Pre-order D&D 3.5 books for $17.61

[S'mon]

I find the idea that gamers are morally obliged to financially subsidise their local game store quite amusing. If you're a small-press publisher who likes to see print copies of his goods on sale in games stores, naturally you want them around. That doesn't create a moral imperative on anyone else to buy either your stuff or buy WotC's stuff at high prices so the store stays in business. You can always offer your stuff by ESD or mail order, you know.

Personally, I get all my games supplies mail order - either direct from the producer (eg em4miniatures) or from a games store across town, Leisure Games. Leisure Games is the 'friendly local games store' for its area of Finchley, north London, but this is London, and getting there & back from south London would take me a good 3 hours. I buy from them because they have good - very good - service, a wide selection, and fairly reasonable prices*. I don't shop with them from a desire to support the north London games industry.

This is _sarf_ London, mate...

*I later discovered I could have got Lost City of Gaxmoor from them for a little over half what it cost to have amazon.com ship it from the USA.

 

[ZosKia]

I later discovered I could have got Lost City of Gaxmoor from them for a little over half what it cost to have amazon.com ship it from the USA.

Ha! Serves you right for not going there in person. I can get there and back in two hours!

 

[TalonComics]

I find the idea that gamers are morally obliged to financially subsidise their local game store quite amusing. If you're a small-press publisher who likes to see print copies of his goods on sale in games stores, naturally you want them around. That doesn't create a moral imperative on anyone else to buy either your stuff or buy WotC's stuff at high prices so the store stays in business. You can always offer your stuff by ESD or mail order, you know.

Sure small publishers *can* do that but they're not going to make a living selling online. The internet just doesn't make them money like selling in stores does. Not to mention really small press can sell direct to stores without going through a distributor. Plus, I know more gamers who don't have internet access than do even though I've been online since late 1992.

~D

 

[The Sigil]

Re: Rant!

I pay FULL price and Texas' outrageous sales tax (we don't have a state income tax, it is all generated through sales tax)... if Texas didn't have this stupid over 8% sales tax

LOL, nice rant!

Consider yourself lucky - here in California we have 7.75 to 8.25% sales tax (depending on where you go) AND we have income tax - which comes in at another, I don't know, 5-6% as well!

I order online as a matter of fiscal self-preservation in cases where I know what I want in advance and/or trust the publisher sight unseen. I also order scads of PDFs - I think I must have over 1000 now (close to 200 3e PDFs plus 800 or so TSR ESDs).

But you know, with my FLGS almost literally just down the street, anything I don't want to buy sight unseen, I usually buy there.

Then again, I doubt they'll go under without my business - since they are also the US Distributor for several miniatures lines - one of the biggest kicks at GAMA was being with MEG Hal and looking over the booths and going, "Holy cow! What's my FLGS doing with a double booth at GAMA!" LOL.

Then again, I guess I'm lucky, too as far as isolation from the homogenization of america - I live on the border of "Little Saigon" and also am next to the "Korean Business District" - I can find tons of "mom & pop" shops before finding chain stores because the culture there is to support each other by keeping the business "in the area" - and this is in suburban Orange County, CA! It's a wonderful reminder that when you have a small community that is somewhat insular due to the language barrier, you will have mom & pop shops galore - a slice of rural living in the midst of suburbia. It gets even better when you have SEVERAL such insular groups - Hispanic, Korean, Afghanistani, and Vietnamese communities are all within 10 miles of my home. Thank goodness I can go there when I want something "mom & pop."

--The Sigil

 

[Leopold]

herewegoagain...

 

[Kilmore]

FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store). I got out of the Navy in 1997 and returned to Iowa. In this time, I have seen:

Numerous horror stories. Man, the arson guy...

Right now, we have no FLGSs.

In other words, I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for FLGSs...

Um, I know I'm an eternal optimist, but it seems to me that you have 1. A competition free market, 2. Interested potential employees, and 3. Some sense of what the others have done wrong. 4. Apparently a bit of money.

Have you ever considered that opportunity may be beating down your door?

 

[TalonComics]

Re: crappy FLGSs

I've heard a lot of stories about FLGSs both good and bad. I even have my own stories about my store which to this day I'm still dealing with. There's an universal truth to owning your own business and dealing with those who do: Bad things can happen that can easily put you out of business.

What do you think the number one reason why someone would open a gaming store of any kind? It's an easy answer for me and probably holds true for everyone: I love gaming and talking to other gamers. Gaming is a social event but it draws a lot of social misfits to it. Some stay misfits but I've also found that many of these fine folks get a lot better dealing with other people and interacting. That's probably part of the reason you see so many strange game store owners is many of them come from social misfit backgrounds. Sometimes you want to punch them in the nose.

I think a lot of crappy store owners just don't realize this rule: When you run a store you are there for your customers not the other way around. It's almost like DMing in a way. It's a give and take process, it can be personal and you can develop friends from it.

I never understood the game store owner who refuses to special order things. If you're afraid of getting stuck with a special order have the customer put a deposit down. Occasionally, special orders are out of print or have to be ordered from a remote warehouse. With the economy being like it is now I've seen that scenario happening a little bit more often. The distributor doesn't want tons of shelf copies and in turn the publisher doesn't want to be sitting on tons of shelf copies either. But at least I know that's the case and can tell the customer what is going on.

The only thing I've been trying to make people realize in these threads is that without speciality stores tabletop gaming as we know it will die. Gaming is popular right now and that's why Wal Mart is even carrying it online. If it wasn't popular do you think Wal Mart would even care? Think about it, where are you going to buy gaming books if there are no stores selling them? The publishers? There won't be any publishers because they can't make any money to sell their books!

Guys, AD&D *died* once and was brought back because a company that revitalized gaming spent their money by buying TSR. That company exists to this day because small game stores and their customers gave Magic: The Gathering a chance. Places like Wal Mart don't take chances. They only sell product that they *know* is going to sell and they want to be the only ones selling it.

Thanks again for reading,
~Derek

 

[KDLadage]

Um, I know I'm an eternal optimist, but it seems to me that you have 1. A competition free market

Yes, I do.

2. Interested potential employees

Yes, I do.

3. Some sense of what the others have done wrong.

Yes, I do.

4. Apparently a bit of money.

Yes, I do.

Have you ever considered that opportunity may be beating down your door?

Yes, I have. Now... convince my wife that I should be allowed to place such an investment into a business that has been, as she sees it, increadibly unprofitable in this area; convince her that I should be allowed to be away from the house and our (soon to be) newborn for the 80-100 hour work weeks -- the sacrifices needed to get such a busieness up and running (as a matter of history, most small businesses fail, those that succeed do not tend to show a profit for 5-7 years...).

Convince her of that and we can begin.

 

[Wuxia]

Sure small publishers *can* do that but they're not going to make a living selling online. The internet just doesn't make them money like selling in stores does. Not to mention really small press can sell direct to stores without going through a distributor. Plus, I know more gamers who don't have internet access than do even though I've been online since late 1992.

If not so many sales are made through the Internet, why do you describe Amazon.com as a threat?

 

[TalonComics]

If not so many sales are made through the Internet, why do you describe Amazon.com as a threat?

I'm not just saying Amazon I'm saying any company that does massive discounting just to take away business from small businesses. To be honest I'm more upset about Wal Mart and their typical tactics. Believe me, if Wal Mart could be the only store that existed they would. I don't want to see people killing their own hobby with a knife that Wal Mart handed them.

~D