Adult Toys
After VCon, I was thinking of the various customers we met face-to-face and started breaking them up into various segments of the market by buyer / gaming behavior. I thought I’d share it with you, since it was a kind of useful for me to review against the games I brought. I’m writing this with relation to the con itself, though obviously the groups are probably true too on an everyday business. Casual Gamers These are individuals who will play board games, but aren’t seriously into gaming in any form. They might pull out a game once in a while, during special events or parties, but generally dedicate very little of their time to gaming. They drop by to see what’s new, to browse and are more likely to buy on impulse; whether because the theme, the brand name (e.g. Starcraft ) or a good sales pitch. You’re unlikely to see them again if they walk away from the booth; except maybe next year
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The different kinds of Gamers
New Board Games : Betrayal At House On The Hill Dominant Species Dominion: Prosperity Hansa Teutonica Mr Jack Pocket Restocked Board Games : 10 Days in Asia 10 Days in Europe Arkham Horror Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 Aye, Dark Overlord (09 Ed) BattleStar Galactica Pegasus Expansion Catan Traders & Barbarian 5&6 Expansion Catan: Traders & Barbarians Chaos Chez Cthulhu Chrononauts The Gore Years Dungeon Twister 2: Prison DungeonQuest Egizia Ergo Gipf Project Set #3 Gloom Card Game Gloom: Unfortunate Expeditions Gloom: Unwelcome Guests A Game of Thrones : Illyrio’s Gift Expansion A Game of Thrones : A King in the North Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : Refugees of War Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : Return of the Others Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : Scattered Armies Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : Secrets & Spies Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : War of the 5 Kings Chapter Pack High School Drama: Varsity Ed Imperial 2030 Munchkin 4: The Need for Steed Munchkin Bites 2 Pants Macabre Munchkin Bites! Munchkn Cthulhu 4 Crazed Caverns Nuclear War Card Game Nuns on the Run Parcheesi: Royal Edition Qwirkle Revolution! Ricochet Robots Run for your Life, Candyman! Saboteur Say Anything Shadow Hunters Shadow Hunters: Expansion Standard American Board Game Sleeves Standard USA Game Size Sleeves Stoner Fluxx Tannhauser Boardgame Thunderstone: Wrath of the Elements Wasabi! Warhammer: Invasion LCG Fall of Karak Grimaz Zombie Dice Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : October 7, 2010
This was our fourth year at VCon , and as always we had a blast. VCon this year was a combined event with VSteam – a Steampunk group that has been growing in popularity in Vancouver. It’s a great sub-culture, and this year, people were out in style with a variety of costumes from the period. The first day (Friday) was a tad of a mess, with tables not arriving and most people scrambling to get set-up. The vendor’s room looked to be about a time and a half in size from last year, with twice the number of vendors. Can we say cozy? In addition, whilst the games room was right next door, nearly all the other events were held in the hotel next to us – so there might have been fewer visitors than there could have been. This year, we agreed to run a pair of games table as well.
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VCon 2010 – a combined Steampunk event
New Board Games : Age of Industry Down In Flames – Guns Blazing Dragonheart Hotel Samoa Invasion From Outer Space: The Warhammer: LCG March of the Damned Deluxe Expansion Zombie Ninja Pirates Restocked Board Games : BattleLore! Horrific Horde Goblin BattleStar Galactic Pegasus Expansion Blokus Travel Dixit Gold Mine Hex Hex XL Hotel Samoa Munchkin Quest Munchkin Quest 2 : Looking for Trouble Run for your Life, Candyman! St. Petersburg Tales of the Arabian Nights Tien Zi Que Tobago Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow New Moon Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : September 30, 2010
New Board Games Adios Amigos Don Quixote A Game of Thrones : Kings of the Storm Deluxe Expansion Gold Mine Heartland Hex Hex XL Killer Bunnies Odyssey Combo Pack Animals, Crops & Land Starter Killer Bunnies Odyssey Combo Pack Elementals, Energy & Technology Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Animals Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Crops Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Elementals Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Energy Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Land Starter Killer Bunnies Ultimate Odyssey Technology Starter Lords of Vegas: Dust, Dice & Dollars Mad Zeppelin Munchkin Cthulhu 4 : Crazed Caverns Munchkin : Marked For Death Summoner Wars: Fallen Kingdom Summoner Wars: Vanguards Restocked Board Games : 10 Days in Africa Age of Conan The Boardgame Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery Agricola: Farmers of the Moor Battlestar Galactica Claustrophobia Command & Colors Ancients (3rd Printing) Cloud 9 Conflict of Heroes : Storms of Steel Conflict of Heroes : The Marsh Expansion Conquest of the Empire Constantinopolis Container 2 : Second Shipment Diplomacy El Grande Decennial Field Commander – Rommel Genoa Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game Malta Munchkin Booty Munchkin Booty 2 Jump of the Shark Munchkin Cthulhu Munchkin Cthulhu 3 Unspeakable Vaults Munchkin Quest 2 Looking for Trouble Risk: 2210 A.D. Settlers of Catan Shadow Hunters Tannhauser Boardgame Tannhauser Revised Rulebook Tannhauser Operation Novgorod Exp Treehouse Rainbow Pyramids Treehouse Xeno Pyramids Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition Wasabi Yspahan New & Restocked Accessories : Deluxe Wooden Farmer Set (25 pieces Fantasy Flight Games: Black Sleeves Fantasy Flight Games: Blue Sleeves Fantasy Flight Games: Green Sleeves Fantasy Flight Games: White Sleeves Fantasy Flight Games : Red Sleeves Gaming Stones Tube Light Blue Gaming Stones Tube Red Gaming Stones Violet Munchkin Boxes of Holding Summoner Wars : Premium Board Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : September 24, 2010
I went to a networking function yesterday where a speaker was promoting his latest marketing book. Boiled down, these were his main points from memory: creating difference; not benchmarking execution of strategy delivering value micro-targeting epidemics empowerment relationship management If you read marketing books & information in general, you might notice a number of terms that you’re familiar with. There’s a reason why Sun Tzu’s Art of War is still being read to this day – there’s nothing new in strategy. It’s just a different way of saying the same thing. Not to say that there isn’t value in reassessing & reviewing things like this – it often triggers new ideas or reinforces old concepts that have fallen by the wayside. Yet, one factor that frustrates me about so many marketing talks is the complete lack of focus for small businesses (especially existing small businesses)
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Marketing Trends & Small Businesses
Ascension : Chronicles of the God King is a deck-building board game that has strong flavors of Magic the Gathering and Dominion in it. It’s a fast gateway deck builder game that takes less than 5 minutes to explain and less than an hour to play. Ascension is a good game that I believe has carved out it’s own niche in this fast growing sector of the market.
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Ascension : Chronicles of the God King Review
Well hello there again folks! Check out one of the latest movies from Hollywood where cutie pie Zac Efron of High School Muscial fame stars as a leading actor. If you are a big fan of Zac Efron, I am sure that you just cannot wait to catch this movie! This movie is titled “Charlie St. Cloud”.
When it comes to running a business, you’ll find that many business consultants / teacher recommend putting together a business plan. There’s a very good reason for this – it enforces a structured methodology for reviewing threats & weaknesses in the business model. Here’s a few major things that a business plan allows you to do: 1.
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Best Practices : Plan, Plan, Plan (3)
New Board Games Defenders of the Realm Founding Fathers Glory To Rome Mystery Rummy 1 : Jack the Ripper Mystery Rummy 3 : Jekyll & Hyde Onirim Perry Rhodan The Cosmic League Railways of the World Card Game Tiki Topple What’s Missing? (Differences) Yamslam Zombie In My Pocket Restocked Board Games 10 Days in Europe A Game Of Thrones LCG : Return of the Others Chapters Pack A Game of Thrones : A Sword in the Darkness Chapter Pack Apples to Apples Party Box Arkham Horror: Dunwich Horror Battlestations Revised Battleground Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book Battleground Fantasy Warfare Dwarves of Runegard Starter Battleground Fantasy Warfare Kingdoms Battleground Fantasy Warfare Terrain Pack Blokus Call of Cthulhu LCG – In the Dread of Night Asylum Pack Call of Cthulhu LCG – Search for the Silver Key Asylum Pack Cave Troll Combat Commander: Normandy Battle Pack 3 Conflict of Heroes Awakening the Bear Deluxe Pit Gang of Four 2nd Ed Ingenious Jenga Killer Bunnies Blue Starter Modern Art Revised Edition Pitchcar Ext 3 – Long Straight Ra BOARD GAME Red November Tannhauser Boardgame Tannhauser: Gorgei Figure The Golden City Warhammer: Chaos In The Old World Zooloretto Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : August 12, 2010
A comment by a friend mentioned that while there is a lot of information out there on how not to run a successful game store, there really isn’t much information on how to do it right. I think there are a number of reasons why we don’t discuss the best practices. Firstly, many of us don’t want to turn our blogs into business management blogs so we avoid discussing the nitty gritty how-to’s; secondly, since all businesses are unique to some extent, it’s the unique (read – headache inducing) problems that we see. Thirdly, there’s some hesitation of giving away information to competitors that might (unlikely but possibly) just put ourselves out of business. Lastly, it’s a bit of risk – after all, even if you do everything right, sometimes businesses just fail and we don’t want to be blamed for it! All that said, we’ve decided to start a new series of best practices.
Once again, there is a bug in the site. Sometimes, it seems like every few months we come across a new one – and the truth is, that’s what it is. Running an online store with ecommerce software isn’t an easy job on the IT side; especially if you’re attempting to improve the store as you go along. The Complexity E-commerce stores have to be hosted; think the building a retail store would rent from, and the orders and stock count run from an ecommerce software. So think of it as the actual physical space (i.e. the store). Now, the CSS and HTML of a site dictate it’s physical appearance (i.e.
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Bugs & Spaces – The Complexity of Running an Online Store
New Board Games Bottle Imp Call of Cthulhu : LCG Spoken Covenant Dungeoneer: Tomb of the Lich Lord A Game of Throne : Illyrio’s Gift Expansion Sturgeon The Swarm Those Pesky Humans Wilderness War Restocked Board Games Age of Conan The Boadgame Battleground Fantasy Warfare Umenzi Tribesmen Cash ‘n Guns Cash n’ Guns: Yakuza Exp Catan Histories : Settlers of America Catan: Portable Edition Cave Troll Chez Cthulhu Citadels Card Game Ingenious Last Night on Earth Last Night on Earth: Hero Pack 1 Last Night on Earth: Survival of the Fittest Expansion Last Night on Earth: Zombies with Weapons Mini Set Pillars of the Earth: Builder’s Duel Primordial Soup Puerto Rico Queens Ransom Scotland Yard Shadows Over Camelot Sleuth Snow Tails Standard Card Game Sleeves Steam Barons – Steam Expansion Through the Desert Thurn & Taxis Times Up Deluxe Vikings Warhammer LCG Assault on Ulthuan Expansion Wits & Wagers 2nd Edition Wooden Farm Animal Set (60pcs) Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : August 5, 2010
Review Contest Winner – Our Review Contest Winner! On-going Contest – The On-Going Review Contest Site Updates – Site Shift, New Sale Items & Sponsorship Upcoming Games – Some of the most anticipated games that are to be released Contest Winner Announcement This month’s winner is Matt D. with his review of San Juan
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August 2010 : Newsletter
We’ve updated the latest bestsellers for July 2010 on the site. As a review, the bestsellers for June 2010 are as follows. No real surprises this month – Settlers continues to outsell most other products by a margin of 2 : 1 at least.
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Bestsellers : June 2010
Recently reading an article about the state of Italy and the Italian businessman, I was struck by a sentence. Paraphrased, it discussed how Italian entrepreneurs were more concerned about control than growth. It certainly struck me as something that I have experienced running the business as well. To grow, you generally require capital. There are 2 ways to generate capital – investment in the business and profits (i.e. organic growth). The 2nd method, organic growth is generally quite slow – if you only make 3 – 5% of 200,000 in profit, you’re only looking at $6 – 10,000 a year. Of which a certain percentage is going to be taxed.
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Capital, Growth & Control
Formula D is the reprint of the classic racing game Formula De. Never having played Formula De before, I can’t compare the games, but I have come to enjoy Formula D itself. Certainly one of the most fun racing games I’ve had a chance to play, with an interesting racing mechanic using dice for movement. Appearance: Formula D comes in a very large box that contains the racing tracks, the cars, the player’s individual racing car information and the driver information. The design of the tracks and the drivers are in a slightly cartoonish style, one that displays the information about the cars and the tracks quiet well. It’s easy to read and it’s easy to follow, with the game board having useful little pieces of information like the number of spaces to the next turn and the highest and lowest number of space in each turn. Overall, I’d say the design of Formula D is great
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Formula D review
New Board Games Pressure Matrix Restocked Board Games Ad Astra Atlantis Drakon 3rd Edition Egizia A Game of Thrones Boardgame A Game of Thrones : King of the Sea Expansion A Game of Thrones : Princes of the Sun Expansion Hey! That’s My Fish Deluxe Iliad Le Havre Pandemic: On the Brink Say Anything Scotland Yard Shadow Hunters Small World StarCraft: Brood War Expansion Steam: Rails to Riches Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : July 29, 2010
Warhammer : Chaos in the Old World is one of the best 4 player games released in 2009. Having had a chance to play it numerous times, the replay value for this game has held up very well due to the numerous strategies available for each Chaos God and the changing Old World Cards. This is a must have game for any Ameritrash player. Appearance: This is a Fantasy Flight Games production, so obviously the game is pretty. Lots of little figures for your various acolytes and soldiers, while the board itself has been quite well designed and really pretty.
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Warhammer : Chaos in the Old World Review
Having recently come back from Conquest BC held at the Compass Inn in Surrey, I thought I’d write a quick con report. Conquest BC was tiny. There were 80 people at most through the entire weekend with the majority on Saturday and much fewer on Sunday. Of course, the World Cup might have had something to do with that… Half the attendees were there for the Warhammer tournament, the other half split evenly between board gamers and RPGers. There was a lot of D&D 4th Ed being played that weekend, with scattered board games for the rest. I saw games of Battlestar Galactica , Munchkin , Alhambra , Agricola , Stone Age , Galaxy Trucker , God Dice and HeroQuest played that weekend, so not a bad assortment overall. Half of the named games were run by Alison and myself while we sat around bored. On a vendor’s viewpoint, we obviously didn’t make any money from the Con with so few people there. Co-ordination and support from the organisers could have certainly been improved. We weren’t told where we were or when we were meant to set-up even after numerous attempts at getting this information. In addition, the cost of the Con table itself was extremely high.
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Conquest BC – Con Report
New Board Games Small World Tales & Legends The Napoleonic Wars Vasco da Gama Restocked Board Games Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 Bang! Dodge City Expansion Battleground Fantasy Warfare : Lizardmen Starter Battleground Fantasy Warfare : Mens of Hawksfold Starter Battleground Fantasy Warfare : Orc Army Starter Battleground Fantasy Warfare : Elves of Ravenwood Starter Battleground Fantasy Warfare : Monsters & Mercenaries Reinforcements Camelot Legends Card Game Castle Panic Chaos Isle: Fresh Meat (Exp 1) Chaos Isle: Reinforcements (Expansion 2) Chaos Isle: The Lunatics (Expansion 3) Chaos Isle: Zombi Deck Claustrophobia Descent Road to Legend Expansion Descent: Well of Darkness Dvonn EuroRails 4th Edition Finca A Game of Thrones Boardgame Gipf kit #2 Gipf kit #3 A Game of Thrones : Ancient Enemies Chapter Pack A Game of Thrones : LCG Core Set A Game of Thrones : Lords of Winter Expansion A Game of Thrones : Princes of Sun Expansion HALO WARS RISK Jambo Expansion Jambo Expansion 2 Kingsburg Last Night on Earth: Growing Hunger Expansion Pandemic : on the Brink Small World Cursed! Small World : Grand Dames Steam: Rails to Riches The Village Word on the Street Junior Yinsh Zertz Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : July 15, 2010
Eagle eyed customers might have noticed that certain provinces have seen a huge jump in the amount of taxes they have had to pay. This isn’t a mistake – it’s due to the introduction of HST in British Columbia. Unfortunately, that means we now have to charge the full HST in all provinces that use that system. It’s meant an increase of between 8 – 10% in the tax rate for many customers. Of course, those of you in PST provinces are still only paying GST.
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HST Tax Rates
I’ve been thinking about location once again, specifically I’ve been thinking about our current location and our need for a larger space. Right now, we are crammed and I’ve had to use a few innovative tricks to keep stock in the storage location. Whatever the case, coome Christmas, we’ll need to expand since we increase stock significantly to handle the increase in sales. Luckily, our current location has a few office places open that we could rent but which are all bigger than our current location. It gives us flexibility but at an added cost. Interestingly enough, once we increase to the new size, we’ll be at a point where our rental cost is significant enough that actually renting a small warehouse makes sense.
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Location, location, location
New Board Games A Game Of Thrones LCG : Return of the Others Chapters Pack Armorica BattleLore! Horrific Horde Goblin Expansion Egizia Igor the Life of the Party Game Queen’s Ransom Tien Zi Que Restocked Board Games – this is an incomplete list highlighting the most popular restocks Adventurers: Temple of Chac BattleLore! Creatures Expansion BattleLore! Dragons Expansion BattleLore! Heroes Expansion Descent Design Series : Quest Compendium Descent Journey in the Dark Descent Sea of Blood Expansion A Game Of Thrones LCG Core Set Mini Pitchcar ThunderStone Ticket to Ride Ubongo Warhammer: Invasion LCG Core Set : Invasion LCG Assault on Ulthuan Share This
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New & Restocked Board Games : July 9, 2010
July Newsletter Review Contest Winner – Our Review Contest Winner! On-going Contest – The On-Going Review Contest Site Updates – A Convention, After Holiday Works & Site Change Upcoming Games – Some of the most anticipated games that are to be released Contest Winner Announcement This month’s winner is Hogan with his review of the Settlers of Catan . I love his comment on the game – “The Ultimate Board game hater conversion tool”.
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July 2010 Newsletter
Needless to say, Cervical cancer is about cancel of the cervix. I hope you guys know where the cervix is! The cervix (or neck of the uterus) is the lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina. Most importantly, one should know the signs and symptoms of cervical cancer, which is what I wish to educate people here about.
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Know more about Cervical Cancer
Since I’m about to head off to Asia, my mind started wandering about businesses and I seriously started thinking about the Board Games Cafe in Asia. I’m probably slow, but I just realised why the format is so popular in Asia and potentially not as successful in North America / Europe. It’s a matter of capital cost and the Foreign Exchange Rates. With a game such as Settlers of Catan easily costing the equivalent of $160 – 180 in local dollars, it’s hard to justify more than one or two game purchases. Evan ‘cheap’ board games like Citadels are between $100 – 110. Enter the Cafes where players can pay to play at a fraction the cost of the game. No more risky purchases, and suddenly board gaming becomes affordable for a much larger target audience. I’d bet the vast majority of their profit comes not from the game rental but from food & drink purchases too. The game rental really is to defray capital expenses of the new game.
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A Musing on Board Game Cafes in Asia
Hello everyone! Welcome back to my Bargain Toys Cheap Toys blog! For today’s post, I would be writing about the upcoming movie Toy Story 3! Yes that is right, after a successful Toy Story and Toy Story 2, here comes Toys Story 3 and best of all there is the 3D Toy Story 3 version! Say hello to Woody, Buzz and your favourite gang of toy characters! To give you some idea of the plot without revealing too much, we all know that the owner of the Toy Story toys, Andy, would grow up someday.
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I want to watch Toy Story 3!