I don't like my local LGS because of its ridiculous prices ($4.5 for a Zendikar booster), so I sometimes go to the Frank & Sons convention to stock up on boosters/ singles.
An affordable market, in my opinion, is essential. A previous MTG store in my area (closed because the manager, not owner, slacked off) had great prices and attracted numerous youth. So if you're looking for mediums besides FNM and other comics, keep your prices low and have a decent singles market.
Also, you may want to try online ordering. If you don't have a requested card, offer to order it online (and maybe charge an extra 25 cents to $1).
Food, like others have said, plays a large impact, as I would enjoy getting tea or a smoothie before attending a Magic venue.
Anyway, good luck with your store!
EDIT: Sixteen year old who enjoys casual Magic: The Gathering
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Avid fan of buying overpriced precons and using 5/60 cards to make a "fun" deck.
One issue I'm going to run into at first: I have a stock of single cards totalling a few thousand dollars at minimum, and I have startup capital to order a case or two of boosters, but I know nothing about non MTG games. This is a big problem for me, but I think I will just launch with Magic and let my users guide me to the other gaming products they want. I don't want to go down the board game route, since there is already a store that really nails the board game thing, and same w. Games Workshop type stuff.
Is it actually possible to subsist only on Magic cards, if the Singles inventory is run tight and shrink is controlled?
Just by that statement, I do not think that you are ready to open a store.
the tabletop/board/card/comic game industry is already a niche market. You don't want to take that niche market, and make it even more niche, by only doing magic, if that makes sense. you need to sell food, comics, dungeons and dragons, rpgs, board games, tabletops, ETC!
But to go along with your original thread, here are some things to consider:
-Have a good prize payout to entry fee ratio. My local store charges $15 to draft and only pays out 4-2-1-1.......a huge ripoff. Try to be competitive with MTGO.
-Host events all throughout the week. For example, I would love to play magic during the weekdays, such as a legacy tournament or something, but my store only plays on fridays and sundays.
-Be competitive with ebay prices. For example, my store sells cards for twice the amount you would pay on ebay. If they would just charge prices more competitive with ebay, i would much rather buy from my local store than from some guy in Arizona.....
Stay loyal to your regulars, and go out of your way to please them. My local shop isn't necessarily the cheapest place, but the shop owner goes out of his way at times to help me, and makes sure that I get the product that I desire. I pay him $100 per box (I buy 1-2 boxes of every set and far more singles than I'd like to admit to). Yes, I can get them cheaper, but he's had my back when it wasn't in his best interest. For this reason, I'll continue to pay the extra to support his shop.
Keep your stock well sorted and all cards handy. This is the biggest issue with my shop. There have been a couple of cards that I both myself, shop owner and employees KNEW that the store had, but they couldn't locate them. I keep a running list of cards that I need that he gathers and trades for for me, but eventually, I grow tired of waiting for him and get the cards elsewhere. In the last month, I finally gave up on the cards that were taking him weeks or even months to get and placed a $200+ order online for singles. 90% of those cards he had on hand, but couldn't find.
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I think that you should sell at least deck boxes, sleeves, and dice in addition to Magic cards. My FLGS sold out of sleeves at almost every pre-release tourney, they would get 30+ players or so. Again can't emphasize enough, cheap food can be an easy way to good profit IF you have a steady stream of players. Hopefully you have a big box retail outlet where you can stock up on the stuff at a low cost. The comment about a clean shop and clean bathroom is also very valid, nobody likes to shop in a dump. I also agree with favoritism to your regulars. As long as they have internet access, they can shop anywhere so why would they shop with you? As far as having a diverse selection of games wait and see. If you can float on MTG for a while, ask you customers what other games do they purchase reguarly? There might be hidden profits in group of MTG players that also has a steady DnD group. One other thing my FLGS aslo does is offers a 10% discount above and beyond his normal discounts on pre-paid with cash, pre-ordered items. In other words he sells boxes at $100 but when I pre-pay/pre-order I get them at $90. That keeps me coming back. FYI my annual gaming spend is about $3,000.
I've been to a few different game stores, and I can honestly say that you really want to have enough room for gaming. Star City Gaming Center is a great store for playing games, but you don't need to go that big. My overall favorite place is my LGS, Game Parlor, at which I play FNM. It's in a strip mall. However, they've dedicated half of their store to 16 4-person wooden tables and 4 large Warhammer tables.(Also, there's an RPG room separate from everything. I think it's soundproof.)
Just make sure you don't go too small. For example, this place called "Anime Pavilion" is literally a basement. There are 4 6-person tables in it, but no breathing room. They often have people who have to go under tables. If you plan to host games, make sure you have enough room.
I won't have to tell you to know about the games you're selling. After all, you did invent Boros Bushwhacker, I'm sure you can pick up the basics of any game quite quickly.
P.S. 16, North VA. High school junior and avid Magic player. Never run a store before.
Most of the suggestions so far have been great, very helpful. As far as food is concerned, I'll have basic soda and some low-budget microwavable delights. Anything more would require a license, I'd imagine.
I have some concerns with the people who are telling me to have every product under the sun, or my store will close down in a matter of weeks. Here's the issue with that - actually, there are a few.
1) I already have a small business moving singles that's almost profitable enough to pay the rent on a store (If I were to do it full-time, I imagine I could actually pay the rent with just singles). Ergo, I don't have to commit any more of my startup capital to singles.
2) I'm not going to unload 10-20 grand on a bunch of random stuff to hope that a random walkin customer buys a D&D sourcebook or something. The margin on a lot of that stuff is garbage anyway, and I'm more concerned with pleasing the local MTG community than I am with making sure every random in town can buy his DND books or Vampire-themed merchandise. If I'm totally honest, the other stores in town cover that territory very well, and it would be unwise to attempt to compete with them. They don't do Magic very well. One shop is War Games centric, one is mostly about comics, and one splits its time between war games and board games. They do those things very well and I have not the slightest desire to infringe upon their good thing. The fact is, the Magic players want somewhere to spend money and they just don't do that at the other stores.
3) Not to be a curmudgeon, but what are the qualifications of the people that insist I carry a full line of all things game-related? If you're saying this from experience opening a shop, I'd like to speak at further length with you. Otherwise, I don't really think I can trust your opinion on the matter. Customers have valuable opinions, but one customer can only know what one customer wants. I don't want to attract people who want to buy random board games, etc. I want CCG players, and as the business grows, I can expand into other games.
Every piece of startup literature, game-related or not, emphasizes the importance of not trying to please everyone. Their wisdom is that a small group of loyal emphatic users/customers is more valuable than a large group of mildly interested ones.
I'm not trying to "hear what I want to hear", but I'm wary of gross generalizations like "If you only do magic you'll be closed in a month". As far as I'm concerned, I can make enough on singles, product sales and event fees to cover my overhead (which I'll be supplementing with a few hours a week of part-time work in the early mornings and my writing gigs, just so I don't starve at first).
For future respondents, could you please let us know your general location, age group, employment/student status, and any experience in the industry you may have? I value everyone's opinions, but it is helpful to all readers to understand the individual bias.
One thing I noticed about the stores here? No parents are dropping off their kids. There are more parents that play WITH their kids, actually!
No one said carry every single product under the sun. You stated yourself, multiple time, that you are doing EPIC amounts of research on this venture. So answer this question: What are the top 3-5 products that your core demographic in your target location is interest in? How often have they bought one of those items in the past 30 days? How much did they pay?
If your research shows that D&D is the most popular product around, and that 75% of your polld demographic spent $30+ per month on that line, why would you NOT carry it?
Post what your research has shown for your area and we can give you tips on what to carry and how to market it.
Unless your research shows that MTG is the only profitable product to carry (which you already said was not the case since there are other stores succeeding in other areas) then carrying only MTG is a doomed idea. As for not wanting to compete with the other local stores, that's insane. They have PROVEN that you can make enough $$ to get by selling those products in your location. Why on earth would you NOT want to get into a proven market?
As for LAN gaming, stay far FAR away from it. It is the absolute plauge of business. The road to failure is littered with people who thought it was a good idea and went bankrupt.
Some questions:
What is your estimated monthly overhead?
What are you planning to charge as profit margin?
How many square feet is your location/how much are you paying per sq ft?
What's your estimate gross/net income?
What is your marketing strategy?
what is the average sale amount for an LGS in your area? Given that, how many paying customers need to walk through the store?
The other stores obviously won't give me their sales figures, but I can gather from observation. I should also note the following:
One store is family-run and likely has a good padding of capital reserves. I don't see them making actual money on the massive bulk of stock they have sitting around (I'd estimate that 98% of the stuff in the store just...sits there. Bad.)
A second is a small franchise (5 stores in the state) , and they have steady board game sales, as well as some light MTG sales. I don't know what the margin on Games Workshop stuff is, but they have a decent market for that stuff there. That's the manager's game and it gets by far the most attention.
The third is a tiny hole-in-the-wall that focuses on obscure war minis and is amazing that they are still open at all. His employees and customers hate the owner and I literally do not know how they pay their bills.
As far as the most profitable gaming products, I can only guess on most of these as far as margin is concerned. With the proper manager, Magic singles are far and away the most profitable, but they can fluctuate a bit. Regardless, they are so massively profitable that they can carry a lot of weight themselves.
MTG sealed product is pretty low margin when you sell by the box, but when selling boosters, the margin's pretty good as long as you're getting a good deal from a distributor. The key is to rotate a lot of stock quickly on boosters so you're not stuck with a ton of product when a set leaves the Draft format.
I dont know the margin on things like sleeves and binder pages, but assorted gaming supplies are probably high-margin. At least, I hope they are. It goes without saying that any store selling magic would be selling sleeves, deck boxes, etc. All the tangential gaming accessories, dice too.
I didn't mean to say I'd just be pushing singles, but I don't have the capital to invest 10 grand in Games Workshop, and I don't think that D&D is going to really justify its costs upfront. I'll be looking more into what non-Magic products people are buying to make sure there's nothing else I could be selling that'd make a lot of money and serve a lot of customers.
Also, I should mention that this store will be located 5-10 minutes from a major 40,000 student university by the free bus from campus. The other stores are all at least 15 minutes by car, and almost impossible to reach by public transportation. They did not pick their locations well at ALL, and thus the college population remains under-served.
This is what gives the location padding against flux in one particular play group. It is the easiest store to reach from Campus, and there is a very strong Magic presence on campus. Having a major Uni nearby is fantastic since every academic year brings more fresh faces to town.
I'm not touching LAN gaming with a 10 foot pole. I've worked in IT for years and have the skills to set up and maintain a network myself, as well as build the workstations, etc. My god is it a bad idea. I don't see how I could recoup the investment in less than a few years.
My estimated overhead is a tricky one, since I've scouted a few spaces. The one that looks ideal, and that I'll be reviewing on Monday or Tuesday, is 1700 square feet and will rent for 830 a month. That's plenty of space for counters, stockroom, and a large play area by my math. The area I'm renting in is trying desperately to attract businesses, so the rents are very agreeable. Most businesses want to be across the bridge (a 5 minute walk) so they are super-close to Campus. This would mean a two-to-threefold increase in my rent, which is impossible. The students from campus I've asked have indicated that the proximity of my selected location is acceptable to them, and would be a welcome change from having to trek out to the other stores.
I'm not sure what to expect for heating/electric type utilities for a 1700 sqft space, but I can make an educated guess by comparing it to a 1200 sqft apartment. I'd ballpark around 300 a month, but I plan to speak to the realtor to see if they have any guidance based on the last tenant.
Other overhead expenses beyond rent and utilities - internet, phone, possibly television (If I'm living in an adjacent space, I will be getting TV there anyway). These together will be about 125 after taxes. I also need to price out and find the appropriate insurance for the business, as well as find out from the local chamber of commerce what applicable taxes I'll be responsible for. I'm not including product costs here, because those are under my control and will ideally NOT be "sunk" costs
As far as one-time costs for starting up, there is POS hardware and software (register!), a few display cases, any lighting the space might not have built in, a computer, phone, a few long tables and some chairs, a sign for the front, any applicable deposits for utility and the lease, legal and accounting fees, and I'm sure there's other items i'm not thinking of.
Regarding play space, I've gone out of my way to over-estimate how much space I need. The original space I was scouting was going to give me about 500 sqft for play space, but once I saw it, I realized how little 500 sqft is. Sounds like a lot, is really damned small. While there might be only 5-10 people in the store on some days, I want to be able to accommodate larger tournaments without renting out a banquet hall.
Organization of singles is never an issue for me. The only cards that aren't sorted are crap cards in "bulk boxes". I have binders with commons/uncommons from all Standard sets, a few binders of rares that are sorted by set, and format, and a bunch of boxes filled with random junk that people probably won't want anyway (5c box anyone?). To me, it is criminal to not be able to find any card in the store in less than a minute or two. That one's a non negotiable for me.
To call out one user, Gatt, I have to disagree with your math there. First of all, the essays on startups I've read actually DO focus on small loyal customer bases as small as a handful. Don't underestimate the power of a few very happy, motivated users. They will spend money, but more importantly, we all know Magic players. When they discover an awesome new store, they'll bring their friends because they want more people to play at that store. Simply by being Magic-centric and, frankly, not a dick like the other store management, I can get a lot of customers and a lot of word-of-mouth, especially in a college town.
The playgroup buying playsets math isn't really relevant. There will be a steady rotation of players with the academic year, and by covering multiple formats, you expand past the issue of "just standard". I just don't buy that logic. Ebay also does not introduce any real overhead I have to worry about. They take a % of the closing price, which is really just the same as selling something for that % less and can be budgeted into the model. Ebay will mostly be a resource for the higher end and older cards that don't sell well in-store. Shipping costs are absorbed by the buyer. It's not enough to keep the doors open by itself, but in combination with all the other things, every small amount of revenue helps.
The fact of the matter is, I simply cannot launch with a bunch of different product lines. I can expand into them, but I won't have the capital or experience with the product to order 4-5 other games. Board games are low-margin and aren't really "recurring". People don't come back for them the way they do for Magic. I'm amenable to the other CCGs, but I'll have to learn about them as I go. I dont plan to stay MTG only forever, but launching in a very tight niche (one that is grossly under-represented locally) is a proven recipe for success. I'm confident that a well-run Magic shop can do better business than a mediocre 'catch-all' shop (of which we have two in town).
Any more experienced store owners around here? I'm curious about some of the unexpected snags you hit. I think I have a good idea of what players want - the online response has been similar to the local player response, and I have a basic idea of what to do in that vein.
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New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
Question: If you are relying heavily on students for your sales what will you do during breaks? Right now I am attending MSU, which is a 40,000+ campus, just like the one you are setting up near. Businesses everywhere here are incredibly empty once a break hits here, like Summer vacation or winter break. Do you believe you will be able to create enough revenue the rest of the year to make up for these long dry periods?
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EDH Decks:
Halfdane Sek'Kuar
Please remember to autocard, just do [ card ] CARD NAME [ / card ] and for decks you can cover the whole thing in one deck tag like this: [ deck ] All of the cards in the deck [ / deck ]
Question: If you are relying heavily on students for your sales what will you do during breaks? Right now I am attending MSU, which is a 40,000+ campus, just like the one you are setting up near. Businesses everywhere here are incredibly empty once a break hits here, like Summer vacation or winter break. Do you believe you will be able to create enough revenue the rest of the year to make up for these long dry periods?
THey'll be lighter for sure but there are a bunch of adults, grad students and townies that play. It'll be a bit of a crunch but definitely will stay busy.
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New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
Again, I can't speak from too much experience; but from what I have gathered, sometimes guys just want a place that they can go to play. Its not uncommon for me to visit the shop, not buy anything, and shoot the breeze and just play all day with other guys who also aren't buying anything.
We only play Magic, but the store carries Dungeons and Dragons, comics, game utilities, a bit of everything. If the store relied on Magic alone, well I can't imagine it would be doing the profit that it does.
So if you're sure that the guys coming into your store are interested in buying, and not just playing, then maybe you can thrive on selling Magic cards alone; but other than that I'm not so sure.
Edit; and I've seen you already covered this, but just my two cents.
I was a store owner of a gaming shop for 8 years. My number one suggestion is if you dont have the capital to start and keep the store open for a year, then dont open. You are already fighting a losing battle. Next, location, location, location. Without these first two things, there really isnt a need to continue discussion on running a successful business. But I will keep checking this thread or you can send me a private message if you want more ideas.
Well, if you're really determined to do this and you have the location to make it work, here's some stuff i've found from my experience managing a gaming store for 2+ years.
As people have said, location is the number one most important thing. Being in a school zone for middle school and up is a huge advantage, especially if it's a college and the people can get there easily.
Get a small freezer and sell hot pockets and stuff, work out a deal with pepsi or coke or go rogue to get a drink cooler in there and sell drinks. The profit margin on a bottle of a water is a LOT more than on a pack of Magic. Smell candy and other small snacks as well if you have the space.
Parking is a major plus as wel las being in a safe area. One problem you may find if you run events is that many leasers try and set the hours you can be open in some malls and such, so if you want to be open later (like, after 11pm etc) you may need to stay away from some strip malls and such.
Get sanctioned, if you can. It will take up to a couple of months for you to get sanctioned with WOTC but it's well worth it to b able to offer FNM etc.
You will probably need to sell more than just Magic. At the very least, selling supplies such as sleeves, life counters and dice, deck boxes etc will help your margins, especially if you hold events. Gamers are very ill prepared, and usually have to buy sleeves and dice and whatnot pre or mid tournament.
Stay away from comics and games workshop products unless you know you can do uber volume of either. The discount we got from our distributor for GW was like 30% and comics are little better, ranging from 30-45% most of the time. Absolutely awful.
Shop around for distributors and expand your available pool. It is always helpful to have backup distributors for when WOTC inevitibly short prints something, and some distributors have really good perks for ordering with them.
I know you don't want to get into too many other products and that's fine, but you should have a couple of other things because magic packs and singles don't easily pay the bills usually. You're doing research on your area which is awesome, find out what other games Mtg players inyour area are playing, as they usually have other hobbies. For example, in my area a lot of Mtg players also play D&D. No, don't carry the 4th edition corebooks, most of the D&D community hates 4th ed from what I hear. The real money to be made is on sourcing out used books and reselling them for big profit. We used to do that, have people come in and sell books to us and then resell them. People really, really loved 3.5 and still cling to it. We also made a tidy profit buying and selling paperbacks such as Dragonlance, the Magic books, Warhammer etc.
No matter how vigilant you are, shrink happens. Some thieves have some serious balls man. We literally had to bolt binders down to our counter to keep people from running off with them from right in front of us. Set up your store in a way that you have easy viewing access to everything of value if possible.
If you get a place with some space for events, don't be afraid to rent out your space to groups looking for somewhere to play. We had chess and other board game groups wanting to use our space.
Climate control is a must. Good heat in winter in colder climates and AC in summer will help your business a lot. Just don't go broke on the utility billls, if applicible x_X
One of the coolest things I've ever seen at a store was the surveillance system they had in place; A player had left his deckbox on the counter while looking at singles, and it was swiped by another player. The store owner spent an hour reviewing the tapes with this player until they found who had taken it.
It's not feasible to sink a lot of money into video cameras immediately, but in the end, it's probably a good idea to have them.
EDIT: From a player's standpoint, with no experience running a store.
Also, try and find a local judge in your area if you aren't one already (and be a Rules Advisor if you're not a judge)
My local store has a monthly box of the current set given away to whoever wins the most drafts for that month. You'll be able to pay for the box very easily if people draft as much as they do at my store. Give-aways and rewards to loyal costumers is very important.
Kelly, there is no reason to even think about D&D. To justify selling that stuff, you would have to charge full price. It doesn't make sense for anyone to pay full price when they can go to Barnes and Noble and get sourcebooks for 15-20% off. Plus, the stuff doesn;t move very quickly anyway. Once someone buys a Player's Handbook, they won't need another one so it's very easy to get stuck with excess inventory.
As for everyone saying that you can't survive off of cards alone, the shop that I play at does nothing but Magic and baseball cards. And I don't think I've ever actually witnessed anyone in there buying baseball cards. The key is just building a good rapport with your customers. When a new set comes out, I could get a box online for $85, but I would much rather give my money to the shop owner I know and have a good relationship with as long as the price is still decent (<$100.)
Also, have a good website built (or build a good website yourself) and keep it updated. That might be the single most important thing you can do. I still cannot belive how awful the YourMoveGames website is and they are probably the biggest game store in Mass.
To follow up on what xFollowthereaperx said, the first store I played in back when I first started had a really cool 'customer loyalty' thing. There was a big chart on the wall with the name of every one that played on Friday night and the winner of the Friday night tournaments would get one point on the chart. At the end of the year, the player with the most points recieved $100 in store credit, second most got $75, and third most got $50. On top of keeping customers coming back every Friday to try and earn points, it's also a good way to motivate new players to learn and up their game.
You mentioned you were quite capable on the singles front: I suggest fielding a decent-sized display case with casual and competitive staples. On top of this, offer store credit (and maybe move up to offering cash when you are more financially stable) for trade-ins.
A local store I know does very well. They offer 50% cash or 75% trade credit on cards they sell in the case, when those cards are sold out. Do some research into what popular casual staples sell well - Mana Flare, Mirari's Wake, Dragons, etc. This store actually does so well selling singles that I'm able to make a profit off buying Flares and Wakes and etc online and reselling to them (and they in turn must be able to flip them fast, because they're always needing more). You don't have cut it as close as 75% in trade value, but make it competitive enough to attract people and ensure a good flow of cards in and out.
The reasons for having such a competitive trade-in price are manyfold:
1. You will become known as the "go-to" store for singles. This will draw attention to your store, and that's free publicity.
2. With a well established system, you will essentially be able to replenish your showcase with no extra effort on your part. The more competitive the trade-in, the greater the turnover.
3. Despite the fact that many players will opt to trade-in instead of buy, this should have minimal impact on your singles sales. Brick and mortar singles sales are always hit and miss, and magic players are cheap. From what I've seen having worked with a store helping with their singles circuit and my buy-and-resell operation with other stores, the spikes will generally go online to buy their singles anyway. If you give them the option to trade in, they would love to trade in their Mana Flares, Wakes and etc. On the other hand, the casual players who drop in once a month will be happy to drop $40 for a few dragons and vampires. So overall, the casual players bring in the cash, the spikes give you a 25% margin by trading in unneeded stuff, as well as replenishing your stores.
I'd also echo the sentiments of other posters in suggesting that you have some basic foods available like chips, pop, microwaveable burgers, etc. These have a much higher margin than cards.
I was a store owner of a gaming shop for 8 years. My number one suggestion is if you dont have the capital to start and keep the store open for a year, then dont open. You are already fighting a losing battle. Next, location, location, location. Without these first two things, there really isnt a need to continue discussion on running a successful business. But I will keep checking this thread or you can send me a private message if you want more ideas.
Just out of curiosity, what's the lowest amount of money you'd start with? I know that depends on the area. Just a ballpark?
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Co-Founder, Lead Engineer at Quiet Speculation.com Magic is an expensive hobby. Let us help you get the most for your money.
New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
As a player and a former employee of a shop here is my advice.
First and foremost: Have a good variety of tournaments, FNM and my local store used to have a group of 10-30 people come in for FNM for a draft and then on saturday a completely different group of people come in for a standard the next day.
The standard consisted of a $15 entry free and for every person 4 packs would be awarded I dont know the prices on magic packs individually but I'm assuming thats a profit so if 10 people attended which was the minimum Ive ever seen thats $150 and over a box of inventory pushed.
Binders are my preferred preference for looking for singles organized by set and colors. KEEP BINDERS OR SINGLES UNDER CLOSE WATCH AT ALL TIMES...there are so many magic player theives which is unfortunate but you dont want a playset of baneslayers to disappear.
Always look for "hot stuff" like right now...baneslayers are hot they go for $40 easily so if a kid comes in and says can i get a few packs for this. DO IT! and put it on ebay the next day.
Trade stuff thats not moving...MOST every store I've ever been don't trade but if its just sitting in your binder and Bob wants a play set of goblin chieftans for his maelstrom pulse do it. This is were you have to know your stuff or hire someone you can trust does.
Ebay is amazing set yourself up a good fast computer and when business is slow sell singles, playsets(4 of a card) is where the money is at. Don't beg customers for there stuff but if they come to you and you know for a fact you can move it....GET ER DONE.
From what I've experienced sports cards(baseball and football primarily) and magic are the most moving products, what ever sells the best I would try to learn the most about. I honestly thing a storefront could survive off of magic a lone if you do it right.
Have a very accessible play area, shops with horrible play areas make me want to go home and bring them some stuff, dont go overboard with it but make sure there is always somewhere to play. My local shop always has boxes of merchandise on the tables so when me and my buddies walk in we turn right out.
ADVERTISE!!! let people know in advanced of an upcomming draft or Win-A-Box tournament, I hate showing up to FNMs and asking the shop owner is tonight standard or draft? I would try or have someone help you set up a make shift website and advertise it and keep it updated.
Prize support needs to be good, take it slow, keep track of your profits, and overall be fair and a nice friendly person and people will come.
To call out one user, Gatt, I have to disagree with your math there. First of all, the essays on startups I've read actually DO focus on small loyal customer bases as small as a handful. Don't underestimate the power of a few very happy, motivated users. They will spend money, but more importantly, we all know Magic players. When they discover an awesome new store, they'll bring their friends because they want more people to play at that store. Simply by being Magic-centric and, frankly, not a dick like the other store management, I can get a lot of customers and a lot of word-of-mouth, especially in a college town.
I'm going to end my involvement in this thread with this.
You haven't done sufficient research on your buisness model, you haven't done sufficient research on your expenses, you overestimate the spending capacity of your target demographic, you are not accounting for your target demographics preferred activities at that stage in life and are likely overestimating participation, you are failing to diversify in a field that requires diversification, and I strongly suspect you are letting your bias color your interpretation of the documents you've read.
From what I've seen in this thread you are dead-set on opening a M:tg only shop, and you do not want to hear anything else. I very strongly suggest that you restart your research and that you get hard numbers, as well as start contemplating the amount of disposable income your target demographic is likely to possess, and that you take said hard numbers and run it past someone you trust to give their honest opinion.
Because at this stage, from what I'm reading, it looks like you're making major buisness errors in your desire to achieve your dream.
Nothing wrong with achieving your dream, but I strongly believe that unless you review your buisness plan with an open mind you won't achieve your dream.
Many dreams have died by being set in motion too early, with too little research, and insufficient preparation.
Edit:
You'll also need to account for the fact that you are not sanctioned, nor premiere, and that it's *extremely* likely that if there's 40,000 students on that campus some of whom do play M:tg, there's already someone sanctioned and supported by WOTC running events. Just because there's not a store doesn't mean there's not events.
Sanctioning isn't an issue. That's taken care-of. There are a few isolated mini-groups around town but that's basically because they lack a good store to play at. The one guy not affiliated with a store who runs some side tournaments is growing really tired of the hassle, and he's very keen on having someone else take over his guys.
Edit: and I should add that I have a few other people locally who could sanction me no problem.
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19, sophomore in college, no business experience beyond what I've seen as a player.
Near as I can tell, the success of a store depends greatly on what kind of community grows around it. We've got 2 premiere stores in town; one is about 5 minutes from campus, has a huge selection of singles at StarCity prices, and has multiple tournaments a week. The other is a half hour from campus, has a much smaller selection, and generally gives 20% off of SC prices on his singles. I really don't know how he does it, but then, he moves stock like no other. Every week after the draft, his display case is filled to the brim, and before the draft the following week, there are perhaps two or three singles per set.
The store near campus is spartan in appearance and has a huge play area. Their commons and uncommons are all in bulk boxes sorted by color, with the set names marked on the front, often heavily abbreviated in bad handwriting. The other has a common/uncommon binder for every set from ZEN to 7-10 years back, and every one has the official title art for its respective set on the side and covers. The dollar rares are in bulk boxes, sorted by set and color. All others are in a display case, or in a binder behind the counter if you ask after a card you don't see. The display case singles are ordered by set if it's in extended, and ordered roughly by relative price for older singles.
The owner of the shop near campus is an excellent player (won states last year) and is somewhat boisterous and arrogant, from what I've seen. When I went in there to buy some singles that the other shop didn't have, I looked around the store for about five minutes before asking the owner where I could find a particular rare, whereupon he shoved a Lorwyn binder at me. I started towards one of the vacant play tables when he said that I had to keep the binder at the counter (makes sense, but he really should have said something). I then got my cards and waited a couple minutes while he played WoW before I could actually purchase the cards (at a 50% markup from what the other store would have sold it for).
I don't intend to visit said store again. I personally know only one player that frequents that store, and he pretty much only plays legacy, for which the other store is just beginning to offer tournaments. There is a playerbase there, but it tends to just be the spikier spikes who enjoy being around what they perceive to be the elite of the Magic community. They don't have much of a casual playerbase.
From here on out, I'll be talking about the other store.
Pretty much every Friday on campus, our play group (which exists in some from from 9-6 pretty much every weekday in the same location, and has about 20ish regulars, though up to a dozen are actually there at any one time) organizes a few carpools to the store, and once FNM is finished, they do the same thing to get back. We're relatively casual, though most of us do maintain competitive standard decks.
The shop owner stocks DnD books, Warhammer figurines and paint, and all the Magic accessories you would expect (don't forget the binders and the 9-slot card pages; your base needs to have a collection to display in order to want to expand it), as well as candy bards, chips, and a fridge with water and sodas. He's also located near a taco shop, which sees some business at pretty much every tournament. I've honestly never seen him sell a single DnD book or Warhammer figurine or paint or what-have-you, and I've never seen that stock change at all. I've never asked if he moves any, but I'd say that he probably only barely moves enough to warrant keeping it in stock, and it's mostly just wasted space. He pretty much exclusively sells Magic products and accessories and food. He's also a great guy who really doesn't actually play Magic (that I've ever seen) and is a fun guy to talk to, and I've never seen him be rude to anyone, except in jest with the regulars.
The community consists of quite a few middle-to-high schoolers, as well as some older players and a healthy number of college players, along with a couple parents who play with their kids. Keep the atmosphere toned down so you don't lose the younger community. Also get a dedicated judge or two; we have a recently-promoted L3 and another recently-promoted L2 who have been there since I got there, and they're there pretty much every week, are great guys, and are entirely competent at their job. Judges are the glue that holds the competitive community together, not to mention their actual judging duties.
There's probably more that I could say, but I've been pretty long-winded anyway and probably included a lot you already know. I'm not offering much advice since I don't know what I can say. My opinion of the store near campus is undoubtedly warped by my limited experiences, but what I've seen is enough to dissuade me from going back. Give a good first impression, then offer a good community.
The biggest thing (to me as a player) has always been the crowd. There are a number of shops around the Twin Cities here, and the ones I come back to always tend to be the ones with a solid playerbase.
I'm assuming you have a number of contacts in the local magic community - if you don't, you need to start networking asap. You'll need to do anything you can to pull in magic players to your shop.
I think someone else mentioned something about elitists - they are public enemy number 1 when it comes to building a magic community at your store. If people are acting this way, pull them aside in private when you have the chance.
If there are player organized MTG groups running events without an actual shop, reach out to the organizer to see if you can convince them to either run their event at your shop, or have you run the event for them. Also, don't be afraid of casual groups (cube draft and the like). I'd had offers from stores to provide prize support and table/chairs for my cube group for a $5 buyin from everyone involved. This is a win-win for most groups - and money in your pocket if you have free table space.
Beyond that - I would really look at branching out to support other products. MTG can still be the main focus (and from the research you've done, it sounds like the area doesn't have a MTG focused shop yet) - but I would strongly suggest getting at least familiar with some of the other CCGs and collectable miniature games. Diversification is almost always the correct call.
I don't know of a single game shop in my area that is _just_ magic. Some of them are more focused than others, but they all sell secondary products. Be it board games, comics, other collectable games (CCGs/WarHammer/etc).
One final thing, I would strongly look at forming a LLC at least. You will want to ensure that you are protected in case the business venture does not do as well as anticipated. It's a few more hoops to jump through, but in the long run its probably the smart thing to do.
You know, I think that if you just had the store as MtG (with accessories, food, etc.) it might still work. If you supplemented it with an online business selling singles. I mean, look at SCG. Sure, now they are huge and run 5K tourneys up and down the East Coast (and now over to the West!!), but they weren't always that big. If you pay someone to build you a well made website and sell singles over it, or even just go the eBay and MTGS route, it definitely could succeed.
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Just out of curiosity, what's the lowest amount of money you'd start with? I know that depends on the area. Just a ballpark?
Take your rent and other bills (expected) and multiply by 12. That is the amount I would plan on having on hand or in the bank when you open your doors. You ARE going to have slow and bad months.
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An affordable market, in my opinion, is essential. A previous MTG store in my area (closed because the manager, not owner, slacked off) had great prices and attracted numerous youth. So if you're looking for mediums besides FNM and other comics, keep your prices low and have a decent singles market.
Also, you may want to try online ordering. If you don't have a requested card, offer to order it online (and maybe charge an extra 25 cents to $1).
Food, like others have said, plays a large impact, as I would enjoy getting tea or a smoothie before attending a Magic venue.
Anyway, good luck with your store!
EDIT: Sixteen year old who enjoys casual Magic: The Gathering
Avid fan of buying overpriced precons and using 5/60 cards to make a "fun" deck.
UUU Sovereign of the Sea UUU
RB BR Blightning Discard RB
WG Budget G/W KoNA Aggro WG
Just by that statement, I do not think that you are ready to open a store.
the tabletop/board/card/comic game industry is already a niche market. You don't want to take that niche market, and make it even more niche, by only doing magic, if that makes sense. you need to sell food, comics, dungeons and dragons, rpgs, board games, tabletops, ETC!
But to go along with your original thread, here are some things to consider:
-Have a good prize payout to entry fee ratio. My local store charges $15 to draft and only pays out 4-2-1-1.......a huge ripoff. Try to be competitive with MTGO.
-Host events all throughout the week. For example, I would love to play magic during the weekdays, such as a legacy tournament or something, but my store only plays on fridays and sundays.
-Be competitive with ebay prices. For example, my store sells cards for twice the amount you would pay on ebay. If they would just charge prices more competitive with ebay, i would much rather buy from my local store than from some guy in Arizona.....
Keep your stock well sorted and all cards handy. This is the biggest issue with my shop. There have been a couple of cards that I both myself, shop owner and employees KNEW that the store had, but they couldn't locate them. I keep a running list of cards that I need that he gathers and trades for for me, but eventually, I grow tired of waiting for him and get the cards elsewhere. In the last month, I finally gave up on the cards that were taking him weeks or even months to get and placed a $200+ order online for singles. 90% of those cards he had on hand, but couldn't find.
UR Counter Burn RU
UB Faeries BU
GW Mirari's Wake Monsters WG
GWU Block Bant UWG
BG Zombie Control GB
WU Angel Factory UW
RBU Resurrected Dragons UBR
GBW Sliver Vindication WBG - In the works
RW Girlfriend's Balefire Burn WR
Just make sure you don't go too small. For example, this place called "Anime Pavilion" is literally a basement. There are 4 6-person tables in it, but no breathing room. They often have people who have to go under tables. If you plan to host games, make sure you have enough room.
I won't have to tell you to know about the games you're selling. After all, you did invent Boros Bushwhacker, I'm sure you can pick up the basics of any game quite quickly.
P.S. 16, North VA. High school junior and avid Magic player. Never run a store before.
No one said carry every single product under the sun. You stated yourself, multiple time, that you are doing EPIC amounts of research on this venture. So answer this question: What are the top 3-5 products that your core demographic in your target location is interest in? How often have they bought one of those items in the past 30 days? How much did they pay?
If your research shows that D&D is the most popular product around, and that 75% of your polld demographic spent $30+ per month on that line, why would you NOT carry it?
Post what your research has shown for your area and we can give you tips on what to carry and how to market it.
Unless your research shows that MTG is the only profitable product to carry (which you already said was not the case since there are other stores succeeding in other areas) then carrying only MTG is a doomed idea. As for not wanting to compete with the other local stores, that's insane. They have PROVEN that you can make enough $$ to get by selling those products in your location. Why on earth would you NOT want to get into a proven market?
As for LAN gaming, stay far FAR away from it. It is the absolute plauge of business. The road to failure is littered with people who thought it was a good idea and went bankrupt.
Some questions:
What is your estimated monthly overhead?
What are you planning to charge as profit margin?
How many square feet is your location/how much are you paying per sq ft?
What's your estimate gross/net income?
What is your marketing strategy?
what is the average sale amount for an LGS in your area? Given that, how many paying customers need to walk through the store?
One store is family-run and likely has a good padding of capital reserves. I don't see them making actual money on the massive bulk of stock they have sitting around (I'd estimate that 98% of the stuff in the store just...sits there. Bad.)
A second is a small franchise (5 stores in the state) , and they have steady board game sales, as well as some light MTG sales. I don't know what the margin on Games Workshop stuff is, but they have a decent market for that stuff there. That's the manager's game and it gets by far the most attention.
The third is a tiny hole-in-the-wall that focuses on obscure war minis and is amazing that they are still open at all. His employees and customers hate the owner and I literally do not know how they pay their bills.
As far as the most profitable gaming products, I can only guess on most of these as far as margin is concerned. With the proper manager, Magic singles are far and away the most profitable, but they can fluctuate a bit. Regardless, they are so massively profitable that they can carry a lot of weight themselves.
MTG sealed product is pretty low margin when you sell by the box, but when selling boosters, the margin's pretty good as long as you're getting a good deal from a distributor. The key is to rotate a lot of stock quickly on boosters so you're not stuck with a ton of product when a set leaves the Draft format.
I dont know the margin on things like sleeves and binder pages, but assorted gaming supplies are probably high-margin. At least, I hope they are. It goes without saying that any store selling magic would be selling sleeves, deck boxes, etc. All the tangential gaming accessories, dice too.
I didn't mean to say I'd just be pushing singles, but I don't have the capital to invest 10 grand in Games Workshop, and I don't think that D&D is going to really justify its costs upfront. I'll be looking more into what non-Magic products people are buying to make sure there's nothing else I could be selling that'd make a lot of money and serve a lot of customers.
Also, I should mention that this store will be located 5-10 minutes from a major 40,000 student university by the free bus from campus. The other stores are all at least 15 minutes by car, and almost impossible to reach by public transportation. They did not pick their locations well at ALL, and thus the college population remains under-served.
This is what gives the location padding against flux in one particular play group. It is the easiest store to reach from Campus, and there is a very strong Magic presence on campus. Having a major Uni nearby is fantastic since every academic year brings more fresh faces to town.
I'm not touching LAN gaming with a 10 foot pole. I've worked in IT for years and have the skills to set up and maintain a network myself, as well as build the workstations, etc. My god is it a bad idea. I don't see how I could recoup the investment in less than a few years.
My estimated overhead is a tricky one, since I've scouted a few spaces. The one that looks ideal, and that I'll be reviewing on Monday or Tuesday, is 1700 square feet and will rent for 830 a month. That's plenty of space for counters, stockroom, and a large play area by my math. The area I'm renting in is trying desperately to attract businesses, so the rents are very agreeable. Most businesses want to be across the bridge (a 5 minute walk) so they are super-close to Campus. This would mean a two-to-threefold increase in my rent, which is impossible. The students from campus I've asked have indicated that the proximity of my selected location is acceptable to them, and would be a welcome change from having to trek out to the other stores.
I'm not sure what to expect for heating/electric type utilities for a 1700 sqft space, but I can make an educated guess by comparing it to a 1200 sqft apartment. I'd ballpark around 300 a month, but I plan to speak to the realtor to see if they have any guidance based on the last tenant.
Other overhead expenses beyond rent and utilities - internet, phone, possibly television (If I'm living in an adjacent space, I will be getting TV there anyway). These together will be about 125 after taxes. I also need to price out and find the appropriate insurance for the business, as well as find out from the local chamber of commerce what applicable taxes I'll be responsible for. I'm not including product costs here, because those are under my control and will ideally NOT be "sunk" costs
As far as one-time costs for starting up, there is POS hardware and software (register!), a few display cases, any lighting the space might not have built in, a computer, phone, a few long tables and some chairs, a sign for the front, any applicable deposits for utility and the lease, legal and accounting fees, and I'm sure there's other items i'm not thinking of.
Regarding play space, I've gone out of my way to over-estimate how much space I need. The original space I was scouting was going to give me about 500 sqft for play space, but once I saw it, I realized how little 500 sqft is. Sounds like a lot, is really damned small. While there might be only 5-10 people in the store on some days, I want to be able to accommodate larger tournaments without renting out a banquet hall.
Organization of singles is never an issue for me. The only cards that aren't sorted are crap cards in "bulk boxes". I have binders with commons/uncommons from all Standard sets, a few binders of rares that are sorted by set, and format, and a bunch of boxes filled with random junk that people probably won't want anyway (5c box anyone?). To me, it is criminal to not be able to find any card in the store in less than a minute or two. That one's a non negotiable for me.
To call out one user, Gatt, I have to disagree with your math there. First of all, the essays on startups I've read actually DO focus on small loyal customer bases as small as a handful. Don't underestimate the power of a few very happy, motivated users. They will spend money, but more importantly, we all know Magic players. When they discover an awesome new store, they'll bring their friends because they want more people to play at that store. Simply by being Magic-centric and, frankly, not a dick like the other store management, I can get a lot of customers and a lot of word-of-mouth, especially in a college town.
The playgroup buying playsets math isn't really relevant. There will be a steady rotation of players with the academic year, and by covering multiple formats, you expand past the issue of "just standard". I just don't buy that logic. Ebay also does not introduce any real overhead I have to worry about. They take a % of the closing price, which is really just the same as selling something for that % less and can be budgeted into the model. Ebay will mostly be a resource for the higher end and older cards that don't sell well in-store. Shipping costs are absorbed by the buyer. It's not enough to keep the doors open by itself, but in combination with all the other things, every small amount of revenue helps.
The fact of the matter is, I simply cannot launch with a bunch of different product lines. I can expand into them, but I won't have the capital or experience with the product to order 4-5 other games. Board games are low-margin and aren't really "recurring". People don't come back for them the way they do for Magic. I'm amenable to the other CCGs, but I'll have to learn about them as I go. I dont plan to stay MTG only forever, but launching in a very tight niche (one that is grossly under-represented locally) is a proven recipe for success. I'm confident that a well-run Magic shop can do better business than a mediocre 'catch-all' shop (of which we have two in town).
Any more experienced store owners around here? I'm curious about some of the unexpected snags you hit. I think I have a good idea of what players want - the online response has been similar to the local player response, and I have a basic idea of what to do in that vein.
Magic is an expensive hobby. Let us help you get the most for your money.
New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
Halfdane
Sek'Kuar
Please remember to autocard, just do [ card ] CARD NAME [ / card ] and for decks you can cover the whole thing in one deck tag like this: [ deck ] All of the cards in the deck [ / deck ]
THey'll be lighter for sure but there are a bunch of adults, grad students and townies that play. It'll be a bit of a crunch but definitely will stay busy.
Magic is an expensive hobby. Let us help you get the most for your money.
New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
We only play Magic, but the store carries Dungeons and Dragons, comics, game utilities, a bit of everything. If the store relied on Magic alone, well I can't imagine it would be doing the profit that it does.
So if you're sure that the guys coming into your store are interested in buying, and not just playing, then maybe you can thrive on selling Magic cards alone; but other than that I'm not so sure.
Edit; and I've seen you already covered this, but just my two cents.
__________
+$-$ *}} ?^ ?©- +*\ ?©)...*!) *!!?-(/^'}\...
As people have said, location is the number one most important thing. Being in a school zone for middle school and up is a huge advantage, especially if it's a college and the people can get there easily.
Get a small freezer and sell hot pockets and stuff, work out a deal with pepsi or coke or go rogue to get a drink cooler in there and sell drinks. The profit margin on a bottle of a water is a LOT more than on a pack of Magic. Smell candy and other small snacks as well if you have the space.
Parking is a major plus as wel las being in a safe area. One problem you may find if you run events is that many leasers try and set the hours you can be open in some malls and such, so if you want to be open later (like, after 11pm etc) you may need to stay away from some strip malls and such.
Get sanctioned, if you can. It will take up to a couple of months for you to get sanctioned with WOTC but it's well worth it to b able to offer FNM etc.
You will probably need to sell more than just Magic. At the very least, selling supplies such as sleeves, life counters and dice, deck boxes etc will help your margins, especially if you hold events. Gamers are very ill prepared, and usually have to buy sleeves and dice and whatnot pre or mid tournament.
Stay away from comics and games workshop products unless you know you can do uber volume of either. The discount we got from our distributor for GW was like 30% and comics are little better, ranging from 30-45% most of the time. Absolutely awful.
Shop around for distributors and expand your available pool. It is always helpful to have backup distributors for when WOTC inevitibly short prints something, and some distributors have really good perks for ordering with them.
I know you don't want to get into too many other products and that's fine, but you should have a couple of other things because magic packs and singles don't easily pay the bills usually. You're doing research on your area which is awesome, find out what other games Mtg players inyour area are playing, as they usually have other hobbies. For example, in my area a lot of Mtg players also play D&D. No, don't carry the 4th edition corebooks, most of the D&D community hates 4th ed from what I hear. The real money to be made is on sourcing out used books and reselling them for big profit. We used to do that, have people come in and sell books to us and then resell them. People really, really loved 3.5 and still cling to it. We also made a tidy profit buying and selling paperbacks such as Dragonlance, the Magic books, Warhammer etc.
No matter how vigilant you are, shrink happens. Some thieves have some serious balls man. We literally had to bolt binders down to our counter to keep people from running off with them from right in front of us. Set up your store in a way that you have easy viewing access to everything of value if possible.
If you get a place with some space for events, don't be afraid to rent out your space to groups looking for somewhere to play. We had chess and other board game groups wanting to use our space.
Climate control is a must. Good heat in winter in colder climates and AC in summer will help your business a lot. Just don't go broke on the utility billls, if applicible x_X
Let me know if you have any questions. ^^
Clan MTGSalivation :: Trade Thread
"In another life, in another dream,
By a different name,
Gave it all away for a memory and a quiet lie.
But I felt the face of a cold tonight,
Still don't know the score,
But I know the pain of leaving everything very far behind.
And if I could cry,
And if I could live,
What truth I did then take me there,
Heaven Goodbye."
-Heaven's Not Enough, by Steve Conte
It's not feasible to sink a lot of money into video cameras immediately, but in the end, it's probably a good idea to have them.
EDIT: From a player's standpoint, with no experience running a store.
Also, try and find a local judge in your area if you aren't one already (and be a Rules Advisor if you're not a judge)
As for everyone saying that you can't survive off of cards alone, the shop that I play at does nothing but Magic and baseball cards. And I don't think I've ever actually witnessed anyone in there buying baseball cards. The key is just building a good rapport with your customers. When a new set comes out, I could get a box online for $85, but I would much rather give my money to the shop owner I know and have a good relationship with as long as the price is still decent (<$100.)
Also, have a good website built (or build a good website yourself) and keep it updated. That might be the single most important thing you can do. I still cannot belive how awful the YourMoveGames website is and they are probably the biggest game store in Mass.
To follow up on what xFollowthereaperx said, the first store I played in back when I first started had a really cool 'customer loyalty' thing. There was a big chart on the wall with the name of every one that played on Friday night and the winner of the Friday night tournaments would get one point on the chart. At the end of the year, the player with the most points recieved $100 in store credit, second most got $75, and third most got $50. On top of keeping customers coming back every Friday to try and earn points, it's also a good way to motivate new players to learn and up their game.
A local store I know does very well. They offer 50% cash or 75% trade credit on cards they sell in the case, when those cards are sold out. Do some research into what popular casual staples sell well - Mana Flare, Mirari's Wake, Dragons, etc. This store actually does so well selling singles that I'm able to make a profit off buying Flares and Wakes and etc online and reselling to them (and they in turn must be able to flip them fast, because they're always needing more). You don't have cut it as close as 75% in trade value, but make it competitive enough to attract people and ensure a good flow of cards in and out.
The reasons for having such a competitive trade-in price are manyfold:
1. You will become known as the "go-to" store for singles. This will draw attention to your store, and that's free publicity.
2. With a well established system, you will essentially be able to replenish your showcase with no extra effort on your part. The more competitive the trade-in, the greater the turnover.
3. Despite the fact that many players will opt to trade-in instead of buy, this should have minimal impact on your singles sales. Brick and mortar singles sales are always hit and miss, and magic players are cheap. From what I've seen having worked with a store helping with their singles circuit and my buy-and-resell operation with other stores, the spikes will generally go online to buy their singles anyway. If you give them the option to trade in, they would love to trade in their Mana Flares, Wakes and etc. On the other hand, the casual players who drop in once a month will be happy to drop $40 for a few dragons and vampires. So overall, the casual players bring in the cash, the spikes give you a 25% margin by trading in unneeded stuff, as well as replenishing your stores.
I'd also echo the sentiments of other posters in suggesting that you have some basic foods available like chips, pop, microwaveable burgers, etc. These have a much higher margin than cards.
Just out of curiosity, what's the lowest amount of money you'd start with? I know that depends on the area. Just a ballpark?
Magic is an expensive hobby. Let us help you get the most for your money.
New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
First and foremost: Have a good variety of tournaments, FNM and my local store used to have a group of 10-30 people come in for FNM for a draft and then on saturday a completely different group of people come in for a standard the next day.
The standard consisted of a $15 entry free and for every person 4 packs would be awarded I dont know the prices on magic packs individually but I'm assuming thats a profit so if 10 people attended which was the minimum Ive ever seen thats $150 and over a box of inventory pushed.
Binders are my preferred preference for looking for singles organized by set and colors. KEEP BINDERS OR SINGLES UNDER CLOSE WATCH AT ALL TIMES...there are so many magic player theives which is unfortunate but you dont want a playset of baneslayers to disappear.
Always look for "hot stuff" like right now...baneslayers are hot they go for $40 easily so if a kid comes in and says can i get a few packs for this. DO IT! and put it on ebay the next day.
Trade stuff thats not moving...MOST every store I've ever been don't trade but if its just sitting in your binder and Bob wants a play set of goblin chieftans for his maelstrom pulse do it. This is were you have to know your stuff or hire someone you can trust does.
Ebay is amazing set yourself up a good fast computer and when business is slow sell singles, playsets(4 of a card) is where the money is at. Don't beg customers for there stuff but if they come to you and you know for a fact you can move it....GET ER DONE.
From what I've experienced sports cards(baseball and football primarily) and magic are the most moving products, what ever sells the best I would try to learn the most about. I honestly thing a storefront could survive off of magic a lone if you do it right.
Have a very accessible play area, shops with horrible play areas make me want to go home and bring them some stuff, dont go overboard with it but make sure there is always somewhere to play. My local shop always has boxes of merchandise on the tables so when me and my buddies walk in we turn right out.
ADVERTISE!!! let people know in advanced of an upcomming draft or Win-A-Box tournament, I hate showing up to FNMs and asking the shop owner is tonight standard or draft? I would try or have someone help you set up a make shift website and advertise it and keep it updated.
Prize support needs to be good, take it slow, keep track of your profits, and overall be fair and a nice friendly person and people will come.
I'm going to end my involvement in this thread with this.
You haven't done sufficient research on your buisness model, you haven't done sufficient research on your expenses, you overestimate the spending capacity of your target demographic, you are not accounting for your target demographics preferred activities at that stage in life and are likely overestimating participation, you are failing to diversify in a field that requires diversification, and I strongly suspect you are letting your bias color your interpretation of the documents you've read.
From what I've seen in this thread you are dead-set on opening a M:tg only shop, and you do not want to hear anything else. I very strongly suggest that you restart your research and that you get hard numbers, as well as start contemplating the amount of disposable income your target demographic is likely to possess, and that you take said hard numbers and run it past someone you trust to give their honest opinion.
Because at this stage, from what I'm reading, it looks like you're making major buisness errors in your desire to achieve your dream.
Nothing wrong with achieving your dream, but I strongly believe that unless you review your buisness plan with an open mind you won't achieve your dream.
Many dreams have died by being set in motion too early, with too little research, and insufficient preparation.
Edit:
You'll also need to account for the fact that you are not sanctioned, nor premiere, and that it's *extremely* likely that if there's 40,000 students on that campus some of whom do play M:tg, there's already someone sanctioned and supported by WOTC running events. Just because there's not a store doesn't mean there's not events.
Edit: and I should add that I have a few other people locally who could sanction me no problem.
Magic is an expensive hobby. Let us help you get the most for your money.
New to Magic or trading and need some advice? I'm always happy to answer questions and lend guidance!
Near as I can tell, the success of a store depends greatly on what kind of community grows around it. We've got 2 premiere stores in town; one is about 5 minutes from campus, has a huge selection of singles at StarCity prices, and has multiple tournaments a week. The other is a half hour from campus, has a much smaller selection, and generally gives 20% off of SC prices on his singles. I really don't know how he does it, but then, he moves stock like no other. Every week after the draft, his display case is filled to the brim, and before the draft the following week, there are perhaps two or three singles per set.
The store near campus is spartan in appearance and has a huge play area. Their commons and uncommons are all in bulk boxes sorted by color, with the set names marked on the front, often heavily abbreviated in bad handwriting. The other has a common/uncommon binder for every set from ZEN to 7-10 years back, and every one has the official title art for its respective set on the side and covers. The dollar rares are in bulk boxes, sorted by set and color. All others are in a display case, or in a binder behind the counter if you ask after a card you don't see. The display case singles are ordered by set if it's in extended, and ordered roughly by relative price for older singles.
The owner of the shop near campus is an excellent player (won states last year) and is somewhat boisterous and arrogant, from what I've seen. When I went in there to buy some singles that the other shop didn't have, I looked around the store for about five minutes before asking the owner where I could find a particular rare, whereupon he shoved a Lorwyn binder at me. I started towards one of the vacant play tables when he said that I had to keep the binder at the counter (makes sense, but he really should have said something). I then got my cards and waited a couple minutes while he played WoW before I could actually purchase the cards (at a 50% markup from what the other store would have sold it for).
I don't intend to visit said store again. I personally know only one player that frequents that store, and he pretty much only plays legacy, for which the other store is just beginning to offer tournaments. There is a playerbase there, but it tends to just be the spikier spikes who enjoy being around what they perceive to be the elite of the Magic community. They don't have much of a casual playerbase.
From here on out, I'll be talking about the other store.
Pretty much every Friday on campus, our play group (which exists in some from from 9-6 pretty much every weekday in the same location, and has about 20ish regulars, though up to a dozen are actually there at any one time) organizes a few carpools to the store, and once FNM is finished, they do the same thing to get back. We're relatively casual, though most of us do maintain competitive standard decks.
The shop owner stocks DnD books, Warhammer figurines and paint, and all the Magic accessories you would expect (don't forget the binders and the 9-slot card pages; your base needs to have a collection to display in order to want to expand it), as well as candy bards, chips, and a fridge with water and sodas. He's also located near a taco shop, which sees some business at pretty much every tournament. I've honestly never seen him sell a single DnD book or Warhammer figurine or paint or what-have-you, and I've never seen that stock change at all. I've never asked if he moves any, but I'd say that he probably only barely moves enough to warrant keeping it in stock, and it's mostly just wasted space. He pretty much exclusively sells Magic products and accessories and food. He's also a great guy who really doesn't actually play Magic (that I've ever seen) and is a fun guy to talk to, and I've never seen him be rude to anyone, except in jest with the regulars.
The community consists of quite a few middle-to-high schoolers, as well as some older players and a healthy number of college players, along with a couple parents who play with their kids. Keep the atmosphere toned down so you don't lose the younger community. Also get a dedicated judge or two; we have a recently-promoted L3 and another recently-promoted L2 who have been there since I got there, and they're there pretty much every week, are great guys, and are entirely competent at their job. Judges are the glue that holds the competitive community together, not to mention their actual judging duties.
There's probably more that I could say, but I've been pretty long-winded anyway and probably included a lot you already know. I'm not offering much advice since I don't know what I can say. My opinion of the store near campus is undoubtedly warped by my limited experiences, but what I've seen is enough to dissuade me from going back. Give a good first impression, then offer a good community.
The biggest thing (to me as a player) has always been the crowd. There are a number of shops around the Twin Cities here, and the ones I come back to always tend to be the ones with a solid playerbase.
I'm assuming you have a number of contacts in the local magic community - if you don't, you need to start networking asap. You'll need to do anything you can to pull in magic players to your shop.
I think someone else mentioned something about elitists - they are public enemy number 1 when it comes to building a magic community at your store. If people are acting this way, pull them aside in private when you have the chance.
If there are player organized MTG groups running events without an actual shop, reach out to the organizer to see if you can convince them to either run their event at your shop, or have you run the event for them. Also, don't be afraid of casual groups (cube draft and the like). I'd had offers from stores to provide prize support and table/chairs for my cube group for a $5 buyin from everyone involved. This is a win-win for most groups - and money in your pocket if you have free table space.
Beyond that - I would really look at branching out to support other products. MTG can still be the main focus (and from the research you've done, it sounds like the area doesn't have a MTG focused shop yet) - but I would strongly suggest getting at least familiar with some of the other CCGs and collectable miniature games. Diversification is almost always the correct call.
I don't know of a single game shop in my area that is _just_ magic. Some of them are more focused than others, but they all sell secondary products. Be it board games, comics, other collectable games (CCGs/WarHammer/etc).
One final thing, I would strongly look at forming a LLC at least. You will want to ensure that you are protected in case the business venture does not do as well as anticipated. It's a few more hoops to jump through, but in the long run its probably the smart thing to do.
Best of luck to you.
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
Take your rent and other bills (expected) and multiply by 12. That is the amount I would plan on having on hand or in the bank when you open your doors. You ARE going to have slow and bad months.