't afford to sell these books for $20.99 each. I have to charge sales tax. I have to pay rent and utilities and salary and insurance and all sorts of other things, and I do my business on a much smaller scale than Amazon. I have a huge preorder discount sale going on in my store: $10 off the price of the book; $34.95 books for $24.95. If I had a 50% margin, that'd be a profit of $7.48 per book; it's not what I'd like, but it's competitive with just about anyone else...except Amazon.
This might seem like a wonderful thing to the people over there at Wizards, but you're killing the community of gamers that made D&D (and Wizards) what it is today. Places like my store and others across the country serve as hubs of community expansion where new gamers mix with older gamers, find groups and other players to play with, and cross-pollinate ideas and play styles between different groups.
It is in the local gaming store that people move from one game to another. Where White Wolf gamers move to D&D, where Yu-Gi-Oh! players move to Magic, where Magic players move to D&D. While some might meet online-and I am sure your concept of the D&D Insider gaming table will encourage that-those folks are not, usually, new gamers. They're people who've been playing together for years who have moved apart. They're people who won't have the time to dedicate to playing in person. They're the kind of people who post on the forums here: fine folks, but not the majority of D&D players or consumers.
In a free marketplace, Amazon has the right to charge what it wants for those books. I don't know whether or not Wizards offers Amazon a larger discount than they do the local retailers, for bulk purchases or to maintain good relationships. I do know that places like Amazon have been known to sell Wizards products earlier than I get them. I do know that Wizards doesn't offer terms to their retailers: it's cash on delivery, every time, no matter how good or how long-lasting your business relationship is with them. For those not in the business, this stinks on ice compared to what other distributors offer to retailers.
I also know that Wizards has the power to change this. Just as Wizards offers incentives to Magic players to play (and buy) in local stores, with promo Magic cards and other event-based items available only here, they can do the same thing with D&D products. Upper Deck recently realized that the LGS was getting screwed by their selling Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to big-box retailers and released a set of cards that were only available through hobby shops (although these proliferated to online stores, which do the same thing as Amazon on a smaller market basis). Wizards could offer products and promotional materials that are -only- available if you buy the books in a hobby or local gaming store.
D&D Insider is going to be rough on the LGS to begin with, if their subscription-based fee and online tabletop gaming winds up taking money from the community and shifting content that we could sell in physical format to an online model. The long term future of pen-and-paper gaming doesn't lie in the online community. The World of Warcraft RPG has been out of print for a while, and its sales were never through the roof to begin with. Attempts to launch RPGs and card games based on WoW (or other online games) have fallen flat on their faces, with the possible exception of the WoW CCG, but my sales of that aren't exactly stellar.
Wizards, do something for yourself, your future, and the future of gaming. Give the local stores something to set them apart-something to incentivize people to buy books from us instead of through Amazon. Just as Wal-Mart has driven many small businesses in other retail venues out, Amazon is in danger of doing that to us, and I believe that in the long term this will hurt you as well.
To my fellow gamers: Please help out simply by posting to this thread with your thoughts. The company is likely to pay a great deal more attention to a post with lots of replies. Thank you.
Scott Roberts
General Manager
The Gamer's Gambit
26-13 Broadway
Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
http://www.gamersgambitonline.com
Apr. 1st, 2008
02:45 pm - Gamer's Gambit 1st Anniversary
One year ago today, the Gamer's Gambit opened under its new management.
My life has been a pretty interesting one, and I've done a lot of different things in it, but I never thought I'd wind up running a gaming store, much less Gamemaster's.
It was in February of 2007 that I found out that Clubhouse Games had decided to go out of business. I was (perhaps appropriately) at Scott Braunius' house playing a roleplaying game. John Kretzer mentioned, almost in passing, that he'd heard from Dave and Rob that they had decided to go out of business; it was something they hadn't exactly made totally public. They'd had a few people offer to buy the store, but no solid offers.
I've been going to Gamemaster's since about 1982, when it was located in the Village Mall in the basement of the Bergen Mall. I remember the old carpets there, I remember the owners, I remember playing in their D&D tournament there. Other kids would wander around with their parents and buy things in the toy stores; my Mom always thought it kinda weird that I wanted to go down to that early-70s-carpeted, odd-smelling, dark, dingy place and buy things in that store filled with all those weird people. Luckily, she was pretty tolerant.
I made friends there that I still have today, still game with today. It was through the gaming group that met there that I met Dave Steltenkamp. Although we actually never played there at the same time, he was in the same group that I was (the one run by "Professor" Mike Satran).
Now at that time (in February), I had been between jobs for quite some time, but had a small amount of savings. Certainly not enough to buy the store. However, I knew that Dave--who owns the Dragon's Den in Poughkeepsie--was looking to expand his business to more than one store. So I floated the idea that, you know, why don't we buy the place?
One of the other people in the game (She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named) expressed an interest in joining the project. I contacted Dave, and sure enough, he thought it'd be a good idea. So, between mid-February and March 31st, the three of us had negotiations, raised money, hired lawyers, put together a contract, made the offer to Dave and Rob, negotiated the offer with Dave and Rob, got it accepted, formed a corporation, registered for taxes, got approval from the town, came up with a name, decided on a font for our logo (and the arguments about that one were Legion!), picked up vending machines, decided how we wanted to lay the store out, got register software, got the lease signed over, and cured cancer.
Okay, so we didn't cure cancer. But the labor and time involved were huge.
The thing is, I didn't get involved with this business for monetary reasons. I'd had a career in computers for many years, making a stupid amount of money working in various management positions. I knew that if I'd chosen to go back to that career, I'd be set financially. But it wasn't something I loved.
Watching the place about to go out of business would mean more than a loss of my friendly local gaming store. I knew that there were lots of people out there who loved the place. Folks for whom it was a home, a haven, a place to come that was fun to play in and a place to hang out with like-minded folks. There's really nothing like a gaming store to get together with people who share our peculiarly geekish interests. Playing RPGs in a Borders is right out, and while you can play in your basement, you don't really meet a lot of people outside of your own group that way. The place was a community of its own.
I had to save it, if I could. And so we did.
Looking back on it a year later, I have no real regrets, aside from my initial choice of partners. Not Dave, but the other one. We've maintained a pretty steady customer base--and gotten a few more, folks who saw the change of ownership and remembered it "when it was Gamemaster's". I've made a whole bunch of new friends, and they feel like friends I've had all my life but didn't know yet; the people I would nod to in passing in the store, knowing we shared a passion for gaming but weren't in the same group (or playing the same sorts of game!) I've learned a lot about the business of gaming, and had the opportunity to play with people I never knew and games that I've never played before.
It's been quite a ride. We have a lot planned for the future; advertising, renovations, new product lines, new events, all sorts of fun and exciting things. Taking the game store into the 21st century has been a pretty fun idea, and we're still not burnt out yet!
I'd like to thank everyone for being a customer here, and more than that, a friend. Like I said, while I'm going to be devoting the rest of my life to this place (and making a living from it), I didn't get involved with it to get rich. I got involved with it because it was a way to bring fun and enjoyment to people. To keep the community alive. And the community has helped us grow. Without you, there'd be no point. So, thanks.
--Scott
hopefulAug. 18th, 2007
01:04 am - Wassup?
OK so...
Update: I work 11-11 at my gaming store which I own with Kalkail and a friend of mine David Steltenkamp.
http://www.gamersgambitonline.com
I am still seeing Lizzy.
I am happy but very very tired :)
Mar. 31st, 2007
08:14 am - Yesterday..
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
kalkail, another friend, and I, went shopping yesterday and bought a Gaming Store.
Yesterday, also, my girlfriend went shopping and bought a house.
(I should clarify and say I don't actually OWN the gaming store--I'm more of a worker and manager there, but I hope to eventually buy in as an owner with Sweat Equity--but I did do a lot of the work to get us there.)
Needless to say, I am busy.
But...yippee!
and happy!Feb. 22nd, 2007
04:29 am - Red Five Standing By
I haven't updated this in a long time. Mostly because I haven't been into LJing for quite a while. Sue me. :)
In a nutshell:
1) My email address is scottaroberts at the big good ol' gmail dot com. Y'all can email me if ya want to catch up--I like getting emails! I do! And it's the best way to find out what's going on.
2) I am still seeing the wonderful grrl in Maryland, and it is looking likely that I will be relocating down there sometime between May and July, but that's kinda up in the air depending (she's waiting to buy a house at the moment). I'll still be dual-state (because there's just too much up here in NJ for me not to spend a lot of time up here), but it'd be a much better living situation with me.
3) My leisure-time activities center these days around reading, writing, and City of Heroes. I still do Eshraval, too, from time to time.
4) My cellphone is currently AWOL. Should be back soon from the repair shop though!
Jan. 4th, 2007
02:11 pm - Wow.
Watch this.
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P
Nov. 20th, 2006
12:29 am - NaNoWriMo
I think my original message may have come off as unduly critical of NaNoWriMo, which it shouldn't've been. I have nothing against it and some of the best writers I know use it; I mostly meant to say it wasn't for me, and to point to my production as a means of saying that I can write without doing it. :)
Nov. 19th, 2006
11:57 am - On Writing
It has long been my personal belief that "a writer writes"--that he or she gets "the bug" and is compelled, basically, to sit down and churn out words by the demons in his or her head. Thus, not for me the NaNoWriMo or workshops or anything like that--it works for other people, and I do not knock it whatsoever, but I personally feel I need to develop the -need- to write before I work on the putting-out-a-story-and-plot bit. Sitting down and forcing myself to write is about as appetizing as forcing myself to eat a meal as a guest at someone's table that I don't particularly like, but which I feel, out of obligation, I have to choke down and smile about. If I need to do something like that in order to write, I don't want to be a writer.
That being said, this morning I woke up at about 4AM with a story in my head, and over the next 6 hours put 10,000 words on paper (or rather, into a word processor). What I wrote is (of all the dadgum things) a children's short story, about a dog. The dog can talk (but only to other dogs). It has no science fiction in it aside from that (except, perhaps, for the insects in it).
It's called "Mr. Peachy Keen in The Tentacle Things Attack!" Inspired by my girlfriend's -dog-, of all things.
This is not what I would normally write. It is not what my conscious mind tells me I -want- to write, as a subject matter, or an outline, or even an idea. But it's what I wrote. And--get this--it's pretty darn good, too. I think I'm going to try to sell it.
So that's how writing works for me. (And all you people who tell me "you should be a writer", "you should write", or "you should be in NaNoWriMo"...suck it, Trebek! ;) ;))
cheerfulOct. 27th, 2006
Oct. 24th, 2006
01:40 pm - Real True Love is...
...claiming responsibility for your lover's stinky farts so they don't get embarrassed.
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