I'm Opening a Game Store this Saturday

[payn]

I might have mispoken. One of our regulars volunteered to be an agent, and they run events fairly regularly. The results get reported to Catalyst and are used to shape the meta narrative.

Nice. I have been running a Solaris Melee Tournament once a month but its not connected to Catalyst other than using their rule book. Folks really enjoy the ability to earn cash and level their pilots...until head shots...

 

[payn]

That's really handy. The best play spaces I've ever been in all featured custom tables, and you can knock together display shelving that fits your space perfectly too.

Don't suppose you went old school and did a sand table with a removable cover? Only seen three shops actually do that in 50 years, and one of them turned out to be a front for a pot-growing operation.

We got a place here in the Twin Cities thats been around for decades. They have one of those sand tables, but the cover hasnt been off in as long as I can remember, so maybe no more sand? It's where we run Battletech each week.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Yeah, no sand table. Other than GW stuff and Battletech there's really not much miniature gaming locally. We carry a small selection of historical games, but they really don't sell that well.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

They have one of those sand tables, but the cover hasnt been off in as long as I can remember, so maybe no more sand?

Might be they encountered the same problem one of the stores I used to work for did. The boss left the game space unmonitored one day (thankfully while I was off) and some of our teenage card gamers decided it would be funny to pour their sodas out into the sand just before close and then re-cover the tables. Didn't get spotted for days. Once that happens there's nothing you can do but dispose of it all and scrub it clean, and even then you'll probably still have ant problems for years to come. Wasn't really worth refilling it IMO.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Yeah, no sand table. Other than GW stuff and Battletech there's really not much miniature gaming locally. We carry a small selection of historical games, but they really don't sell that well.

They are a nuisance at times (you'll be vacuuming sand regularly) and heavy as blazes. But they're not just for historical games, and are really handy for some of the "small skirmish/warband" rules that are so popular these days - Stargrave, Frostgrave (if you use white sand, anyway - and there's a desert Sandgrave fan variant), Ghost Archipelago, the 5 Leagues/Parsecs From Home games, etc.

Not so hot for BT or most GW games, although I had some fun with them using Mordheim back in the day, and they'd be really good for Ash Wastes Necromunda play (or GorkaMorka, for a real throwback).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's going well. We're working on finding our niche.

Yeah, it takes time. And paying very close attention to what your customers want, which can change over time.

The other store in town is much more MtG focused, but one of our co-owners runs the local 40k league, so we're focusing more on wargames and, my specialty, rpgs.

My store is about 2/3 a Comic Store. I'm good at D&D, comics, and board games (in that order) and my long-time employee is good at Magic, comics, Warhammer (in particularly painting the minis), more board games (than me), and a few other RPGs.

I've built and curated a pretty extensive indie and small press collection, and have been really surprised that they sell as well, if not better, than D&D.

Your section on indies is MUCH better than mine. My customer base is extremely mainstream, both with comics (Marvel & DC by a mile) and games (Magic & D&D over everything else). We wish that we could get into more stuff, and have it sell, but we already carry more indies than actually makes sense sales-wise, just to have them.

And it's a vicious cycle! We support what sells, which is mainstream, so mainstream stuff is what we "look" like we focus on, so we attract mainstream customers (and not as much indy-minded ones) and so on. Still, we DO have some (as much as we can afford to). I'd love to have more.

We all gotta pick our battles.

I also own a cabinet shop, and we built the gaming tables specifically for WH40k and other similar games.

That is AWESOME. I have one custom table built by one of our volunteer DMs, which is nice. But the other two (can only fit three - I have a hundred thousand back issue comics to fit in!) are just fold-up tables with plywood boards fitted on top (painted green).

Your store honestly looks nicer than mine, because a lot of my fixtures are old and mismatched (having acquired them over decades, usually on the cheap). I've been slowly upgrading, now that I'm not dirt-poor, but it takes time, money, and a plan. And there is a LOT of weight to move to do anything. In some ways, it would be much easier to start fresh - but that would be VERY expensive.

I wish you all the best in this venture! Have fun, too!

 

[thirdkingdom]

Yeah, it takes time. And paying very close attention to what your customers want, which can change over time.


My store is about 2/3 a Comic Store. I'm good at D&D, comics, and board games (in that order) and my long-time employee is good at Magic, comics, Warhammer (in particularly painting the minis), more board games (than me), and a few other RPGs.


Your section on indies is MUCH better than mine. My customer base is extremely mainstream, both with comics (Marvel & DC by a mile) and games (Magic & D&D over everything else). We wish that we could get into more stuff, and have it sell, but we already carry more indies than actually makes sense sales-wise, just to have them.

And it's a vicious cycle! We support what sells, which is mainstream, so mainstream stuff is what we "look" like we focus on, so we attract mainstream customers (and not as much indy-minded ones) and so on. Still, we DO have some (as much as we can afford to). I'd love to have more.

We all gotta pick our battles.


That is AWESOME. I have one custom table built by one of our volunteer DMs, which is nice. But the other two (can only fit three - I have a hundred thousand back issue comics to fit in!) are just fold-up tables with plywood boards fitted on top (painted green).

Your store honestly looks nicer than mine, because a lot of my fixtures are old and mismatched (having acquired them over decades, usually on the cheap). I've been slowly upgrading, now that I'm not dirt-poor, but it takes time, money, and a plan. And there is a LOT of weight to move to do anything. In some ways, it would be much easier to start fresh - but that would be VERY expensive.

I wish you all the best in this venture! Have fun, too!

I may send you some DMs to pick your brain if that's okay.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

But the other two (can only fit three - I have a hundred thousand back issue comics to fit in!) are just fold-up tables with plywood boards fitted on top (painted green).

I ran on plywood over sawhorses for several years at one place I managed, but that location was meant to be temporary (and wound up lasting an extra two and a half years owing to bad planning). Worked well enough though, never had one flip on us. You might want to invest in some gridless, reasonably generic battlemats for them though. Having an eye-catching minis table is a solid draw and encourages players. The ones available these days are much, much nicer than the old Chessex ones we were using, and much easier to clean if there's a spill or something.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Nice to see OSE stuff there. I rarely go to game stores for gaming stuff these days as very little OSR stuff is carried.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Nice to see OSE stuff there. I rarely go to game stores for gaming stuff these days as very little OSR stuff is carried.

I handle the rpg side of the store, and OSR and indie games are my jamb. Here's our current zine spinner rack.