Mr. Grey wrote:


..Oh. I somehow missed the "while returning the previous set" bit in your original description.

Edit to add: So it's an interesting idea like I said, but how are you dealing with the renter having to package and ship everything back to you? Is that accounted for in the rental price, or is that solely the responsibility of the renter? Because I can see shipping costs getting expensive for an entire table's worth of terrain, not necessarily due to weight but due to bulk.

 Commander Cain wrote:
You certainly know how to make some beautiful terrain! The little touches such as posters and fence sections are great.

Before doing anything I would test the terrain's ability to be shipped around the States, I imagine it would be highly expensive, especially if you are molding stuff out of plaster (which I think Hirst Arts stuff is usually done in). While I am in no way familiar with the US postal service prices, at a guess I would say that set you posted would cost maybe $200 to send just given its size.

Unless the packaging was specifically designed for each terrain piece the chances of it being a pile of rubble, albeit well painted rubble, could be very high.

 Orlanth wrote:
I can see a market for this.

FLGS dont necessarily have a lot of room, and want to spice things up. It costs time and money to produce more items. This way you get a circulation of terrain that is refreshed and the store doesnt have to do any donkey work.

However I was talking to the boss of a Uk games store company about hosting RPG miniatures and terrain. Miniatures are Ok funnily enough. You can have shop RPG minis or private collections on loan, and people sign them out and look after them. Its a community after all. However terrain for some reason gets trashed very easy. People understand to be careful with someone elses miniatures, but third party terrain very rarely stays intact.

I am curious as to how this venture goes, its a new niche market and thus potentially a good opportunity, but transport of items could be problematic, and damage could be an issue.

str00dles1 wrote:
Its a cool idea, but I honestly don't see it working.

The problem is time spent on repairs for damages, and this wont work for any store owners. On the low end, a store would spend 780 a year for a single table of bi monthly rotating terrain.

I don't know the average store table amount, but lets say an average one has 6 tables. 4680 a year to supply them. FLGS do not make much money, despite the crazy costs us consumers spend on it.

Ours for example needed terrain for a GT for 40k. The store got the terrain at their cost (45%) off and has the tourney organizers build and paint it up. Now, for a cheap expense for the store owner, they have a solid 8-10 tables of city fight terrain

Even with a player wanting new stuff for their personal table at their house, they could easily spend 300$ to have a full table. Then you save the terrain, and later buy more that's different. Thus being cheaper then your service and builds up their own personal collection over time.

Cool idea, but no actual market.

 kestral wrote:
Good luck to you - If I were a whole lot wealthier, played more, and had much less of my own terrain, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Fortunately for you, there seem to be a fair number of people in that category from what I've seen, so it might work for you if you get the word out widely enough!

 oni wrote:
I find this to be very interesting and I think there's something here, but it needs tweaking - all startups need some tweaking.

I recommend that you adopt a Netflix DVD like subscription plan. Where rather than a bimonthly, forced, rotation you allow them to hold onto the terrain pack for as long as they would like (paying the monthly fee of course) and only when they send it back (using the original box) do you ship out a new terrain pack. This will be much more manageable for you. This can be setup as 1-pack, 2-packs or 3-packs at a time depending on the monthly subscription fee.

Once you have built up inventory I recommend you try expanding into tournaments. I think this could be a great service for communities that would like to host events, but don't have the terrain resources to do so.

Before you get too far down the rabbit hole; you're going to need to establish some well thought out T&C's as well as setting up CC processing with scheduled, automatically recurring charges.

Edit:
I think it would be helpful for you to look at how trade show services conduct business (e.g. Freeman) - renting furniture, AV equipment, literature stands, etc. to companies travelling to a trade shows.

nou wrote:
Personally I think it's a great idea, that could in fact be self-supported financially on FLGS level. If, as in an example above, given FLGS has 6 tables, 5 of which are "standard", then it should be totally acceptable to charge players for reserving that single table on non-tournament days (same as you reserve snooker/pool table for example). It is just 5$ per player per 3hrs session to support such table cost in full by weekend players alone (I'm assuming two 3hrs sessions per day).

Or are US players THAT cheap?

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
I suspect that for some models you will find subscribers that would like an option to buy favorite pieces, at least if the service works as planned. (Their wanting to keep items is a good thing.)

Maybe institute a 'Rent to Own' for items that a subscriber wants to keep for a while.

The Auld Grump

terrainsubs wrote:
Hey all,

I finally was able to take some time out to update this post with pictures of another board. This one uses the new GW Sector Mechanicus stuff and is really a lot of fun to play on.

I am currently booked solid on customers until the end of next month, but if you know of any stores that may be interested in signing up, please let me know!

For more info, check out the website: https://www.terrainsubs.com/

terrainsubs wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
What happens when a subscribing store goes bankrupt and closes?

Same risk as any other retail supplier, but with the clawback that items on loan are easy to identify and claim from those who handle a forclosure. Creditors will have no legal right to the hire companies terrain items.

Its a peperwork issue, and an unscheduled collection, and a loss of a customer, but its no actual liability, unlike creditors who supplied money for stock.

This is exactly correct and is spelled out plainly in the rental agreement. I simply get the terrain back and hope the retailer has more fortune in the future.