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Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

I just checked a couple of game stores semi-local to me. Granted these are smaller stores and their online elements are not heavily developed. However each one had multiple MTG and other card game events planned and multiple nights where they were playing one card game or another.

Wargames had one store mentioning them having an evening which read like "its wargame evening, make sure to bring your opponent with you" kind of deal and there were a couple of tournaments.


So yeah a LOT of card game and limited wargame. thing is card games outsell wargames; they are also super cheap to stock (in comparison); have fast turnover; have regular cycling turnover of stock (MTG cycles at least 2-3 blocks or so a year and that excludes all the commander stuff and specialist releases); are super easy to pitch extra sales too (you can easily coax a customer into another pack of cards; harder to coax a wargamer into anything that isn't a paint pot or brush for an impulsive buy).



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 Monkeysloth wrote:
You're under the impression that the only way people ever buy things is by being in a store.


I said no such thing. Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby. It doesn't matter that you can buy the products from some online discount seller if you never get into the hobby because there's no easy place to go see a game being played, meet other players, etc. And you have a total loss of the customers who come into a store for MTG/board games/etc, see a cool miniatures being played, and decide it looks interesting enough to buy that first starter set.

Now, can you get some sales without a physical store? Of course. But the death spiral of declining sales volume -> higher prices and cutting support -> more decline -> more price increases and support cuts is very real and the best-case scenario is a greatly reduced GW selling to a niche audience with little hope of continuing to play if your local group falls apart.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Overread wrote:
Wargames had one store mentioning them having an evening which read like "its wargame evening, make sure to bring your opponent with you" kind of deal and there were a couple of tournaments.


So yeah a LOT of card game and limited wargame. thing is card games outsell wargames; they are also super cheap to stock (in comparison); have fast turnover; have regular cycling turnover of stock (MTG cycles at least 2-3 blocks or so a year and that excludes all the commander stuff and specialist releases); are super easy to pitch extra sales too (you can easily coax a customer into another pack of cards; harder to coax a wargamer into anything that isn't a paint pot or brush for an impulsive buy).


This is exactly the problem. Miniatures are already in a precarious position as third-tier products behind CCGs and board games/comics/etc, it wouldn't take much for a lot of stores to decide that getting rid of GW entirely would let them free up the shelf space and all the storage spent on tables and terrain. The more online-only discount sellers push prices to a point where real stores can't compete the more likely it is that the real stores decide to dump the entire thing and 40k loses a vital recruitment tool.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/28 20:23:11


 
   
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Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
 Monkeysloth wrote:
You're under the impression that the only way people ever buy things is by being in a store.


I said no such thing. Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby. It doesn't matter that you can buy the products from some online discount seller if you never get into the hobby because there's no easy place to go see a game being played, meet other players, etc. And you have a total loss of the customers who come into a store for MTG/board games/etc, see a cool miniatures being played, and decide it looks interesting enough to buy that first starter set.


Surely online spaces do all of that these days, and much faster. Pick any given game that has piqued your interest, spend a couple of minutes searching the web and you'll likely find at least one dedicated facebook group / forum / discord server you can join and interact with immediately. If they are well organized, you might even be able to schedule an introductory game on TTS that same day. You'll find a hobby section where several people have posted their armies, terrain and conversions, all available for your viewing pleasure on demand. More often than not, there will be purchasing guides explaining the product in detail and what to buy in which order to get started. You'll probably also find battle reports, reviews and intro videos linked to be accessed right away. The whole shebang is available at your fingertips nowadays.
   
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Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
 Monkeysloth wrote:
You're under the impression that the only way people ever buy things is by being in a store.


I said no such thing. Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby.

You keep saying that, and it's simply not true, at the very least over anywhere I've ever been in.

It's not even tru of GW anymore either. Back in the day, GW stores were on heavy traffic areas or inside stores complexes, but not anymore, as with the raising rents they have moved to one man operations in side streets where only people that already know of them visit.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/11/28 20:53:11


 
   
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Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
I said no such thing. Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby.


I'm just curious as to what numbers you have to back up that assertion. There are lots of ways to get into the hobby. Pre-internet, it was through friend groups or gaming clubs. Conventions were another pathway. Back in the day, gaming magazines ran "opponents wanted" advertisements and people played strategy games by snail mail.

Now we have social media as another vector.

It is also true that this experience varies by country. The UK gaming situation is vastly different than it is here in the States, where having your own private gaming area is quite common.

There are gaming clubs in the schools as well. My first exposure to 40k (Rogue Trader era) was at my high school gaming club. No store in this area at that time had gaming space. Stores were places you went to buy stuff. Game play took place elsewhere. I think that's still true in the US, but if you've got survey data, I'd love to see it.



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 privateer4hire wrote:
Provide a central location for play, finding products, linking with other players (about quarter of our players refuse to use social media, for example).


A club would do that better as they have more room for play and there's no awkward social expectation to buy anything as you're already paying for table access.

   
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 Overread wrote:
I just checked a couple of game stores semi-local to me. Granted these are smaller stores and their online elements are not heavily developed. However each one had multiple MTG and other card game events planned and multiple nights where they were playing one card game or another.

Wargames had one store mentioning them having an evening which read like "its wargame evening, make sure to bring your opponent with you" kind of deal and there were a couple of tournaments.


So yeah a LOT of card game and limited wargame. thing is card games outsell wargames; they are also super cheap to stock (in comparison); have fast turnover; have regular cycling turnover of stock (MTG cycles at least 2-3 blocks or so a year and that excludes all the commander stuff and specialist releases); are super easy to pitch extra sales too (you can easily coax a customer into another pack of cards; harder to coax a wargamer into anything that isn't a paint pot or brush for an impulsive buy).




Yup. I used to be close with a couple of guys who owned a game store. MTG and Pokemon played the bills and the salaries. Board Games and Wargaming was there mostly because they enjoyed it. I've heard similar stories from other people I didn't know as well and the internet.

There is a store where I am at now that does comic books, RPGs, and Wargaming, but has very little stock as far as card games go, and no food either. I am really curious how they keep the lights on, but don't know them well enough to be able to ask.
   
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 BertBert wrote:
Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
 Monkeysloth wrote:
You're under the impression that the only way people ever buy things is by being in a store.


I said no such thing. Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby. It doesn't matter that you can buy the products from some online discount seller if you never get into the hobby because there's no easy place to go see a game being played, meet other players, etc. And you have a total loss of the customers who come into a store for MTG/board games/etc, see a cool miniatures being played, and decide it looks interesting enough to buy that first starter set.


Surely online spaces do all of that these days, and much faster. Pick any given game that has piqued your interest, spend a couple of minutes searching the web and you'll likely find at least one dedicated facebook group / forum / discord server you can join and interact with immediately. If they are well organized, you might even be able to schedule an introductory game on TTS that same day. You'll find a hobby section where several people have posted their armies, terrain and conversions, all available for your viewing pleasure on demand. More often than not, there will be purchasing guides explaining the product in detail and what to buy in which order to get started. You'll probably also find battle reports, reviews and intro videos linked to be accessed right away. The whole shebang is available at your fingertips nowadays.


Table Top Simulator is a good thing to call out. I don't run in many wargaming circles as I use too but with the Modiphius stuff (Fallout and Elderscrolls) TTS is a common entry vector for people as Modiphius has their starter sets available and fans have added all the free cards/units (without new models) as extra downloads at no cost. I see mentions of it quite frequently in the various groups relating to those games.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/28 21:27:44


 
   
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Myrtle Creek, OR

 Monkeysloth wrote:
 privateer4hire wrote:
Provide a central location for play, finding products, linking with other players (about quarter of our players refuse to use social media, for example).


A club would do that better as they have more room for play and there's no awkward social expectation to buy anything as you're already paying for table access.



Clubs can be insular. Also the space you mention that clubs have access to is very situational. And can also cost as much or more than just buying some paints or other stuff.

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 Monkeysloth wrote:
Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
 Albertorius wrote:
We're not. I think for many people is mostly a cultural difference. Local stores have NEVER been the focal social points for hobby communities that seem to be in the USA. So here, for many people, what you are trying to assert does not apply. People play at home, or at clubs, and could give a rat's ass that some store has a table.And even so, "the community" thrives.

How do you get people into the game? In the US even people that play private games at home still probably discovered the game at a store or with friends who got into it through a store. Take away that element of "went in to buy MTG, came out with a 40k starter set" and you'd crash the player count.



I'm in the US and haven't discovered a game via a store or someone that saw it at a store in probably 20 years. It's been exclusively internet for a long time now. My group discovers more stuff via Dakka, facebook and Beasts of War then I ever would from a game store.


It’s a pretty ridiculous claim that most people find out about GW in stores. Most stores around here are in less visible locations than, say, Spanky’s Adult Novelties. The LA Battle Bunker was tucked away in the butt end of a strip mall, past the travel agency and the Chinese buffet. Very, very few people just happened to stroll along shopping and come upon it. It’s the kind of location you already have to know about to find.

Back in the day, there was a video game called Dawn of War that brought in a ton of new players. Before that, Sci Fi sites such as Spacebattles spread popularity of the setting, leading new fans to buy the novels, and then eventually the minis. Often one person in a group of friends introduces it to the rest, similar to MtG, boardgames and some video games.


   
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Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby.
And, as before, that which is presented without evidence...

I haven't played in a store in literally 20 years. I got into 40k because of two friends who had the minis. I know others who got into it through us, not through a store. What applies in parts of the US is not universal. Local Hobby stores are few and far between in Oz, and we need online discounters given the prices we pay.

They are not parasites, and your insistence on naming them as such is utterly absurd.

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I can only provide my own experience, but I learned about 40k from my friends, when they would just talk about 40k, and play occasionally. I got into it because my girlfriend ended up being into 40k. At no point had I walked into a store before I decided I wanted to try it. The prices immediately turned me away until I decided to buy a kill team box, for 20% off, on Amazon. Not once did I play in the store, only at my house or my friend's house.

I did play a game of Infinity at the store, but just to see what it was like. I prefer South Park playing in the background, to be honest.

‘What Lorgar’s fanatics have not seen is that these gods are nothing compared to the power and the majesty of the Machine-God. Already, members of our growing cult are using the grace of the Omnissiah – the true Omnissiah, not Terra’s false prophet – to harness the might of the warp. Geller fields, warp missiles, void shields, all these things you are familiar with. But their underlying principles can be turned to so much more. Through novel exploitations of these technologies we will gain mastery first over the energies of the empyrean, then over the lesser entities, until finally the very gods themselves will bend the knee and recognise the supremacy of the Machine-God"
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Side part, but I would love to know if there is any data about GW's other avenues of using their IP bringing people into the wargaming hobby, i.e. the video game and books side of things.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/28 22:58:16


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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby.
And, as before, that which is presented without evidence...

I haven't played in a store in literally 20 years. I got into 40k because of two friends who had the minis. I know others who got into it through us, not through a store. What applies in parts of the US is not universal. Local Hobby stores are few and far between in Oz, and we need online discounters given the prices we pay.

They are not parasites, and your insistence on naming them as such is utterly absurd.


We find ourselves on the same side....

Also, there are FAR FAR more "hobby" stores in the U.S. that aren't "Game Stores" and most stores are for models, trains, RC cars, Comics, Cards, and just about everything OTHER than miniatures and they may or may not carry any miniatures at all.

I just don't get the parasite thing at all



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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Gue'vesa Emissary wrote:
Stores are the primary place to get into the hobby.
And, as before, that which is presented without evidence...

I haven't played in a store in literally 20 years. I got into 40k because of two friends who had the minis. I know others who got into it through us, not through a store. What applies in parts of the US is not universal. Local Hobby stores are few and far between in Oz, and we need online discounters given the prices we pay.

They are not parasites, and your insistence on naming them as such is utterly absurd.


There is still room for hobby stores that offer gaming space, even in Australia. In Melbourne there's a store that is huge, 2 levels, the store part is downstairs and the gaming part is upstairs and you pay to use the tables. They seem to do pretty well for themselves, even though they don't discount at all they've managed to get a customer base both buying products and paying to play on the tables. I honestly don't know how they pay for the size of the store they have, cheap rent maybe, perhaps it's an elaborate front for nefarious activities, but the owner claims he's doing okay, lol.

Most physical stores around here do discount somewhat, but these folks seem to have found a niche in having a large selection of options and not discounting. I have no idea what their breakdown is in terms of what makes them money, they have a pretty big GW range but it probably only takes up 10% of their downstairs area.
   
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We had a game store (that still around, but kind of far now) called Alternate Worlds... It was a Comic book shop that had RPGs that kind of became an RPG shop that had comic books. It did not have a place to play and as this was 87/88 was before most of my friends had heard of internet... It was the only place to buy stuff other than the ads in the back of Dragon magazine for mail order stuff. At the Mall, there was Walden books that sold RPGs and K&B toys that on their bottom shelf in their clearance section had all the 1st edition AD&D books for $5... and sat mostly untouched. D&D did not have the popularity it has now obviously... in 89 or 90, my friend bought the original plastic beaky marine box from Alternate Worlds. Which lead to all of us becoming crazy for Warhammer. I think a year or 2 later, a Games Workshop store opened up in Towson. We never played there as it was too far to walk too and this was before any of us could drive. in 94 or so, MTG became popular and we played at another shop in Towson that had gaming space for MTG and Vampire the Masquerade games in the basement. I never played Vampire there, but did play a bit of Magic.

During this time, you would meet people on message boards and show up at strangers houses to play Magic and trade cards.

Edit: Sorry for going so far off topic, but the thread kind of got me a little nostalgic.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/28 23:13:21


 
   
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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And, as before, that which is presented without evidence...

I haven't played in a store in literally 20 years. I got into 40k because of two friends who had the minis. I know others who got into it through us, not through a store. What applies in parts of the US is not universal. Local Hobby stores are few and far between in Oz, and we need online discounters given the prices we pay.

They are not parasites, and your insistence on naming them as such is utterly absurd.


I remember seeing surveys 20 years ago that most people introduced into gaming were brought in by their friends, which is how I got into every game I ever played - someone else I knew got into it, it looked cool, so I got into it too.

Hobby shops with gaming space are neigh well unknown around here. What was prized was variety of product and inventory, not a place to play Battletech or whatever. You could do that at home, what you wanted was the rules and minis and such.

So I'm interested if there is any marketing data behind the claim. I've been at best tangentially following GW for the last decade, so I'm not sure where things stand.

Want a better way to do fantasy/historical miniatures battles?  Try Conqueror: Fields of Victory.

Do you like Star Wars but find the prequels and sequels disappointing?  Man of Destiny is the book series for you.

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 endlesswaltz123 wrote:
Side part, but I would love to know if there is any data about GW's other avenues of using their IP bringing people into the wargaming hobby, i.e. the video game and books side of things.


In the 2000’s, Barnes and Noble carried Warhammer 40,000 products. That’s where I got Battle for Macragge and a whole bunch of Tyranids and old-style Genestealers. When they stopped carrying the line, it all went on clearance. I bought a bunch of stuff at 75%off.

Now all Barnes and Noble carries are the exclusive board games with a handful of minis in them. Still, that is a mainstream presence that actual hobby shops can’t match.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/28 23:36:03


   
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Barnes and Noble is a leech on the hobby. If you can afford it at 75% off, you can afford it at full price. You just need to save a little bit more.

‘What Lorgar’s fanatics have not seen is that these gods are nothing compared to the power and the majesty of the Machine-God. Already, members of our growing cult are using the grace of the Omnissiah – the true Omnissiah, not Terra’s false prophet – to harness the might of the warp. Geller fields, warp missiles, void shields, all these things you are familiar with. But their underlying principles can be turned to so much more. Through novel exploitations of these technologies we will gain mastery first over the energies of the empyrean, then over the lesser entities, until finally the very gods themselves will bend the knee and recognise the supremacy of the Machine-God"
- Heretek Ardim Protos in Titandeath by Guy Haley 
   
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 TheBestBucketHead wrote:
Barnes and Noble is a leech on the hobby. If you can afford it at 75% off, you can afford it at full price. You just need to save a little bit more.


*Golf clap.


Want a better way to do fantasy/historical miniatures battles?  Try Conqueror: Fields of Victory.

Do you like Star Wars but find the prequels and sequels disappointing?  Man of Destiny is the book series for you.

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 Overread wrote:
Games can 100% exist without local store support. It's much harder and often relies on either friend groups that might never expand much beyond the initial setup, but which stay true to playing for a long time; or a very keen few people at the top who organise, invest in and make sure the club advertises and keeps getting new blood in. Local stores do make it a lot easier typically as the store acts as a marketing and focal point. New people walk in and buy stuff and can be told about the local club(s); the street advertising lures in new people and the direct model support can sometimes be beneficial with things like "club members get 5% discount" etc.. So no store can certainly work; but having a store is superior to not having one.


That's my pre-pandemic experience as well, in Silicon Valley, where there's tech and money. Game Kastle is the only store with gaming space, and it's Magic, Warhammer 40K, then random other games, such as boardgame meetups. Other Meetups and the long-running Los Altos boardgame group (15+ years) are still boardgames, mostly Euros. My guess is that GW also pushes the collecting and painting aspects, so you have hobbyists who buy without playing the game and game stores are useful because they have table space that not all gamers have. Magic's business model is impressive -- they support game store only events (eg. prerelease tournaments), yet also sell through the internet, and have non-gaming aspects (collecting). IIRC, GW used to be against independent online stores as well? I think GW's against discounts because discounting product decreases "perceived value"; lower prices would give GW games the perception that they are not "premium" games.

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In the Osaka area all the GW shops are in out of the way places, and the independent gaming stores are not much better. There is little chance of regular foot traffic to bring in new people to the "hobby" Word of mouth, clubs, the internet, and video games are the main avenues of adding new players.

If anything it's GW the one trying to "leech" the much more successful plastic model/TCG venues where people congregate with chibi figures or random box Sapce Marines.

M.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/29 00:37:58


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While I own an online discount seller now, in the days of yore circa 2011 when I was still in college I worked at a game shop.

The wizards Wall, in Melbourne Florida. Hole in the wall joint. It's closed now. Most of the physical store's sales were from magic, although they made most of their cash off eBay sales.

They had consistent money troubles, and closed a few years after I left to make university my priority.

Wargaming happened, but it was a blip on the radar despite a wall of plastics.

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That got me thinking back to how I was patient zero to get into GW in my local circle. I'd found photos of old Skaven and Chaos models in either Dragon Magazine or Games Magazine at the elementary school library and need to know more. Why those were in our elementary school library, I will never know. The librarian had no interest in any of that satanic and immoral RPG stuff. I often wonder what happened to that vast treasure trove.

But the damage was done and I needed my grimdark future stuff. This was in the late 80s so I really had to do my legwork to make the connections between RPGs and wargames, and somehow got the local B.Dalton Booksellers to get a copy of Rogue Trader for me.
The damage from that initial outbreak has been immeasurable with how many others I may have influenced in all the games and discussions since, and even back then I was getting into some dankly obscure stuff. I was totally the guy who would contact a lot of those companies in the back of Dragon magazine to continue the hunt.

Not once did I ever set foot in a game store to play or purchase in those early days. They just weren't around, and if they were, I had no idea where they existed. I wouldn't find my first one until early in high school, and by then I'd already started to dabble into all sorts of tabletop weirdness.

In fact, I have yet to actually go inside a GW shop. Walked past one once though when it used to be in the mall decades ago.

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The one in the Ontario Mills Mall? The manager there was pretty cool. He showed us some leaked pages from Horus Rising back when people were excited for the upcoming Horus Heresy novels.

   
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 privateer4hire wrote:
 Monkeysloth wrote:
 privateer4hire wrote:
Provide a central location for play, finding products, linking with other players (about quarter of our players refuse to use social media, for example).


A club would do that better as they have more room for play and there's no awkward social expectation to buy anything as you're already paying for table access.



Clubs can be insular.


So can game stores. I've been made fun of, by the owners, for liking certain games that they find dumb let alone all the GW players that would call all the other, much cheaper games, kiddy games and such. It really depends on the people running the store or club.

The worst one I've ever been in was in the Mall out here. It's closed now but the front half was just board games and had awesome employees, that know how to actually interact with people, but the back half was where the RPGs and miniatures were and the owner and employees there were troglodytes to keep things PG. Super bright and clean but you had to know to only interact with the people in the board game section and ask them to grab things from the second half as you'd literally get the owner calling you a moron for buying something he was selling as it was "Stupid" and he shouldn't have stocked that. Was dumbfounded that store lasted about 10 years in prime mall space and have no idea how many people that bright "welcoming" looking store scared away from the hobby but apparently they made almost all their money selling boardgames around Christmas time.

On the other hand there's one store here, closest to me, that's your typical dungeon like game store that's easy to miss when driving by with little lighting. My nephews, when they were kids, never wanted to go there when I offered to get them pokemon cards or something else just off of how it looked. I would never go inside this store just by walking past it as it looks like a place that's you are likely not welcome if you're not in the "in group" but it's actually the opposite as the owner is really nice and doesn't put up with crap from anyone and I've seen him out right ban people from the store for not respecting others and suspend people from playing in the weekly games as well. It's a total GW/MtG place but it's where I buy paints if I realize I need something for what I'm working on but no one walks in to just look around.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Grot 6 wrote:


As a matter of fact- It's a great time to be a gamer, and It's a great time to be gaming.


This is very true. While the amazing selection out there causes a lot of issues with stores not being able to stock everything and other distribution related stuff it's amazing what's out there and the quality of it. There's practically a game for everyone from indy games thanks to drive through all the way up to everything GW offers.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/11/29 07:39:25


 
   
Made in us
Water-Caste Negotiator




We can argue about the precise details of whether real stores are "a substantial source of new players", "the biggest source of new players", etc. My experience is that it's the majority, other people can disagree. But I will ask you this: what percentage of new customers can GW afford to lose without going into the death spiral? Let's say in-store recruitment is only 25% of new customers, and 75% of new customers are joining the game through hearing about the game outside of a store and buy all their stuff through online-only discount sellers. What do you think will happen if GW loses that 25%? Will they eat the loss, or will they feel the pressure to do an immediate 30% price increase to compensate for the lack of volume with higher per-sale profit and make next quarter's financial report look good? How many people will buy their last few kits at the higher price point and then quit buying? And how much will GW raise prices again to desperately try to offset the second wave of lost customers and make the next financial report look acceptable? Or will they decide to cut costs by dropping half their product lines and focusing on primaris marines? Will GW decide to sell high before the collapse and auction the IP off to the highest bidder? Once the death spiral starts it can go from "everything is fine" to disaster very quickly.

This is why real stores are essential to the hobby and why online discounters that undercut real stores and push them to stop supporting GW games are a major threat. You personally may not benefit from that store's support but you really don't want to see the results of them withdrawing it.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/11/30 06:33:51


 
   
Made in us
Water-Caste Negotiator




 Altruizine wrote:
I agree, let's get back to the more reasonable, provable claims like, "Discounters are parasites who are ruining the hobby" versus "Free market capitalism is working as intended, actually."


Yes, let's. And let's start with an example we can all agree on: ticket scalpers. They use bots to buy out an entire venue within seconds of tickets going on sale, faster than any human can possibly get a ticket, and then immediately put their tickets up for sale at a higher price. So:

Is this legal? Depending on your jurisdiction, yes.

Is it a rational thing to do in a free market? Yes, the scalper is clearly making a profit and has incentive to continue doing so.

Are the scalpers parasites? Absolutely yes. They extract money from the situation but add nothing of value to the customer, they simply drive up prices and pocket a bunch of money. If every scalper was magically removed from existence and scalping was no longer possible the real customers would clearly be better off.

Do artists/sports teams/etc have an incentive to get rid of scalpers? Yes. They make tickets less accessible to real fans, create frustration and anger that is often directed at the artist/team/etc or venue rather than the scalper, and they'd be perfectly happy with a bunch of half-empty venues as long as the half of the tickets they did sell were at a high enough price to make them a net profit. And that's why at least some sellers are making an effort to limit the scalpers and ensure that more tickets go to legitimate fans who want to attend the event.

Is pointing out that the scalpers are acting as rational sellers in a free market and doing nothing illegal a compelling argument? No.
   
Made in au
Unstoppable Bloodthirster of Khorne





Melbourne .au

I'm fascinated by this thread. It's like a slow-motion train wreck in so many ways.

I buy pretty much everything ar the odd spray can online. The main two Aussie places I buy GW stuff from are both online and offer discounts. One has GW at 15% off and one at 20% off. Both are also physical stores. One has been around for at least a decade, and the other has been around in various forms and locations with different owners for ...close to 40 years. - Which is significantly longer than GW has had either a retail or wholesale presence in Australia.

To my knowledge neither of them offer gaming space that I can see from their websites, and I've never seen mention of it visa their newsletters, facebook pages, etc).

Now let's play:
ARE.
THEY.
PARASITES?

Next game.
I get my historicals via online orders from two different B&M stores and one eBay discounter. All three are in Australia as I am, but all are interstate. We know that the eBay discounter is a "parasite" since they don't have a retail outlet, so we'll skip them for this discussion.

One B&M retailer is mostly trains and models and does toy soldiers as a side gig. They do have a free shipping threshold.

The other mostly sells historicals and has a flat shipping rate. Sometimes they sell stuff for more than what passes for AU RRP (from referencing the distributor's website or other, similar retailers) - you want HOW MUCH for Saga: Alexander?

Neither particularly discounts stuff by any standard, we don't have an official RRP for most historical stuff here - we have a distributor who is also a retailer for some products, but as far as most items go, one often is cheaper than other which influences which items I buy from where. Neither of these B&M store offers in-store gaming either as one appears to mostly be a train store while the other is more of a bookshop.

Once again, let's play:
ARE.
THEY.
PARASITES?


Also, I sometimes purchase gaming rulebooks from Amazon. Mostly Osprey type stuff. Again, no "proper" retail distribution here and RRP seems to be whatever different retailers feel like selling these books for. Often (usually) I never get around to playing these games, bu tthey can make for an interesting read, they look nice on the shelf and I would never have bought them if I didn't see them reasonably cheap on Amazon.
Same question, but with Amazon this time..

edit - grammar, plus Amazon.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/29 09:53:52


   
Made in us
Water-Caste Negotiator




 Azazelx wrote:
Now let's play:
ARE.
THEY.
PARASITES?


Good question. If GW allowed you to buy direct from them at the price they sell to retail stores at would you ever buy anything from the online discount seller?

I won't comment on the non-GW stuff because I don't play those games and have no idea what the community or retail situation is with them.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/29 09:38:55


 
   
 
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