(OT) Undercutting your LGS. Your opinion wanted.

[Drew]

My friends and I wanted to get into the new Marvel Heroclix game. Our local gaming shop didn't have any, so we were SOL. My friend purchased an entire case on his credit card and then sold the individual boosters piecemeal to all interested parties at wholesale prices.

The manager of the gaming shop caught wind of this and became really angry. He's mad at my friend for purchasing the case and mad at us for buying the minis. We contend that, had they stocked the game, we'd have purchased it there. They have since gotten a very small shipment of the product and we bought it up right away.

So, what do you think? Were we undercutting the LGS? What would you do in our place?

 

[trancejeremy]

If your local game store didn't want to carry Heroclix, then the owner deserves to go out of business because he's an idiot.

I mean, even if your friend bought 1 case, your local game store should have sold at least 10 times that. Heroclix is apparently a huge seller. Something like 500,000 boxes (presumably boosters & starters). If your owner didn't stock any, he's an idiot. A huge idiot.

Stores should earn your business. You're not obligated to shop there. They should make you want to shop there.

 

[spacecrime.com]

The situation may be a little more complicated than that, trancejeremy.

Heroclix was far from a "sure thing", and many retailers ordered lightly when committing to initial preorders. Once it became clear the product was a winner, demand spiked, and it has been somewhat difficult to get (or keep) it in stock. Wizkids has managed the situation very well, but it has been a little bit frustrating at times.

That said, it sounds like the store owner overreacted. Everyone loses it occasionally; hopefully this was an unusual (and forgivable) behavior instead of a typical behavior. Drew might want to give the guy a chance to cool down and apologize.

yours,

 

[rounser]

The manager of the gaming shop caught wind of this and became really angry. He's mad at my friend for purchasing the case and mad at us for buying the minis.

How very pathetic - it appears that he thinks he has some god-given right to your money. This doesn't sound like the kind of local game store that deserves support.

 

[Lothaire]

Yes you were undercutting the local game store. You should have slavishly waiting, begging them to order Hero clix and finally, throwing your money at them and bowing down when they deign to let you buy them.

Or you play it smart and did exactly what you guys did. Any resourceful gamer in your place would have done the same. Hell, I would have bought the case and then sold stuff for a slight profit, but then I am kinda greedy. You guys were playing nice.

 

[TalonComics]

Nah, you didn't undercut him. If he didn't have it and you could get it elsewhere that's not your fault.

However, and this is my opinion, if you and your friends are buying Hero Clix elsewhere and then bringing them to his store to play then I honestly don't blame him for being somewhat pissed off. But... He's only the manager and not the owner. The owner should be making the decision regarding that.

Collectible games that can be purchased on the internet for cost or close to cost only end up erroding retailers from carrying the product. I've seen it happen plenty of times where stores online end up selling boxes of CCGs for cost or even practically giving them away causing me plenty of times to not carry a CCG line. Wiz Kid's Mage Knight line has been no exception. If you look hard enough you can find places selling them for less than what I can even buy them from my distributor! Weirdly enough the only company that I've seen try to reign in massive discounting is Games Workshop. If they catch you selling their product for larger than 20% they will stop you from getting new product. That policy is one that I can actually agree with.

Anyway, sorry to get a little off topic but I just wanted to try to clear up why some retailers get annoyed when you buy product elsewhere and sell it.

~Derek

 

[Garmorn]

I would say only if he took special orders. If he did then you should have order through him if you play there or if you worry about not having him.

If he does not do special order then you had ever reason to bypass him.

Thankfuly mine will do special order at a drop of a hat.

 

[Kichwas]

Welcome to capitalism.

If you can undercut him, it's your patriotic duty; just ask G.W.
When I go into Macy's instead of Nordstrom I don't get attitude from the Nordstrom people the next time I go there.

So if he's popping an attitude; all the more reason to undercut him, sell to his customers, or go around him.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

LOL, there used to be a game store 1 block away from me. I remember always going in there to buy modules and FR sourcebooks, but the selection was pretty pathetic, except for Ravenloft, the place had like 4 copies of every Ravenloft book ever made.

I asked them a few times why they didn't carry more FR stuff, thier answer was that they could special order it for me and have it in a little over a week. I told them that I usually go to the store to buy something because I want to read it that day, and why would I wait more than a week, when I know for a fact that the local Walden's bookstore in the mall has the book I want right now and I can have it in my hand in 10 minutes. They were NOT happy about that, and lectured me on "loyalty".

I ALWAYS try to buy my RPG stuff from a game shop, but if they don't have what I want, I WILL go elsewhere. That's just the way it is.

 

[Glyfair]

Weirdly enough the only company that I've seen try to reign in massive discounting is Games Workshop. If they catch you selling their product for larger than 20% they will stop you from getting new product. That policy is one that I can actually agree with.

I assume you mean selling the product for a larger than 20% discount.

Now, I'm not a lawyer and could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty certain there are laws against similiar things. The general area is called "price fixing."

I work in the video industry and know that the way distributors tend to work around that is by having a minimum advertised price. If you advertise a price lower than that, then you don't get any of the incentive advertising help that they give. They can't set a minimum price that they can be sold at because that would be breaking these laws.
Glyfair of Glamis