I'm a tabletop gamer who owns a small brewery and restaurant. I love hearing other small business stories like this. Specially the part about "oh you must get to play games all day!", we get "you must get to drink beer beer all days" and while yes we can, most of the time you are just too busy to do that.
I own a store in WY and this vibes so hard. The stuff about the sub communities of different gamers has for sure been true to my experience. I’m 13 years into the industry 7 as an owner. Love hearing your experiences man.
Thanks for watching. I'm considering doing an occasional livestream where I interview other store owners about their experiences and such. If you might be interested in participating, then send me your contact details at thechaderway@gmail.com. I'm not sure when I'll get to this, as I still need to sort out the format, but I think it's something folks would be interested in. Either way, thanks again for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.
This is something that was very convenient and eye-opening to stumble across. I've been going back and forth for a while now about starting up a game store since my area got decimated by Covid and the remaining stores have zero support for Warhammer and other war games.
Thanks for watching. I'm so glad to hear that this was somewhat enlightening :D. I have some more videos in the pipeline talking about product diversification when it comes to TCGs, RPGs, and hobby minis. I think for some stores owners, they convince themselves that minis games don't sell well because they're intimidated by them. It is a big a commitment to do minis games right, and there can be a pretty steep learning curve.
Your view on this topic was well delivered. You have a genuine helpful attitude and come across as you intended. I know I am not alone in wanting to hear more about this subject. Great stuff keep it up!
I can not remember how I found your video... But it was very enlightening and I didn't know I needed to know this. Thank you for the trip down memory lane
Thanks for sharing your story, it was a great listen! I’d be interested in learning more about your history with the game stores if you’re keen to share. I have a buddy who wants to open a store in our retirement, years from now. But the part I’ve always felt hesitant about - is if you felt like you had to just chase the product trends to build a community versus selling what you know and care about (which may be different from what customers are wanting)?
Thanks for watching. Yes, I have a growing list of videos I plan on making about the topic. I just posted one yesterday about prize support. You're also welcome to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Thank you for the information as someone who has a degree in business/entrepreneurship that is interested in running a store it is hard to get the true feelings of someone who runs a more niche store like a game store. Really enjoyed the input and hope you make some more videos of your experience.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad it was helpful. I do plan on making more videos so as to share what I've learned with anyone interested in hearing about it. Thanks again.
Im going to subscribe, hope you make some more videos like this, i love behind the scenes types of things because your right most people just take things at face value, without looking deeper into them
Really interesting, My wife and I run several stores (not Games) and you are right about the commitment to running them, the first few months of our first store was like 16+hr days 7 days a week dealing with suppliers and training staff. It's a really tough job, it gets better after you have worked things out and get procedures in place, but you still have to commit a lot of what used to be "hobby time". As for Wargammers, and card players you are correct. For me going into a store for the first time and seeing a horde of card players is an immediate turn off, the local store to me only has about half a dozen random GW boxes, and an un-maintained paint rack, they said they don't stock miniatures because nobody buys them, but the counterpoint is they sell them at MSRP with no discounts (where other stores usually offer 10% off MSRP) and they have nowhere for players to setup a game because the card players use all the tables, it's also hard to play a game with the sound and smell of 30+ card players in the room.
Thanks for watching. You have a very good point about TCG players using all the tables and a room full of gamers being a bit overwhelming :D. This is a topic for another video I'm working on, but in my own stores, we rearranged the layout so the gaming area was in the back and the retail space in the front specifically because we could see the shocked and overwhelmed faces of "muggles" when they would open the door to the store and be staring at 40 pairs of eyeballs looking back at them. I could see that it made most people very uncomfortable.
Store owner here, and when you said having to deal with Diamond man did that hit home. Though what benefits me is I love the business and marketing aspect of it as much as the games, but I do hate paperwork and bureaucracy.
@@RetroDojo You're welcome, it was quite the interesting story to listen to. If you don't mind if I ask a question, it sounded like towards the end you and a partner owned a store but only one could draw a pay from it with no benefits while you worked a more traditional job, what do you think was the cause of this or what prevented the store from being more profitable in your opinion? Also, one segment we've been growing in our location is manga, and while it's starting to pick up, what would you say would be the best way to advertise that you carry such products locally or online? Sorry for all of the questions, and don't feel forced to answer them, just curious about another's thoughts on the topic.
Thanks for asking questions, I appreciate the back and forth. Yes, on my most recent and final store, my partner worked it and took a paycheck while I had another job. My reasoning for this was because I have a pretty darned good muggle job and we didn't need two people working at Funny Pages. To be frank, I think the store would have reached a point where it would have been able to pay more and cover some basic benefits and such, it just need another year to build it up. My last store ended up being a merger of a new store my partner and I had opened called The Game Store of Owosso and an old comic book and hobby railroad shop that had been in the area for years, that's Funny Pages. The owner of Funny Pages was in his eighties and approached us about buying him out and so we did and merged the two stores since they were just a block and a half away from each other and kept the name Funny Pages. After that point, the store was growing much quicker than we had anticipated, but my partner had several pain management issues that were pre-existing along with some other factors and opted to shift gears into a more mainstream job that could offer him what he was looking for right away. But, if we'd have kept going like we were, there's no telling where we could have ended up. I didn't have the capital to buyout his half of the store myself and he wanted to move things along right now, so we didn't have too many other options. And then when another local comic book shop offered to buy us out, it was a windfall that we couldn't pass up given the circumstances. As for Manga, I don't know much about that. I've never been a reader of it and have never carried it. I'd heard a lot of rumors and scuttlebutt that Manga, as a genre, was so rife with piracy that it made it very, very hard to sell, but that's just a lot of hearsay and I have no practical experience with that aspect of the business. That being said, when it comes to getting the word out in general, I've tried print ads in newspapers and yellow pages, I've tried television ads and sponsorships, but at the end of the day, I found that I saw the best and most direct results from social media marketing like sponsored Facebook posts and the like. That's where I think you'll get the most bang for your advertising buck with the way you're able to zero right in a targeted view base. And now Roku is offer targeting advertising campaigns that are supposed to be affordable and that might be worth looking into if you target a given geographical location. I hope that's of some help and thanks again for watching.
Honestly this was an amazing vid! Coming from just a simple cardboard collector you’ve given me an entirely new perspective on my lgs. Also I’m sorry for being one of the ones who thought you’d be able to play more games 😅
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I've been kicking around the idea of getting more in-depth into this topic and was using this video as a jumping off point to see if there was any interest out there in the wide world.
This information is great! Sharing of your personal experience in running a store that gives it the right touch of ownership and as i do go to the flint location it is awesome to see there is someone local on YT. Thank you sir!
I would really like to get some more info on specific things regarding a game store. I have been entertaining the idea for a game store as a retirement business. Wife and I have over 30 years in the retail industry which included sports marketing. Maybe email correspondence would be better for that? Thanks for video.
Thanks for watching. I'd appreciate it if you'd post some of your questions here, just for video ideas cause other people might have that question and I'd like to make videos to answer them. On the whole though, you can email me directly at thechaderway@gmail.com, because I realize the subject is too big to ask about in comments 😁.
@@RetroDojo Sure. 1. Is it advantageous to have gaming tables in your store? Are they free to use? 2. Is hosting MTG tournaments a must to stay profitable? 3. If ran by a husband and wife, is a game store a viable option for a retirement business (in your opinion)?
All great questions... 1. Yes, there is a distinct advantage to having gaming tables in store. Anything that keeps folks in the store and playing games is usually a boon. As for charging for table space, you can go either way. I tend to lean towards not charging as the passive benefits outweigh most of the downsides (as a whole). Though I can tell you from personal experience that you'll have a hard time if you don't charge and then try to change your mind later :D. I didn't charge for years, then decided to give it a try, only it wasn't an actual charge. Players paid $5 for unlimited use for the day and they got $5 in store credit. So it wasn't a charge so much as a guarantee that they'd spend at least $5 for the day. Some folks would use it that day, others would save them up for something bigger, but overall folks weren't happy about it and we dropped the whole thing. That being said, I do know of some stores that have implement pay-to-play successfully, but I think you need to decide that going into it which way you want to go. 2. Strictly speaking, I would say no, but it's good to have organized play as it keeps folks coming back, and Magic is usually the easiest event to get off the ground, but you have to keep a tight reign on it as it's easy to get sucked into an arms race, competing with other stores over more and more prize support. I would suggest keeping it simple. For instance, charge $5 a head for Friday Night Magic, and then take the entry fees and issue them as store credit prizes. You're essentially guaranteeing that many sales, plus those customers will buy snacks, drinks, packs, singles (if you sell them), sleeves, and other incidentals. I've run events using certified judges, which is cool, but an unnecessary expense most of the time. But the best luck I had was just setting up FNM and then picking the two most experienced players and ask if they'd act as informal judges for the event, that's usually good enough, unless you're a Magic buff and want to handle that yourself. 3. Yes, I think it could be viable especially for a retired couple. It's unlikely that you'll get rich running a game store, but you can earn a respectable income on the whole. The biggest thing you'll want to keep an eye on is making sure that your setting yourself up for success by making sure you're opening your store in a good area with as little competition as possible. My mentor told me that if a town can support a cinema then it can (usually) support a game store, just as a rule of thumb of course. I hope that's of some help. Please excuse any type-o's I didn't proof read this, so I hope I covered all the bases and it made sense :D.
subscribed - i am all for hearing your experience and getting some knowledge from you. interests - how much starting capital did you have? how long before you were profitable? maybe a breakdown of a good quarter and a bad quarter's P&L statement. how many employees in each store did you have? What were your biggest mistakes? What were your biggest successes? How did you know how much inventory to order during a bad quarter vs a good quarter? I know it is a lot of questions - but knowledge for one, is knowledge for none :p Thank you for the video!!!
I know it's a tricky thing to put a figure on as each shop has different variables but in your experience when opening a game shop from scratch how much would you say it costs upfront before you start earning profit? So what lump sum does a person want when starting out in your opinion? Question 2... What are your top 3 tips for a new store and top 3 things not to do?
Firstly thanks for watching. Those are some great questions, and I think I cover most if not all of them in my "How To Open A Game Store" video series. The first one dropped last weekend (ruclips.net/video/IBQ-wjunb5g/видео.html) and I'm hoping to have the second one out this weekend. Give them a watch and see if they help, plus I'll also take your questions and compare them to what I've already done and answer anything left hanging with a Q&A video cover yours and some other questions I've received. I hope that helps :D.
Thanks for the insight and opportunity to connect. I looking at breaking into the hobby and have an opportunity to buy an existing store. I'd love to speak with you about the business if you'd be available to share some knowledge. Thanks in advance. Cheers
I recently retired from the military and me and another veteran are planning on opening a game store in a few months. I’ve had this dream for over 30 years and it feels great to take that step, and yet extremely terrifying too. The plan is to start small as a TCG space then expand to tabletop and rpg. What are your thoughts on starting this way?
Thanks for watching and for your service. I think one of the great things about owning/running a game store is the versatility it gives you. I think your plan is sound, but I might suggest that even if you intend to focus on TCGs and slowly expand I would still recommend carrying a small selection of RPGs and board/card games under $35, so that you're not branded a "card shop", which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but once you have an established reputation for a given vein of gaming, it'll be harder to get the word out that you do other things. Not impossible, just harder. But if you come right out of the gate with a focus on TCGs, but a reasonable selection of other goodies, it'll make the overall transition easier later. You can carry D&D, without getting too crazy, or having to spend a bunch of money. As for board games, the market is very competitive and I typically only carried board/card games under $35 (or $50 for staples like Ticket to Ride and such), because at around the $35 to $50 mark there's not enough savings to be worth the extra hassle of ordering online and waiting, where as $100-$200+ board games like Descent, Zombicide, Gloomhaven, or Bardsung has enough savings to be worth buying online and waiting to save $50-$60. That's just my experience of course, your results may vary. The gaming community is wildly diverse so try something new and see how it goes. I will be making more videos about all of this in the coming months, but I think you have a solid plan, just don't hyper-focus on one genre, that way you don't have to fight against your own reputation when you're ready to expand, if that makes sense.
@@RetroDojo that makes total sense. We do plan on carrying other genres for this exact purpose. I myself am that 1% gamer. I play MTG, Pokemon, 40K, D&D and Heroclix. So I would love a little of everything too.
Sounds like you have a solid idea. When it comes to minis games like 40k, I think that's one area where it's better to be all or nothing. For instance, if you're doing RPGs, then you can carry some RPG minis from Reaper, or my personal favorite, Pathfinder Deep Cuts and Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures from WizKids. These are inexpensive and there's a wide variety. Also, with these you can carry something like Army Painter paints and paint sets and they have a great tiered selection so you can slowly build up your hobby offerings. If you go with 40k, then you're basically required to carry GW paints and brushes. The last GW paint rack I bought was like $5500, which gives you the full line, but that's a huge investment that's going to take years to recoup, whereas that money spent on MTG, Pokemon, or D&D will earn itself back much, much quicker. My suggestion would be to ease into minis with WizKids models and Army Painter paints. RPGers buy a lot more minis and paints than they used to, so it's a good way to test the waters that doesn't leave you in the lurch if you're not able to build a 40k community as quickly as you might have expected. Then, once you've got your TCG, RPG, and lower end Card/Board game lines and accessories (sleeves, deck boxes, economical paints, RPG minis, dice, etc...) running smoothly, then you can jump into something like 40k with both feet, stock it up good and come busting into the hobby miniatures side of the trade like the Juggernaut :D.
@@RetroDojowell, to be honest we know nothing about retail or running a business. We can help fix a plane and deploy like the best of them but business is new to us. You stated how working with distributors was a learning curve and what/how much to order. What is a good rule of thumb for a 1,750 sqft space with a tournament table section?
That's a good size, in my opinion. Gamers Sanctuary was 1800 sq/ft so our stores were in the same neighborhood, size wise. I tried a couple of different layouts, but I think I finally settled on something that was a little less than a 60/40 split. 60% was retail space and 40% was gaming space. There's a lot of room to play with when it comes to that ratio depending on what product lines you're carrying and how you're displaying it. As far as ordering goes, there's some things you almost can't go wrong on and somethings you want to ordering sparingly. When it comes to things like Magic, and D&D, as long as you can afford the order, you've got miles of latitude. Same with dice, you almost could never have too much. You do want to be careful with brands of sleeves, and lines of paint. Everyone's got their own idea of the best and worst sleeve brands so if you're not careful you'll have a whole store full of sleeves and paint racks :D. My recommendation would be to focus sharply on what you'd like your store's strong suits to be and just be careful not to spread yourself too thin trying to carry every line of accessory, and believe me, you'll be getting suggestions from anyone and everyone :D. I hope that's of some help, but if you have any other questions or clarifications, just let me know.
Thanks for watching. What I do now is just your typical 9-5 job. I am production manager for an aftermarket supplier of heavy duty diesel engines and engine parts. The reason I got out of the game store owner biz, was because one Thanksgiving a couple years ago, my business partner called me out to an impromptu meeting and told me that he didn't want to be involve with the store anymore and wanted out. At the time I didn't have the capital to buy him out outright and continue solo, so we did some calling around and got SUPER lucky. There was another comic/game store in the area that was getting ready to do a major expansion and since we carried a very similar product line to what they did, they bought the whole shebang. Frankly, I wish I'd had tried a little harder to work something out with my partner, and I might have, if we weren't able to sell of the store in one big chunk, and if I had the money, I'd re-open without hesitation. Hope that sheds some light on things and thanks again for watching.
I'm a tabletop gamer who owns a small brewery and restaurant. I love hearing other small business stories like this. Specially the part about "oh you must get to play games all day!", we get "you must get to drink beer beer all days" and while yes we can, most of the time you are just too busy to do that.
Yes, sounds like you know the struggle too 😅🤣. Thanks for watching.
I own a store in WY and this vibes so hard. The stuff about the sub communities of different gamers has for sure been true to my experience. I’m 13 years into the industry 7 as an owner. Love hearing your experiences man.
Thanks for watching. I'm considering doing an occasional livestream where I interview other store owners about their experiences and such.
If you might be interested in participating, then send me your contact details at thechaderway@gmail.com.
I'm not sure when I'll get to this, as I still need to sort out the format, but I think it's something folks would be interested in.
Either way, thanks again for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.
This is something that was very convenient and eye-opening to stumble across. I've been going back and forth for a while now about starting up a game store since my area got decimated by Covid and the remaining stores have zero support for Warhammer and other war games.
Thanks for watching. I'm so glad to hear that this was somewhat enlightening :D. I have some more videos in the pipeline talking about product diversification when it comes to TCGs, RPGs, and hobby minis. I think for some stores owners, they convince themselves that minis games don't sell well because they're intimidated by them. It is a big a commitment to do minis games right, and there can be a pretty steep learning curve.
Never saw you before.
But I enjoyed listening to you.
Thank you for sharing your story!
You're very welcome :D, I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching.
Your view on this topic was well delivered. You have a genuine helpful attitude and come across as you intended. I know I am not alone in wanting to hear more about this subject. Great stuff keep it up!
Thanks for watching and for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Looks like I'll have to start working on the next video :D.
I can not remember how I found your video... But it was very enlightening and I didn't know I needed to know this. Thank you for the trip down memory lane
Thanks for watching. Did you used to frequent GS? What did you play?
Thanks for sharing your story, it was a great listen! I’d be interested in learning more about your history with the game stores if you’re keen to share.
I have a buddy who wants to open a store in our retirement, years from now. But the part I’ve always felt hesitant about - is if you felt like you had to just chase the product trends to build a community versus selling what you know and care about (which may be different from what customers are wanting)?
Thanks for watching. Yes, I have a growing list of videos I plan on making about the topic.
I just posted one yesterday about prize support. You're also welcome to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Id love to hear more about All the side bits!!! This is really interesting.
More to come!
Thanks for sharing your experiences. This was very insightful.
You're very welcome. Thank you for watching.
Thank you for the information as someone who has a degree in business/entrepreneurship that is interested in running a store it is hard to get the true feelings of someone who runs a more niche store like a game store. Really enjoyed the input and hope you make some more videos of your experience.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad it was helpful. I do plan on making more videos so as to share what I've learned with anyone interested in hearing about it. Thanks again.
Im going to subscribe, hope you make some more videos like this, i love behind the scenes types of things because your right most people just take things at face value, without looking deeper into them
Awesome, thanks for watching. I do have more videos planned so stay tuned :D.
Really interesting, My wife and I run several stores (not Games) and you are right about the commitment to running them, the first few months of our first store was like 16+hr days 7 days a week dealing with suppliers and training staff. It's a really tough job, it gets better after you have worked things out and get procedures in place, but you still have to commit a lot of what used to be "hobby time".
As for Wargammers, and card players you are correct. For me going into a store for the first time and seeing a horde of card players is an immediate turn off, the local store to me only has about half a dozen random GW boxes, and an un-maintained paint rack, they said they don't stock miniatures because nobody buys them, but the counterpoint is they sell them at MSRP with no discounts (where other stores usually offer 10% off MSRP) and they have nowhere for players to setup a game because the card players use all the tables, it's also hard to play a game with the sound and smell of 30+ card players in the room.
Thanks for watching. You have a very good point about TCG players using all the tables and a room full of gamers being a bit overwhelming :D. This is a topic for another video I'm working on, but in my own stores, we rearranged the layout so the gaming area was in the back and the retail space in the front specifically because we could see the shocked and overwhelmed faces of "muggles" when they would open the door to the store and be staring at 40 pairs of eyeballs looking back at them. I could see that it made most people very uncomfortable.
Awesome vid, enjoyed it a lot. Would love to see a lot more in your series.
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it. I do have more planned.
Store owner here, and when you said having to deal with Diamond man did that hit home. Though what benefits me is I love the business and marketing aspect of it as much as the games, but I do hate paperwork and bureaucracy.
Thanks for watching! Owning a game or comic book shop is definitely a labor of love, that's for sure.
@@RetroDojo You're welcome, it was quite the interesting story to listen to. If you don't mind if I ask a question, it sounded like towards the end you and a partner owned a store but only one could draw a pay from it with no benefits while you worked a more traditional job, what do you think was the cause of this or what prevented the store from being more profitable in your opinion? Also, one segment we've been growing in our location is manga, and while it's starting to pick up, what would you say would be the best way to advertise that you carry such products locally or online? Sorry for all of the questions, and don't feel forced to answer them, just curious about another's thoughts on the topic.
Thanks for asking questions, I appreciate the back and forth. Yes, on my most recent and final store, my partner worked it and took a paycheck while I had another job. My reasoning for this was because I have a pretty darned good muggle job and we didn't need two people working at Funny Pages.
To be frank, I think the store would have reached a point where it would have been able to pay more and cover some basic benefits and such, it just need another year to build it up. My last store ended up being a merger of a new store my partner and I had opened called The Game Store of Owosso and an old comic book and hobby railroad shop that had been in the area for years, that's Funny Pages.
The owner of Funny Pages was in his eighties and approached us about buying him out and so we did and merged the two stores since they were just a block and a half away from each other and kept the name Funny Pages.
After that point, the store was growing much quicker than we had anticipated, but my partner had several pain management issues that were pre-existing along with some other factors and opted to shift gears into a more mainstream job that could offer him what he was looking for right away. But, if we'd have kept going like we were, there's no telling where we could have ended up. I didn't have the capital to buyout his half of the store myself and he wanted to move things along right now, so we didn't have too many other options. And then when another local comic book shop offered to buy us out, it was a windfall that we couldn't pass up given the circumstances.
As for Manga, I don't know much about that. I've never been a reader of it and have never carried it. I'd heard a lot of rumors and scuttlebutt that Manga, as a genre, was so rife with piracy that it made it very, very hard to sell, but that's just a lot of hearsay and I have no practical experience with that aspect of the business. That being said, when it comes to getting the word out in general, I've tried print ads in newspapers and yellow pages, I've tried television ads and sponsorships, but at the end of the day, I found that I saw the best and most direct results from social media marketing like sponsored Facebook posts and the like.
That's where I think you'll get the most bang for your advertising buck with the way you're able to zero right in a targeted view base. And now Roku is offer targeting advertising campaigns that are supposed to be affordable and that might be worth looking into if you target a given geographical location.
I hope that's of some help and thanks again for watching.
Honestly this was an amazing vid! Coming from just a simple cardboard collector you’ve given me an entirely new perspective on my lgs. Also I’m sorry for being one of the ones who thought you’d be able to play more games 😅
I really enjoyed this video, as I do all your others too! I found it very interesting too.
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I've been kicking around the idea of getting more in-depth into this topic and was using this video as a jumping off point to see if there was any interest out there in the wide world.
would definitely like to hear more about this.
Thanks for watching, there are more videos coming that's for sure.
Great video! Thanks for sharing the info!
This information is great! Sharing of your personal experience in running a store that gives it the right touch of ownership and as i do go to the flint location it is awesome to see there is someone local on YT. Thank you sir!
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for watching.
I would really like to get some more info on specific things regarding a game store. I have been entertaining the idea for a game store as a retirement business. Wife and I have over 30 years in the retail industry which included sports marketing. Maybe email correspondence would be better for that?
Thanks for video.
Thanks for watching. I'd appreciate it if you'd post some of your questions here, just for video ideas cause other people might have that question and I'd like to make videos to answer them. On the whole though, you can email me directly at thechaderway@gmail.com, because I realize the subject is too big to ask about in comments 😁.
@@RetroDojo Sure.
1. Is it advantageous to have gaming tables in your store? Are they free to use?
2. Is hosting MTG tournaments a must to stay profitable?
3. If ran by a husband and wife, is a game store a viable option for a retirement business (in your opinion)?
All great questions...
1. Yes, there is a distinct advantage to having gaming tables in store. Anything that keeps folks in the store and playing games is usually a boon. As for charging for table space, you can go either way. I tend to lean towards not charging as the passive benefits outweigh most of the downsides (as a whole). Though I can tell you from personal experience that you'll have a hard time if you don't charge and then try to change your mind later :D. I didn't charge for years, then decided to give it a try, only it wasn't an actual charge. Players paid $5 for unlimited use for the day and they got $5 in store credit. So it wasn't a charge so much as a guarantee that they'd spend at least $5 for the day. Some folks would use it that day, others would save them up for something bigger, but overall folks weren't happy about it and we dropped the whole thing. That being said, I do know of some stores that have implement pay-to-play successfully, but I think you need to decide that going into it which way you want to go.
2. Strictly speaking, I would say no, but it's good to have organized play as it keeps folks coming back, and Magic is usually the easiest event to get off the ground, but you have to keep a tight reign on it as it's easy to get sucked into an arms race, competing with other stores over more and more prize support. I would suggest keeping it simple. For instance, charge $5 a head for Friday Night Magic, and then take the entry fees and issue them as store credit prizes. You're essentially guaranteeing that many sales, plus those customers will buy snacks, drinks, packs, singles (if you sell them), sleeves, and other incidentals. I've run events using certified judges, which is cool, but an unnecessary expense most of the time. But the best luck I had was just setting up FNM and then picking the two most experienced players and ask if they'd act as informal judges for the event, that's usually good enough, unless you're a Magic buff and want to handle that yourself.
3. Yes, I think it could be viable especially for a retired couple. It's unlikely that you'll get rich running a game store, but you can earn a respectable income on the whole. The biggest thing you'll want to keep an eye on is making sure that your setting yourself up for success by making sure you're opening your store in a good area with as little competition as possible. My mentor told me that if a town can support a cinema then it can (usually) support a game store, just as a rule of thumb of course.
I hope that's of some help. Please excuse any type-o's I didn't proof read this, so I hope I covered all the bases and it made sense :D.
Good to see you are still around Chad....Happy New Year...
Thanks for watching Trace! Happy New Year to you and your family 🤠🥳
subscribed - i am all for hearing your experience and getting some knowledge from you.
interests -
how much starting capital did you have?
how long before you were profitable?
maybe a breakdown of a good quarter and a bad quarter's P&L statement.
how many employees in each store did you have?
What were your biggest mistakes?
What were your biggest successes?
How did you know how much inventory to order during a bad quarter vs a good quarter?
I know it is a lot of questions - but knowledge for one, is knowledge for none :p
Thank you for the video!!!
Thanks for watching. I appreciate the questions. They're all great video ideas, and I do plan on covering everything on your list in upcoming videos.
I know it's a tricky thing to put a figure on as each shop has different variables but in your experience when opening a game shop from scratch how much would you say it costs upfront before you start earning profit? So what lump sum does a person want when starting out in your opinion?
Question 2...
What are your top 3 tips for a new store and top 3 things not to do?
Firstly thanks for watching. Those are some great questions, and I think I cover most if not all of them in my "How To Open A Game Store" video series. The first one dropped last weekend (ruclips.net/video/IBQ-wjunb5g/видео.html) and I'm hoping to have the second one out this weekend. Give them a watch and see if they help, plus I'll also take your questions and compare them to what I've already done and answer anything left hanging with a Q&A video cover yours and some other questions I've received.
I hope that helps :D.
Nice video!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the insight and opportunity to connect. I looking at breaking into the hobby and have an opportunity to buy an existing store. I'd love to speak with you about the business if you'd be available to share some knowledge.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Thanks for watching and good luck on your game store endeavors. I'd be happy to be of some help if I can. Shot me an email at thechaderway@gmail.com.
I recently retired from the military and me and another veteran are planning on opening a game store in a few months. I’ve had this dream for over 30 years and it feels great to take that step, and yet extremely terrifying too. The plan is to start small as a TCG space then expand to tabletop and rpg. What are your thoughts on starting this way?
Thanks for watching and for your service. I think one of the great things about owning/running a game store is the versatility it gives you. I think your plan is sound, but I might suggest that even if you intend to focus on TCGs and slowly expand I would still recommend carrying a small selection of RPGs and board/card games under $35, so that you're not branded a "card shop", which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but once you have an established reputation for a given vein of gaming, it'll be harder to get the word out that you do other things. Not impossible, just harder. But if you come right out of the gate with a focus on TCGs, but a reasonable selection of other goodies, it'll make the overall transition easier later.
You can carry D&D, without getting too crazy, or having to spend a bunch of money. As for board games, the market is very competitive and I typically only carried board/card games under $35 (or $50 for staples like Ticket to Ride and such), because at around the $35 to $50 mark there's not enough savings to be worth the extra hassle of ordering online and waiting, where as $100-$200+ board games like Descent, Zombicide, Gloomhaven, or Bardsung has enough savings to be worth buying online and waiting to save $50-$60.
That's just my experience of course, your results may vary. The gaming community is wildly diverse so try something new and see how it goes. I will be making more videos about all of this in the coming months, but I think you have a solid plan, just don't hyper-focus on one genre, that way you don't have to fight against your own reputation when you're ready to expand, if that makes sense.
@@RetroDojo that makes total sense. We do plan on carrying other genres for this exact purpose. I myself am that 1% gamer. I play MTG, Pokemon, 40K, D&D and Heroclix. So I would love a little of everything too.
Sounds like you have a solid idea. When it comes to minis games like 40k, I think that's one area where it's better to be all or nothing. For instance, if you're doing RPGs, then you can carry some RPG minis from Reaper, or my personal favorite, Pathfinder Deep Cuts and Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures from WizKids. These are inexpensive and there's a wide variety. Also, with these you can carry something like Army Painter paints and paint sets and they have a great tiered selection so you can slowly build up your hobby offerings.
If you go with 40k, then you're basically required to carry GW paints and brushes. The last GW paint rack I bought was like $5500, which gives you the full line, but that's a huge investment that's going to take years to recoup, whereas that money spent on MTG, Pokemon, or D&D will earn itself back much, much quicker.
My suggestion would be to ease into minis with WizKids models and Army Painter paints. RPGers buy a lot more minis and paints than they used to, so it's a good way to test the waters that doesn't leave you in the lurch if you're not able to build a 40k community as quickly as you might have expected. Then, once you've got your TCG, RPG, and lower end Card/Board game lines and accessories (sleeves, deck boxes, economical paints, RPG minis, dice, etc...) running smoothly, then you can jump into something like 40k with both feet, stock it up good and come busting into the hobby miniatures side of the trade like the Juggernaut :D.
@@RetroDojowell, to be honest we know nothing about retail or running a business. We can help fix a plane and deploy like the best of them but business is new to us.
You stated how working with distributors was a learning curve and what/how much to order. What is a good rule of thumb for a 1,750 sqft space with a tournament table section?
That's a good size, in my opinion. Gamers Sanctuary was 1800 sq/ft so our stores were in the same neighborhood, size wise. I tried a couple of different layouts, but I think I finally settled on something that was a little less than a 60/40 split. 60% was retail space and 40% was gaming space.
There's a lot of room to play with when it comes to that ratio depending on what product lines you're carrying and how you're displaying it. As far as ordering goes, there's some things you almost can't go wrong on and somethings you want to ordering sparingly. When it comes to things like Magic, and D&D, as long as you can afford the order, you've got miles of latitude. Same with dice, you almost could never have too much. You do want to be careful with brands of sleeves, and lines of paint. Everyone's got their own idea of the best and worst sleeve brands so if you're not careful you'll have a whole store full of sleeves and paint racks :D.
My recommendation would be to focus sharply on what you'd like your store's strong suits to be and just be careful not to spread yourself too thin trying to carry every line of accessory, and believe me, you'll be getting suggestions from anyone and everyone :D.
I hope that's of some help, but if you have any other questions or clarifications, just let me know.
So what do you do now? Why did you get out of the Game Store business?
Thanks for watching. What I do now is just your typical 9-5 job. I am production manager for an aftermarket supplier of heavy duty diesel engines and engine parts. The reason I got out of the game store owner biz, was because one Thanksgiving a couple years ago, my business partner called me out to an impromptu meeting and told me that he didn't want to be involve with the store anymore and wanted out. At the time I didn't have the capital to buy him out outright and continue solo, so we did some calling around and got SUPER lucky. There was another comic/game store in the area that was getting ready to do a major expansion and since we carried a very similar product line to what they did, they bought the whole shebang.
Frankly, I wish I'd had tried a little harder to work something out with my partner, and I might have, if we weren't able to sell of the store in one big chunk, and if I had the money, I'd re-open without hesitation. Hope that sheds some light on things and thanks again for watching.
cool!
It was a pretty awesome ride. Thanks for watching.
Damn only 580 views?
Yeah, I wish it was higher too 😊, but thanks for watching.