As an lgs owner the only way i can survive is by selling coffees and sandwiches. When folk come in to draft that is likely the only magic product they will buy that evening (unless they need to pick up some singles) and i maybe £4-£5 profit per drafter (pre tax). However the same player may buy multiple £2.50 coffees or teas or £3 toasted sandwich which has 300%+ mark up on it. To make money as a store it was a no brainer for me to sell food and drink, and if i wasnt so passionate about the game and the community i probably would have stopped selling mtg cards. something has to change!!
The 90's, I miss them so much. You nailed it Rudy. What can be done to recreate the specialness of that time in regards to having peoples looking forward to coming to your shop to have fun?
Yeah Rudy, here's a good question: What CAN the company do if anything? I see this as a rock and a hard place. 1. The 90's will never exist again. 2. Magic is 25 years old, and 'newness' is impossible to replicate. 3. Ease of access to cards, and internet is creative destruction to the original MTG mindset. 4. The original generation of MTG enthusiasts will quit, and the new wave has little nostalgia toward the product.
fishlips54 get rid of technology. Impossible, but really the only way to recreate that. If WOTC gave better support, like the showdown packs (but better), then I think the stores would see an uptick.
Very nice discussion video. It immediately made me remember my card shop that ordered and sold MASSIVE amounts of dominoes pizza every day for most of their profit. 5-5-5 deal with $1.50 slices profits like $7 a pizza. That shit competes with the margins on a BOX! They also sold a slice for only $1 if you entered the $5-10 tournament with 1-2 pack pool per person
my local gaming store is a cafe first... its called geek retreat... when i was new i asked them "what makes more money the food or the cards" and without a delay "food the cards make us fuck all"
That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. This is just my opinion; If Wizards got their card stock quality right, had a limited print run of cards - a large portion of them on the reserved list and spread out the release of sets maybe this wouldn't be an issue. Sets would be considered valuable to consumers and they could charge a slightly higher premium on them because they would actually retain value, as it stands they aren't because sets cycle out so quickly, the cardstock is trash and there is a high chance that they'll just reprint cards a few months down the line.
In this modern day, that is where the money is at. In Colorado, I think the most profiting hobby store is a coffee house first then a game shop second. They have damn good coffee, great retail options, and is very clean. Most of my LGS's the bathrooms are filthy unless they are capturing revenue outside of WOTC.
Hey! Glad you brought up the background check issue in your video, even if you kept it brief. I know you probably don't want to get involved in it all, but I'm glad that you at least addressed it (unlike some people in the MTG community). Anyways, the rest of the video was very informative, which is why I'm subbed to you anyways. All the behind the scenes stuff when it come to the market intrigues me. Great video!
@meaturama It was something that was having to do with the MTG judge program specifically and how convicted pedophiles and sex offenders weren't DCI banned or struck off Judge lists until Jeremy Hambly and several other community members brought it to light. In response to the uproar, WotC finally added new Terms and Conditions that will require all WPN certified organizations, events, and stores must now have it's employees/volunteers background checked (this includes the judge program). It's something that WotC never properly enforced, even when other TCG companies (like Pokemon and Force of Will) already had these requirements for years. It's something that needed to happen, and I'm just glad that Rudy acknowledged it, even when many "community leaders" chose to either ignore it or dismiss it, just because it was Jeremy Hambly that was bringing it up.
lach10211 pretty common to have one in the mid west. People on the coast don't have them because labor costs to dig them and pour concrete are insane. People in the south don't have them because they can very easily flood if you don't have the right drainage (something they can never get enough of anyway)
This is the real issue!!! The homogeneous art, overly strict art direction, and stifling of artists individual stylistic decision making ability! Look at a set like Hour of Devastation as a whole... It looks like a big brown plastic smear, all done by a single robot "painter"... then look at a set like Ice Age as a whole, and see the plethora of super distinct styles and techniques, color palettes and interpretations of the same material. If nothing else, the art today is... boring.
This has been one of the best videos you've made in awhile. Maybe it's just me, but I like the more serious tone videos. Not too over-dramatic, not too lighthearted, and just enough salt.
Rudy thanks for saying something in a calm reasonable tone about how screwed wizards is. They don't know the definition of customer service. Which is to serve their stores, and consumers. The judge program has been screwed for a long time even when you report something they do not even send you a reply because its (privacy) but its actually just them being lazy and doing nothing. They are not using their resources to make the game great. Its been downhill for a few years now. They need to hire someone to change the direction of Magic, and other games from being the main goal of $, revenue, etc, and more to Lets service our wholesalers, storefronts, and consumers to make them want to stay and the money will come. Look at the CEO of Dominos Pizza who just announced he was leaving. Instead of selling pizza cheaper back when the company was suffering, he changed the whole pizza to taste better (sauce, crust, cheese) and then sales increased. Then he realized the consumer didn't want to pay cash and wanted ease to order online from phones, alexa, and the internet. This then increased sales, and he has done other things just some small examples of how to change a company for the good, while still maintaining shareholders confidence, but its more important to put consumer confidence over your shareholders. THE MAGIC PLAYERS WANT MAGIC PLAYER REWARDS BACK, WE WANT MORE AFFORDABLE GP's, WE WANT THE PTQ back, HELL WITH PPTQ. JUST A RANT. Thanks for being Rudy!
Sean Cabral not to mention the invitational. when WOTC got rid of that, it just showed they didn't care about their players. (ask any pro who ever won one on how they felt to design a magic card from scratch with their likeness on it).
Great video. Probably my favorite that you've done so far. I been saying a lot of the same things for a long time. THEN: players bought packs, enjoyed & read every card, tried building lots of decks, bought more packs, were excited for new sets, better rewards & support from WOTC. NOW: all about finance, new set all players care about is opening money cards, most players no longer buy packs as it's a waste of money, players build maybe one or two decks a year based on what wins a big event, players look to buy for as little $ as possible which means LGS be damned, WOTC could care less about player rewards or LGS.
This is exactly why my future store blueprint looks the way it does. People look at me like I'm nuts, diversifying too much, etc. Nope. Got to make money to stay open and to do this full time. Got to diversify. It's a tremendous shame that the general purpose of a gaming store isn't what makes it's money in so many cases.
Magic Stew keep up the good fight! lgs are the life blood of gaming. what good is all the product i can get cheaper online if i have nowhere to use it? i pay more to support my lgs!
The main problems with Magic at present: - The quality of the card stock, printing, and packaging for the last 4 years or more has been declining. This isn't being fixed and it makes people less happy to fork over their money for things that are essentially defective product. (Seriously... warping cards (not just foils), weird inking errors when printing, and I've even gotten packs where the cards were also crimped when the pack was sealed. Great quality control guys!) - WoTC overvalues their sealed products and doesn't give a good return on pre-constructed products outside of Commander. And really, this is why if you're going to run an LGS, Magic is part of an overall gaming/hobby/comic store rather than a straight Magic-anchored shop any longer. - WoTC keeps slapping WPN shops in the face. They get all of these restrictions, but no real reward. How to reward them? Mainly WPN store exclusive product in the vein of From The Vault, Masters sets, Conspiracy, and Unsets. (Let Walmart/Target/etc have the standard sets and the back stock.) - Oh yeah, and then maybe use you actual brains and data and stop I dunno... MASSIVELY OVERPRINTING PRODUCT, thus causing its secondary market value to tank like the freaking Titanic meeting Mr. I. Berg? - Having no bridge between Standard and Modern in constructed play. Since that's all that's actually played outside of draft competitively. It's time for them to recognize Frontier, Pauper, Commander 1v1, and even Tribal as sanctioned competitive formats, and not just unsanctioned side-event bullshit. - Speaking of Standard, it rotates far too often. And while they're fixing that, they also need to return the core set to a biennial release of a "massive" size set (roughly 350 has been the gold standard in the past) instead of an annual "large" 269 card one. And yeah, please stop printing new cards in core sets, the point is that it's a Standard Core to keep a consistent set/power level to the Standard environment. The Standard Core needs to be a stable-ish set that rotates at most, 50% with each release, and simultaneously bridge block themes. - Also, yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea to bridge block themes a bit better. Maybe not introduce new game-changing concepts such as hybrid mana, zweibrid mana, colorless mana, and energy counters to abandon them six months to a year down the road? This is why the Tribal supertype and Kamigawa's Splice mechanic didn't work out for you guys... you didn't give it time to grow. - Also, also, there are many rules issues that need to be addressed for design space and card space friendliness. Things like making making the Instant supertype mean what Flash presently means mechanically... And realizing that giving the basic land subtypes special meanings are exactly the same issue as the Wall subtype. Which would actually free up space for more Basic cards to be printed. I need my Basic Creature - Dog, Rudy, if you get my drift... Maybe pluralize that? (But yeah, let's not go into the issues with the M15 template.) - The players are seeing fewer and fewer rewards for actually showing up to play the game. Fuck tokens Rudy, I want shiny cards I can actually play. Better yet, give me tokens just for showing up and give me more for winning. Hell, bring back the actual player rewards and arena style systems and run it through LGSs instead of mailing them out like dingus eggs. - WoTC wants to compete with Hearthstone and while the Arena platform looks promising, it's going to potentially hose those who play MTGO. Furthermore, why hasn't MTGO been integrated with the physical product like Pokemon was, rather than being able to redeem sets to physical? What nonsense. (Yeah, really can't wait to see how they piss off MTGO players if the Arena software is actually successful.) ...yeah... All those problems are going to take a major change in the leadership's mentality.
Great video! I have been thinking about opening a card shop for a while now and your easily the 5th person who has said good luck trying to make a living doing that! I'd be interested in opening a card shop tutorial etc videos for those who are brave enough to try!
This video is pretty spot on. Watched my LGS close its doors in the past 4 months. I knew things were tight when the owner was griping about missing revenue from sodas and snacks.
Hi Rudy, love your videos. I don't even play MTG but I am super looking forward to your follow up video with how Wizards should treat their stores. You see this same thing in a lot of other industries. The internet, Amazon, etc are great for some things like price but you lose so much by saving a few bucks. You have a great Niche with the channel, Patreon, and being able to order at wholesale. I manage a small Sporting Goods store and you see the same thing in that industry. The treatment of the stores that genuinely care, and will spend several hours with a customer to make $100 or $200 profit, vs the big box stores which you might save $10 or $20 off what we sell it for (Although not as much anymore, we have lowered prices to the same or even lower with slim profit margins [10-20% not including any overhead/wages/expenses] but many of these stores buy on volume of 100-1000+ so they can sell below our cost on special deals). However, we can show you how the stuff works, how to set it up, and help you down the road if you need any advice or assistance. Yet sometimes people will come into our store, spend two hours getting the knowledge, decide not to purchase that day, Big box store has a special deal, buy from them to save $50 (Maybe $950 instead of $1000), come back to us asking how it works. It's the most frustrating thing and about half of the independent Sporting goods stores in the last decade have gone out of business. However, with these deals and super prices they get employees who don't know anything. If there's a problem with something that wholesales for $850 (Less 2-5% for being a "direct" dealer), sells for $999, a big store will wind up just sending it back. Probably 70% of the time the problem is something minor that we can fix in 5 minutes or less. That has to cost the manufacturer a TON. Yet, due to the volume they are willing to sell the same product to a big box store or e-tailer for roughly $650-750. Due to the internet many of the companies we deal with have started doing *some* MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) Pricing, however they often let big box stores get away with violating them or remove the restrictions during the busiest months out of the year. I think both Wizards and my distributors/manufacturers need to be firmer in the MAP pricing, perhaps have a MEP (Minimum E-tailer Price) that allows them to sell at a discount over MAP but still above standard wholesale pricing. For simplicity sake lets say a case of 10 booster boxes from a distributor runs $500. $50 per booster box. 25 packs in each box. Let's say Retail price is $4 each booster. MAP is $3 each. and MEP is $2.79 each. That would mean Stores would sell them for $75 per box, online could sell at $69.75. People would be willing to pay an extra 20 cents per box to buy them in store. Even then, Minimum pricing just means you cannot advertise below that price. So set the ABSOLUTE minimum @ MEP. This would allow LGS to sell at $3 each regularly, but good customers and the likes could purchase $2.79 per booster but they couldn't advertise that price. Online retailers would sell less but make WAY higher profit margins. Not to mention less shipping, less returns, etc. LGS would do way better, and so would Wizards. It would feel like a team or a partnership again, not a one sided deal. You will see as a lot of these small to medium sized game stores & sporting goods stores fail, and then the companies behind them such as Wizards will fall upon difficult times. You hit the nail on the head with the 90s being a great time for LGS and there is no fear of losing money. Back then it was more like a partnership between each LGS and Wizards. Just last week a product I used to sell for $400-440 was wiped out by a new, cheaper version (made by the same company) that is nearly Identical that sells for $220-250 and costs just under $200. Even with my volume of buying a bunch to get one free, cost was still in the $270-$300 neighborhood. Normal cost is about $340 to order a single. Now I'm lucky to get $299 each for the old product, and have tons on the shelf. Not to mention there is about 30 minutes of paperwork involved with each one sold. It's a huge catch-22 now. Do I order 5-10 in order to get the deal and get 1 free, and risk having way too much inventory and losing $$$ and tying up money for months, even years? Or do I order singles and make almost no $$$ and have tons of paperwork involved to the point it's not even worth it. Ordering booster boxes/Wizards latest goodies is such a similar thing. Does a game store order 100 booster boxes and risk losing several thousand dollars if they get blown out in a month, or miss out on thousands of dollars by not having the product to sell to their customers? Sometimes I feel like it's hardly worth it but it beats sitting at a desk doing accounting or something of the likes. I think that's why a lot of people watch your videos. They have hopes of opening their own game store and ending the grind. Little do they know, while their job will be a heck of a lot more fulfilling and fun, it will also be a heck of a lot more work. Thank you for showing the "real" magic.
Hey Rudy, love the videos on the actual business model of a LGS. I usually don't comment but recent events in my area San Diego require me to comment. This month the largest LGS in town announced it was closing its doors at the end of the month. This came as a huge shock to the local community as this store is highly rated, loved by all, and has a great location in a very hip part of town. The owners were very clear as to why they are closing there doors, very poor sales in November December where they should have hit it out of the park for sales. The owners are very business savy, invite local artist, other entrepreneurs into the shop to help sell there products and goods. So there business model and adaptation was there but I think the problem was outside forces they could never deal with. This LGS sells 4 things primarily: 1. Board games. 2. D&D warhammer, magic and other TCG products and supplies, 3. Model figures, collectibles, gundams, etc. 4. Comics and art. December is suppose to be a local stores biggest month out of the year, but it was very slow for them. With the news that Amazon tool 43% of the total holiday sales this year I think this is the biggest reason they had a poor December and general sales. The store sells products at decent prices but its hard to justify buying a product for 10 to 30 dollars more at your local LGS when you can get it from Amazon in 2 days for that much less. As for Magic draft tournaments and other card games. This shop hosts the biggest events in town. As you point out the profit on these events is not great enough to keep a store running and these are the things that Amazon and online stores can't compete with. This weekend I will going to a pre-release there as I have with every pre-release since I got back into magic 2 years ago. I'll miss this store but I don't think the issue is something unique to LGS right now. I think Amazon is killing all local resell businesses. Lastly your point on selling food. For this store I am surpised they never partnered with a local restaurant to do delivery or profit share for there customers. There are a few good restaurants near by they could have offered food better then they could have internally.
Rudy, honestly I think you should also talk about locations for stores. I'm here in Atlanta Georgia and we have thankfully multiple stores we can visit that are successful somewhat. Only because of location. They are parked a few miles from the collage. The player base is high for tournaments. 15-30+ on Friday nights, Saturdays usually have good turn outs, and even during the week days when the weekly modern tournament is happening we still have 10-15+ people show up just for magic. One of these stores has been in operation before even new phyrexia was in print and the others are quite new, but you are right. It's almost impossible to start a card store without selling those infamous snacks and drinks. I even one time saw this guy sink him card store into the ocean buy selling his singles to a card store just get a box of origins for his store. What a time to be alive my friends.
Also, i'm not trying to brown nose, but I really enjoy your videos. They're just...good honest talk about a game I treasure. Thank you for your candor and your thoughts. This is the channel Magic and WotC needs. Desperately. I hope someone important out there at WotC HQ watches this from inside their volcano fortress and goes "oh shit, we need to get it together".
Great video Rudy, keep up the great work. My parents used to own their own card store/comic book store when I was a kid so I can relate to having to sell food to try and diversify the areas they could profit and stay afloat.
Was having a chat with my LGS's owner. He's barely staying afloat, and really only keeping it open because he has such a passion for MTG. That store gets a lot of business. 40-50 participants every FNM, a bunch of people for standard, probably 70 for draft and prerelease days. Although, they just break even on the MTG stuff. They've resorted to selling for small local food businesses. Peanuts, jerkey, snacks. Everything you said in this video was correct.
Totally True. When I was in high school in the 90s, some of my classmates were entrepreneurs who made a lot of money bringing in Magic boxes and selling the boosters. They ran sealed tournaments and such, and it worked: they made money, we had fun. The rise of internet direct sales, tied with the millions of products, killed that. One thing I have seen that has worked, though, are hybrid game stores: Magic, D&D 5th edition, Warhammer, all in one store. 5E has had a great run lately, and brings in a lot of people with the more expensive new books, minis, dice, etc. WotC has flooded Magic, but has not yet flooded 5E. Similar with Warhammer: the product has a high enough margin to make it worthwhile. WotC needs to change the way it markets Magic to keep stores alive, because if stores keep losing money, the hobby will die.
I may be a bit late to the party, but as someone who wants to get into the card-shop-owning business, I find your perspective to be both interesting and useful to consider. Thanks for making this, and I'm looking forward to seeing some more videos on the business/behind the scenes aspects of running a game store so that I can better prepare myself for when the time comes.
New store in my town is half classic arcade, part comic store and part card store. The owner told me he makes more from the arcade part than the other 2.
Again why I love this channel unfiltered transparent information that most people can’t handle when they hear it and it’s right in their face but yet the still deny it. Your a fucking legend
This was one of the most important and meaningful videos you’ve done I feel. Thank you for speaking out on this. I also worry about what will happen to my friends who run LGS stores...
Greetings from Monster Hobbies in High River Alberta Canada. I have run my business for 14 years and I can relate to what you are saying. I discovered that my Magic sales started to go into this "Am I going to get screwed with this Magic Set" with Modern Masters II. I remember selling my entire allotment of Modern Masters I to one guy in one day. When MMII came around, I could barely sell a box. 6 months later, I gave another hobby shop a good deal to just take them away. I think Wizards is just so excited to pump out cards so fast that they just don't realize that stores and players can't keep up with the cost and sheer volume of what they are doing. They are flooding their own market and, like you say, are treating the small card shops like "lesser people" if they can't promote their product at a high rate. I had a Wizards Account for years, and hosting FNM every Friday of every week, paying $600 - $1200 every 2-3 months when a new set would come out and all the money in-between on restocking the game. Then my customers moved on and new ones didn't come in and my FNM's decreased. Now, when you join up with wizards, they let you buy directly from them, which includes their D&D, Magic and Avalon Hill games. So if you don't report on the Wizards reporter for a month or two, Wizards "cuts you off" from their warehouse. Therefore, you can't order in any of the D&D books or the Avalon Hill games. It's a bad business model and I wonder how Wizards keeps money going if they nail the small stores for missing some FNM reports? So now, if I want any of that stuff, I have to pay more and go through a 3rd party wholesaler. It's totally screwed up! Also, I could never justify the math in it all...you buy a booster pack, in Canada, for $5.00. therefore a box should sell for $180.00....but no one wants to pay that much...so a box sells for $140 to stay "competitive". Now I'm down $40! - then, on Friday Night, I'm selling entry at $16.50 for a booster draft, which people are moaning about because it's not $15.00...then have to open up a second Booster Box and give away cards for prizing. I could never really figure out the math of it all or figure if I was getting screwed or not. Now I just sell Slot Cars and run Slot Car Races, as well as Warhammer. i find those customers are not as complacent and will put the money down on new stock without hesitation or haggling! My suppliers are also great in Slots and Warhammer, able to replace damaged stock and work with me when times are tough to help me carry on until times are good again. Wizards shut me down when I was struggling. So why should I re-invest in Magic ever again?
My tiny, sub-5,000 person hometown had 2 card stores back around 2000. One sold just cards/games/comics, and the other was a hot dog restaurant that sold MTG in the back and had a play area/hosted FNM. The pure game store went out of business during the financial crisis, while the hot dog restaurant is still open and was recently renovated.
The bottom line occurred when WotC was purchased by Hasbro.As a former DnD guy the shift from d20 to fourth ed was a greedy insult to those of us that opened packs of Legnds handed out as gifts when would take a tour of the Renton Wa office.A friend built an entire set of the aforementioned Legnds just like that.Hasbro's upper management are the cause I believe
Very informative. Really good content here. People often don't realize how little these small game stores make these days even though they're the backbone of the local gaming community.
Thank you so much for the basement awareness message. Here in North Carolina, almost ZERO houses have basements. They are either built on a Slab like my house is, or it's a split-level house like my parents.
Mine rents a few back rooms out on Friday and Saturday for commander and draft (pay to get in and you get a discount on the booster packs). They also sell beer/soda, snacks and the owner grills some burgers/dogs for sale. Think they make more money doing that then they do from all the collectable card game sales. They also sell allot of other collectable stuff.
When I lived in NY we had one of the then "Meccas of Magic" Neutral Ground which is no longer around. I moved to Raleigh, NC, and we found a nice small local store called Lost Goblins. It went belly up. It is a rough business to get involved in.
I used to get up at 7 am every Saturday and mow three yards for 26 total dollars. I then came home and mowed my parents grass for nothing, and then mowed the Church grass across the street for 15 bucks. I would get done at about 3pm and I would take my 41 dollars and ride my bike straight to the card store and buy 41 dollars worth of baseball card packs and just open them for hours there. If you got a good card he would give you another pack for it I did this for three summers. Kids arent doing this anymore, and 41 bucks only gets you a few packs or a pack break online. This is not magic cards but they didnt exist yet. That is the excitement I had. Kids dont care about sports or game cards like that anymore.
Adam Berendt when was the last time you saw people mowing lawns or doing traditional teenager jobs that wasnt under the age of 30 and didnt pronounce yes "jes"
Great discussion, Rudy. I am having the same problems with my LGS. The market has gotten so hard that the shop completely changed to selling comics, figures, and vintage games. Any TCG pack is sold overpriced to compensate for the potential loss. Bulk is sold at almost a dollar a card. Even the tournaments have changed, increased entry prices, and they no longer hire anyone to judge. Most of the time it is just someone who took a 10 minute judge class and is "Certified" but knows nothing about any games. Times are hard...
jeb muller walmart is dieing out by amazon and dollar stores so they might throw out mtg products if the profit aint comming in, in the last month 200 walmart supercenters shutdown in USA
Austen Lindley Actually Walmart is the most successful brick and mortar retailer. When they purchased jet.com it ended up well. check out L2 and Scott Galleway of NYU Stern
Instead of nixing FNM promos and switching to tokens, they should have also just printed more desirable promos. There's no reason not to, they just decided they didn't want to.
Rudy I started in 1995 during 4th edition right before Ice Age and it definitely was the golden age of Magic and the Game store you are completely accurate of the time it was very different every set and pack opening was exciting discovering new cards and even acquiring my first power card Mox Ruby then traded in to my first Black Lotus. It was a very different time I call it the golden age when Bizzars where $30 and no one even wanted them I believe the first card ever speculated was abeyance from weather light inquest had it listed for a few dollars and the dealers where selling it for over $30 before they errated the card so it wasn’t a time walk such great times it will never be the same unfortunately I wish I could have those days back
A lot of great points in this video Rudy.......Wizards seem to just work against their best interests most of the time by overproducing cards and alienating their players
I get so many people that come in my store and ask about what it takes to open a game store. I always ask where and how much they hope to make a year. They usually say some tiny town with 5000 to 10,000 people. Then they say they hope to make $70K a year. After I spend several minutes laughing my ass off, I look at them any say no seriously how much do you hope to make.
Unfortunate this is not restricted to the US or card store business. Speaking from experience, my family used to run a car dealership in Europe and the car marker at one point told us clearly that we shouldn't make our margins selling cars (this indeed sounds very wrong).... so I can relate. Anyway love the videos they are very instructive. Keep up the good work. Cheers
Back when I played in the late late 90's my store would give unlimited free soda away to tournament players. Before they closed they were charging $5 a month to trade cards on the property and handing out lifetime bans for player to player sales.
I worked for a game store for 10 years.( From before opening day till up to the final day.) I remember sitting in the shop on the final day and I just broke down and cried. Not knowing what was next not just for me but the players who attended the store. ( Many of them started off as 7 and 8 year olds playing Pokemon and Yugioh, Suddenly all of them talking about college and life afterwards. I still wonder how all that time flew by.) Fast forward to present day I go to another store but barely play anything. ( Mainly just go to trade now.) The total atmosphere of shops have changed. From being a place where you could spend all day and play a few games and relax and put the last week behind you. Know complaining about every little thing, Trying to find someone to play but the other side says they no longer play a certain format. And yelling and swearing. And that Fun word doesn't exist anymore it's all Win Win Win.
I worked for a small store sports card store turned Magic/Pokemon TCG store for about 5 years in the late 90's. Margins were so fat back then, more so in pokemon than even magic when it really came into it's own 2nd and 3rd set in. I was lucky to be taught order, manage product, invoices, buying and selling singles, this was when I was still in highschool/ starting college, and really learn the back end of a business. Out of playing for 10+ years and catching up with videos like this and just in general seeing where the game I spend a bunch of time playing and working in... I'd not want to go anywhere near opening a store now with the way everything is now.
So, the answer that helps everyone: 1: Masters sets back to once a year, and promise one print run only. Let the big-box stores sell them at MSRP, whatever, confidence in them as investment vehicles sucks, but they're useful for reprints for players. 2: Enhance From the Vault to be more like the SDCC Planeswalker cards: something truly special and unique but not something that can't be found in other versions. Make that specific version of the cards very limited. WPN exclusive and bypass distributors entirely, or write it into the contract that they can't hold any or increase the price- their job on these would be to distribute at a set cost. 3: Something special for FNM. I don't know what this could be, since they don't want to encourage hardcore players to come in and scoop up all the prizes, but the foil tokens aren't doing it. Maybe they could offer redemption codes for participation, get a free MTGO or Arena pack for playing in a FNM each week (and just for playing, outside any prizes.)
As an LGS that has been around since 1993 I don't know what the economy is like in Florida but in the real world we still sell packs at $3.99. We have never lost money on any booster set. We have never sold packs at below wholesale. I have been watching your videos since your first month and really enjoy your content but everytime you talk about product at a retail level i am dumbfounded. Yes Magic isn't doing as well as it used to and Wizards decisions have greatly damaged their brand but that doesn't mean at the retail level you need to discount your product. If you run a respectable local store the majority of customers in your area buy your product. Yes they can get the boxes cheaper online but they like to support the local community because without it they have no reason to own the cards. It is the online sellers who are satisfied with making $2-5 a box who are bad for the market.
Rudy tends to be over dramatic to offset his ego. Which is enormous. He's a good dude, but he changes his tune daily. Especially when it comes to making money. He is a greed monster after all
And to be outright honest. Rudy is a huge reason there are problems with older stuff in the secondary market. He is unapologetic and will not hesitate to make good on someone else's misfortune. He would smile and say fair game, survival of the fittest. But in reality he's just cold and greedy, and his friendships reflect that.
I've been witnessing this exact thing with my own LGS, and pondering what the future holds. Great stuff, I'm curious what you've got to say! The biggest stand out is the only reason for people to buy magic boxes at their LGS is out of loyalty, because if they compete with online prices, they make about... $0. The only incentive to order magic boxes offline is loyalty, and man, that just doesn't seem sustainable.
We used to have 3 LGS in the city I'm currently living, 2 are gone. The only one left is not a real LGS, it's a Gorilla Gaming in a full size shopping mall that just happens to occasionally run MTG tournaments on the side (they also sell toys, run a LAN gaming center, sell old video games, it's basically a catch all toy and games store). They have one glass case and a couple of notebooks with MTG cards, and their tournaments use the food court tables (in the hall next to them in the mall food court) The store I started playing at back in 1994 (in another state) still exists, but they are and still are a tiny comic book store that just happens to sell MTG. He's also evolved into owning the building he's in and the the buildings around him so now he's a landlord making money from apartment rentals that just happens to have a comic and MTG store in the middle of it
Wizards has a great system of selling to distributors, and not dealing with the general public ie loss or customer support. From the personal and retailer side, this is disheartening. I appreciate your insight soo much Rudy!
Really waiting for these retro game videos ! Hope you ramble too about the video game industry delivering crap games with no more packaging and cool stuff like they used to in the nineties.
I couldn't agree with you more Rudy. I feel the best way to own a LGS to a combined business. I believe getting a lease on a large portion of property or two conjoined properties and have 1 be a LGS and the one next to it or other half of your store as a PIzza chain or subway. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS see 80% of folks bringing in fast food, donuts, pizza, drinks, etc from outside sources to any LGS event...that's money an LGS could be generating. In fact to start a Subway or Pizza hut you only need 50-75k to start one and you'll generate 200k/year....thats on a medium spectrum and based on location. So if you think of it the net losses accrued through being an LGS store can be recovered by having a bilateral business. I for one would love to open up a gaming Pizzaria.....essentially a pizza hut that has 3 areas of sitdowns, you have a family dining area, then you have video gaming area in which each booth has a console and TV by and you can play 4 play cooperative or VS games on PS or Xbox consoles and you can bring your own games if need be or rent any of the available ones during the time you're in the store. Then 3rd area would be TCG or Tabletop area for those that play physical games like D&D or MTG or Poke la Man. anyways that's my 2 cents as a former business owner and now I'm a safety analyst.
I'm only like 3 minutes in Rudy, and what you're saying is interesting to me because it sounds like you're describing my LGS. It's a very organized LGS with every single card sorted by set and rarity. They also sell a lot of food.
I think game stores will evolve into mini to midsize versions of card kingdom's brick and mortar locations. Essentially become a cafe or small restaurant, serve beer and also be a card/game store. That is two tough businesses in one but there are a few in my area that are doing very well. That seems to be the recipe for success.
I'm sure this is fueled by mostly nostalgia, but man... the late 90s and early 00s were awesome times for playing Magic. I mean, people thought I was a Satanist for playing the game, but at least those idiots left me alone.
You can't stop eBay, massdrop and Alibaba, from selling 80 dollar boxes. But WotC could simply give out unique prize support to LGS so they have motivation to charge players for tournaments. I remember also getting multiple promo remand and eternal witness as fnm prizes. Even got random door prize promos. Cold snap prerelease first prize was a Jacket and a booster box at my LGS. Ahh the good ole days. I used to go to most FNM to grind for the MPS cards. But now I'm lucky to get a couple packs. Sorry but it's not worth the drive/time when I can order that online and spend time with family or watching black mirror.
Our LGS does a roaring trade in MtG singles, but also sells comics, board games, and accessories. I can’t imagine they’d make too much from booster boxes or packs, unless they’re cracking packs to provide some of the single card stock.
In comparison to the 90s, there are 2 base differences. First e-commerce was non-existence. We had to go to the brick and mortar stores. They MAY have had some singles and maybe a few we wanted, but if not we HAD to buy boosters and/or trade to achieve the decks we wanted. There wasn't much choice to play, e-commerce destroyed that. We couldn't go to buycardshere,com and buy singles. In Europe shops have started being "gaming cafes", because e-commerce destroyed in-store sales. Second TCGs were still new and people played for fascination of mechanics. These days it is really rare for me to find someone that doesn't just want to show off their powered up monstrosity of a deck. These days for a set to be deemed "good" it MUST be super powerful. Very few are interested in just seeing interesting mechanics regardless of power level. Magic, Yugioh, and Pokemon are all "Timmy" games these days, Pokemon being the least guilty in that regard. In Magic it's a game of who goes infinite first.
I can't remember the last time that all the Brazilian stores managed to do the prerelease on the correct day and with kits (sometimes the stores are forced to do with normal boosters, because kits arent available). This time one of the distributors was unable to deliver the kits.
This just reinforces my thought, that i need to start/invest in an LGS that is a Pub first, card shop second. Separate the bar from the gaming area so kiddies can still play, but let the adults have a cold one if they like.
BlueHawks 206 dont get me wrong it's bit entertaining because i dont play or collect anymore. Rudy knows he has no reason to be involved as im sure he knows his employees well. It could all be over if Boogie would step in raise awareness of the information and alligation.
Soldier965 i dont care about his personal stance. Any other time he would make a video explaining the subject then he would throw opinions and then say he has no right to judge. Boogie isnt the bad guy but at least he has reach to millions not hundreds of thousands.
Let me tell you about an influential LGS that was around from 1993 to around 2001. It was located in Costa Mesa, CA. Went by the name of South Coast Gaming Association, or SCGA for short. They can the local Women's Club in Costa Mesa, that spawned classic pro players like Mark "The Hammer." At their store they didn't sell soda, chips, or even candy. The store was 100% gaming, such as Magic, other TCG's, AD&D, Warhammer 40K, White Wolf, etc... They had a strong community... and guess who was one of the owners? Scott Larabee, the head manager of Organized Play, aka the DCI. I hope Scott is rooting for the LGS, trying to make them center point. He knows what it is like to run a store & all of the blood, sweat, and mana that goes into running one. I hope he hasn't become apathetic to what stores are going through, being passive by turning a blind eye.
Thank you for mentioning the fucking background checks Rudy. That shit is not a small issue like all the big names and sponsored people are saying it is. So far you Jeremy and mtg lion are the only people with the balls to talk about it. Everything else you said was spot on as well. It's a very depressing state of affairs for magic right now. It seems like wotc is so far disconnected from its player base and reality that the games future could genuinely be in trouble. It reminds me of the south park episode where all the yuppies were too busy smelling their own farts to realise what the fuck was going on around them.
Greed destroys everything. WoTC used to care. Clearly they dont anymore, and haven’t for a long time. Such a shame. Thanks Rudy for being straight with us
Magic wants stores that don't just rely on magic but everything gaming related. I notice that comic shops that promote MTG and all other gaming related stuff do the best. These kind of places unfortunately have to sell refreshments but that's actually a good thing. If you want to grow your customer base you have to have an environment where people can come in and sit down and play. And when people sit down and play they want drinks and chips and things like that so they feel more at home. That's the way of it and has been for a long time. You have to have tournaments and FNM and yugioh and pokemon and all the games that your cus base wants. Good luck all you stores out there. I have always wanted to own a store.
The toy store near me said he USED to do on premises play but wizards kept increasing the numbers he had to do (6 events a month) to get the support. He said he stopped doing them when Wizard told him that they didnt care if no one turned up to the events as long as he did them, so their numbers looked good. Also now take this with a pinch of salt as its third hand info but his distributor said that they had been buying less and less magic products because the quality and profit margins compared to other card products wasn't good enough and that Wizards said that the quality of the product wasn't changing any time soon. I also looked up how many stores there have been in my town over the last 10 year that sold only magic and there were 14 ALL of them have closed ALL of them dam it. Now I have to travel for hour plus to even find a store that I can get a game.
cardmarket, tcg and friends pretty much killed the secondary market in stores by killing the single prices. Bulk was once min. 50ct now it is 2ct, but that is nothing limited to the MTG world. The online market lowers prices, rises the competition and in the last step kills local business, which always has much higher bills to pay than their online competitors. It is the current evolution going on and nothing obscure. It works because noone wants to spend more money than needed and in the internet world, the competition is much harder than it was with the next store 20 miles away. I guarantee it will - soon or later - kill even the last few remaining LGS. WOTC centralized the organized play in 2007 to WPN, mainly to support their creasing business. But if they want a healthy scene and future places for players, I think the only chance to solve this issue is bringing back the indy TO status and build up a community driven tournement scene as it used to be - not tied to any kind of business.
It's the same as big box stores and sites like Amazon. LGS need to provide benefits online stores cannot. More importantly, us players need to be willing to spend a little more to support the LGS, if we want those benefits.
The shipping delay on pre-release happened to my store as well. They got held over in utah for over a week because of snow. We will never do a wizards direct for a pre-release event again after that nightmare.
Snacks at a game shop scare me. Spilled soda, Cheeto fingers, and there go my raw what coulda been PSA 10s that are double sleeved because Thad spilled his Monster on the table. Reminds me of the slob who worked in the warehouse at FASA and spilled coffee on product... Good Times. I see people eating and I’m out the door. Imagine some grubby kid with Cheetos telling you sorry he’ll ask his Mommie for an advance on his allowance to pay for the Liliana of the Veil he just drowned in Mountain Dew. I mean Candle Wax on Ravenloft is one thing.
Actually your best video, cause I don't care about what you want to buyout or the print run of a set, or that you are selling something cheap to hook up your patrons, cause I was selling magic in the good time in the 90,s when you was a snot nosed kid.
Honestly at this point they should do what they did with Vinyl. I've been selling vinyl for 7 years now, and every time record store day comes around the buzz is MASSIVE. Maybe lgs day or something where special things getting printed and people actually come out to stores at least once a year. Just an idea, obviously it would be difficult but it could be something to support lgs and wotc at the same time.
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As an lgs owner the only way i can survive is by selling coffees and sandwiches.
When folk come in to draft that is likely the only magic product they will buy that evening (unless they need to pick up some singles) and i maybe £4-£5 profit per drafter (pre tax).
However the same player may buy multiple £2.50 coffees or teas or £3 toasted sandwich which has 300%+ mark up on it.
To make money as a store it was a no brainer for me to sell food and drink, and if i wasnt so passionate about the game and the community i probably would have stopped selling mtg cards. something has to change!!
It breaks my heart to see what WotC has become and how they treat small stores.
They're not like that, they think it's a all big family.
That's what happens when you basically have a monopoly.
So the moral of the story is open a 7-11 and sell Magic cards from behind the counter like cigarettes.
It's probably a far better business model than opening a LGS. Less volatility and a better, more consistent margin.
@@Orinn000 I'd buy two and three cigs
The 90's, I miss them so much. You nailed it Rudy. What can be done to recreate the specialness of that time in regards to having peoples looking forward to coming to your shop to have fun?
fishlips54 rudy pls answer
Yeah Rudy, here's a good question: What CAN the company do if anything? I see this as a rock and a hard place.
1. The 90's will never exist again.
2. Magic is 25 years old, and 'newness' is impossible to replicate.
3. Ease of access to cards, and internet is creative destruction to the original MTG mindset.
4. The original generation of MTG enthusiasts will quit, and the new wave has little nostalgia toward the product.
i hope Rudy makes a video on this topic soon
fishlips54 get rid of technology. Impossible, but really the only way to recreate that. If WOTC gave better support, like the showdown packs (but better), then I think the stores would see an uptick.
Very nice discussion video. It immediately made me remember my card shop that ordered and sold MASSIVE amounts of dominoes pizza every day for most of their profit. 5-5-5 deal with $1.50 slices profits like $7 a pizza. That shit competes with the margins on a BOX! They also sold a slice for only $1 if you entered the $5-10 tournament with 1-2 pack pool per person
i know Im kinda off topic but does anyone know a good site to watch newly released tv shows online?
@Damian Nico i use flixzone. You can find it by googling :)
My lgs sold weed.
Want to visit where is it
Hope it was in Colorado
That's A Real L.G.S!!
Let me guess: You asked for the folder with the "green" cards.
Lel, you know it!
my local gaming store is a cafe first... its called geek retreat... when i was new i asked them "what makes more money the food or the cards" and without a delay "food the cards make us fuck all"
yoitsgunattack the one on Birmingham UK?
GR represent
That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
This is just my opinion;
If Wizards got their card stock quality right, had a limited print run of cards - a large portion of them on the reserved list and spread out the release of sets maybe this wouldn't be an issue.
Sets would be considered valuable to consumers and they could charge a slightly higher premium on them because they would actually retain value, as it stands they aren't because sets cycle out so quickly, the cardstock is trash and there is a high chance that they'll just reprint cards a few months down the line.
In this modern day, that is where the money is at. In Colorado, I think the most profiting hobby store is a coffee house first then a game shop second. They have damn good coffee, great retail options, and is very clean. Most of my LGS's the bathrooms are filthy unless they are capturing revenue outside of WOTC.
i fucking wish but i just said it so people can search it to see that its like a food and drinks place first lol.
Hey! Glad you brought up the background check issue in your video, even if you kept it brief. I know you probably don't want to get involved in it all, but I'm glad that you at least addressed it (unlike some people in the MTG community).
Anyways, the rest of the video was very informative, which is why I'm subbed to you anyways. All the behind the scenes stuff when it come to the market intrigues me. Great video!
@meaturama It was something that was having to do with the MTG judge program specifically and how convicted pedophiles and sex offenders weren't DCI banned or struck off Judge lists until Jeremy Hambly and several other community members brought it to light. In response to the uproar, WotC finally added new Terms and Conditions that will require all WPN certified organizations, events, and stores must now have it's employees/volunteers background checked (this includes the judge program).
It's something that WotC never properly enforced, even when other TCG companies (like Pokemon and Force of Will) already had these requirements for years. It's something that needed to happen, and I'm just glad that Rudy acknowledged it, even when many "community leaders" chose to either ignore it or dismiss it, just because it was Jeremy Hambly that was bringing it up.
I think opening a Blockbuster video may yield higher profits than mtg.
lmfao
Magic is still salvageable. Netflix put the last nail in the blockbuster coffin a long time ago however.
The only one left in Bend, Oregon is doing GREAT!!
I survive by living in my mother's basement.
Javin M my parents live in mine :( I get no damn privacy.
How do so many houses have basements?
lach10211 pretty common to have one in the mid west. People on the coast don't have them because labor costs to dig them and pour concrete are insane. People in the south don't have them because they can very easily flood if you don't have the right drainage (something they can never get enough of anyway)
Lach so that people like Javin can live in them
Javin M that’s ok man, you live the way you gotta live. You are not less because of it :)
Still proud to be part of the 2.8333333% of Women.
Our percentage is growing. ;)
I'm proud to not respect wamen
I think the 2.83333333% is actually 2.8333333 of actual women
I didn't realize you were a female 😧
Toes?
RESTORE HAND DRAWN ART AND WATER COLOR TO MAGIC #SAVEMAGIC #MAGICGATE
This is the real issue!!! The homogeneous art, overly strict art direction, and stifling of artists individual stylistic decision making ability! Look at a set like Hour of Devastation as a whole... It looks like a big brown plastic smear, all done by a single robot "painter"... then look at a set like Ice Age as a whole, and see the plethora of super distinct styles and techniques, color palettes and interpretations of the same material. If nothing else, the art today is... boring.
PLEASE YES. Fuck man, I was looking at Quinton Hoover and Anson Maddocks art earlier today and I miss it so much!
I miss the days of 1 or 2 new sets a year
And being surprised by what you got out of a pack because spoilers weren’t really a thing.
This has been one of the best videos you've made in awhile. Maybe it's just me, but I like the more serious tone videos. Not too over-dramatic, not too lighthearted, and just enough salt.
Not gonna lie. I like these videos before watching them.
dolfo10564 i like this comment before i comment
Rudy thanks for saying something in a calm reasonable tone about how screwed wizards is. They don't know the definition of customer service. Which is to serve their stores, and consumers. The judge program has been screwed for a long time even when you report something they do not even send you a reply because its (privacy) but its actually just them being lazy and doing nothing. They are not using their resources to make the game great. Its been downhill for a few years now. They need to hire someone to change the direction of Magic, and other games from being the main goal of $, revenue, etc, and more to Lets service our wholesalers, storefronts, and consumers to make them want to stay and the money will come. Look at the CEO of Dominos Pizza who just announced he was leaving. Instead of selling pizza cheaper back when the company was suffering, he changed the whole pizza to taste better (sauce, crust, cheese) and then sales increased. Then he realized the consumer didn't want to pay cash and wanted ease to order online from phones, alexa, and the internet. This then increased sales, and he has done other things just some small examples of how to change a company for the good, while still maintaining shareholders confidence, but its more important to put consumer confidence over your shareholders. THE MAGIC PLAYERS WANT MAGIC PLAYER REWARDS BACK, WE WANT MORE AFFORDABLE GP's, WE WANT THE PTQ back, HELL WITH PPTQ. JUST A RANT. Thanks for being Rudy!
Sean Cabral
not to mention the invitational. when WOTC got rid of that, it just showed they didn't care about their players. (ask any pro who ever won one on how they felt to design a magic card from scratch with their likeness on it).
Great video. Probably my favorite that you've done so far. I been saying a lot of the same things for a long time. THEN: players bought packs, enjoyed & read every card, tried building lots of decks, bought more packs, were excited for new sets, better rewards & support from WOTC. NOW: all about finance, new set all players care about is opening money cards, most players no longer buy packs as it's a waste of money, players build maybe one or two decks a year based on what wins a big event, players look to buy for as little $ as possible which means LGS be damned, WOTC could care less about player rewards or LGS.
This is exactly why my future store blueprint looks the way it does. People look at me like I'm nuts, diversifying too much, etc. Nope. Got to make money to stay open and to do this full time. Got to diversify. It's a tremendous shame that the general purpose of a gaming store isn't what makes it's money in so many cases.
Magic Stew keep up the good fight! lgs are the life blood of gaming. what good is all the product i can get cheaper online if i have nowhere to use it?
i pay more to support my lgs!
I ain't gonna judge LGS's. They gotta be able to afford their cheeseburgers too.
No judgement here. Just sadness. I want 'em to be able to do better. A rising tide lifts all ships, after all.
The main problems with Magic at present:
- The quality of the card stock, printing, and packaging for the last 4 years or more has been declining. This isn't being fixed and it makes people less happy to fork over their money for things that are essentially defective product. (Seriously... warping cards (not just foils), weird inking errors when printing, and I've even gotten packs where the cards were also crimped when the pack was sealed. Great quality control guys!)
- WoTC overvalues their sealed products and doesn't give a good return on pre-constructed products outside of Commander. And really, this is why if you're going to run an LGS, Magic is part of an overall gaming/hobby/comic store rather than a straight Magic-anchored shop any longer.
- WoTC keeps slapping WPN shops in the face. They get all of these restrictions, but no real reward. How to reward them? Mainly WPN store exclusive product in the vein of From The Vault, Masters sets, Conspiracy, and Unsets. (Let Walmart/Target/etc have the standard sets and the back stock.)
- Oh yeah, and then maybe use you actual brains and data and stop I dunno... MASSIVELY OVERPRINTING PRODUCT, thus causing its secondary market value to tank like the freaking Titanic meeting Mr. I. Berg?
- Having no bridge between Standard and Modern in constructed play. Since that's all that's actually played outside of draft competitively. It's time for them to recognize Frontier, Pauper, Commander 1v1, and even Tribal as sanctioned competitive formats, and not just unsanctioned side-event bullshit.
- Speaking of Standard, it rotates far too often. And while they're fixing that, they also need to return the core set to a biennial release of a "massive" size set (roughly 350 has been the gold standard in the past) instead of an annual "large" 269 card one. And yeah, please stop printing new cards in core sets, the point is that it's a Standard Core to keep a consistent set/power level to the Standard environment. The Standard Core needs to be a stable-ish set that rotates at most, 50% with each release, and simultaneously bridge block themes.
- Also, yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea to bridge block themes a bit better. Maybe not introduce new game-changing concepts such as hybrid mana, zweibrid mana, colorless mana, and energy counters to abandon them six months to a year down the road? This is why the Tribal supertype and Kamigawa's Splice mechanic didn't work out for you guys... you didn't give it time to grow.
- Also, also, there are many rules issues that need to be addressed for design space and card space friendliness. Things like making making the Instant supertype mean what Flash presently means mechanically... And realizing that giving the basic land subtypes special meanings are exactly the same issue as the Wall subtype. Which would actually free up space for more Basic cards to be printed. I need my Basic Creature - Dog, Rudy, if you get my drift... Maybe pluralize that? (But yeah, let's not go into the issues with the M15 template.)
- The players are seeing fewer and fewer rewards for actually showing up to play the game. Fuck tokens Rudy, I want shiny cards I can actually play. Better yet, give me tokens just for showing up and give me more for winning. Hell, bring back the actual player rewards and arena style systems and run it through LGSs instead of mailing them out like dingus eggs.
- WoTC wants to compete with Hearthstone and while the Arena platform looks promising, it's going to potentially hose those who play MTGO. Furthermore, why hasn't MTGO been integrated with the physical product like Pokemon was, rather than being able to redeem sets to physical? What nonsense. (Yeah, really can't wait to see how they piss off MTGO players if the Arena software is actually successful.)
...yeah... All those problems are going to take a major change in the leadership's mentality.
Great video! Had an lgs close down after a year because of what you were talking about. Really hits home when you see it happen...
Great video! I have been thinking about opening a card shop for a while now and your easily the 5th person who has said good luck trying to make a living doing that! I'd be interested in opening a card shop tutorial etc videos for those who are brave enough to try!
This video is pretty spot on. Watched my LGS close its doors in the past 4 months. I knew things were tight when the owner was griping about missing revenue from sodas and snacks.
Hi Rudy, love your videos. I don't even play MTG but I am super looking forward to your follow up video with how Wizards should treat their stores. You see this same thing in a lot of other industries. The internet, Amazon, etc are great for some things like price but you lose so much by saving a few bucks. You have a great Niche with the channel, Patreon, and being able to order at wholesale.
I manage a small Sporting Goods store and you see the same thing in that industry. The treatment of the stores that genuinely care, and will spend several hours with a customer to make $100 or $200 profit, vs the big box stores which you might save $10 or $20 off what we sell it for (Although not as much anymore, we have lowered prices to the same or even lower with slim profit margins [10-20% not including any overhead/wages/expenses] but many of these stores buy on volume of 100-1000+ so they can sell below our cost on special deals). However, we can show you how the stuff works, how to set it up, and help you down the road if you need any advice or assistance. Yet sometimes people will come into our store, spend two hours getting the knowledge, decide not to purchase that day, Big box store has a special deal, buy from them to save $50 (Maybe $950 instead of $1000), come back to us asking how it works. It's the most frustrating thing and about half of the independent Sporting goods stores in the last decade have gone out of business. However, with these deals and super prices they get employees who don't know anything. If there's a problem with something that wholesales for $850 (Less 2-5% for being a "direct" dealer), sells for $999, a big store will wind up just sending it back. Probably 70% of the time the problem is something minor that we can fix in 5 minutes or less. That has to cost the manufacturer a TON. Yet, due to the volume they are willing to sell the same product to a big box store or e-tailer for roughly $650-750.
Due to the internet many of the companies we deal with have started doing *some* MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) Pricing, however they often let big box stores get away with violating them or remove the restrictions during the busiest months out of the year. I think both Wizards and my distributors/manufacturers need to be firmer in the MAP pricing, perhaps have a MEP (Minimum E-tailer Price) that allows them to sell at a discount over MAP but still above standard wholesale pricing. For simplicity sake lets say a case of 10 booster boxes from a distributor runs $500. $50 per booster box. 25 packs in each box. Let's say Retail price is $4 each booster. MAP is $3 each. and MEP is $2.79 each. That would mean Stores would sell them for $75 per box, online could sell at $69.75. People would be willing to pay an extra 20 cents per box to buy them in store. Even then, Minimum pricing just means you cannot advertise below that price. So set the ABSOLUTE minimum @ MEP. This would allow LGS to sell at $3 each regularly, but good customers and the likes could purchase $2.79 per booster but they couldn't advertise that price. Online retailers would sell less but make WAY higher profit margins. Not to mention less shipping, less returns, etc. LGS would do way better, and so would Wizards. It would feel like a team or a partnership again, not a one sided deal.
You will see as a lot of these small to medium sized game stores & sporting goods stores fail, and then the companies behind them such as Wizards will fall upon difficult times. You hit the nail on the head with the 90s being a great time for LGS and there is no fear of losing money. Back then it was more like a partnership between each LGS and Wizards. Just last week a product I used to sell for $400-440 was wiped out by a new, cheaper version (made by the same company) that is nearly Identical that sells for $220-250 and costs just under $200. Even with my volume of buying a bunch to get one free, cost was still in the $270-$300 neighborhood. Normal cost is about $340 to order a single. Now I'm lucky to get $299 each for the old product, and have tons on the shelf. Not to mention there is about 30 minutes of paperwork involved with each one sold. It's a huge catch-22 now. Do I order 5-10 in order to get the deal and get 1 free, and risk having way too much inventory and losing $$$ and tying up money for months, even years? Or do I order singles and make almost no $$$ and have tons of paperwork involved to the point it's not even worth it. Ordering booster boxes/Wizards latest goodies is such a similar thing. Does a game store order 100 booster boxes and risk losing several thousand dollars if they get blown out in a month, or miss out on thousands of dollars by not having the product to sell to their customers?
Sometimes I feel like it's hardly worth it but it beats sitting at a desk doing accounting or something of the likes. I think that's why a lot of people watch your videos. They have hopes of opening their own game store and ending the grind. Little do they know, while their job will be a heck of a lot more fulfilling and fun, it will also be a heck of a lot more work. Thank you for showing the "real" magic.
Hey Rudy, love the videos on the actual business model of a LGS. I usually don't comment but recent events in my area San Diego require me to comment. This month the largest LGS in town announced it was closing its doors at the end of the month. This came as a huge shock to the local community as this store is highly rated, loved by all, and has a great location in a very hip part of town. The owners were very clear as to why they are closing there doors, very poor sales in November December where they should have hit it out of the park for sales. The owners are very business savy, invite local artist, other entrepreneurs into the shop to help sell there products and goods. So there business model and adaptation was there but I think the problem was outside forces they could never deal with.
This LGS sells 4 things primarily: 1. Board games. 2. D&D warhammer, magic and other TCG products and supplies, 3. Model figures, collectibles, gundams, etc. 4. Comics and art.
December is suppose to be a local stores biggest month out of the year, but it was very slow for them. With the news that Amazon tool 43% of the total holiday sales this year I think this is the biggest reason they had a poor December and general sales. The store sells products at decent prices but its hard to justify buying a product for 10 to 30 dollars more at your local LGS when you can get it from Amazon in 2 days for that much less.
As for Magic draft tournaments and other card games. This shop hosts the biggest events in town. As you point out the profit on these events is not great enough to keep a store running and these are the things that Amazon and online stores can't compete with.
This weekend I will going to a pre-release there as I have with every pre-release since I got back into magic 2 years ago. I'll miss this store but I don't think the issue is something unique to LGS right now. I think Amazon is killing all local resell businesses.
Lastly your point on selling food. For this store I am surpised they never partnered with a local restaurant to do delivery or profit share for there customers. There are a few good restaurants near by they could have offered food better then they could have internally.
Rudy, honestly I think you should also talk about locations for stores. I'm here in Atlanta Georgia and we have thankfully multiple stores we can visit that are successful somewhat. Only because of location. They are parked a few miles from the collage. The player base is high for tournaments. 15-30+ on Friday nights, Saturdays usually have good turn outs, and even during the week days when the weekly modern tournament is happening we still have 10-15+ people show up just for magic. One of these stores has been in operation before even new phyrexia was in print and the others are quite new, but you are right. It's almost impossible to start a card store without selling those infamous snacks and drinks. I even one time saw this guy sink him card store into the ocean buy selling his singles to a card store just get a box of origins for his store. What a time to be alive my friends.
Yessss!!!!!!!!!!! I love the idea of more Vintage Video Game content on the channel. I miss the random old school game plugs.
Also, i'm not trying to brown nose, but I really enjoy your videos. They're just...good honest talk about a game I treasure. Thank you for your candor and your thoughts. This is the channel Magic and WotC needs. Desperately. I hope someone important out there at WotC HQ watches this from inside their volcano fortress and goes "oh shit, we need to get it together".
Great video Rudy, keep up the great work. My parents used to own their own card store/comic book store when I was a kid so I can relate to having to sell food to try and diversify the areas they could profit and stay afloat.
Was having a chat with my LGS's owner. He's barely staying afloat, and really only keeping it open because he has such a passion for MTG. That store gets a lot of business. 40-50 participants every FNM, a bunch of people for standard, probably 70 for draft and prerelease days. Although, they just break even on the MTG stuff. They've resorted to selling for small local food businesses. Peanuts, jerkey, snacks. Everything you said in this video was correct.
Totally True. When I was in high school in the 90s, some of my classmates were entrepreneurs who made a lot of money bringing in Magic boxes and selling the boosters. They ran sealed tournaments and such, and it worked: they made money, we had fun. The rise of internet direct sales, tied with the millions of products, killed that.
One thing I have seen that has worked, though, are hybrid game stores: Magic, D&D 5th edition, Warhammer, all in one store. 5E has had a great run lately, and brings in a lot of people with the more expensive new books, minis, dice, etc. WotC has flooded Magic, but has not yet flooded 5E. Similar with Warhammer: the product has a high enough margin to make it worthwhile.
WotC needs to change the way it markets Magic to keep stores alive, because if stores keep losing money, the hobby will die.
I said it before and I will say it again. WotC should employ you, Rudy. They should have you over to Seattle once a month for a consultation.
I may be a bit late to the party, but as someone who wants to get into the card-shop-owning business, I find your perspective to be both interesting and useful to consider. Thanks for making this, and I'm looking forward to seeing some more videos on the business/behind the scenes aspects of running a game store so that I can better prepare myself for when the time comes.
New store in my town is half classic arcade, part comic store and part card store. The owner told me he makes more from the arcade part than the other 2.
Again why I love this channel unfiltered transparent information that most people can’t handle when they hear it and it’s right in their face but yet the still deny it. Your a fucking legend
Was just in Houston and can attest, the card store there also had a donut shop and the owners opening a pizza place inside as well.
I looked forward to going to McDonald's as a kid on a Saturday. We had a lot of bad casseroles growing up.
This was one of the most important and meaningful videos you’ve done I feel. Thank you for speaking out on this. I also worry about what will happen to my friends who run LGS stores...
Greetings from Monster Hobbies in High River Alberta Canada. I have run my business for 14 years and I can relate to what you are saying. I discovered that my Magic sales started to go into this "Am I going to get screwed with this Magic Set" with Modern Masters II. I remember selling my entire allotment of Modern Masters I to one guy in one day. When MMII came around, I could barely sell a box. 6 months later, I gave another hobby shop a good deal to just take them away.
I think Wizards is just so excited to pump out cards so fast that they just don't realize that stores and players can't keep up with the cost and sheer volume of what they are doing. They are flooding their own market and, like you say, are treating the small card shops like "lesser people" if they can't promote their product at a high rate.
I had a Wizards Account for years, and hosting FNM every Friday of every week, paying $600 - $1200 every 2-3 months when a new set would come out and all the money in-between on restocking the game. Then my customers moved on and new ones didn't come in and my FNM's decreased. Now, when you join up with wizards, they let you buy directly from them, which includes their D&D, Magic and Avalon Hill games. So if you don't report on the Wizards reporter for a month or two, Wizards "cuts you off" from their warehouse. Therefore, you can't order in any of the D&D books or the Avalon Hill games. It's a bad business model and I wonder how Wizards keeps money going if they nail the small stores for missing some FNM reports?
So now, if I want any of that stuff, I have to pay more and go through a 3rd party wholesaler. It's totally screwed up!
Also, I could never justify the math in it all...you buy a booster pack, in Canada, for $5.00. therefore a box should sell for $180.00....but no one wants to pay that much...so a box sells for $140 to stay "competitive". Now I'm down $40! - then, on Friday Night, I'm selling entry at $16.50 for a booster draft, which people are moaning about because it's not $15.00...then have to open up a second Booster Box and give away cards for prizing. I could never really figure out the math of it all or figure if I was getting screwed or not.
Now I just sell Slot Cars and run Slot Car Races, as well as Warhammer. i find those customers are not as complacent and will put the money down on new stock without hesitation or haggling! My suppliers are also great in Slots and Warhammer, able to replace damaged stock and work with me when times are tough to help me carry on until times are good again. Wizards shut me down when I was struggling. So why should I re-invest in Magic ever again?
My tiny, sub-5,000 person hometown had 2 card stores back around 2000. One sold just cards/games/comics, and the other was a hot dog restaurant that sold MTG in the back and had a play area/hosted FNM. The pure game store went out of business during the financial crisis, while the hot dog restaurant is still open and was recently renovated.
The bottom line occurred when WotC was purchased by Hasbro.As a former DnD guy the shift from d20 to fourth ed was a greedy insult to those of us that opened packs of Legnds handed out as gifts when would take a tour of the Renton Wa office.A friend built an entire set of the aforementioned Legnds just like that.Hasbro's upper management are the cause I believe
Rudy, your candour is very charming and you seem like a quality person.
Very informative. Really good content here. People often don't realize how little these small game stores make these days even though they're the backbone of the local gaming community.
Best video in awhile. Hope one day Wizards will listen to what Rudy is saying. His advice can help fix the issues with magic and its community.
Thank you so much for the basement awareness message. Here in North Carolina, almost ZERO houses have basements. They are either built on a Slab like my house is, or it's a split-level house like my parents.
Mine rents a few back rooms out on Friday and Saturday for commander and draft (pay to get in and you get a discount on the booster packs). They also sell beer/soda, snacks and the owner grills some burgers/dogs for sale.
Think they make more money doing that then they do from all the collectable card game sales.
They also sell allot of other collectable stuff.
matt606 ya, small town so pretty much everyone knows everyone or knows someone who knows them
mmmmm Magic The Drunkening
You need to rent a spot to play in your LGS?
When I lived in NY we had one of the then "Meccas of Magic" Neutral Ground which is no longer around. I moved to Raleigh, NC, and we found a nice small local store called Lost Goblins. It went belly up. It is a rough business to get involved in.
I'm moving to raleigh. Where do you play?
Really enjoyed this video, lots of concise well thought out reason. Looking forward to more videos like this.
amazing video Rudy I member the 90's nice walk down memory lane.
I used to get up at 7 am every Saturday and mow three yards for 26 total dollars. I then came home and mowed my parents grass for nothing, and then mowed the Church grass across the street for 15 bucks. I would get done at about 3pm and I would take my 41 dollars and ride my bike straight to the card store and buy 41 dollars worth of baseball card packs and just open them for hours there. If you got a good card he would give you another pack for it I did this for three summers. Kids arent doing this anymore, and 41 bucks only gets you a few packs or a pack break online. This is not magic cards but they didnt exist yet. That is the excitement I had. Kids dont care about sports or game cards like that anymore.
Adam Berendt when was the last time you saw people mowing lawns or doing traditional teenager jobs that wasnt under the age of 30 and didnt pronounce yes "jes"
This was summer 1994 - 1995. When MSRP was cheap.
Really good video. I had no idea about this side. Never really thought about it.
Great discussion, Rudy.
I am having the same problems with my LGS. The market has gotten so hard that the shop completely changed to selling comics, figures, and vintage games. Any TCG pack is sold overpriced to compensate for the potential loss. Bulk is sold at almost a dollar a card. Even the tournaments have changed, increased entry prices, and they no longer hire anyone to judge. Most of the time it is just someone who took a 10 minute judge class and is "Certified" but knows nothing about any games.
Times are hard...
This is a good argument why Wizards NEEDS to fix the quality issues. If they don't brick and mortar stores can't survive to sell SEALED products
There is always walmart...
jeb muller walmart is dieing out by amazon and dollar stores so they might throw out mtg products if the profit aint comming in, in the last month 200 walmart supercenters shutdown in USA
Austen Lindley Actually Walmart is the most successful brick and mortar retailer. When they purchased jet.com it ended up well. check out L2 and Scott Galleway of NYU Stern
agree but this www.businessinsider.com/stores-closing-macys-kohls-walmart-sears-2016-12 , shows they are losing money in there centers in places in US
Instead of nixing FNM promos and switching to tokens, they should have also just printed more desirable promos. There's no reason not to, they just decided they didn't want to.
Rudy I started in 1995 during 4th edition right before Ice Age and it definitely was the golden age of Magic and the Game store you are completely accurate of the time it was very different every set and pack opening was exciting discovering new cards and even acquiring my first power card Mox Ruby then traded in to my first Black Lotus. It was a very different time I call it the golden age when Bizzars where $30 and no one even wanted them I believe the first card ever speculated was abeyance from weather light inquest had it listed for a few dollars and the dealers where selling it for over $30 before they errated the card so it wasn’t a time walk such great times it will never be the same unfortunately I wish I could have those days back
A lot of great points in this video Rudy.......Wizards seem to just work against their best interests most of the time by overproducing cards and alienating their players
I get so many people that come in my store and ask about what it takes to open a game store. I always ask where and how much they hope to make a year. They usually say some tiny town with 5000 to 10,000 people. Then they say they hope to make $70K a year. After I spend several minutes laughing my ass off, I look at them any say no seriously how much do you hope to make.
Unfortunate this is not restricted to the US or card store business. Speaking from experience, my family used to run a car dealership in Europe and the car marker at one point told us clearly that we shouldn't make our margins selling cars (this indeed sounds very wrong).... so I can relate. Anyway love the videos they are very instructive. Keep up the good work. Cheers
Back when I played in the late late 90's my store would give unlimited free soda away to tournament players. Before they closed they were charging $5 a month to trade cards on the property and handing out lifetime bans for player to player sales.
I worked for a game store for 10 years.( From before opening day till up to the final day.)
I remember sitting in the shop on the final day and I just broke down and cried. Not knowing what was next not just for me but the players who attended the store.
( Many of them started off as 7 and 8 year olds playing Pokemon and Yugioh, Suddenly all of them talking about college and life afterwards. I still wonder how all that time flew by.)
Fast forward to present day I go to another store but barely play anything. ( Mainly just go to trade now.) The total atmosphere of shops have changed. From being a place where you could spend all day and play a few games and relax and put the last week behind you.
Know complaining about every little thing, Trying to find someone to play but the other side says they no longer play a certain format. And yelling and swearing.
And that Fun word doesn't exist anymore it's all Win Win Win.
This is so true the local game store made so much off of drinks and food they bought the bar down the street and now are huge!
really good stuff to hear being addressed. really looking forward to you solution ideas!
I worked for a small store sports card store turned Magic/Pokemon TCG store for about 5 years in the late 90's. Margins were so fat back then, more so in pokemon than even magic when it really came into it's own 2nd and 3rd set in. I was lucky to be taught order, manage product, invoices, buying and selling singles, this was when I was still in highschool/ starting college, and really learn the back end of a business. Out of playing for 10+ years and catching up with videos like this and just in general seeing where the game I spend a bunch of time playing and working in... I'd not want to go anywhere near opening a store now with the way everything is now.
So, the answer that helps everyone:
1: Masters sets back to once a year, and promise one print run only. Let the big-box stores sell them at MSRP, whatever, confidence in them as investment vehicles sucks, but they're useful for reprints for players.
2: Enhance From the Vault to be more like the SDCC Planeswalker cards: something truly special and unique but not something that can't be found in other versions. Make that specific version of the cards very limited. WPN exclusive and bypass distributors entirely, or write it into the contract that they can't hold any or increase the price- their job on these would be to distribute at a set cost.
3: Something special for FNM. I don't know what this could be, since they don't want to encourage hardcore players to come in and scoop up all the prizes, but the foil tokens aren't doing it. Maybe they could offer redemption codes for participation, get a free MTGO or Arena pack for playing in a FNM each week (and just for playing, outside any prizes.)
As an LGS that has been around since 1993 I don't know what the economy is like in Florida but in the real world we still sell packs at $3.99. We have never lost money on any booster set. We have never sold packs at below wholesale. I have been watching your videos since your first month and really enjoy your content but everytime you talk about product at a retail level i am dumbfounded. Yes Magic isn't doing as well as it used to and Wizards decisions have greatly damaged their brand but that doesn't mean at the retail level you need to discount your product. If you run a respectable local store the majority of customers in your area buy your product. Yes they can get the boxes cheaper online but they like to support the local community because without it they have no reason to own the cards. It is the online sellers who are satisfied with making $2-5 a box who are bad for the market.
Rudy tends to be over dramatic to offset his ego. Which is enormous. He's a good dude, but he changes his tune daily. Especially when it comes to making money. He is a greed monster after all
And to be outright honest. Rudy is a huge reason there are problems with older stuff in the secondary market. He is unapologetic and will not hesitate to make good on someone else's misfortune. He would smile and say fair game, survival of the fittest. But in reality he's just cold and greedy, and his friendships reflect that.
rickp46 Someone seems pretty mad. Poor little whiny baby
@@MrBmantheman Someone is grasping at an insult, because they are too unintelligent to make one from an original thought.
I think his point on selling booster packs cheaper is that he sees it as a scam. He doesn't think the average consumer should pay 4 dollars a pack.
Love this video, its exactly what the store I owned was like from '96-01!
I've been witnessing this exact thing with my own LGS, and pondering what the future holds. Great stuff, I'm curious what you've got to say! The biggest stand out is the only reason for people to buy magic boxes at their LGS is out of loyalty, because if they compete with online prices, they make about... $0. The only incentive to order magic boxes offline is loyalty, and man, that just doesn't seem sustainable.
Of all the videos Rudy makes I really hope wizards watches this one.
We used to have 3 LGS in the city I'm currently living, 2 are gone. The only one left is not a real LGS, it's a Gorilla Gaming in a full size shopping mall that just happens to occasionally run MTG tournaments on the side (they also sell toys, run a LAN gaming center, sell old video games, it's basically a catch all toy and games store). They have one glass case and a couple of notebooks with MTG cards, and their tournaments use the food court tables (in the hall next to them in the mall food court)
The store I started playing at back in 1994 (in another state) still exists, but they are and still are a tiny comic book store that just happens to sell MTG. He's also evolved into owning the building he's in and the the buildings around him so now he's a landlord making money from apartment rentals that just happens to have a comic and MTG store in the middle of it
Wizards has a great system of selling to distributors, and not dealing with the general public ie loss or customer support. From the personal and retailer side, this is disheartening. I appreciate your insight soo much Rudy!
Really waiting for these retro game videos !
Hope you ramble too about the video game industry delivering crap games with no more packaging and cool stuff like they used to in the nineties.
I couldn't agree with you more Rudy. I feel the best way to own a LGS to a combined business. I believe getting a lease on a large portion of property or two conjoined properties and have 1 be a LGS and the one next to it or other half of your store as a PIzza chain or subway. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS see 80% of folks bringing in fast food, donuts, pizza, drinks, etc from outside sources to any LGS event...that's money an LGS could be generating. In fact to start a Subway or Pizza hut you only need 50-75k to start one and you'll generate 200k/year....thats on a medium spectrum and based on location. So if you think of it the net losses accrued through being an LGS store can be recovered by having a bilateral business. I for one would love to open up a gaming Pizzaria.....essentially a pizza hut that has 3 areas of sitdowns, you have a family dining area, then you have video gaming area in which each booth has a console and TV by and you can play 4 play cooperative or VS games on PS or Xbox consoles and you can bring your own games if need be or rent any of the available ones during the time you're in the store. Then 3rd area would be TCG or Tabletop area for those that play physical games like D&D or MTG or Poke la Man. anyways that's my 2 cents as a former business owner and now I'm a safety analyst.
I'm only like 3 minutes in Rudy, and what you're saying is interesting to me because it sounds like you're describing my LGS. It's a very organized LGS with every single card sorted by set and rarity. They also sell a lot of food.
I think game stores will evolve into mini to midsize versions of card kingdom's brick and mortar locations. Essentially become a cafe or small restaurant, serve beer and also be a card/game store. That is two tough businesses in one but there are a few in my area that are doing very well. That seems to be the recipe for success.
13:50 hell yeah!!! BACKGROUND CHECK!!!!
I'm sure this is fueled by mostly nostalgia, but man... the late 90s and early 00s were awesome times for playing Magic. I mean, people thought I was a Satanist for playing the game, but at least those idiots left me alone.
“Magic” and “Out of Control”
Seems like a current commentary on the community. Approved.
Not even playing magic anymore.. can't support Wizards after this whole HQ thing, but will always find ya entertaining my man.
You can't stop eBay, massdrop and Alibaba, from selling 80 dollar boxes. But WotC could simply give out unique prize support to LGS so they have motivation to charge players for tournaments.
I remember also getting multiple promo remand and eternal witness as fnm prizes. Even got random door prize promos. Cold snap prerelease first prize was a Jacket and a booster box at my LGS. Ahh the good ole days.
I used to go to most FNM to grind for the MPS cards. But now I'm lucky to get a couple packs. Sorry but it's not worth the drive/time when I can order that online and spend time with family or watching black mirror.
Our LGS does a roaring trade in MtG singles, but also sells comics, board games, and accessories. I can’t imagine they’d make too much from booster boxes or packs, unless they’re cracking packs to provide some of the single card stock.
such an important video. Thanks Rudy!
even back in 2010-2012 when I was in college everyone got excited about a new set, unlike now a days.
"Not everybody has basements." Bwaha. Good stuff. I saw what you did there lol
In comparison to the 90s, there are 2 base differences.
First e-commerce was non-existence. We had to go to the brick and mortar stores. They MAY have had some singles and maybe a few we wanted, but if not we HAD to buy boosters and/or trade to achieve the decks we wanted. There wasn't much choice to play, e-commerce destroyed that. We couldn't go to buycardshere,com and buy singles. In Europe shops have started being "gaming cafes", because e-commerce destroyed in-store sales.
Second TCGs were still new and people played for fascination of mechanics. These days it is really rare for me to find someone that doesn't just want to show off their powered up monstrosity of a deck. These days for a set to be deemed "good" it MUST be super powerful. Very few are interested in just seeing interesting mechanics regardless of power level. Magic, Yugioh, and Pokemon are all "Timmy" games these days, Pokemon being the least guilty in that regard. In Magic it's a game of who goes infinite first.
I like these kind of videos a lot. I'm sure the views will be low on it compared to your others though. But still keep doing them!
I can't remember the last time that all the Brazilian stores managed to do the prerelease on the correct day and with kits (sometimes the stores are forced to do with normal boosters, because kits arent available). This time one of the distributors was unable to deliver the kits.
This just reinforces my thought, that i need to start/invest in an LGS that is a Pub first, card shop second. Separate the bar from the gaming area so kiddies can still play, but let the adults have a cold one if they like.
RUDYS CHANNEL IS LIKE A SAFE HAVEN FROM DRAMA.
its great not hearing people squabble like little kids. I unsubed from all those channels because I do not want drama in my life.
BlueHawks 206 dont get me wrong it's bit entertaining because i dont play or collect anymore. Rudy knows he has no reason to be involved as im sure he knows his employees well. It could all be over if Boogie would step in raise awareness of the information and alligation.
He makes references to it and you can infer where his personal stance is on the issues that UM brought up
Soldier965 i dont care about his personal stance. Any other time he would make a video explaining the subject then he would throw opinions and then say he has no right to judge. Boogie isnt the bad guy but at least he has reach to millions not hundreds of thousands.
I agree, I don't really give AF about the drama. Make content that matters. I.E. what Wizards is doing directly.
Let me tell you about an influential LGS that was around from 1993 to around 2001. It was located in Costa Mesa, CA. Went by the name of South Coast Gaming Association, or SCGA for short. They can the local Women's Club in Costa Mesa, that spawned classic pro players like Mark "The Hammer." At their store they didn't sell soda, chips, or even candy. The store was 100% gaming, such as Magic, other TCG's, AD&D, Warhammer 40K, White Wolf, etc... They had a strong community... and guess who was one of the owners? Scott Larabee, the head manager of Organized Play, aka the DCI. I hope Scott is rooting for the LGS, trying to make them center point. He knows what it is like to run a store & all of the blood, sweat, and mana that goes into running one. I hope he hasn't become apathetic to what stores are going through, being passive by turning a blind eye.
Thank you for mentioning the fucking background checks Rudy. That shit is not a small issue like all the big names and sponsored people are saying it is. So far you Jeremy and mtg lion are the only people with the balls to talk about it.
Everything else you said was spot on as well. It's a very depressing state of affairs for magic right now. It seems like wotc is so far disconnected from its player base and reality that the games future could genuinely be in trouble. It reminds me of the south park episode where all the yuppies were too busy smelling their own farts to realise what the fuck was going on around them.
Greed destroys everything. WoTC used to care. Clearly they dont anymore, and haven’t for a long time. Such a shame. Thanks Rudy for being straight with us
Magic wants stores that don't just rely on magic but everything gaming related. I notice that comic shops that promote MTG and all other gaming related stuff do the best. These kind of places unfortunately have to sell refreshments but that's actually a good thing. If you want to grow your customer base you have to have an environment where people can come in and sit down and play. And when people sit down and play they want drinks and chips and things like that so they feel more at home. That's the way of it and has been for a long time. You have to have tournaments and FNM and yugioh and pokemon and all the games that your cus base wants. Good luck all you stores out there. I have always wanted to own a store.
My favorite lgs just shut down last month. This hits me in the feels.
The toy store near me said he USED to do on premises play but wizards kept increasing the numbers he had to do (6 events a month) to get the support. He said he stopped doing them when Wizard told him that they didnt care if no one turned up to the events as long as he did them, so their numbers looked good. Also now take this with a pinch of salt as its third hand info but his distributor said that they had been buying less and less magic products because the quality and profit margins compared to other card products wasn't good enough and that Wizards said that the quality of the product wasn't changing any time soon. I also looked up how many stores there have been in my town over the last 10 year that sold only magic and there were 14 ALL of them have closed ALL of them dam it. Now I have to travel for hour plus to even find a store that I can get a game.
cardmarket, tcg and friends pretty much killed the secondary market in stores by killing the single prices. Bulk was once min. 50ct now it is 2ct, but that is nothing limited to the MTG world. The online market lowers prices, rises the competition and in the last step kills local business, which always has much higher bills to pay than their online competitors. It is the current evolution going on and nothing obscure. It works because noone wants to spend more money than needed and in the internet world, the competition is much harder than it was with the next store 20 miles away. I guarantee it will - soon or later - kill even the last few remaining LGS. WOTC centralized the organized play in 2007 to WPN, mainly to support their creasing business. But if they want a healthy scene and future places for players, I think the only chance to solve this issue is bringing back the indy TO status and build up a community driven tournement scene as it used to be - not tied to any kind of business.
Alexander this is something to consider
It's the same as big box stores and sites like Amazon. LGS need to provide benefits online stores cannot. More importantly, us players need to be willing to spend a little more to support the LGS, if we want those benefits.
The shipping delay on pre-release happened to my store as well. They got held over in utah for over a week because of snow. We will never do a wizards direct for a pre-release event again after that nightmare.
Snacks at a game shop scare me. Spilled soda, Cheeto fingers, and there go my raw what coulda been PSA 10s that are double sleeved because Thad spilled his Monster on the table. Reminds me of the slob who worked in the warehouse at FASA and spilled coffee on product... Good Times. I see people eating and I’m out the door. Imagine some grubby kid with Cheetos telling you sorry he’ll ask his Mommie for an advance on his allowance to pay for the Liliana of the Veil he just drowned in Mountain Dew. I mean Candle Wax on Ravenloft is one thing.
Actually your best video, cause I don't care about what you want to buyout or the print run of a set, or that you are selling something cheap to hook up your patrons, cause I was selling magic in the good time in the 90,s when you was a snot nosed kid.
Growing up in early 90's Florida was magical. Had no shortage of cardshops
on a side note, you should place a model tower on one of your shelves beside an image of a dumpster on fire with WotC photo-shopped onto it
Honestly at this point they should do what they did with Vinyl. I've been selling vinyl for 7 years now, and every time record store day comes around the buzz is MASSIVE. Maybe lgs day or something where special things getting printed and people actually come out to stores at least once a year.
Just an idea, obviously it would be difficult but it could be something to support lgs and wotc at the same time.