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I'd second the stock list. If you can keep on top of inventory that can help for the customer. For all its problems, Waylands "X in Stock" "Out of Stock - Restock Expected/Available to Order" and "Out of stock" works well.

Don't you sell Wargames Atlantic at a discount? Single box for 30$, which while they have deals that get the price that low, buying a single box from their site is closer to 35$ no? You could do the cross off for them just as well as the Mantic stuff, so that the customer can see at a glance what base retail price is compared to your deal.

Depending on what your big sellers are, to help draw the customers eye immediately, you could, instead of "28mm plastics" just have the manufactures as the headers. One less step for customers to see "Mantic", etc. At least while you are at 3 different groups. Any more and you might want to go the Wayland Games route - the "big name" retailer is its own tab while the rest is under the broad category.

As someone who will often go to the free shipping threshold to "save money", even if I end up spending an extra 20 bucks or the like, a single price for free shipping (in the US) would be preferable (ideally the lower price, but that is because I like saving money ). It also saves some space on the page itself as well. Also noting your faq, you definitely want to fix the issue with the price list so that the combined plastic + printed product is tallied, rather than individually. The customer shouldn't have to email you to get the correct shipping price.

And I will note, the people who say "you are a store, do the store stuff" aren't wrong. I know I have ordered from say Dicehead for years now, in spite of their website design, because they do GW at the max discount, including the stuff that is generally webstore only. That right there is a value add for me, as I can find the 15% most anywhere, or even cheaper if I order via friends in Poland (as somehow ordering from Poland and having them ship it is still significantly cheaper than standard GW prices...), but I CANNOT find the 15% on the webstore only stuff.

Also, sigh, however much I hate getting spam, sending out the advertisement email to customers will work if you don't make it annoying. Like when you get a new preorder available for example, send the mail out noting it, as well as other products you have for sale, and your discount with a big "order now!" button that links directly to it. Yeah, out of 1,000 people you send it to, probably 50 will view it and 1 will purchase, but its a case of that is 1 person who might *not* have purchased before seeing that.

Also email marketing is essentially free marketing to customers who already used your services. So long as you've got a clear "disable future emails" option so people can choose to disable it, you should be good.

Also its a very solid form of marketing, you're reinforcing the custom from customers who have already used or at least considered using your store. In general if they've had at least one positive experience that reinforces the chances of them using your store again. All the other stores regularly send out at least a 1 week or 1 month newsletter/update.

Sure its a lot of messages and only very few will make a return, but because the cost is basically tiny its a super cheap form of effective proven marketing.

You indicated you are not getting as much business as you expected. Do you have any idea how large the market for Mantic miniatures is in the USA? I suspect it is quite small.

Further, it can be very difficult to grow a game. Most games shrink not grow. In fact, non-gw games seem to be doing worse than usual.

 spaceelf wrote:
You indicated you are not getting as much business as you expected. Do you have any idea how large the market for Mantic miniatures is in the USA? I suspect it is quite small.

Further, it can be very difficult to grow a game. Most games shrink not grow. In fact, non-gw games seem to be doing worse than usual.

Why would it be small? They are rather generic 28mm fantasy that can be used in a variety of games and systems.

 McDougall Designs wrote:


Why would it be small?

Not to quote myself from page 1 or anything...

supply something that's hard to get hold of. Research is vital, if the competition aren't selling it then odds are it's because nobody wants to buy it.

There's lots of reasons why that might be the case. US customers haven't heard of Mantic, they haven't heard of Mantic in a positive light (for a long time it was a fair criticism to call Mantic a budget GW knock-off company with a lot of below par sculpts,) they're not aware that Mantic make the sort of minis that work in mini agnostic systems, there's only a very small number of people playing mini agnostic games, there's only a few people who are playing Mantic games, there's other companies making flat out better quality or more appropriate minis for given games and the communities attached have a lot of inertia towards those manufacturers.

That's without even thinking too hard or digging down into the nuts and bolts of the economics.

 McDougall Designs wrote:
Why would it be small? They are rather generic 28mm fantasy that can be used in a variety of games and systems.

Because GW dominates the market and most people play GW games with GW miniatures. And most of the people who play non-GW games play them with the official miniatures made by the company publishing the game. X-Wing players are using FFG's official X-Wing miniatures, Warmachine players are using the official Warmachine miniatures, etc. The people playing multiple games with the same miniatures (and therefore valuing that flexibility) are a fairly small subset of the market. So for many people being generic is a drawback, as it means their miniatures won't be clearly WYSIWYG for the one game they're going to be used in.

But really, that's just speculation by both of us. You need market research and hard numbers, not just speculation that you think it's a good product people should want. Running a successful retail business means knowing what products your potential customers want and in what quantities. It's going to be really hard to grow your business if you don't have more than faith in your products to prove that it's even possible to generate significantly more sales than what you're getting now.

Aecus Decimus wrote:

 McDougall Designs wrote:
Why would it be small? They are rather generic 28mm fantasy that can be used in a variety of games and systems.

Because GW dominates the market and most people play GW games with GW miniatures. And most of the people who play non-GW games play them with the official miniatures made by the company publishing the game. X-Wing players are using FFG's official X-Wing miniatures, Warmachine players are using the official Warmachine miniatures, etc. The people playing multiple games with the same miniatures (and therefore valuing that flexibility) are a fairly small subset of the market. So for many people being generic is a drawback, as it means their miniatures won't be clearly WYSIWYG for the one game they're going to be used in.

But really, that's just speculation by both of us. You need market research and hard numbers, not just speculation that you think it's a good product people should want. Running a successful retail business means knowing what products your potential customers want and in what quantities. It's going to be really hard to grow your business if you don't have more than faith in your products to prove that it's even possible to generate significantly more sales than what you're getting now.

I have faith in the products i carry. I personally have miniatures from all of the manufacturers I carry in my collections, and all stand on their own merits. They are good kits.

 McDougall Designs wrote:
I have faith in the products i carry. I personally have miniatures from all of the manufacturers I carry in my collections, and all stand on their own merits. They are good kits.

There are lots of good products which failed to sell, for a variety of reasons. You need market research and a willingness to cut your losses and abandon a product line if the numbers aren't sufficient, not faith that a product you personally like will somehow inevitably sell.

My post was not a question of why the market share is what it is. I did not mean to be critical of Mantic or of you. The point I wished to make is that if you do not know what the market is, you cannot evaluate the success of your advertising. You could already be getting much of the Mantic business that exists.

You can try to build up the line. As I mentioned in my previous post, this can be difficult.

My own experience is that mantic has some great games. Some of their designs are nice.

Growing a brand is a hard thing to do and harder still if you don't run a physical store in a good populated region to at least develop a home-base from which you can build local interest, a local player base and then run events. Both local and then networking at the regional and national level to help build interest up.


If you're taking on lines that aren't in high demand you either accept that they are slower sellers and thus don't put as much money into them so that you've not got huge amounts of your investment tied up in something that will sell slowly (and some that won't sell at all); or you're looking to invest even more in time to help the firm promote in your region. If the host company doesn't run any local rep system of their own this can be very hard for any non-GW game (its one of the contributing factors in what caused Warhmachine to sink - the closure of the Press Ganger community system. It wasn't perfect but it was a cornerstone of promoting and maintaining local interest and games).


I'd argue that a store in a healthy position with a good income can help promote games through itself; but a store looking to establish itself is going to be much more reliant on getting some solid selling games. You need your bread and butter that sell well. That's why so many stores will sell things like collectable cards and games workshop. It's not just because they are big, but because those product lines will sell well. Heck many physical stores get a huge amount of their steady income through things like Magic the Gathering.


Researching the market, seeing what wargames sell well; what products are in demand and tapping into that is all part and parcel of the business. It's not easy (customers will always fill in surveys being interested in more things than they will buy); and outreach is a huge area of balancing marketing investments and research.

Also never overlook the physical conventions. Renders,photos,screenshots are nice. Assembled models decently painted on display are even better. It can result in travel costs and for a one man business a convention will be hard to setup attending without it interrupting other things; but they can also be solid places to network. Plus get you some in person feedback and research. If you turn up at a convention and no one is loooking at a certain game stall or brand that gives you an idea it might not be popular at least in that area; if everyone is crowding around a new game or firm that might be the lead hint that its a good one to build relations with and stock - at the very least in the short term when there's hype.

 spaceelf wrote:
My post was not a question of why the market share is what it is. I did not mean to be critical of Mantic or of you. The point I wished to make is that if you do not know what the market is, you cannot evaluate the success of your advertising. You could already be getting much of the Mantic business that exists.

You can try to build up the line. As I mentioned in my previous post, this can be difficult.

My own experience is that mantic has some great games. Some of their designs are nice.

At no point did I think you were being critical.

 McDougall Designs wrote:

 spaceelf wrote:
You indicated you are not getting as much business as you expected. Do you have any idea how large the market for Mantic miniatures is in the USA? I suspect it is quite small.

Further, it can be very difficult to grow a game. Most games shrink not grow. In fact, non-gw games seem to be doing worse than usual.

Why would it be small? They are rather generic 28mm fantasy that can be used in a variety of games and systems.

This generates a more pressing question: why don't you know how large the market for Mantic is?

From what you've said here, a big part of your USP is having the full Mantic range. The value of that is directly related to the popularity of Mantic models. You need to have a better idea of the potential market to judge simple things like how much to order. This is where many "my hobby is my job" stores go wrong. That doesn't just include TTG, but any hobby. If you make too many decisions base don what you like, or what your local perception is, you'll end up in trouble. For example, in your own small group, you might all love Mantic models and games. That's fine. Where I'm from the opinion of Mantic isn't great, but I'm fairly sure that's based on experiences from the early days of the company when the models were cheap WH knock-offs. If you want to run a successful business based on Mantic models you need to know which attitude prevails over a much wider area.

Another thought is if you are the main supplier for your country/area with regard to one specific game are you talking with Mantic about promotional events, material and such? Do they have any kind of local promotional system, if so have you got their contact details for your country/area to tap into them. Have you networked with them or got any promotional systems through your store?

If Mantic local reps get a 5% additional discount on prices or such suddenly they've reason to not just promote Mantic, but also promote YOUR store as the main supplier.



Plus this also links back to your marketing. What are you able to bring to the table; have you got two painted armies and terrain that you could take to conventions/events to advertise Mantic AND your webstore?



Also whilst you are doing the job of their advertising have you got your regular bread and butter selling games to help your bottom line remain profitable whilst you're essentially growing a market. I've seen plenty of good looking kickstarters and such fail not because they lacked capital to start the process; not because their product wasn't good; but because in the end their running costs killed them when their income was too low to sustain their operations once they blew the KS money (which in KS case is often mostly blown just getting production equipment/stock etc....)



Also another thought strikes me. Etsy and Ebay - a good many stores use those alongside their own store because those big names are where a lot of people go automatically to shop. Running those stores alongside your own means you are essentially trading and marketing;

You could also try diversifying. Dystopian Wars seems to be hellish to get in the US from what I'm hearing. They also have a stockist channel in their discord now if you want to talk to them about it.

Europe . . . at least here, we are pretty well covered. Local stores can get Mantic, and there's multiple online retailers that stock it. Plus shipping is probably going to get worse, not better.

 Overread wrote:


Another thought is if you are the main supplier for your country/area with regard to one specific game are you talking with Mantic about promotional events, material and such? Do they have any kind of local promotional system, if so have you got their contact details for your country/area to tap into them. Have you networked with them or got any promotional systems through your store?

*snip*

Emphasis mine.

This is a terrific idea. Enquire about the Pathfinder system but see if you can wangle some extra discount codes out of them for demo days or what have you.

Having dealt with Martin and Rob many times over the years, I believe they can help you out here. Well, Rob has left which is sad but Mart is a top bloke.

Irdiumstern wrote:
You could also try diversifying. Dystopian Wars seems to be hellish to get in the US from what I'm hearing. They also have a stockist channel in their discord now if you want to talk to them about it.

Europe . . . at least here, we are pretty well covered. Local stores can get Mantic, and there's multiple online retailers that stock it. Plus shipping is probably going to get worse, not better.

The big risk with taking one more specialist games is that you can end up with a lot of money tied up in inventory that is only selling slowly. That means more money directly tied up in stock sitting there and more money in storage space and keeping the inventory sorted and such. Or it means having a lot on your books, but not much in physical stock so everything is a special order. Which can be a problem because customers online buying will just jump to another store for what's in stock.

Remember last year when GW launched a new edition of AoS and some stores were selling them at cost and some even less than at cost. That was purely to free up money so that they had money to buy inventory that was selling quicker to keep their bottom line income coming in.


I'd say going specialist works and can create a good market, but you really need to have several lines that are selling well and give you the bread and butter bottom line income before you start branching out into games that might require more work promoting them; might sell slower etc...

 Overread wrote:
Etsy and Ebay - a good many stores use those alongside their own store because those big names are where a lot of people go automatically to shop. Running those stores alongside your own means you are essentially trading and marketing;

This is worth considering. Nobleknight has a lot of their stock available on ebay as well as on their own website. Their prices for the same units on ebay are a bit higher to offset the slice that ebay takes. Naturally, they can't say on ebay: "Want it cheaper? Buy it from our website!" What you can do is use the same name for your ebay store as your website. Smarter ebay shoppers will see that store name and your large inventory and check to see if you have your own website with better prices. (I do that, anyway.) For customers who won't think to do that, I doubt ebay can stop you from including a business card with your website address on it in the packages you send to your ebay customers.

On ebay you would be in direct competition with other sprue sellers. Foreign sellers of the same sprues, of which there are no small number, especially for UK based lines like Mantic and North Star, wouldn't be able to compete with you due to international shipping costs. Beating US sellers on pricing US lines like WGA will be harder on ebay than at your store, because you'll have to raise your ebay price to cover ebay's percentage, just like everyone else. But if you couldn't beat everyone, you could definitely match them all; there's no way anyone could beat your pricing, unless they're deliberately selling at a loss for clearance purposes. You could also best other US sprue sellers with a better inventory (from my experience, you have that on them for the lines that you carry) for shoppers looking to buy more than one thing and combine shipping.

I dunno about Etsy. I find that site's search engine does a very poor job, yielding a mess to sort through no matter how specific my search terms are, and it's also overwhelmingly 3-D print focused. Since it's a pain in the neck to search and 3-D prints are a small percentage of what I'm buying so far, I don't use it much and can't advise you there.

New topic:

On the subject of "market research," honestly, how many game stores conduct "market research" before opening?

Very few, and that's why so many of them close after a few years.

O.K.. But it's not like there are professional market research firms that savvy game store entrepreneurs can hire to assess and guide their fledgling efforts, and if there were, probably very few people would be able to afford to hire them. I'd be willing to bet that for the vast majority of game store businesses, the preliminary "market research" they conducted was basically checking to see what other stores like theirs were selling, trying to gauge the interests of gamers they knew, and following chatter on the internet from gamers they don't know. This thread is itself a form of "market research."

This is obviously a tough business, probably pursued mostly against the odds by hobbyists like Max here who have a personal passion for it, and I'm sure most of them don't succeed. But we can't fault him for doing this wrong because he hasn't hired "Gygax, Livingstone, and Sons, Tabletop Gaming Market Advisors" when no one else in the business does that, and such firms don't even exist.

I'd say for models and wargames market research could include things such as

1) Studying social media groups for key games and seeing how active they are and seeing if there is any regional variation.
Yes online is only a subset of reality, but its a starting point and if you can't find any social media of a game or very limited activity then it suggests that the game itself might have a very small following - or at the very least that its market isn't as online as others and thus would be hard to market too for a predominantly online store.

2) Attending conventions. If you see games with loads of people around them, carrying and selling out of loads of stock - there's games that you might want to pay attention too. It's a small population, but it gives you a snapshot idea of what could be popular. AT least at that point in time.

3) Surveys of your customers. As you get customers consider including surveys for them (you have to ask permission and such before sending out surveys and the like so do check up the rules on this and have opt-out systems).

4) Talking to suppliers. Be open when talking to a company about their game. This can give you some idea of how popular the game is in your region; might open doors for promotional ideas and such and at the very least gives you another impression of the games marketability. Sure most firms are going to talk up their numbers to encourage you on board; but at the same time the last thing most healthy companies want is to sell stock to shops that isn't going to sell on to customres when they could be selling to stores which are turning over stock.

4) Local clubs/groups/organisations. Always good as local interest can at least sometimes be a base line that you can tap into to sponsor, supply and work with. Even if the locals like things different to what your national sales are like; its another source of information

5) Your own sales figures and data. Takes time to buidl this up and its linked not just to popularity but also your marketing








The key is having multiple sources of information. IF they all start showing a pattern then that suggests that the pattern is reliable in general. If you get a huge miss match then something is odd. For example if all your research shows game X is really popular but your own sales data shows it hardly sells then you know that something is wrong. Your price is too high; your marketing is ineffective;

Meanwhile if you are getting really high sales but all your other research suggests the game is not popular then it suggests either your sales are in an abnormal situation or that your other research is missing a trick somewhere.



There's no easy system and, as noted above, investing into market research is likely to be very costly for a startup store. However getting info from as many sources as you can; cross referencing it can at least get you a good chunk of data to work with

+1 for the ebay suggestion. TTcombat I believe started as an ebay seller, and they have grown to a fair sized player in multiple fields.

I actually do have an eBay storefront but I haven't done anything with it yet because I thought matching other people's prices on eBay while offering lower on my web store would be disingenuous.

Also because eBay limits me to five listings for some reason, at least at first.

I appreciate everybody's suggestions. This thread has been a gold mine for ideas and discussion, let alone just figuring out a plan for a way forward.

Ebay has all kinds of limits and such to stop people scamming; chances are you have to either register formally as a store instead of a regular user or otherwise just get listing and trading to unlock better limits and such.

In general the higher prices on ebay and lower prices on your store don't have to be anything more than you making the same money and charging the same cost, then simply increasing the Ebay price to account for the increased fees you have to pay to ebay to trade there. Or at least a similar rough calculation so that your prices compete well with others on ebay and that your own store makes a sensible profit too.

Because in the end that's the only reason you want a higher price on ebay and a lower one on your store - the overcoming the increased cost of trading on ebay over your own site.

Yeah, the hope being that eBay can eventually serve as a funnel for customers to your "Real" store via improved discoverability and as stated, a business card/small flyer included in packages in your sales that point back to your real website - but as long as you're selling there and making the same money, it's all good.

I sell on Amazon, Ebay and a web store.

If Amazon finds out you are offering a lower price elsewhere it can be a problem. I do not think Ebay is as militant about this.

I charge the same price in all locations, but offer free shipping on the web site. The money I save on fees (@20%) is passed on to the customer. You can not include links in your listings but the packaging has info that can lead people back to the web site. I have some customers that keep ordering from Amazon, and others that switch to the web site.

Never offer free shipping on Amazon or Ebay. You must then fold the shipping cost in to your listing price, so it is not really free. But the problems quickly multiply. An Amazon or Ebay customer can request a return and you must grant it. The refund is for the sale price minus shipping. And if you charged no shipping you then lost that money.

I am frequently amused on the seller forums where everyone is preaching free shipping. Because they feel it manipulates customers in to thinking they are getting a deal or something. I would think customers are wise enough to figure out that the shipping is not free and the item cost is increased instead.

(of course this is not true in the case if government subsidized shipping from China)

Good luck with your endeavors. And kudos to your bravery in asking advice on a public forum. You sound very motivated and the sort of person the hobby needs more of.

 McDougall Designs wrote:
I actually do have an eBay storefront but I haven't done anything with it yet because I thought matching other people's prices on eBay while offering lower on my web store would be disingenuous.

Personally, I see nothing unethical about it. As a customer, I've never felt that Nobleknight or any other retailer on ebay was being disingenuous by charging me slightly more to buy from them on ebay. I think most customers understand that ebay is itself a business, and that it takes a cut from every transaction. It's only natural that sellers would set prices to account for that.

On the other hand, if a seller's store prices are the same as ebay's, that tells me that they're just pocketing ebay's cut on their home website rather than passing on any savings to me. If a seller's prices on ebay and their webstore are equivalent, I always buy from their ebay store. Not out of spite, but because buying through ebay gives me extra protection as a customer.

In all fairness, this is a big part of what ebay is selling to customers: confidence that their purchase is secure and will be honored, and if it isn't, a means to address fraud, damaged goods, etc.. If you purchase through ebay you also don't have to worry that an unfamiliar webstore might be a phishing scam, or legitimate but insecure and vulnerable to leaking your credit card info. But once you've fulfilled a customer's first ebay purchase in a timely, friendly manner, you will have established to most buyers that you're legit, and they'll be more inclined to purchase directly from your store to get a lower price.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Azazelx wrote:
Yeah, the hope being that eBay can eventually serve as a funnel for customers to your "Real" store via improved discoverability and as stated, a business card/small flyer included in packages in your sales that point back to your real website

Yo, credit where it's due! I've got a name, y'know (or at least a no-longer-accurate handle.) I'm not entirely serious, but as a longtime dakka poster and a longtime fan of your work and webpage (been reviewing your Warzone posts again lately as I'm in a metal nostalgic phase, great stuff), maybe throw me a crumb?

I've put up some initial sprue bundles aimed at SAGA, and am continuing work on retagging all my products and then reorganizing the navigation tabs based on those tags

 Vermonter wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
Yeah, the hope being that eBay can eventually serve as a funnel for customers to your "Real" store via improved discoverability and as stated, a business card/small flyer included in packages in your sales that point back to your real website

Yo, credit where it's due! I've got a name, y'know (or at least a no-longer-accurate handle.) I'm not entirely serious, but as a longtime dakka poster and a longtime fan of your work and webpage (been reviewing your Warzone posts again lately as I'm in a metal nostalgic phase, great stuff), maybe throw me a crumb?

Uh, sure...

though, y'know, I wasn't taking credit for your post, merely pointing out that it was/is a good point.
Though it's also worth pointing out that I do post from my phone sometimes, and scrolling up and quoting and checking to see who posted that thing earlier in the thread, etc - all that stuff isn't quite the same when out and about in the world and posting on a screen thesize of my hand.

So credit to Bananaman. Though I am scratching my head a little right now..

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
So, I am a regular customer, and I can explain why. I would like all of your thoughts on if these are reasons that make his shop unique and should be capitalized upon, or if they just don’t matter to most wargamers.

1. The sprue service. He provides a great selection of plastic sprues from many non-GW companies. Most of the bits and sprue sellers I’ve seen fixate on GW, sell only on eBay, have crazy price and stock issues, or don’t have items I really want, such as Mantic.

2. Mantic has been mentioned already, but it bears repeating that in the US, feint able to order and buy Mantic at a discount is rare. Miniature Market Carrie’s only a fraction of their range, Amazon charges ludicrous prices, and the FLGS can order it, usually for less discount and more waiting. And they don’t provide sprue service.

3. The 3D print service. Max sells lot of useful conversion bits, such as helmets, steeds, shields and weapons. I don’t tend to buy a lot of these bits, but I will add them to orders or add sprues to bits orders. For example, I ordered some of the Panzerjagers and some printed Sallet(?) helms to make not-Sororitas. I’ve used Egyptian swords and shields with plastic kits to make fantasy Egyptians. He sells printed demigryphons and plastic cavalry of many kinds.

4. One stop shop for fantasy conversions. If I want to make a Frostgrave crew or Stargrave crew, I can buy a couple plastic sprues and some printed bits to make them even more unique, all for a very reasonable price. His store seems perfect for people looking to convert rpg or skirmish minis without having to buy in whole boxes or from multiple sources. Is there a market he should work to tap?

5. Service. I have had him personalize some of my orders (mostly printing helmets and such at slightly different scales), and always had great experiences. Any time there was a problem, he made things right. Good service should be standard…but I’ve felt that I received better care than I have from, say, Miniature Market.

MDD, Since you're a hobbyist and YT channels are a thing -- a highly competitive one -- you could combine both. As a retailer, you can discuss subjects that hobbyists do not, such as how a retail store can provide service to enhance a product purchase and how *your* store does it. Also, if you enjoy them, post pictures, reviews, etc. of the hobby, and namedrop your retail business, on various forums. (If you're enthusiastic about KS, you can promote yourself as a retailer who will do retailer pledges, and make videos about KS product, pre-campaign and post-fulfillment.) You can have a channel about your own business, similar to how that farm guy does it (he actually makes more money as a YTuber than farmer!).

 Azazelx wrote:
So credit to Bananaman. Though I am scratching my head a little right now..

I like Bananaman - fond memories of "When Eric eats a Banana, he becomes . . ." (reference to old, obscure British cartoon) but decided to go with Talking Banana.

Thanks, Azazelx, for the acknowledgment, and apologies for my hypersensitivity. You're fine; I was having one of those days.

For what it is worth:

I recently attended Hurricon 2022 in Orlando Florida, as an attendee rather than a vendor. This is a smaller convention held by HMGS-South

I spoke with 2 retailers

that were on-site at length.

For perspective, one retailer was from Tennessee, the other from Louisiana.

Both stated that generally speaking, sales (online and convention based. Brick and mortar seems to have been consistent but also less volume) have been a struggle since the pandemic started. The foot traffic got pushed online.

Most manufacturers also sell directly to consumers (making them competition and supplier.)

Generally speaking a stockist page will just be a list of names and phone numbers and addresses. Beyond that most manufacturers do not advertise for their stockists, and realistically why should they?

So when the foot traffic got pushed online, gamers started buying direct or from eBay / Amazon, consequently drying up traffic to the webstores of direct trade stockists. Especially when some manufacturers that do this also run revolving sales.

The gentleman from TN I talked to said most of his convention sales have been sub - $50 items where pre-pandemic he would sell out of army boxes and big ticket items.

The Louisiananans had a larger corner station, and 6 5-rack shelving units filled to the brim with model kits and plastics from every manufacturer you could think of. Two 6 foot tables also stacked and arrayed with books and skirmish game stuff.

I arrived on site at noon, and left around 5:30 p.m. I sat with them for a solid hour of my time. 3 individual browsed, 1 box a single book.

It seems the pandemic drove sales into a different direction that funneled towards manufacturers, and independent hobby retailer and stockists were left in the wind. Which is exacerbated by the pinch in disposable income over the last year or so.

Part of that is no doubt due to delays in the docks/shipping area. Early on, I ordered some Dropfleet stuff from Game Kastle, and it took a few months to get to me because the one item I preordered was delayed in transit. So, I placed my next order directly from TTCombat.

On the other hand, I preordered some items from WGA, and due to their spectacularly bad fulfillment process ended up waiting half a year (or more!) for my order. So, now I order their stuff from you. (There are other reasons, too, but that’s why I won’t order direct from them again.)

Manufacturers in the UK, like Mantic, Victrix and Northstar, make direct orders extremely unattractive. During the pandemic there was simply no alternative.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people splurged during the pandemic and now have economic incentive to work on the pile rather than buy anything new.