What did your market analysis show when you were putting together your business plan?
Is a 5000 person community with no surrounding communities a viable location for a hobby gaming store?
Based on some of your later posts, it doesn't sound like it...
I don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm, but if your chosen locale is not a viable location for a store, what do you feel that WOTC should do to help you?
I'm a bit disappointed in Troll recently. I've successfully placed orders with them in the past and never had issues. While this particular incident doesn't deal with Magic cards, it still reflects poorly on them as a whole.
On 3/3 I placed an order for some Yu-Gi-Oh cards for my son and immediately pay via PayPal. A few days later I receive an email from them that says they cannot ship the order right away because the cards in question are at a show with them and not in the warehouse. I find the claim dubious because NONE of the cards purchased are anywhere near Yu-Gi-Oh tournament staples, so it would make no sense that they'd bring random cards with them to a show. Finally on 3/10 they email saying the cards are back, but one of the ~20 or so cards I ordered is no longer available, they'll refund my $0.35 via PayPal. OK, mistakes in inventory happen, I get it. The order finally ships on on 3/10 via the slowest possible USPS route I could imagine. According to tracking, the order is allegedly going to arrive today, 14 days later, and 21 days after initial order. This is mid-west to east-coast. I can get first class mail from LA to NY in 3-4 days, not sure why Troll's packages take 14. Granted, much of this blame lies on the USPS, but I've never before had an experience with Troll where it takes them 7 days just to process the order.
FNM promos that are left from un-run FNM's must be returned to Wotc
This myth has been circulating for some time. Wizards never asks for promos to be sent back, ever. As mentioned by several folks above, for some promos they will ask that you destroy any left-over promos. Leftover FNM promos are explicitly allowed to be given as additional prizes for future events.
I've been a TO for over a decade. I don't recall any program ever where wizards asked for leftovers to be sent back. Besides the fact that with the difficulty of running a business, returning leftover cards via the US Mail would be the last thing on most people's minds
Double-check librarities. The data is definitely there.
Just recalling off the top of my head there are 3 versions of most of the "newer" JSS promos (newer being Mirrodin-->forward). Some have different foil 'watermarks', but the easiest way to tell them apart is the set number.
The Junior Super Series Slith is J05. The Super Series (Europe) Slith is E05. And the Japan Junior Series Slith is N05.
They are selling tickets for 40$ a pop. Are you suggesting most of that goes to covering costs? Sounds unlikely. Plus, the timely release of Commander 2013 two weeks before this GP does not seem arbitrary
WOTC doesn't run GPs, the various PTOs do.
And personally knowing a PTO, I know that even events like GPs can have slim margins.
As the events become larger and more prestigious, they need to book larger and better facilities. Booking for the weekend typically costs $10-15K or more. For sealed or draft format GPs, the sealed product needs to be purchased from WOTC. Judges and other staff need to be paid, sometimes put up in hotels. Artists are typically flown in and put up in a hotel, all expenses paid.
And, much of this needs to be paid out before all the funds come in from people signing up for the event.
Not to say that the PTOs aren't making money on GPs--if they weren't they wouldn't be running them, but its not as huge as people think.
I understand that we can't generalize this with all LGS, because to be fair, not all of them are trying to rip you off... but this practice has really grown in the last few years. Up until recently, I had never seen stores increase the cost of sealed product based on the cards inside them. It was always MSRP+Profit. Now its "Rape the kids for whatever we can get", while clamoring to the excuse that "it's just business".
I'm really happy, in a bittersweet way, that Target and Wal-Mart are carrying these, or else you'd be paying $100.00 per precon at most LGS.
I strongly believe that in many of these cases the LGS' actions are fueled by the growing sub-culture of players (actually, I suspect most don't even play the game) who feel that it is their entitlement to take advantage of anyone and everyone in the supply chain to eke out the most "value" that they can from Magic.
FTVs, for example, are a prime case of this behavior. The aforementioned "players" grab up as many copies of FTV that they can from LGS who charge MSRP so that they can turn them around to giant online retailers like SCG or T&T for instant profit. This in turn forces many retailers to simply up their sale prices to match the internet giants so that they aren't taken advantage of by the sharks. It is simply an escalation of conflict that does nothing but hurt the game overall and disenfranchise the real players who are not interested in making small profits at the sake of others.
While we are all aware that Commander 2013 is not a limited product, don't be surprised when the same sharks descend on every local Target and WalMart and cherry pick the one expensive deck from the lot so they can break them up and sell the singles for a profit.
I may be over-generalizing a bit here, but I'm growing really sick and tired of all the sharking going on in the game. You always spot this crew at GPs and other big events trying to take advantage of others in trades. Trading has long since moved away from "I need this card you have, and you need this card I have" to "You are a sucker and don't know that this card just exploded in Modern and jumped 138% in value overnight so I will take advantage of your ignorance."
Bringing all this wordiness back around to the LGS--the shop owners who are aware of this behavior and refuse to be taken advantage of by the sharks are raising their prices and being labelled as greedy and gouging, while those who allow themselves to be taken advantage of will slowly come around to the other camp when they realize what is going on. In all, prices will continue to rise far above MSRP and the true players and collectors of the game simply lose.
These will be carried in HUGE quantities at Wal-Mart and Target. You'll probably be able to order them off of those sites websites.
Eventually. For products like this, WOTC typically gives the LGS exclusive sales for a period of time. I wouldn't be surprised if Target/WalMart doesn't get these decks for a couple of weeks to a month after release day.
Considering that retailers will not receive their Commander product before October 30th, 29th at the earliest, the chance that someone says they are shipping to you between the 18th and the 23rd is likely nil.
More likely, as someone else said, Amazon has very strict rules regarding its resellers and how they ship, so the shipper had to fudge things to make it look like they fulfilled your order in a timely fashion.
You should have Cust Service Merge them. Then quit losing your #.
(I'm a jaded old guy w/ a 6 digit DCI# that is easy to remember and a plastic membership card. I get that its harder for most other people.)
Not to mention that after you play at a shop the first time, the number is stored in their local player's database in Wizards Event Reporter.
And if you've never played at that particular shop before, it only takes them about 45 seconds to look up your number in the global database, also through Event Reporter.
That's probably because sealed product cannot be shipped outside the country. Even SCG won't ship boxes outside the US.
It's also likely that he never shipped them, nor ever had any intention of shipping them. Giving out fake tracking #'s and then refunding when the product never arrives is one of his standard practices.
Suture Priest was given out at Mirrodin Besieged game days for being on the side of Phyrexians and Taslisman for being on the side of Mirrodians. The only way to recognize those is to find unopened pack of them. Otherwise they are just like the regular ones.
That's only true for Suture Priest--it is identical to the same card pulled from a New Phyrexia pack. Pristine Talisman however, is unique. It has a different set symbol--the imagined symbol if the set had been Mirrodin Pure.
It is currently listed at $6 on SCG. I suspect over time Pristine Talisman will go up in value. It was only given out in very small quantities (2 to each Advanced level WPN store, 1 to each core level store) and, as it is not foil, nor alternate art, it is very easy to miss if it is thrown in with other worthless New Phyrexia commons.
Is a 5000 person community with no surrounding communities a viable location for a hobby gaming store?
Based on some of your later posts, it doesn't sound like it...
I don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm, but if your chosen locale is not a viable location for a store, what do you feel that WOTC should do to help you?
On 3/3 I placed an order for some Yu-Gi-Oh cards for my son and immediately pay via PayPal. A few days later I receive an email from them that says they cannot ship the order right away because the cards in question are at a show with them and not in the warehouse. I find the claim dubious because NONE of the cards purchased are anywhere near Yu-Gi-Oh tournament staples, so it would make no sense that they'd bring random cards with them to a show. Finally on 3/10 they email saying the cards are back, but one of the ~20 or so cards I ordered is no longer available, they'll refund my $0.35 via PayPal. OK, mistakes in inventory happen, I get it. The order finally ships on on 3/10 via the slowest possible USPS route I could imagine. According to tracking, the order is allegedly going to arrive today, 14 days later, and 21 days after initial order. This is mid-west to east-coast. I can get first class mail from LA to NY in 3-4 days, not sure why Troll's packages take 14. Granted, much of this blame lies on the USPS, but I've never before had an experience with Troll where it takes them 7 days just to process the order.
This myth has been circulating for some time. Wizards never asks for promos to be sent back, ever. As mentioned by several folks above, for some promos they will ask that you destroy any left-over promos. Leftover FNM promos are explicitly allowed to be given as additional prizes for future events.
I've been a TO for over a decade. I don't recall any program ever where wizards asked for leftovers to be sent back. Besides the fact that with the difficulty of running a business, returning leftover cards via the US Mail would be the last thing on most people's minds
Just recalling off the top of my head there are 3 versions of most of the "newer" JSS promos (newer being Mirrodin-->forward). Some have different foil 'watermarks', but the easiest way to tell them apart is the set number.
The Junior Super Series Slith is J05. The Super Series (Europe) Slith is E05. And the Japan Junior Series Slith is N05.
Japan Junior
Junior Series
Junior Super Series
I wonder if this is temporary as more product needs to come from the printer, or a sign of things to come...?
WOTC doesn't run GPs, the various PTOs do.
And personally knowing a PTO, I know that even events like GPs can have slim margins.
As the events become larger and more prestigious, they need to book larger and better facilities. Booking for the weekend typically costs $10-15K or more. For sealed or draft format GPs, the sealed product needs to be purchased from WOTC. Judges and other staff need to be paid, sometimes put up in hotels. Artists are typically flown in and put up in a hotel, all expenses paid.
And, much of this needs to be paid out before all the funds come in from people signing up for the event.
Not to say that the PTOs aren't making money on GPs--if they weren't they wouldn't be running them, but its not as huge as people think.
I strongly believe that in many of these cases the LGS' actions are fueled by the growing sub-culture of players (actually, I suspect most don't even play the game) who feel that it is their entitlement to take advantage of anyone and everyone in the supply chain to eke out the most "value" that they can from Magic.
FTVs, for example, are a prime case of this behavior. The aforementioned "players" grab up as many copies of FTV that they can from LGS who charge MSRP so that they can turn them around to giant online retailers like SCG or T&T for instant profit. This in turn forces many retailers to simply up their sale prices to match the internet giants so that they aren't taken advantage of by the sharks. It is simply an escalation of conflict that does nothing but hurt the game overall and disenfranchise the real players who are not interested in making small profits at the sake of others.
While we are all aware that Commander 2013 is not a limited product, don't be surprised when the same sharks descend on every local Target and WalMart and cherry pick the one expensive deck from the lot so they can break them up and sell the singles for a profit.
I may be over-generalizing a bit here, but I'm growing really sick and tired of all the sharking going on in the game. You always spot this crew at GPs and other big events trying to take advantage of others in trades. Trading has long since moved away from "I need this card you have, and you need this card I have" to "You are a sucker and don't know that this card just exploded in Modern and jumped 138% in value overnight so I will take advantage of your ignorance."
Bringing all this wordiness back around to the LGS--the shop owners who are aware of this behavior and refuse to be taken advantage of by the sharks are raising their prices and being labelled as greedy and gouging, while those who allow themselves to be taken advantage of will slowly come around to the other camp when they realize what is going on. In all, prices will continue to rise far above MSRP and the true players and collectors of the game simply lose.
Eventually. For products like this, WOTC typically gives the LGS exclusive sales for a period of time. I wouldn't be surprised if Target/WalMart doesn't get these decks for a couple of weeks to a month after release day.
Why not? $15 is a bit low, but $18-$20/each is about the cost to purchase FTV:20 when it was released by distributors.
More likely, as someone else said, Amazon has very strict rules regarding its resellers and how they ship, so the shipper had to fudge things to make it look like they fulfilled your order in a timely fashion.
Not to mention that after you play at a shop the first time, the number is stored in their local player's database in Wizards Event Reporter.
And if you've never played at that particular shop before, it only takes them about 45 seconds to look up your number in the global database, also through Event Reporter.
It's also likely that he never shipped them, nor ever had any intention of shipping them. Giving out fake tracking #'s and then refunding when the product never arrives is one of his standard practices.
That's only true for Suture Priest--it is identical to the same card pulled from a New Phyrexia pack. Pristine Talisman however, is unique. It has a different set symbol--the imagined symbol if the set had been Mirrodin Pure.
It is currently listed at $6 on SCG. I suspect over time Pristine Talisman will go up in value. It was only given out in very small quantities (2 to each Advanced level WPN store, 1 to each core level store) and, as it is not foil, nor alternate art, it is very easy to miss if it is thrown in with other worthless New Phyrexia commons.