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 judgedoug wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
It sure sounds as if Rob/FTW/Spikey have done some shady things with people's money and/or miniatures here.

You are correct. Removing anything I or anyone else has had to say about it, there are several known facts.

FTW closed for business late at night.
Rob retains a quantity of people's miniatures collections, as well as terrain.
Rob retains a quantity of people's preorder money.
Rob retains a quantity of people's store credit.
FTW has not allowed anyone to retrieve any of their personal possessions from the store.

Additionally, this is the second game store Rob has opened and closed in the same fashion.

Please, please, anyone, anyone at all, disregarding everything I've said, from my subjective personal experience, or what anyone else has said, please dispute the above.

No one is disputing the info your posting above. But you must understand there are certain things that must be done when a business folds, especially if it's due to bankruptcy.

We don't have ANY indication if it's bankruptcy, or if he has fled to a country with no extradition treaty where he is smoking cigars, drinking the local alchohol and teaching the local girls to play 7th edition 40K with the collections of miniatures he has "stolen" by your assertions.

IF he lost the business to the bank, he's probably dealing with the bankers and making sure his LLC is in order so they cannot take his personal assets. He probably doesn't have access to the store either in this case. Whoever now controls/owns the store will have to do an inventory of what's on hand compare it to what's on the books, and if this is just some banker/bean counter then there's going to be trouble for anyone who leaves models for display at the store, or those who have left models to trade in/sell. If the banker actually has him help sort through things, then people might get their stuff back.

As for your beef with him for not wanting you to demo games in the store....well if your attitude in the game store is similar to what's been shown in this thread then I can fully understand why. I've worked for multiple comic, game and hobby stores and there's always someone who thinks they can "do me a solid" by demoing a system that there's just not enough demand, space or funds to support. I'm glad you like that system, but in the end I need to have my financials fluid, which looks like it didn't happen here.

It's time for this thread to DIE! Until something concrete comes about, Rob makes a statement, or lawsuits pop up. Otherwise all we have are personal attacks against each other and Rob who as far as I know doesn't come onto DakkaDakka.

If FTW/SpikeyBits knew that the store was in such dire financial straits that they might not be able to stay open past September and Rob chose not to tell anyone that would be adversely affected by the store closing that's seriously messed up. Yes, once the store went bankrupt and/or repossesed by the landlord and was padlocked by the sherrif there's no way for anyone to get their stuff back and that's too bad but not making any effort to contact people with outstanding store credit or armies trying to be sold through the store or preorders waiting to be fulfilled and continuing to take money right up to the sudden closing is just wrong. I don't care how onerous his lease was, it doesn't matter if he was forbidden from advertising a going out of business fire sale, it would be unheard of and unenforcible for his lease to stipulate that he couldn't send a simple email out letting people know they needed to use their store credit or they'd likely lose it or that they should pick up the models/armies they were trying to sell through the store. It really strains credulity to think that Rob woke up that morning thinking that the store would continue to operate as normal but was shuttered for good by the end of the day.

I had an account with SpikeyBits, I hadn't ordered anything in over a year since I got out of 40K and found better priced bits on ebay and I never had any bad experiences with SpikeyBits. After this mess I'm not going to risk my money doing business with him again.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I find it really interesting/odd how many people misunderstood my previous comment in the thread. I'll rebreak it down:

-Judgedoug mentioned having personal experience and close friends burned by this guy in the past.
-New poster comes in, calling him out-how dare he malign Rob, "who is he to..."
-I say that a member who has been here for a long time and has "proven himself" is more trusted than a brand new person trying to shout him down
-I'm inclined to believe Doug over new poster
-I don't know Rob from Adam (the Biblical one, that is). I have nothing against him, personally. But I'm going to pay more attention to the poster who has been here long term than I am to the poster who has been here three days.

I don't see what's so difficult about that.

To break it down further applying your own principles, we should look at the number of positive comments about the store/owner, and compare them to the negative. So, the positives, with a wide range of post counts:-

 Darkness wrote:
I got reimbursed this morning for items I had ordered last week. I am sure everyone else who ordered/preordered did as well

 juraigamer wrote:
Even as I was one of the 4 primary employees directly under the owner of the LLC that oversaw both FTW Games and Spikey Bits, I didn't know this was happening until I showed up for work this week. Needless to say, I'm not happy.

I shall be sad to see the storefront and to a lesser extent the online business end. It was a great store that every FLGS aspires to be......there are a handful of spiteful people in the area that hate the owner out of their own ignorance. While he's a decent fellow, everyone has their bad days. Their hate is more than likely related to a small group in the area and the non-store/business drama from well before the store opened.

 Musashi363 wrote:
Personally I've had nothing but good experiences with FTW and Rob. He seemed like a great guy like the rest of his staff. It sucks that I got screwed with my pre order (and the exclusive mini that came with it) but the store closing and great people losing their jobs sucks way worse. Thanks for making the last four years rock FTW.

 MWHistorian wrote:
I don't believe there was any shady wrong doing by Rob at all. It was hands down the best FLGS I've ever seen.

 Stevefamine wrote:
Rob is a stand up guy, he's in a rough spo here

The majority of people ITT and the other thread that are harping on him never actually had IRL dealings with him

 Dozer Blades wrote:
I've known Rob a long time and he is a class act. I wish the best for him.

To oppose which I've seen one long time user who has several bitter experiences with the store owner, one person with only a few posts calling him out over the store credit thing, and one person who had a bad web transaction.

Evidence wise, it would appear to be an exceptionally premature stage at which to start siding one way or the other. However, if the post I've copied below is accurate, then it would appear to be a non-issue.

Darkness wrote:They knew they were in trouble, yes, they did not know it would have to be with bankruptcy though until the end. Had they simply been able to just close, they could have done a fire sale and recouped money and refunded orders.

This is not simply a store closing but an actual bankruptcy. 99% of the time when a game store closes, the owner just closes shop, as opposed to having to hire a lawyer and go to court.

I may feel it is untrue, but the bankruptcy hearing that is to come and the lease say otherwise.

Prestor Jon wrote:
If FTW/SpikeyBits knew that the store was in such dire financial straits that they might not be able to stay open past September and Rob chose not to tell anyone that would be adversely affected by the store closing that's seriously messed up. Yes, once the store went bankrupt and/or repossesed by the landlord and was padlocked by the sherrif there's no way for anyone to get their stuff back and that's too bad but not making any effort to contact people with outstanding store credit or armies trying to be sold through the store or preorders waiting to be fulfilled and continuing to take money right up to the sudden closing is just wrong. I don't care how onerous his lease was, it doesn't matter if he was forbidden from advertising a going out of business fire sale, it would be unheard of and unenforcible for his lease to stipulate that he couldn't send a simple email out letting people know they needed to use their store credit or they'd likely lose it or that they should pick up the models/armies they were trying to sell through the store. It really strains credulity to think that Rob woke up that morning thinking that the store would continue to operate as normal but was shuttered for good by the end of the day.

I had an account with SpikeyBits, I hadn't ordered anything in over a year since I got out of 40K and found better priced bits on ebay and I never had any bad experiences with SpikeyBits. After this mess I'm not going to risk my money doing business with him again.

It was very sudden without warning. They thought they would be in business for a long time and were making long term plans. And yes, they filed for bankruptcy. Rob doesn't retain anything, he lost it all and the bank now owns it all. Also, like any good lawyer would council, he's staying quiet until they let out an official release.

 MWHistorian wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:
If FTW/SpikeyBits knew that the store was in such dire financial straits that they might not be able to stay open past September and Rob chose not to tell anyone that would be adversely affected by the store closing that's seriously messed up. Yes, once the store went bankrupt and/or repossesed by the landlord and was padlocked by the sherrif there's no way for anyone to get their stuff back and that's too bad but not making any effort to contact people with outstanding store credit or armies trying to be sold through the store or preorders waiting to be fulfilled and continuing to take money right up to the sudden closing is just wrong. I don't care how onerous his lease was, it doesn't matter if he was forbidden from advertising a going out of business fire sale, it would be unheard of and unenforcible for his lease to stipulate that he couldn't send a simple email out letting people know they needed to use their store credit or they'd likely lose it or that they should pick up the models/armies they were trying to sell through the store. It really strains credulity to think that Rob woke up that morning thinking that the store would continue to operate as normal but was shuttered for good by the end of the day.

I had an account with SpikeyBits, I hadn't ordered anything in over a year since I got out of 40K and found better priced bits on ebay and I never had any bad experiences with SpikeyBits. After this mess I'm not going to risk my money doing business with him again.

It was very sudden without warning. They thought they would be in business for a long time and were making long term plans. And yes, they filed for bankruptcy. Rob doesn't retain anything, he lost it all and the bank now owns it all. Also, like any good lawyer would council, he's staying quiet until they let out an official release.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here but if the store went bankrupt then he had more debts than he could pay and unless he incurred those debts the day the store closed he knew beforehand that he was in financial trouble. I'm not disputing that the store closed due to bankruptcy but I don't undestand how the narrative that everything was going along fine until one day Boom! bankruptcy store closed is believable. If you're doing even a halfway decent job of bookkeeping you shouldn't be able to just wake up one day and be surprised that you're bankrupt. If he's closing out the register everyday and he knows how much money needs to take in to stay open then it can't be a surprise closing. I'm not claiming that he knew months in advance but he had to know how much money he needed to clear in September to stay open and he had to know how he was doing as the month went by and he had to know that things weren't looking good. Knowing that and not trying to communicate to people that were going to be adversely affected by the inevitable store closing isn't cool in my book.

Prestor Jon wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:
If FTW/SpikeyBits knew that the store was in such dire financial straits that they might not be able to stay open past September and Rob chose not to tell anyone that would be adversely affected by the store closing that's seriously messed up. Yes, once the store went bankrupt and/or repossesed by the landlord and was padlocked by the sherrif there's no way for anyone to get their stuff back and that's too bad but not making any effort to contact people with outstanding store credit or armies trying to be sold through the store or preorders waiting to be fulfilled and continuing to take money right up to the sudden closing is just wrong. I don't care how onerous his lease was, it doesn't matter if he was forbidden from advertising a going out of business fire sale, it would be unheard of and unenforcible for his lease to stipulate that he couldn't send a simple email out letting people know they needed to use their store credit or they'd likely lose it or that they should pick up the models/armies they were trying to sell through the store. It really strains credulity to think that Rob woke up that morning thinking that the store would continue to operate as normal but was shuttered for good by the end of the day.

I had an account with SpikeyBits, I hadn't ordered anything in over a year since I got out of 40K and found better priced bits on ebay and I never had any bad experiences with SpikeyBits. After this mess I'm not going to risk my money doing business with him again.

It was very sudden without warning. They thought they would be in business for a long time and were making long term plans. And yes, they filed for bankruptcy. Rob doesn't retain anything, he lost it all and the bank now owns it all. Also, like any good lawyer would council, he's staying quiet until they let out an official release.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here but if the store went bankrupt then he had more debts than he could pay and unless he incurred those debts the day the store closed he knew beforehand that he was in financial trouble. I'm not disputing that the store closed due to bankruptcy but I don't undestand how the narrative that everything was going along fine until one day Boom! bankruptcy store closed is believable. If you're doing even a halfway decent job of bookkeeping you shouldn't be able to just wake up one day and be surprised that you're bankrupt. If he's closing out the register everyday and he knows how much money needs to take in to stay open then it can't be a surprise closing. I'm not claiming that he knew months in advance but he had to know how much money he needed to clear in September to stay open and he had to know how he was doing as the month went by and he had to know that things weren't looking good. Knowing that and not trying to communicate to people that were going to be adversely affected by the inevitable store closing isn't cool in my book.

Ah, I understand.
It had to do with a large order. They went all in on something, as in many thousands of dollars and it backfired. They were left with several thousands of dollars of opened product that they weren't allowed to sell. It was Saturday and everything was going good, they got the bad news on Sunday, employees were told on Monday, shop closed tuesday. After that, I know Rob filed for bankruptcy protection, and that's where my knowledge ends. I've heard a few rumors but until I learn more I won't say them.
(That's why I brought up the TSR thing, stock they couldn't sell that weighed them down.)

Communicating the store is in trouble could also bring about its demise if the customer base abandons a dying store.

Prestor Jon wrote:

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here but if the store went bankrupt then he had more debts than he could pay and unless he incurred those debts the day the store closed he knew beforehand that he was in financial trouble. I'm not disputing that the store closed due to bankruptcy but I don't undestand how the narrative that everything was going along fine until one day Boom! bankruptcy store closed is believable. If you're doing even a halfway decent job of bookkeeping you shouldn't be able to just wake up one day and be surprised that you're bankrupt. If he's closing out the register everyday and he knows how much money needs to take in to stay open then it can't be a surprise closing. I'm not claiming that he knew months in advance but he had to know how much money he needed to clear in September to stay open and he had to know how he was doing as the month went by and he had to know that things weren't looking good. Knowing that and not trying to communicate to people that were going to be adversely affected by the inevitable store closing isn't cool in my book.

Let me spin you a scenario. The figures are imaginary, as is the exact order, but it should demonstrate why he might not have bandied about the exact financial state of his store.

I'm Rob.* I've run a decent gaming store for several years now, and things were great at first. My store has ten employees, and always managed to toe the line financially. Until recently. I had stellar sales last christmas, but invested a bit too heavily in stock last year, and sales this year have been naff. I've been feeding in my own money through credit cards and overdraft facilities to keep the store afloat with all facilities and employees, but we've reached September, and things are looking bad.

Due to the variability to my lease, I need to make $8,000 in profits this month to tide the store over. It's not impossible, I made $9,000 last month. If I can just reach Christmas, the sales boom will give me the fluidity I need to drop some stock lines, and pay off some debt. I just need to make it there. If I tell everyone we're having trouble though, people might not come in and place pre-orders though. It'll also hit my web-business. Communicating my financial troubles may well be the one thing that just about guarantees my store would sink by prejudicing people against buying from me. So I keep it to myself, cross my fingers, and roll the dice, knowing that the odds, whilst not great are still in my favour.

One month later, I've only grossed $6,000 in sales. It was a bad month. And now my own credit lines have run out as well, meaning there are now bankruptcy proceedings in place, instead of just the business shuttering. The stock in the store belongs to the bank and my creditors, I'm taking the cheapest legal advice I can find, and my employees are no longer employees.

This sort of thing happens. It's not nice. It sucks for all involved. But the intent is not to defraud, the hope is to keep the business running long enough to sort things out. It didn't work for Woolworths, it didn't work for Blockbuster, it didn't work for Clintons Cards, or Phones4U. Or in this case, FTW Games.

It's horrible for all involved. Nobody won. Nobody committed crimes. The business just...failed.

*This is a fictional example made up by me, and is in no way written by the store owner.

Foolish move to use the name "Rob" in your made-up example. Someone's going to not read fully and quote that as an actual statement.

 Azazelx wrote:
Foolish move to use the name "Rob" in your made-up example. Someone's going to not read fully and quote that as an actual statement.

It's a pretty standard rhetorical device when putting yourself in somebody else's shoes. I can add a disclaimer about not being responsible for other people's poor reading comprehension if you like?

 Ketara wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here but if the store went bankrupt then he had more debts than he could pay and unless he incurred those debts the day the store closed he knew beforehand that he was in financial trouble. I'm not disputing that the store closed due to bankruptcy but I don't undestand how the narrative that everything was going along fine until one day Boom! bankruptcy store closed is believable. If you're doing even a halfway decent job of bookkeeping you shouldn't be able to just wake up one day and be surprised that you're bankrupt. If he's closing out the register everyday and he knows how much money needs to take in to stay open then it can't be a surprise closing. I'm not claiming that he knew months in advance but he had to know how much money he needed to clear in September to stay open and he had to know how he was doing as the month went by and he had to know that things weren't looking good. Knowing that and not trying to communicate to people that were going to be adversely affected by the inevitable store closing isn't cool in my book.

Let me spin you a scenario. The figures are imaginary, as is the exact order, but it should demonstrate why he might not have bandied about the exact financial state of his store.

I'm Rob. I've run a decent gaming store for several years now, and things were great at first. My store has ten employees, and always managed to toe the line financially. Until recently. I had stellar sales last christmas, but invested a bit too heavily in stock last year, and sales this year have been naff. I've been feeding in my own money through credit cards and overdraft facilities to keep the store afloat with all facilities and employees, but we've reached September, and things are looking bad.

Due to the variability to my lease, I need to make $8,000 in profits this month to tide the store over. It's not impossible, I made $9,000 last month. If I can just reach Christmas, the sales boom will give me the fluidity I need to drop some stock lines, and pay off some debt. I just need to make it there. If I tell everyone we're having trouble though, people might not come in and place pre-orders though. It'll also hit my web-business. Communicating my financial troubles may well be the one thing that just about guarantees my store would sink by prejudicing people against buying from me. So I keep it to myself, cross my fingers, and roll the dice, knowing that the odds, whilst not great are still in my favour.

One month later, I've only grossed $6,000 in sales. It was a bad month. And now my own credit lines have run out as well, meaning there are now bankruptcy proceedings in place, instead of just the business shuttering. The stock in the store belongs to the bank and my creditors, I'm taking the cheapest legal advice I can find, and my employees are no longer employees.

This sort of thing happens. It's not nice. It sucks for all involved. But the intent is not to defraud, the hope is to keep the business running long enough to sort things out. It didn't work for Woolworths, it didn't work for Blockbuster, it didn't work for Clintons Cards, or Phones4U. Or in this case, FTW Games.

It's horrible for all involved. Nobody won. Nobody committed crimes. The business just...failed.

As the month unfolded there had to have been a time when he knew it was very likely that he was going to close. If things still look grim after the first 2-3 weeks of the month he didn't need to put up a big announcement on his website or send out an email blast to everyone with an account there, he could have simply sent emails to the people who had armies sitting in display cases in the store trying to be sold and told them to come pick them up. He could have sent an email out to just the people with a significant amount of store credit outstanding letting them know that if they didn't use by the end of the month it would be gone. Again, I'm not disputing the bankruptcy or accusing anyone of any sort of crime, I'm simply stating my opinion that the total radio silence from the store to specific customers that had the most to lose was unnecessary. At some point in September he knew he wasn't going to get a finanical miracle to bail him out and that was the time he needed to bow out gracefully and mitigate the mess as much as possible. That seems reasonable to me because that's how I would want to go out, not that it matters since I'm never going to open a FLGS.

I already told you that it went from 'everything will be alright' to 'complete shutdown' in one weekend.
The financial miracle turned and became their downfall. It happened too fast to really do anything about it.

 MWHistorian wrote:
I already told you that it went from 'everything will be alright' to 'complete shutdown' in one weekend.
The financial miracle turned and became their downfall. It happened too fast to really do anything about it.

I missed that post, apparently a couple of other people did too.

What you posted makes sense, I'm not sure why they'd feel the need to keep it a secret. It would be insteresting to know what they went all in on. Making a bet like that seems like a very difficult thing to get right in a niche business like tabletop gaming.

Prestor Jon wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
I already told you that it went from 'everything will be alright' to 'complete shutdown' in one weekend.
The financial miracle turned and became their downfall. It happened too fast to really do anything about it.

I missed that post, apparently a couple of other people did too.

What you posted makes sense, I'm not sure why they'd feel the need to keep it a secret. It would be insteresting to know what they went all in on. Making a bet like that seems like a very difficult thing to get right in a niche business like tabletop gaming.

Something to do with the latest Magic the Gathering release, but I don't know the details.

(The historian in me smiles at the name "Prestor Joh.")

 MWHistorian wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
I already told you that it went from 'everything will be alright' to 'complete shutdown' in one weekend.
The financial miracle turned and became their downfall. It happened too fast to really do anything about it.

I missed that post, apparently a couple of other people did too.

What you posted makes sense, I'm not sure why they'd feel the need to keep it a secret. It would be insteresting to know what they went all in on. Making a bet like that seems like a very difficult thing to get right in a niche business like tabletop gaming.

Something to do with the latest Magic the Gathering release, but I don't know the details.

(The historian in me smiles at the name "Prestor Joh.")

That's a real shame. Odd that in some threads people make it sound like MTG keeps game stores afloat and here it seems to have made one fold but that's life.

Glad you like the name, I was happy that nobody has snagged the coolest pseudonym ever when I signed up.

I knew Rob as well and I don't think he is a shady character at all. He tends to be pretty nonchalant at times which may turn off some people but I never had any problems with him or his business. I hate that the store closed as I had heard a lot of good things about it all over the NE. Most game stores live on that razor edge month to month depending on releases, spending, taxes, building maintenance, etc. It is not typically a high profit business so anyone doing it is doing it out of love.

Also, like any good lawyer would council, he's staying quiet until they let out an official release.

Exactly.

So how many 'failed stores' does someone have to run before you are allowed to have bad feelings about trusting someone or believe it is unwise to do business with him again? Or is it 'unlimited' as long as the business is run with 'love for the hobby'?

Apparently bankrupting 2 FLGS still means that some say we should line up and give him more money and he should open up a 3rd store. Seeing he is taking orders under his website name after this is disturbing to me.

http://www.spikeybits.com/servlet/StoreFront

I don't know if it is wise to be so hush hush on a failed business and then days later be taking more orders when supposedly all your assets have been frozen and are inaccessible. Why the domain name and website simply are not 'shut down' is a bad sign.

This all sounds Daniel Mendelbaum-sih, even down to the people defending him. I guess fool me 7 or more times, shame on you...

Regardless of the 'love' or the supposedly honorary way people lost their money, i don't think anyone should be planning to give FTC/Spikeybitz/Rob a dime. May he find a different career path which he is better and more successful at and may he enjoy his hobby rather than to try and fail to turn it into a business model at others expense.

You know, you keep saying there were 2 stores the owner of FTW bankrupted and I'm only seeing one right now.

nkelsch wrote:
So how many 'failed stores' does someone have to run before you are allowed to have bad feelings about trusting someone or believe it is unwise to do business with him again? Or is it 'unlimited' as long as the business is run with 'love for the hobby'?

This all sounds Daniel Mendelbaum-sih, even down to the people defending him. I guess fool me 7 or more times, shame on you...

Regardless of the 'love' or the supposedly honorary way people lost their money, i don't think anyone should be planning to give FTC/Spikeybitz/Rob a dime. May he find a different career path which he is better and more successful at and may he enjoy his hobby rather than to try and fail to turn it into a business model at others expense.

First off the DM comment is way over the top, especially when you reference people that defend Rob. Secondly I know of several FLGS that have had to failed only to see the store re-open a year or two down the road. It is your choice to do/not do business with that individual and determine your level of risk. Actually I just had a local gaming store in the Atlanta area close for the second or third time just a few weeks ago. It is a hard business. Morn the loss of FLGS and stop trying to throw someone under the bus that apparently gives a poo about this hobby. At this time very few people know what is actually going on so lets wait and see what happened and how things are going to be handled before we bring out the torches and stakes.

Yeah nelsch the tough guy speeches aren't impressing anyone. It sucks when an FLGS is forced to close.

 Fishboy wrote:

First off the DM comment is way over the top, especially when you reference people that defend Rob.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but you understand why he made that reference right?

DM had an endless supply of people who would come out of the woodwork to defend him, all using anecdotal evidence about how he was such a great guy, etc etc that was supposed to devalue or distract from the issues others would bring up.

 Kanluwen wrote:


DM had an endless supply of people who would come out of the woodwork to defend him, all using anecdotal evidence about how he was such a great guy, etc etc that was supposed to devalue or distract from the issues others would bring up.

The difference here is that I quoted a list of users above who are reasonably accredited in the Dakka rep/post count department. They're not exactly sockpuppets or 'coming out of the woodwork'. They're actual Dakka users with a collective post count numbering in the five figure department.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Fishboy wrote:

First off the DM comment is way over the top, especially when you reference people that defend Rob.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but you understand why he made that reference right?

DM had an endless supply of people who would come out of the woodwork to defend him, all using anecdotal evidence about how he was such a great guy, etc etc that was supposed to devalue or distract from the issues others would bring up.

I get the reference which is why it is insulting. There really is no comparison. Rob has been tied to this hobby since the Battle Wagon Bitz days and thousands of people have had good experiences with him. To compare him to DM is stooping to an undeserved low. It's news that his store is closing not because a few people regrettably lost money or material, but because he was so tied into the hobby. Did he make mistakes along the way...probably...but who hasn't? Luckily our mistakes just don't gain public notoriety. Give the guy a break because he is probably going through a tough and stressful time right now. Some people lost store credit but Rob and his employees lost their livelyhood. People like NKelsh want to hang him even though he was probably not directly affected and has no real idea what happened or what will happen.

Seeing some peoples response and jumping straight to the "Rob is a bad guy" really makes me sad to be part of this community. To included him into DM is also low. DM had false people protecting him, rob does not. He has real people,defending them.


For people jumping to conclusions about store credit this, and bad business practices, why couldn't he see it. Shows how very little they know about business or how much they are protected In a bubble of a corporation. Rob's business was his life line and something he had passion for. He had two stores before yes and things happen. Economy changes and even the most successful " business people" have failed ...multipletimes ...at the same store/concept. This is part of captizlism and the society we live in.

Margins are very thin on stores and rob has that store broken down to multiple parts of the business. You are always rolling the dice as a small business owner and hobby gaming stores don't ever stay open for long. To try and pin something to someone that happens ten years ago is unfair. Most business, this size dont have the capital to do things right, which is why they fail 90% of the time. Odds are of any of you started your own business.... You would fail also.

Also, I find it sad that Alpharious a mod himself is allowing this and adding to the flames. When you don't allow posting or negative bashing about dash of pepper , which has been documented but you allow this to happen? This is kind of ironic and is a double standard.


The business is in bankruptcy that is it, you won't find anything else out and guess what?You have no right to know and Rob doesn't owe a answer. IF You don't have skin in the game ... you have no right to know. If you are a customer or dealt with him before. Yes you have some skin in the game but that is the risk of dealing with a small business in America. Rob has no say or choice in this. You deal,with the bank and that is it going forward. For people expecting an answer or saying he has to do this or whatever... Please stop... You have no idea what you are talking about and you are dragging on a issue that doesn't need to be dragged on.

I dont think its just the bitz. He had commented on his videos on Youtube, how much harder selling GW was getting, with 40k customer base shrinking.

Darkwynn wrote:
Also, I find it sad that Alpharious a mod himself is allowing this and adding to the flames. When you don't allow posting or negative bashing about dash of pepper , which has been documented but you allow this to happen? This is kind of ironic and is a double standard.

100% agree. If this thread had been about certain other personalities or TOs, it would have been shut down pages ago IMO.

But that's our wonderful community.

I disagree.

But until some sort of statement is made, the questions will continue.

In the abscence of information there will be speculation.

Provided it is on topic, and within the rules of the site, it will be allowed to continue.

That's the beauty of the Dakka Dakka community - many varied conversations between uses with differing opinions are allowed to take place!

Typically I would agree with you but in this particular instance people are trolling based on little or no information. Comparisons to DM teeter on the "rule number" concept and should have been warned by a Mod. Not sure why the bashing is allowed to continue, especially in the absence of information, but it does disappoint me concerning Dakka overall.

What is also disappointing is a store closing, people's minis being locked up, people's pre-order money in limbo and no idea what will happen with either.

Comparisons to DM are, of course, over the top.

So yes, everyone, stay on topic and as fact based as possible.