Behind the Counter
There is a movement by a publisher whose products I carry in my store – who makes a lot of games, and some of them actually sell really well for me – to have retailers and distributors sign a pricing agreement. This agreement would prevent any authorized retailer from pricing any of their products below a certain point. Essentially, requiring retailers to charge a minimum of 80% of the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), or not be allowed to carry their games.
That is bullcrap.
Fact: I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
Opinions: I don’t want to hire a lawyer, nor am I saying anyone else should. But, uh, isn’t this price fixing? Collusion? Or something? Restriction of trade? Like I said, me not a lawyer. Me not even use good grammar.
I am a retailer. NOT by accident. I didn’t walk into this store one day, and some former owner handed me the keys. I was not granted 3 wishes by Gary Gygax, and my wishes were “I want a son, a game store, and 3 more wishes” (though, those are what wishes I might have made). The Retailer-Fairy didn’t drop by and smack me with her retailer wand.
Nope, I am a merchant; a retailer; a vendor: by choice. I am the purveyor of the fabulously entertaining baubles and trinkets of our times!! I own a game and entertainment store – and I worked long hours for years to build it. Along the way I have been divorced and remarried. I have employed, and fired, my daughters – multiple times. I have made friends, such as the esteemed Mr. Gygax, Jim Ward, Larry Elmore, Margaret Weis, Jamie Chambers and Will Niebling – and many others. I have bought, built, traded for, and traveled hundreds of miles to pick up good racks and fixtures for my store. I ate Raman Noodles for lunch, and PBJ for breakfast for years while I learned from scratch about things like unemployment laws, taxes on small businesses, how to hire and fire people, and deal with over 30 vendors at least monthly. We do weekly inventories and ordering – and we preorder much of our products up to 90 days in advance, requiring cash projections that would make most banks not need to run to Congress for money.
I am a professional – not unlike a dentist or a plumber or an American Idol Judge. Okay, a bit more professional that an AI judge. Just saying – this is not my job, it is my vocation – and I am proud of what I do, what I own, and what I have accomplished. And, I don’t need to be treated like I am a shiftless dimwit, who can’t be trusted with the keys to Dads car.
So – imagine my unhappiness that a publisher of games wants me to sign an agreement stating how I will sell their games. My answer is: No.
MORE OPINIONS HERE:
I have informed the company in question that I will not sign their agreement – and to consider any previous agreement between us void. Their response was to first tell me not to carry their games, and then later to apologize for that, and attempt to reason with me.
Now – it could be that I am just “not reasonable” or even “unreasonable”. That could be it right there! And, back when they first started down this path in 2007, I not only supported them, but said so publicly. But, my perspective has changed.
First – I don’t discount as a business practice. Products in my store at marked at retail price, if they have one. Things I sometimes buy at “net price” (which means there is not a suggested retail price, you just buy them and price them at what you want) I generally mark fairly high. Not because I’m greedy, but because I try to be generous. Generous with my employees, and with my customers – by providing my employees with a good income, and my customers with a great selection and shopping experience – neither of which can be done on a narrow profit margin.
But, I also see that when I order NEW RELEASES – that being a new game from a publisher I generally carry products from – a game that has no proven playability or sales record – I am taking a chance. And, even though I order very reasonably – 2 to 4 copies usually – I have to have the ability to liquidate those products if they do not sell. I find that on eBay and Amazon the products that I am having trouble selling start to show up on those venues rather quickly – and the more that show up, the faster the price erosion occurs. Many times, if I wait 4 months to liquidate a problem product – I can’t get even what I paid for it, let alone a profit. Often this means I sell those games at a loss, and lose money by paying commissions to eBay or Amazon. And, that can not be a sustainable business practice or model for me.
Now – any store HAS to order new products. My customers want to see what’s new, what’s hot, what’s available. They notice things like new releases, and the change to our wall of boxed games as it happens! And, those changes spark interest and sales – but not ALL games will sell. So, unless I want to hang onto a game for up to a couple years – or just put it in the back room and sit on it – I have to sell them within 90 days, that’s my window. Not because someone told me that’s my window, not because I snatched that number out of the air – but because I have been doing this for some time now (20+ years), and my experience and tracking shows me that my window is: 90 days. If I cannot sell it in my store within 60-90 days, I have from the 90-120 day mark before the value starts to rapidly decay.
Certainly – there are games I will never need to discount. Puerto Rico, Last Night On Earth, Pillars of the Earth, Robo Rally – and others – will never need to be liquidated. But, some games will. And, I can not sign or agree to something that prohibits my ability to do that “purging” of non sellers, on a regular basis.
I realize that some dealers will buy 100 copies of a $60 game, and try to make $5 each fast by selling at a huge discount – or about $38 each. But, I am not one OF those people, and I don’t like being lumped in WITH those folks just because I own a game store. I am a professional, and I would like to be treated like one. If the publisher has to lump us all together, then treat us all like professionals. That might work!
My suggestion is actually to do away with “MSRP”. In “my perfect world” a publisher would make games. They would sell to anyone who wanted to order those games. They would sell at the same price to a person, a distributor or a retailer. Their prices would ONLY depend on quantity. For example, a big board game could be priced like this:
1 to 9 copies: $60
10-99 copies: $43 each
100-199 copies: $32 each
200-999 copies $30 each
1000+ copies: $28 each
Now, retailers can buy 10 copies direct and sell them at $60 just like the publisher does. Or, a distributor could buy 100, sell them to retailers at $40 each in quantities of 1 at a time, and get more orders that way. The customer could buy from the publisher at $60 plus shipping, or even think hey, I could buy this in my local shop for $64.99 maybe? And, big online discounters could buy 200 direct, and sell them online if they like for $38
But, every single person, business or operation could buy from the publisher at the same prices if they bought the same quantities. And, everyone who buys the product can sell the product for what they want.
Now – this might surprise you – business operates just fine without MSRPs in other countries.
Here is the thing:
If you came into my store and found a game that you knew someone else would pay you $75 for, and I had it priced at $50, would it be okay for me to tell you “You can’t sell this to your friend, unless he will give you $100!”? No, you’d tell me to mind my own business.
As a retailer – I accept a lot of things. I accept those things because I enjoy what I do immensely. I like dealing with customers who come in and who smile when they shop, and find things they like, and thank me. I like buying stuff from people, and reselling it. I like having a place to go to work – where I can decide “I want to earn extra money this week, I will work 90 hours!” or “I don’t feel like working past 5 this week – I want to go fishing every evening”. I like all of that, so I also accept that I have to deal with people who don’t bathe regularly, or people who think I am “A Rip Off” because I won’t pay $5 for a magic card that has a price guide value of $5 – just because I already have 10 of them priced at $2 each!
But, between professionals I would like to be treated; Professionally. So, if you sell me an item – it’s mine. It was yours, you took money, now it is mine. I will sell it for whatever I want. Fair enough?
So – this particular publisher I have been careful not to name... they have every right to price things how they want. If their new pricing policy is legal, they can then dictate who gets their products, even. If this is legal, then they can black list me if they choose – and tell distributors not to sell to me. Some distributors might not sell to me! Some may. Heck, I have a lot of retailer friends – I can probably ask a friend of mine to order me 20 copies of whatever I want – and pay him his cost, and get the items anyway. I am not concerned I will be cut off!
Or, maybe I can just stop monkeying with their games, and sell more of Fantasy Flight – or any other publisher who IN MY OPINION does not mistrust retailers at such a fundamental level that they want to micro-manage the entire sales chain on their products.
FACT: Yeah, that’s what I will do!
Marcus King
Owner of Titan Games & Music
637 Capital Ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
269-963-3773
