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How are you cashing in on board game mania?

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21 Sep 2017 11:00 #254565 by Gregarius

Michael Barnes wrote: I keep looking for some kind of bullshit opportunity to exploit...but I have too much dignity and integrity to come up with NONSENSE like Realm Coins or those Game Toppers. If I could figure out a way to may dice sleeves or full board sleeves saleable...or perhaps a special enclosure so that you can play a game without ever coming into actual contact with the components. Whatever it is, put FUCKING CUPHOLDERS on it and you trick middle aged suburban white men into thinking it is a luxury item.

Wow, those ideas are golden! You've inspired me.

What about a sneeze guard that mounts to the table between players and the game?
Or a beer bib to catch any condensation that might drip from the bottle?

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21 Sep 2017 11:48 #254566 by san il defanso
I've only ever written reviews, many of them using comped games. Even that has tapered off lately. I think Thrower has stated that one cannot continue to review new games and really still be able to play all of the old favorites one wants. Not unless you are made out of time anyway, which apparently some reviewers are. I like writing about games still, and I sometimes just fire off a think piece on some old title, but it's not nearly as regular as it was.

I don't know how people don't go crazy selling games. I absolutely hate trying to move stuff online. Trading is a lot more reliable for me that way.

As for tables, I bought a $40 folding six-foot table from Wal-Mart several years ago. It works for all but the very biggest games (expanded Talisman, Star Wars Rebellion). A second one would give me enough room, but I haven't bothered with that yet.
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21 Sep 2017 12:08 - 21 Sep 2017 16:05 #254569 by stoic
I haven't ever thought about monetizing a hobby that I entered into solely to have fun. Rather, I simply enjoy drinking beer and socializing with friends and family while playing AT board games on the kitchen table.

I like older and proven classics so I don't worry about new game releases anymore.

The newer games are all mostly derivative of previous releases. And, I don't have time to keep up with the cult-of-the-new since I want to play the fun games that are already in my collection.

How can I swim in and enjoy the deep waters of repeated plays if I'm always testing untested waters? Out of the new releases each year, I rarely see anything worth purchasing that my collection doesn't already cover. Yet, every now and then, a rare gem appears--often, these new worthy gems are mentioned here on F:AT.

F&%K CONSUMERISM!
Last edit: 21 Sep 2017 16:05 by stoic.
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21 Sep 2017 14:19 #254571 by SuperflyPete
I usually sell review copies I get, unless someone asks me for them (which I almost always give). I make a few bucks to write articles, on occasion. I will likely increase my income by 2% due to SEAL Team Flix sales.

The only games I keep or want now are the best of the best and I want to play them until they're ground to pocket lint.
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22 Sep 2017 07:49 #254590 by Pat II
I'm going to flog my Heroquest with two expansions on Ebay and see what happens. I got $600 for an autographed Ride The Lightning LP I got when I was twelve (waited 4 hours in the freezing cold), hopefully I can continue the streak.

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26 Sep 2017 10:13 - 26 Sep 2017 10:22 #254806 by Jexik
I recently cashed out of a lot Heroscape stuff, which probably netted me more than I ever spent on it. If you factor in all the gas money driving to tournaments and countless hours discussing it online and over the phone with friends, then no- Heroscape was one of the most expensive games I've ever played. (Probably only World of Warcraft was worse).

I did playtesting for Hasbro and PHG for awhile (Heroscape D&D waves, Summoner Wars, and the Dead of Winter Expansion), but it ranged from next to nothing to not nearly enough money. I also did some slave labor at cons. It was fun, but much harder to justify as I grew older. Ironically, the year I decided not to do a booth at GenCon was the year they started paying people more because of the ANA take over.

Like a number of people here, I'm not so much a collector as I am interested in finding fun games that I'll play repeatedly. Between getting 'free' stuff from publishers and fighting the consumer angle, I've hardly spent any money on games over the last 5 years; probably more on gifts than for myself.

Fed up with my job of 12 years, I decided last winter that I'd open a game store one way or another. There's a local chain that is doing quite well, and I knew the owner from back when I was trying to organize Summoner Wars tournaments in 2011, and used to play some FNMs in that time period too. He thought I'd be a great fit. We didn't end up opening until July of this year. On the plus side I've got a proven formula, but I'm still a fairly shy academic type with little to no retail experience. Customer service, working with kids? Sure. Forging business partnerships? Getting butts in the seats? Hmm. Still not sure if this is the best or worst decision of my life, and if business will pick up or not. We had a really great routine going at home, and now we're experiencing previously unheard of levels of stress, both financial and emotional. I've got an hour drive each way, which is just far enough that most of the people I know from gaming can't be bothered to go up there, and also far enough that I'm mentally exhausted all the time even if (or especially if) it has been a slow day. I managed to go from a 30 hour work week making little money to a 50-60 hour work week making even less.
Last edit: 26 Sep 2017 10:22 by Jexik.
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26 Sep 2017 11:24 #254813 by metalface13
I write sporadically for a blog with some friends. It's mostly about Blood Bowl but about other miniatures and games too. I did comp a review copy of a third-party Blood Bowl team. I'm not sure they ever saw the review. The main guy running the blog is the most gung-ho about it and has gotten more review products sent to him. He's been pretty quiet on that front though lately, but his interest in hobby stuff tends to wax and wane. He's either really into putting in the work for it or he isn't. It doesn't help there haven't been any new Blood Bowl releases in a while, as he mostly does unboxing articles.

I'm also flogging some OOP expansions on ebay.

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26 Sep 2017 13:04 #254822 by hotseatgames
I put Fury of Dracula on ebay. If I get paid, then I'll just hope GW reprints it and I can get it again. If I don't, then I get to keep it. I can't lose.

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26 Sep 2017 13:30 - 26 Sep 2017 13:31 #254823 by Michael Barnes
No eBay APP ID défined in Kunena configurationCan you beat seller great_value_deal's price?




$1001.36. Not sure why the 36 cents is there.
Last edit: 26 Sep 2017 13:31 by Michael Barnes.

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26 Sep 2017 13:37 #254824 by hotseatgames
Yes, I think I'm at 125.

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26 Sep 2017 14:03 #254828 by Michael Barnes
Do $140 and best offer. If someone goes $130 on it, you are $5 up and they think they got a deal.

On big ticket items I always accept best offer and highball the asking price. It's a sales tactic that works.
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26 Sep 2017 15:45 #254837 by Sagrilarus
No eBay APP ID défined in Kunena configuration

Michael Barnes wrote: Can you beat seller great_value_deal's price?




$1001.36. Not sure why the 36 cents is there.


Amazon is setting the price by algorithm.

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26 Sep 2017 18:44 - 26 Sep 2017 19:47 #254847 by Cranberries

Jexik wrote:
Fed up with my job of 12 years, I decided last winter that I'd open a game store one way or another. There's a local chain that is doing quite well, and I knew the owner from back when I was trying to organize Summoner Wars tournaments in 2011, and used to play some FNMs in that time period too. He thought I'd be a great fit. We didn't end up opening until July of this year. On the plus side I've got a proven formula, but I'm still a fairly shy academic type with little to no retail experience.


As an academic of 15 years who doesn't really want to grade any more papers, I'm following your story with great interest. I haven't sold my Heroscape yet.
Last edit: 26 Sep 2017 19:47 by Cranberries.
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27 Sep 2017 09:59 - 27 Sep 2017 11:13 #254877 by Jexik

cranberries wrote:

Jexik wrote:
Fed up with my job of 12 years, I decided last winter that I'd open a game store one way or another. There's a local chain that is doing quite well, and I knew the owner from back when I was trying to organize Summoner Wars tournaments in 2011, and used to play some FNMs in that time period too. He thought I'd be a great fit. We didn't end up opening until July of this year. On the plus side I've got a proven formula, but I'm still a fairly shy academic type with little to no retail experience.


As an academic of 15 years who doesn't really want to grade any more papers, I'm following your story with great interest. I haven't sold my Heroscape yet.


Heh, by "academic type," I mean everyone in my family except my brother and I have master's degrees or higher, I went to a prestigious 4-year institution (in Economics, which is definitely NOT business), and I generally think and write more than I speak. It's not that I dislike speaking, it's just I avoid gossip and mundane topics like driving out of my way to save $0.50 on lettuce or a tank of gas. Somewhere along the way I became disillusioned with academia (probably due to the existential black hole of MMO's), and fell into board gaming again in 2007. I wrote enough about strategy for a children's game (Heroscape) to write an actual book or receive a master's degree in it if such a thing existed. Just look up "Jexik" on Heroscapers.com and you'll find an embarrassing amount of words.

The biggest change for me in moving into a competitive marketplace is that everything changes constantly. School is almost always geared towards the next level of school or the next class you need to take to complete a degree or program, and that theoretically leads to further study (at the U of C it was always more school) or some kind of job. The world is simple and clear cut, relatively speaking. I understand that moving up and getting tenure and all that gets back to politics and all kinds of other stuff like that. I also have trouble multi-tasking and prioritizing stuff, being comfortable with doing something 95-98% well rather than perfectly if it means saving a LOT of time. Ultimately you'll have to get around to fixing that stuff later though. My habit of spending 5x as much time editing something as writing it works great for essays or clever reviews, but not so much for correspondence e-mails.

Probably similar to doing a dissertation, you're completely in control of your own destiny and time. Spending leisure time or even posting here feels bad. Compared to writing an essay though, not only are you in control of your destiny, but everyone else is too, so the more you lag, the more it compounds and messes everything up. Cashflow is king- it's hard to do most of what you have to do if you don't have a bit of a cushion. I chuckled at Sag's recent Acquire post, because I thought, "Yup, just like real life."

san il defanso wrote: I don't know how people don't go crazy selling games. I absolutely hate trying to move stuff online. Trading is a lot more reliable for me that way.


I feel like trading would be a lot harder, because of the whole double coincidence of wants. Maybe if you're trading locally with friends or acquaintances and you can talk it out like sane people it would work better.

If you want to move stuff pretty quickly as a private individual, you just have to price stuff low based on how much you value your space and time. Go for 25-50% of MSRP for easy to acquire stuff, and somewhere between 50-70% of the common eBay prices of really hard to get stuff. It'll disappear.
Last edit: 27 Sep 2017 11:13 by Jexik.
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27 Sep 2017 11:13 #254884 by SuperflyPete
Credit lines for businesses are essential, man. Our parent company literally prints cash due to the demand for their products and still has a 12M$ credit line.

I wanted to talk marketing when I was up there with you but alas, the Green Fiend annoyed me enough that I forgot.
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