Lloyd Brown's a good one, smart guy, I remember him from the various proto-social networks game retailers were in back in the day (does anyone remember delphi forums? Ah, memories...)There’s an excellent series on RPGnet about running a store. I don’t know that it addresses this point, but it gives lots of good advice.
in 45 years of gaming and living/shopping across America, I've never seen a gameshop charge keystone. I imagine I haven't because it's an excellent way to drive off customers.
I wouldn't ordinarily suggest charging keystone for product in a normal circumstance, but I could see doing it in the OP's situation, especially if they brought in a bunch of indie zines and similar that a) are harder to get and b) have a lower price point.in 45 years of gaming and living/shopping across America, I've never seen a gameshop charge keystone. I imagine I haven't because it's an excellent way to drive off customers.
What do you mean when you say "keystone"?in 45 years of gaming and living/shopping across America, I've never seen a gameshop charge keystone. I imagine I haven't because it's an excellent way to drive off customers.
Keystone is when a retailer marks up products 100% instead of using the MSRP. For an FLGS (I'm not familiar with other retailers) we typically pay around 55-60% of a product's msrp, so the profit on each sale is around 40-45%. Keystone prices are marked up 100%, so the retailer gets 50% of the sale price. This isn't true for all distributors; I just set up an account with the Arcane Library to start carrying Shadowdark, and their discount is 50%, which is very generous. There are a couple of other publishers who do this (usually if you buy direct from small indie publishers); a lot of the zines I carry that I get direct from the publisher are sold at 50% of MSRP.What do you mean when you say "keystone"?
RIght. But that isn't the entire story of your margins, though - as it doesn't include the recent (vast) increase in shipping costs. If you're somewhere where you can't just drive over to a distributor, or you're getting stuff shipped direct from publishers, you tend to pay a lot in shipping.Keystone is when a retailer marks up products 100% instead of using the MSRP. For an FLGS (I'm not familiar with other retailers) we typically pay around 55-60% of a product's msrp, so the profit on each sale is around 40-45%. Keystone prices are marked up 100%, so the retailer gets 50% of the sale price. This isn't true for all distributors; I just set up an account with the Arcane Library to start carrying Shadowdark, and their discount is 50%, which is very generous. There are a couple of other publishers who do this (usually if you buy direct from small indie publishers); a lot of the zines I carry that I get direct from the publisher are sold at 50% of MSRP.