Hi my name is Andrew. My wife and I have been thinking about opening a game shop in our area specifically for MTG. We really enjoy playing the game however there is not anywhere around us that we can go that has events like tournaments, leagues or even drafts. I have been doing some research and I was wondering where is the best place to buy supplies like deck boxes, sleeves and collector books aswell as buy cases of booster boxes and intro packs ect. I really am interested in having a store that will host events but I also want to have a good variety of affordable cards and supplies for my customers. Any advise would be much appreciated.
Hi my name is Andrew. My wife and I have been thinking about opening a game shop in our area specifically for MTG. We really enjoy playing the game however there is not anywhere around us that we can go that has events like tournaments, leagues or even drafts. I have been doing some research and I was wondering where is the best place to buy supplies like deck boxes, sleeves and collector books aswell as buy cases of booster boxes and intro packs ect. I really am interested in having a store that will host events but I also want to have a good variety of affordable cards and supplies for my customers. Any advise would be much appreciated.
Look in the yellow pages for "Gaming and Hobby wholesaler" and start making calls. Do you have a location yet? How much $$ do you have for initial inventory? Do you have a marketing plan, have you done market research in the area to see if it can support a gaming store, etc etc.
Well we found a nice location in a high traffic commercial area. The rent is very resonable. We have around $7000 that we are comfortable with investing at first. Like I said there are not any gaming stores in the area for atleast 60 miles. You can buy packs and stuff like that at WalMart in town but that's it. You cannot buy single anywhere around and I am positive that would be popular in this area. I know quite a few people who play magic but nobody has the $ or guts to try anything new. I am fairly positive the arear we are interested in will support a gaming store. Nothing in my yellow pages for "gaming and Hobby wholesaler" We live in Northeren Maine if that explains anything.
Well we found a nice location in a high traffic commercial area. The rent is very resonable. We have around $7000 that we are comfortable with investing at first. Like I said there are not any gaming stores in the area for atleast 60 miles. You can buy packs and stuff like that at WalMart in town but that's it. You cannot buy single anywhere around and I am positive that would be popular in this area. I know quite a few people who play magic but nobody has the $ or guts to try anything new. I am fairly positive the arear we are interested in will support a gaming store. Nothing in my yellow pages for "gaming and Hobby wholesaler" We live in Northeren Maine if that explains anything.
How much is the rent, and how long a lease do you need to sign? How are you "fairly positive" the area will support a gaming store? Have you done any market research? Have you talked to any other local affliated stores (comic shops, sports memorabilia stores, etc)
We have around $7000 that we are comfortable with investing at first. Like I said there are not any gaming stores in the area for atleast 60 miles.
OK, your location sounds like a winner due to lack of competition. However, your plan sounds like a loser because you are WOEFULLY undercapitalized.
You need about a year's operating expenses in the bank for a hobby gaming store, because it takes that long for recurring traffic to get up to par and you need to be expanding inventory (so you can't take profits or even pay yourselves for work) in the meantime. That's all assuming you don't have to do any buildout, which is probably not the best assumption -- even a very suitable retail pad usually needs some modification. To reduce theft and shrinkage you need a cash wrap near the front of the store and lots of no-contact fixtures to put spiffy cards behind, such as display cases and towers, then you need slotwall or gridwall for your contact merchandise racks.
If you are planning to open a store that's 2k sqft or less, you need to have about $55-60k in the bank, liquid cash, and you'll be good to start up. Seven thou is just going to get you run over like roadkill, and that's not even against competing stores, but against the normal tides and forces of business and commerce.
Well we have spoke to 1 individual business owner in the area that sells boxes and or booster packs. He is about 10 miles away from where we want to open a shop. He does not host events or sell singles at all. He just has a small selection af cards in his coin shop. I was told that he was a wholesaler but I have checked his prices and he is very expensive at $105-$115 a booster box. His wholesale prices are around $90. Is that a good price? I have been doing research for this for a few weeks. However I honestly haven't got a clue what I am doing except that I really would like to have a cool game shop. In the area we live in I need to be able to have affordable prices.
Rent $600 Lease 1year
Well we have spoke to 1 individual business owner in the area that sells boxes and or booster packs. He is about 10 miles away from where we want to open a shop. He does not host events or sell singles at all. He just has a small selection af cards in his coin shop. I was told that he was a wholesaler but I have checked his prices and he is very expensive at $105-$115 a booster box. His wholesale prices are around $90. Is that a good price? I have been doing research for this for a few weeks. However I honestly haven't got a clue what I am doing except that I really would like to have a cool game shop. In the area we live in I need to be able to have affordable prices.
Rent $600 Lease 1year
That's not wholesale. Wholesale is Alliance or GTS or whatever, where you get booster boxes for around $420 per case. (~$70 per box, with minimum orders). And they check to make sure you're a brick and mortar store and you can't sell boxes online unless WOTC gives you the go-ahead.
That's not wholesale. Wholesale is Alliance or GTS or whatever, where you get booster boxes for around $420 per case. (~$70 per box, with minimum orders). And they check to make sure you're a brick and mortar store and you can't sell boxes online unless WOTC gives you the go-ahead.
Getting straight from wizards is about $75/box after shipping, getting from a distributor is usually around $75-$80/box after shipping depending upon how much you are buying from them.
ok this may sound foolish to you but what is alliance or GTS? I have read all about WOTC and their rules for buying directly from wizards. You need to be a core member and such. That takes atleast 12 months though so where do I buy stuff from in the meantime. My overhead is not going to be much. I allready have really nice display cases. I plan on selling singles and allowing the public to come in and play magic. I want to have some other merchandice in stock like sleeves and boxes, play mats ect. I want to do drafts and host leagues. We have a few other ideas aswell.
I know I cannot buy directy from Wizards however can I buy from distributers of wizards without being a core member.
It should be noted that for our shop (which didnt have to worry about the singles side of things since I run that seperately and give the shop a percentage of my sales for being able to sell there.) spent between $20,000 and $30,000 in start up costs of buying up inventory, buying up materials (slatwall, hooks, shelving, etc) and the owner actually made all of the gaming tables, desk and was able to get cases for cheap from another shop that had closed down. Outside of rent you have to pay for all of the business license costs that your city has, you have to pay for a sign in accordance with your city codes, which can cost a LOT, as well as making sure you have the money to pay for utilities and insurance and such for the shop beyond just the costs for rent. Also, if you plan to try to price your inventory cheaply, you have to understand that you are going to be trying to get enough money from your sales beyond your costs to at least be able to cover your rent/utilities and such.
For example, if you figure that you will be able to pull off a 50% profit margin compared to your costs, then you would have to do about $3,000 in sales per month in order to gain enough profit to cover your fixed costs of rent/utilities/other bills.
Also its important not to pigeon hole yourself into just one game. Our shop was successful because we provided product for many different games, both card and miniature, and roleplaying games (magic, D&D, various miniature game lines, and board games.) $7k isnt nearly enough to start off of. $15-$20 would be a more reasonable starting amount to get going with, especially if you want to deal with singles as well.
I appreciate everyones input on this discussion. However you really don't understand that where I live in Northern "end of the world" Maine the town I want to do business in would practically PAY ME to open up a shop. THe town is in need of small business. There really are not many rules and guidelines and or lisences you have to deal with in order to open up a business here. The location I am interested in renting for only $600/month that includes heat and electricity allready has display cases a 20ft long peg board wall with hooks and everything. My wife and I allready have a large collection of MTG cards. We plan on purchasing about 8-10 tables from Sam's Club, advertising in our local papers and radio. We know that with Magic people for some reason just seem to crawl out of the wood work and that it is definately going to be popular. We have considered other games aswell and we want to have video game systems available for play ie xbox, wii. What I am having trouble with is finding out where to buy the card and supplies at WHOLESALE prices. We need cases of booster boxes, intro packs, Ultra pro supplies ect.
$7k isnt nearly enough to start off of. $15-$20 would be a more reasonable starting amount to get going with, especially if you want to deal with singles as well.
^^ Yes, yes! To Obi-Wan you listen, AWolfgang73! Seven grand ain't gonna cut it! Triple that, at the bare minimum, and then you've got a shot. Personally, I wouldn't touch a game shop project with less than fifty large in cash reserves. You HAVE to be able to set up solidly, grow well, and be ready to buy collections (where the real profit is) on little to no notice.
A guy walks in the door with $20k worth of singles, you need to be able to write him a check for $4k without even blinking, or else your chance is going to go out the window and across the (virtual) street to SCG. You need to be positioned to do deals like that, because what's really going to happen is that you won't see that guy but once in a blue moon, but you WILL get people asking three times a week if you can buy their $1200-1500 collection and you need to be able to offer a few hundred without blinking... and those add up after a while.
It bears repeating: ***IF you are undercapitalized and your initial setup does not go well, your store will struggle the entire time, and then probably fail.***
Alliance and GTS are distributors of hobby gaming products such as MTG, but also everything else you will need like dice, books, supplies, etc. You'll buy from them until you have the credentials to buy from WOTC, and then you'll buy from BOTH to assure yourself enough product on release day. You have to have a brick and mortar store to buy from them. It's not like internet "wholesalers" who just sell in bulk to anyone but not at nearly as good prices.
You bring up excellent points that I will most definately consider. Since this is something that I am really interested in doing I will do more research and write up a great business plan for the bank. Thanks for the input.
I appreciate everyones input on this discussion. However you really don't understand that where I live in Northern "end of the world" Maine the town I want to do business in would practically PAY ME to open up a shop. THe town is in need of small business. There really are not many rules and guidelines and or lisences you have to deal with in order to open up a business here. The location I am interested in renting for only $600/month that includes heat and electricity allready has display cases a 20ft long peg board wall with hooks and everything. My wife and I allready have a large collection of MTG cards. We plan on purchasing about 8-10 tables from Sam's Club, advertising in our local papers and radio. We know that with Magic people for some reason just seem to crawl out of the wood work and that it is definately going to be popular. We have considered other games aswell and we want to have video game systems available for play ie xbox, wii. What I am having trouble with is finding out where to buy the card and supplies at WHOLESALE prices. We need cases of booster boxes, intro packs, Ultra pro supplies ect.
I would start first with alliance and see what you can come up with, as they are a huge distributor within the US. That said, I would contact the manufacturer's of the games, talk to someone there about how you are looking to start up a store and you need to find out information about distributors that sell their product so that you can get set up to be able to sell their products in your new shop. So try contacting Wotc, and Ultra-Pro and see what you can come up with.
That said, it sounds like you have a lot of this thought out allready, which is great. And having a large collection to start with (Like I did) helps a lot too, as far as starting costs go. I wish you the best of luck!
It bears repeating: ***IF you are undercapitalized and your initial setup does not go well, your store will struggle the entire time, and then probably fail.***
To be fair, he doesn't need all that in cash himself: He can get small business loans. If the city is really hard up it may have programs that give grants to small business start ups or (more likely) very favorable tax incentives. If his rent is $600 including utilities, He could probably get by on 7K cash on hand and a 10-15K line of credit from a local bank.
What I am having trouble with is finding out where to buy the card and supplies at WHOLESALE prices. We need cases of booster boxes, intro packs, Ultra pro supplies ect.
I linked you to 8 of them in Maine. Get on the phone tomorow and call them.
We have considered other games aswell and we want to have video game systems available for play ie xbox, wii
Don't do this. All this gets you is people sitting in your store, taking up space, and not making you any $$. Multiple product lines means multiple gaming product lines, not putting a free arcade in your store.
To be fair, he doesn't need all that in cash himself: He can get small business loans. If the city is really hard up it may have programs that give grants to small business start ups or (more likely) very favorable tax incentives. If his rent is $600 including utilities, He could probably get by on 7K cash on hand and a 10-15K line of credit from a local bank.
Does he want to "get by" or succeed, though? I agree it would be a good idea to have a line of credit for liquidity. If the city is really behind him that much, he should be able to put together $15k in cash and $15k in a LOC and maybe get a no-permit buildout and things might look decent for the start. I hope this place isn't too small at $600/mo. Never been to Maine, so maybe rents are just that cheap out there.
By comparison, in the Phoenix area, which is probably no more expensive than average, a 2k sqft pad (which is the bare minimum really to be effective) will run at least $2000-$2200/mo in any part of town that isn't known for its meth production. Back before the economy went kaput, that same pad would have been $4500/mo.
Don't do this. All this gets you is people sitting in your store, taking up space, and not making you any $$. Multiple product lines means multiple gaming product lines, not putting a free arcade in your store.
^agreed. Though I have talked to owners who say it works out well to put a couple of classic arcade uprights in the store, because you get every last quarter from your customers that way. It only costs a couple hundred dollars for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo and maybe $500 more for a 4-slot Neo Geo. And they would get played.
Console rental is bad... too much work to monitor usage for revenue. Plus you're likely going against the software EULA. Stuff like WoW already has internet cafe licensing that solves that, and its reasonable, but you have to have a bunch of PCs there then, to do that.
ACD, Aladdin, Alliance/Diamond, Great American Coin, GTS, Hamps, Mad Al, Magazine Exchange, Peachtree, Southern Hobby, Sports Images..those are the official distributors in the US. Anyone else is just someone buying from a distributor and trying to be cheap. (note, it's possible the list on the WotC website is a month or two old, in theory someone new could have come along).
That being said, as soon as you can go direct, you should open that line of buying. That doesn't mean you'll always want to use it, but if Magic is really going to be your focus, you really should try.
And a lack of local competition doesn't mean much depending on the size of your town and the local area (not sure if you said this).
Does he want to "get by" or succeed, though? I agree it would be a good idea to have a line of credit for liquidity. If the city is really behind him that much, he should be able to put together $15k in cash and $15k in a LOC and maybe get a no-permit buildout and things might look decent for the start. I hope this place isn't too small at $600/mo. Never been to Maine, so maybe rents are just that cheap out there.
I disagree, I think he's on the road to disaster.
What I'm getting from this is that there's nowhere to play Magic, and he and his wife like magic, so they thought they might fill the void. Which is fine.
Except it's going terribly wrong from there. The impression I'm getting from there is he wants to open a Magic centered store. He states he lives in a small town, which implies low population, which leads to low sales volume. Compunded by opening a store with only a single product line. As one poster noted, you need to support multiple products to succeed, especially in a low population area.
7k's going to get chewed up in very little time. $600/moth, $1200 in two months. Just one case of each current set is what? Another $400 each? $2000 or so for 5 sets? Write off another $500 in deck protectors and whatnot. By the end of month two he's spent at least half of his money. His lease is 12 months, and he's not even investing 12 months worth of rent. While not making any income from a job.
That's just not going to end well when half of your money is gone in the first 4 weeks.
^agreed. Though I have talked to owners who say it works out well to put a couple of classic arcade uprights in the store, because you get every last quarter from your customers that way. It only costs a couple hundred dollars for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo and maybe $500 more for a 4-slot Neo Geo. And they would get played.
Console rental is bad... too much work to monitor usage for revenue. Plus you're likely going against the software EULA. Stuff like WoW already has internet cafe licensing that solves that, and its reasonable, but you have to have a bunch of PCs there then, to do that.
Agreed. There's another $800 just for the systems, for the low end systems, toss in another $200 for controllers and rechargable packs, now you'll need buisness internet, another $100. Then you've gotta get games, figure there's $500-$1000. Then there's the TV, that's another $500-$1000. That's pretty much all the money he's got to invest. He's now banking on making his rent based on sales where there's no guaranteed market of sufficient size known at this point. With this, by the end of the first month, there's a very good chance he can't pay his rent.
Then you've gotta keep up with the latest games, at $60 a pop and hope people want to play them, and then there's the replacement of worn out parts. None of this even guarantees you revenue, because most people can already play these games with friends at home for free.
A coin-op will get you some revenue though, and they're not horribly expensive. You can usually pick them up for cheap through craigslist.
Going to bump this and get other thoughts because I am looking at doing this in the future as well. The two primary stores I go to, one is 4 1/2 hours north of my and the other is like an hour and a half south. These two stores are primarily set up for tournaments. Neither store has a lot of open stock on shelves for sale. There primary income comes from selling singles on tcgplayer.com Both tell me that is where a LOT of there cash comes from. They have there glass cases/counters that have there Magic supplies, sleeves, boxes, notebook sleeves etc etc etcd Plus boxes of cards from each set and then there singles.
My idea is maybe starting with 20k-30k business loan
most of the store would be tables
would like to have 1-2 rooms in the back for AD&D, Warhammer etc etc
Get to selling singles on tcgplayer
Not have much stock in the store, mostly have it behind the counters
6-8 PC's networked together for online tournaments.
In the back have consoles set up, maybe a couple and make it a small fee per hour or something
Have a feature match area for tournaments that are recorded, these can be uploaded to a store youtube acct (maybe it helps bring people in)
Also wanna set up a couple 40inch maybe a little larger wide screens, so we have movies or music playing at all times to just set a better mood.
My area is in Waycross Georgia. Smaller sized town, maybe 40k population, stores have come and gone here, main reason I think they failed is they never seemed to have much MEAT in there store, they all seemed to be a dull place to go to unless a tourny was going on. I used to run mtg tounrys in the basement of a local book store, we had 25 ish show up each FNM. I am sure it would draw people from neighboring local towns and cities if we made our events as big as possible. Rankings prizes etc etc
Setting up consoles is a terrible idea. I've never seen this happen in any gamestore i've been to. On top of that making it pay to play is bad as well. You want the gamestore to be a store about gaming and not video gaming.
This goes the same with online tournaments. Most people who play online only do it when there aren't enough people in their area to play or some other reason. Atleast that's what i've found.
Also get some comics to sell or something else. Rarely do these sorts of stores survive from just selling mtg cards. You need something else for backup. It doesn't even have to be comics. But you can't put all your eggs in one basket. That's like stock trading 101 right there. (Yeah i know this isn't stock trading but it does have something to do with business)
hmm well, the two stores I go to do the consoles and make most of there revenue from singles through tcgplayer and there both booking. As for my future store ... of course it will not be a MtG "only" type store, even though I do not play Yugio, there seems to be a serious following with it so I am sure we would run those. The store is still a year or so away for me, I am just in the planning stage, I am about to lock in 20 years with the State so once the 20 year mark comes Im doing my store.
The networking of 8 or so PC's together is an idea only, I am just thinking all over the place right now trying to come up with other ideas for the store itself.
The only stores I've seen have success do it because they don't stick primarily to MTG. One LGS has D&D, Warhammer, YuGiOh, and board gaming nights in addition to Magic. Another LGS isn't really an LGS at all; they are primarily a comic books store, but they sell MTG, records, video games (new and vintage), DVDs, and sports memorabilia. Another store is actually primarily MTG (TJ Collectables), but they have a pretty big presence as an online retailer to supplement what the store does. They also run 3 drafts a week, which helps supplement their income, and they exploit every possible way to cash in on customers by stocking vending machines, putting in coin-op videogames, and even selling food like pizza and sandwiches.
I know there's a really good store in Standish, ME. Maybe you could make a day trip down there, play in a weekend event, and get a sense of how they run their business?
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
The only stores I've seen have success do it because they don't stick primarily to MTG. One LGS has D&D, Warhammer, YuGiOh, and board gaming nights in addition to Magic. Another LGS isn't really an LGS at all; they are primarily a comic books store, but they sell MTG, records, video games (new and vintage), DVDs, and sports memorabilia. Another store is actually primarily MTG (TJ Collectables), but they have a pretty big presence as an online retailer to supplement what the store does. They also run 3 drafts a week, which helps supplement their income, and they exploit every possible way to cash in on customers by stocking vending machines, putting in coin-op videogames, and even selling food like pizza and sandwiches.
I know there's a really good store in Standish, ME. Maybe you could make a day trip down there, play in a weekend event, and get a sense of how they run their business?
- I plan to do other stuff other than MtG ... for sure. Like mentioned above, odds are I will have something like this as well going on.
- As for the online selling goes that you spoke of, I am assuming selling cards like stores do using the tcgplayer website correct? Maybe even work Ebay as well.
- Had not thought of selling sodas, bottled waters etc etc and snacks, maybe even hot foods, (not sure on the hot foods) but for sure snacks and drinks. By a case of Bottled Water for 3.50$ and selling Bottled Waters for 50 cents a pop .... stuff like that.
- The trip to ME to the store would be just a tad out of my driving range
PS: lovin this thread, folks can keep the ideas coming. Also where are other places on the net to discuss opening up a store like this, maybe to get ideas and info on the best ways to buy at wholesale for the cheapest prices etc
Honestly, I think one of the best things you could do if you were interested in starting a brick and mortar with a focus on Magic would be to start actually developing a stock of singles, selling product and developing a reputation in your area.
Lots of small towns have building, Lion's Clubs, Elk's clubs, etc.
Before jumping head long in, it'd be smarter to talke with either the city or those particular clubs, and ask to rent their hall for the night.
On that evening, sell cards, buy cards, and run events- especially draft events.
On that shoestring budget ($700), you could easily run a year or two of such events and develop a respectable stock of cards that could manage taking hits like several dealers just did in the past few weeks. Two stoneforges in event decks, Sol Rings in every commander box... every dealer under the sun just took a hit on every single one of those cards in their stock, and well, if they're any dealer of note, they probably had at least 10 of both on hand.
If the city is really excited about having new business, you could explain your plan to them, and they'd probably be happy to help... even advertise it in their city papers, flyers, at the city hall, etc.
If you're lucky, you'll have the players in the area come to know you, like you, and be willing to cut sweetheart deals. For instance, I know that with parts of my collection, I could easily box up everything and cash out at Starcitygames pretty easily, but if there's a local dealer that I trust, I'd much rather give them a good price on it all (even lower than star city's), because I want to keep the local community strong.
In doing this, you gain lots of experience- learning how to price, learning what to pay that the locals will accept without overpaying, generating goodwill in the local customer groups, and very likely generating goodwill with the city.
If you do well on the events, you can reinvest part into more product, and put some into the bank to be able to fund the opening of your brick and mortar location.
Learn about related things, and make it clear you are buying- and willing to pay a fair price... because remember, generating local goodwill is something you are interested in.
Using that plan, $7000 should easily afford you a year's worth of events- and it's a far, far less risky proposition- it basically only puts that $7000 up to be lost, rather than ALL a brick and mortar would require, plus- you both could get jobs during that year, and do your best to put half into savings to put you closer to a place where you do have closer to what it would take to open the store. If you both worked minimum wage jobs for a year, that would be $15,000 after taxes if you both banked half... and that's assuming that all of that previous $7000 is now a sunk cost into the business, or hasn't produced a profit.
While the hesitation could kill the sweetheart deal on rent, it very likely would give you a much better idea of what it would take to keep that business running, let you know if you're sick or not with dealing with the spoiled willful children and petulent adults acting like children (this is no small thing. I know people who hate Magic now as they've spent too much time around people who are too serious about it).
There's a whole lot of aspects too it that I don't know if you've considered. I've even seen stores that could boast having large weekly FNMs every single week, but was still running poorly, because their prize structure was overly generous, and they had a core group of players that were leeching them dry, and making the play environment less than pleasant for any new business. (Loud, smelly, and deeply lacking in social graces).
To qoute Yoda "Do, or do not. There is no try."
If you're going to do it, it has to be a balls out, earnest effort.
You need to know everything about every format, or have direct access to someone who does. You need to know the business end. You need to know what your customer base will be. You'll need to know if you can have food on premises, as that's A HUGE profit center for most gaming stores.
It can't just be "Oh, I like magic, and would like to have a place to play.. and look how cheap rent is!" That's just destined to fail.
Also, unless you're going to be on the end where you're purchasing used videogames for slightly more than Gamestop, stay away from videogames. Discount stores will kill you on price because they're ordering thousands of game. Gamestop will kill you on everything else.
Stay away from computers- notice how internet cafes crawled up and died? People won't look kindly on coming in to do some lan gaming and paying 8-10 dollars an hour, but with the expense you'd have to take to put in even a small network of 8 PCs with reasonable specifications, you're going to be thousands in the hole from the get go.
- The primary thing is do I start up in my town or move 45 minutes away and start up in Brunswick, Georgia. Brunswick has a small store than runs some booster draft but there not a major store. Waycross has had em in the past, none succeeded (mainly from not really throwing in everything they had to actually make the place work). I am not even sure how many still play the game in this town, me and my son go to Douglas Georgia (35 minutes North) for FNM and Jacksonville 1.45 hours South for Qualifiers etc etc and Atlanta and Orlando Florida for the big events ... both 4 hours, maybe a little more each direction. So this general area is not really tapped on much.
As for this town I live in, I really do not know how many we have, I know we did have a place (noone really knew about) that ran local tournys 10-15 strong, but I am thinking could have been a lot more if people woulda actually KNOWN about it. I am sure If I can get mine going serious people from the surrounding areas would come to them Valdosta Georgia (they mostly only do Draft) Douglas Georgia. I am SURE I could get a larger player base than the other stores did. As of now, me and my son keep up with the pro circuit via the net, watch all the SCG feeds, we do FNM and try to go to ALL the major events that come close to us. I really do not know what we have here cept me, my son and my friend but I am sure there are others. Might be I need to get word out "somehow" in my local area, maybe set up a set of message boards for them to congregate on as a community and see where that goes over time.
Good ideas from you, love the information, thanks.
Look in the yellow pages for "Gaming and Hobby wholesaler" and start making calls. Do you have a location yet? How much $$ do you have for initial inventory? Do you have a marketing plan, have you done market research in the area to see if it can support a gaming store, etc etc.
Yellow pages.com
http://www.yellowpages.com/maine/gaming-wholesale?q=gaming+wholesale&refinements%5Bheadingtext%5D=Games+%26+Game+Supplies-Wholesale+%26+Manufacturers
There's 8 companies in Maine.
How much is the rent, and how long a lease do you need to sign? How are you "fairly positive" the area will support a gaming store? Have you done any market research? Have you talked to any other local affliated stores (comic shops, sports memorabilia stores, etc)
OK, your location sounds like a winner due to lack of competition. However, your plan sounds like a loser because you are WOEFULLY undercapitalized.
You need about a year's operating expenses in the bank for a hobby gaming store, because it takes that long for recurring traffic to get up to par and you need to be expanding inventory (so you can't take profits or even pay yourselves for work) in the meantime. That's all assuming you don't have to do any buildout, which is probably not the best assumption -- even a very suitable retail pad usually needs some modification. To reduce theft and shrinkage you need a cash wrap near the front of the store and lots of no-contact fixtures to put spiffy cards behind, such as display cases and towers, then you need slotwall or gridwall for your contact merchandise racks.
If you are planning to open a store that's 2k sqft or less, you need to have about $55-60k in the bank, liquid cash, and you'll be good to start up. Seven thou is just going to get you run over like roadkill, and that's not even against competing stores, but against the normal tides and forces of business and commerce.
Good luck!
Rent $600 Lease 1year
That's not wholesale. Wholesale is Alliance or GTS or whatever, where you get booster boxes for around $420 per case. (~$70 per box, with minimum orders). And they check to make sure you're a brick and mortar store and you can't sell boxes online unless WOTC gives you the go-ahead.
Getting straight from wizards is about $75/box after shipping, getting from a distributor is usually around $75-$80/box after shipping depending upon how much you are buying from them.
I know I cannot buy directy from Wizards however can I buy from distributers of wizards without being a core member.
Merged.
-Memnarch
For example, if you figure that you will be able to pull off a 50% profit margin compared to your costs, then you would have to do about $3,000 in sales per month in order to gain enough profit to cover your fixed costs of rent/utilities/other bills.
Also its important not to pigeon hole yourself into just one game. Our shop was successful because we provided product for many different games, both card and miniature, and roleplaying games (magic, D&D, various miniature game lines, and board games.) $7k isnt nearly enough to start off of. $15-$20 would be a more reasonable starting amount to get going with, especially if you want to deal with singles as well.
^^ Yes, yes! To Obi-Wan you listen, AWolfgang73! Seven grand ain't gonna cut it! Triple that, at the bare minimum, and then you've got a shot. Personally, I wouldn't touch a game shop project with less than fifty large in cash reserves. You HAVE to be able to set up solidly, grow well, and be ready to buy collections (where the real profit is) on little to no notice.
A guy walks in the door with $20k worth of singles, you need to be able to write him a check for $4k without even blinking, or else your chance is going to go out the window and across the (virtual) street to SCG. You need to be positioned to do deals like that, because what's really going to happen is that you won't see that guy but once in a blue moon, but you WILL get people asking three times a week if you can buy their $1200-1500 collection and you need to be able to offer a few hundred without blinking... and those add up after a while.
It bears repeating: ***IF you are undercapitalized and your initial setup does not go well, your store will struggle the entire time, and then probably fail.***
Alliance and GTS are distributors of hobby gaming products such as MTG, but also everything else you will need like dice, books, supplies, etc. You'll buy from them until you have the credentials to buy from WOTC, and then you'll buy from BOTH to assure yourself enough product on release day. You have to have a brick and mortar store to buy from them. It's not like internet "wholesalers" who just sell in bulk to anyone but not at nearly as good prices.
I would start first with alliance and see what you can come up with, as they are a huge distributor within the US. That said, I would contact the manufacturer's of the games, talk to someone there about how you are looking to start up a store and you need to find out information about distributors that sell their product so that you can get set up to be able to sell their products in your new shop. So try contacting Wotc, and Ultra-Pro and see what you can come up with.
That said, it sounds like you have a lot of this thought out allready, which is great. And having a large collection to start with (Like I did) helps a lot too, as far as starting costs go. I wish you the best of luck!
To be fair, he doesn't need all that in cash himself: He can get small business loans. If the city is really hard up it may have programs that give grants to small business start ups or (more likely) very favorable tax incentives. If his rent is $600 including utilities, He could probably get by on 7K cash on hand and a 10-15K line of credit from a local bank.
I linked you to 8 of them in Maine. Get on the phone tomorow and call them.
Don't do this. All this gets you is people sitting in your store, taking up space, and not making you any $$. Multiple product lines means multiple gaming product lines, not putting a free arcade in your store.
Does he want to "get by" or succeed, though? I agree it would be a good idea to have a line of credit for liquidity. If the city is really behind him that much, he should be able to put together $15k in cash and $15k in a LOC and maybe get a no-permit buildout and things might look decent for the start. I hope this place isn't too small at $600/mo. Never been to Maine, so maybe rents are just that cheap out there.
By comparison, in the Phoenix area, which is probably no more expensive than average, a 2k sqft pad (which is the bare minimum really to be effective) will run at least $2000-$2200/mo in any part of town that isn't known for its meth production. Back before the economy went kaput, that same pad would have been $4500/mo.
^agreed. Though I have talked to owners who say it works out well to put a couple of classic arcade uprights in the store, because you get every last quarter from your customers that way. It only costs a couple hundred dollars for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo and maybe $500 more for a 4-slot Neo Geo. And they would get played.
Console rental is bad... too much work to monitor usage for revenue. Plus you're likely going against the software EULA. Stuff like WoW already has internet cafe licensing that solves that, and its reasonable, but you have to have a bunch of PCs there then, to do that.
That being said, as soon as you can go direct, you should open that line of buying. That doesn't mean you'll always want to use it, but if Magic is really going to be your focus, you really should try.
And a lack of local competition doesn't mean much depending on the size of your town and the local area (not sure if you said this).
I disagree, I think he's on the road to disaster.
What I'm getting from this is that there's nowhere to play Magic, and he and his wife like magic, so they thought they might fill the void. Which is fine.
Except it's going terribly wrong from there. The impression I'm getting from there is he wants to open a Magic centered store. He states he lives in a small town, which implies low population, which leads to low sales volume. Compunded by opening a store with only a single product line. As one poster noted, you need to support multiple products to succeed, especially in a low population area.
7k's going to get chewed up in very little time. $600/moth, $1200 in two months. Just one case of each current set is what? Another $400 each? $2000 or so for 5 sets? Write off another $500 in deck protectors and whatnot. By the end of month two he's spent at least half of his money. His lease is 12 months, and he's not even investing 12 months worth of rent. While not making any income from a job.
That's just not going to end well when half of your money is gone in the first 4 weeks.
Agreed. There's another $800 just for the systems, for the low end systems, toss in another $200 for controllers and rechargable packs, now you'll need buisness internet, another $100. Then you've gotta get games, figure there's $500-$1000. Then there's the TV, that's another $500-$1000. That's pretty much all the money he's got to invest. He's now banking on making his rent based on sales where there's no guaranteed market of sufficient size known at this point. With this, by the end of the first month, there's a very good chance he can't pay his rent.
Then you've gotta keep up with the latest games, at $60 a pop and hope people want to play them, and then there's the replacement of worn out parts. None of this even guarantees you revenue, because most people can already play these games with friends at home for free.
A coin-op will get you some revenue though, and they're not horribly expensive. You can usually pick them up for cheap through craigslist.
My idea is maybe starting with 20k-30k business loan
most of the store would be tables
would like to have 1-2 rooms in the back for AD&D, Warhammer etc etc
Get to selling singles on tcgplayer
Not have much stock in the store, mostly have it behind the counters
6-8 PC's networked together for online tournaments.
In the back have consoles set up, maybe a couple and make it a small fee per hour or something
Have a feature match area for tournaments that are recorded, these can be uploaded to a store youtube acct (maybe it helps bring people in)
Also wanna set up a couple 40inch maybe a little larger wide screens, so we have movies or music playing at all times to just set a better mood.
My area is in Waycross Georgia. Smaller sized town, maybe 40k population, stores have come and gone here, main reason I think they failed is they never seemed to have much MEAT in there store, they all seemed to be a dull place to go to unless a tourny was going on. I used to run mtg tounrys in the basement of a local book store, we had 25 ish show up each FNM. I am sure it would draw people from neighboring local towns and cities if we made our events as big as possible. Rankings prizes etc etc
that sorta thing. Thoughts?
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This goes the same with online tournaments. Most people who play online only do it when there aren't enough people in their area to play or some other reason. Atleast that's what i've found.
Also get some comics to sell or something else. Rarely do these sorts of stores survive from just selling mtg cards. You need something else for backup. It doesn't even have to be comics. But you can't put all your eggs in one basket. That's like stock trading 101 right there. (Yeah i know this isn't stock trading but it does have something to do with business)
The networking of 8 or so PC's together is an idea only, I am just thinking all over the place right now trying to come up with other ideas for the store itself.
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I know there's a really good store in Standish, ME. Maybe you could make a day trip down there, play in a weekend event, and get a sense of how they run their business?
- I plan to do other stuff other than MtG ... for sure. Like mentioned above, odds are I will have something like this as well going on.
- As for the online selling goes that you spoke of, I am assuming selling cards like stores do using the tcgplayer website correct? Maybe even work Ebay as well.
- Had not thought of selling sodas, bottled waters etc etc and snacks, maybe even hot foods, (not sure on the hot foods) but for sure snacks and drinks. By a case of Bottled Water for 3.50$ and selling Bottled Waters for 50 cents a pop .... stuff like that.
- The trip to ME to the store would be just a tad out of my driving range
PS: lovin this thread, folks can keep the ideas coming. Also where are other places on the net to discuss opening up a store like this, maybe to get ideas and info on the best ways to buy at wholesale for the cheapest prices etc
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Lots of small towns have building, Lion's Clubs, Elk's clubs, etc.
Before jumping head long in, it'd be smarter to talke with either the city or those particular clubs, and ask to rent their hall for the night.
On that evening, sell cards, buy cards, and run events- especially draft events.
On that shoestring budget ($700), you could easily run a year or two of such events and develop a respectable stock of cards that could manage taking hits like several dealers just did in the past few weeks. Two stoneforges in event decks, Sol Rings in every commander box... every dealer under the sun just took a hit on every single one of those cards in their stock, and well, if they're any dealer of note, they probably had at least 10 of both on hand.
If the city is really excited about having new business, you could explain your plan to them, and they'd probably be happy to help... even advertise it in their city papers, flyers, at the city hall, etc.
If you're lucky, you'll have the players in the area come to know you, like you, and be willing to cut sweetheart deals. For instance, I know that with parts of my collection, I could easily box up everything and cash out at Starcitygames pretty easily, but if there's a local dealer that I trust, I'd much rather give them a good price on it all (even lower than star city's), because I want to keep the local community strong.
In doing this, you gain lots of experience- learning how to price, learning what to pay that the locals will accept without overpaying, generating goodwill in the local customer groups, and very likely generating goodwill with the city.
If you do well on the events, you can reinvest part into more product, and put some into the bank to be able to fund the opening of your brick and mortar location.
Learn about related things, and make it clear you are buying- and willing to pay a fair price... because remember, generating local goodwill is something you are interested in.
Using that plan, $7000 should easily afford you a year's worth of events- and it's a far, far less risky proposition- it basically only puts that $7000 up to be lost, rather than ALL a brick and mortar would require, plus- you both could get jobs during that year, and do your best to put half into savings to put you closer to a place where you do have closer to what it would take to open the store. If you both worked minimum wage jobs for a year, that would be $15,000 after taxes if you both banked half... and that's assuming that all of that previous $7000 is now a sunk cost into the business, or hasn't produced a profit.
While the hesitation could kill the sweetheart deal on rent, it very likely would give you a much better idea of what it would take to keep that business running, let you know if you're sick or not with dealing with the spoiled willful children and petulent adults acting like children (this is no small thing. I know people who hate Magic now as they've spent too much time around people who are too serious about it).
There's a whole lot of aspects too it that I don't know if you've considered. I've even seen stores that could boast having large weekly FNMs every single week, but was still running poorly, because their prize structure was overly generous, and they had a core group of players that were leeching them dry, and making the play environment less than pleasant for any new business. (Loud, smelly, and deeply lacking in social graces).
To qoute Yoda "Do, or do not. There is no try."
If you're going to do it, it has to be a balls out, earnest effort.
You need to know everything about every format, or have direct access to someone who does. You need to know the business end. You need to know what your customer base will be. You'll need to know if you can have food on premises, as that's A HUGE profit center for most gaming stores.
It can't just be "Oh, I like magic, and would like to have a place to play.. and look how cheap rent is!" That's just destined to fail.
Also, unless you're going to be on the end where you're purchasing used videogames for slightly more than Gamestop, stay away from videogames. Discount stores will kill you on price because they're ordering thousands of game. Gamestop will kill you on everything else.
Stay away from computers- notice how internet cafes crawled up and died? People won't look kindly on coming in to do some lan gaming and paying 8-10 dollars an hour, but with the expense you'd have to take to put in even a small network of 8 PCs with reasonable specifications, you're going to be thousands in the hole from the get go.
As for this town I live in, I really do not know how many we have, I know we did have a place (noone really knew about) that ran local tournys 10-15 strong, but I am thinking could have been a lot more if people woulda actually KNOWN about it. I am sure If I can get mine going serious people from the surrounding areas would come to them Valdosta Georgia (they mostly only do Draft) Douglas Georgia. I am SURE I could get a larger player base than the other stores did. As of now, me and my son keep up with the pro circuit via the net, watch all the SCG feeds, we do FNM and try to go to ALL the major events that come close to us. I really do not know what we have here cept me, my son and my friend but I am sure there are others. Might be I need to get word out "somehow" in my local area, maybe set up a set of message boards for them to congregate on as a community and see where that goes over time.
Good ideas from you, love the information, thanks.
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