Behind the Counter
GenCon was fabulous! The attendance was up this year, and with a few less vendors in the dealers hall, the customers were more densely compressed into the remaining vendors booths. Our Sales Were Great! I got great demo games from Playroom Entertainment (makes of Killer Bunnies), and from other companies as well.
I tried to get a demo copy of the new game from Flying Frog (makers of my best selling board game of all time - Last Night On Earth: The Zombie Game). Alas, I could not score a demo copy! (and, as such, instead of ordering up to 72 copies of their new game, I ordered 4).
I got to play some Nuclear War (flying buffalo) and learned the new game by Upper Deck - WOW Miniatures. I have had my past problems with UDE (they boycotted Origins for a couple years), and I dropped most of their games. But, they came back to Origins (partially) and I have picked up Yugioh again, and have to say - wow seems like the new miniatures game this year! I can hardly wait (and hope they will send me a demo copy soon). Monsterpocalypse looked good, but I don't qualify for a demo copy - and am unwilling to drop $1000+ into a game that doesn't come with a demo copy.
Retailers don't always get demo copies, mind you. But, often we do. And, for me at least, the difference can be huge. My early-receipt of a demo copy of Last Night On Earth allowed me to demo the game in my store before I could get it from my distributors - and I sold all of the copies I had purchased early at GenCon 07, in my store, before my distributors could even resupply me! We eventually sold 300+ copies in just 4 months!
I order a lot new games. Recently, I have preordered or have ordered Battlestar Galactica board game, the new revised Talisman 4th Ed, TOMB and many other board games - all without demo copies. I ordered between 2 and 4 of each of them. But, a demo copy allows me to play it, learn it, teach it to others, and get my own customers to pre-order it from me! That can result in things like what happened with LNOE in 2007 - where I called my distributor an ordered 72 copies of a $49.99 game!
I also have a great time and got to do some great things at DragonCon this year. Lots of costuming, a tremendous density of customers in the exhibit and dealers halls, tons of vendors (more than ever, I think!). I got autographs from Star Trek, Firefly, BSG, Deadwood and other actors. I also bought some artwork from a cool artist. Man, that show rocks. If I were going to attend one show a year for fun - it'd be DragonCon every time!
Hot chicks in costumes are fun! Wearing my kilts 4 straight days without some dimbulb asking me if my skirt is breezy, also fun. haha. Anyway, DragonCon has everything going for it. Plenty of gaming, tons of artists, lots of vendors (like Troll and Toad or Adventure Game Retail, or even me) and people selling not only games, but swords, a billion T-shirts, and every manner of comic book, gift, knick knack, and other stuff you can imagine at a convention! Plus, maybe 30% of attendee's are in costume? I mean thousands of people in costumes!
It is also a party con - nuff said!
Recovery Time
I am now looking forward to several months in the store, though! Uninterrupted time working on bringing a better store to my customers! Yea!
Looking back at the past year, I can say I think that 2009 may be my last round of conventions. I enjoy going to them, I love to see friends, and visit with the artists, the authors, even the actors who show up to do signings at DragonCon (I spent over $500 on autographs). But, the work no longer is justified.
When I opened my shop, Titan Games (now Titan Games & Music) in 2002, it was with a lot of trepidation. We had gone bankrupt, and lost everything we owned (my wife at the time, and I). Our house, our cars, our businesses. Everything. And, we had bought the Titan Games brand from former owner (Quincey K.) and continued to do the online sales out of a warehouse full of mice, and with a leaky roof. My wife had taken several jobs, and I ran the site to attempt to rebuild. Frankly, it might have been smarter just to go back to truck-driving, or construction. But, I was a bit stubborn.
So, when we signed a lease for a lot more money in this location - with nothing but a bit of a revenue stream from our online site - it was fairly stupid. In retrospect, maybe just insanely so!
But, open we did, with very little inventory, no fixtures, and no cushion of money to keep us going. It was hand to mouth, month to month, and pay the bills when the shut off notices came! Not exactly what you’d call a smart business plan.
So, doing conventions was a NO-Brainer for us! We needed all the revenue we could get, and had a fair amount of excess, older and defunct, inventory to liquidate. So, we did as many conventions as we could.
Driven by desperation and fueled by needing to feed our children - we did 40+ conventions for 3 straight years. And, the company grew, little by little.
I have talked extensively about upgrading the fixtures, and improving the inventory mix, and hiring good people. And, having done that as much as we could afford for many years now, I find that the store now no longer needs the cash infusion it once did from conventions.
We stopped a couple years ago doing excessive cons. I think 2005 we did 16, and in 2006 maybe 12. This year we will have done maybe 6 total (5 so far, and might do one in November - but probably not). Next year we will do 4 conventions: The Motor City Comic Con, Origins, GenCon and DragonCon - and will likely drop to doing just two in 2010.
Now, our business is established, and running well on retail and online sales. We haven’t the dire need for the revenue of conventions. And, frankly, with gas prices going from the $1.50 range when we started, to over $4 sometimes - conventions have been harder to do profitably.
My priorities for the next several months are to fine tune our games section, our comics sales, add a couple terrain tables and improve our selection of Games Workshop miniatures. This past week we got in a new spinner rack for comics (bought at DragonCon from the Dark Horse booth), and two nice spinner racks from Wizards of the Coast - which now house our D&D, Star Wars and Axis & Allies games.
The store is looking great, now we need to get a better handle on our reorder cycles, and set up the game room for gamers to come in and play in.
In the coming months I plan to do a lot more writing about the actual operation of the retail store. How we use “cycle sheets” for both comics and RPG games; how we inventory and order board games; how we construct our games tables; how we organize our gaming area and run events, and more!
Thanks all!
Marcus King
Titan Games & Music - Owner
637 Capital Ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
269-963-3773
titangamesinc at aol dot com
We buy used and rare games, and now deal in collectible miniatures singles for StarWars and Dungeons & Dragons!
