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A place up here already has JLA boxes and are selling them, about 75 a box [Canadian], so adding tax to that puts it to about 86-87 ...
Between back to back preview events the tins and the boxes I picked up, I may even have everything 'set' well before the set becomes legal for once :).
only 24 packs a box--pack price should be $2.50 no higher anywhere.
I remember when i played MTG i was paying 77.00 a box for 36 packs. (Back in the day)
Some shops here want 70-80 a box....for 24 packs F that.
I'll get my boxes on ebay where i can get a really good price, but i hate when they want like $8.00+ for shipping, A box of VS doesn't weigh that much, freaking people trying to squeeze dollars from anywhere.
Originally posted by tone only 24 packs a box--pack price should be $2.50 no higher anywhere.
I remember when i played MTG i was paying 77.00 a box for 36 packs. (Back in the day)
Some shops here want 70-80 a box....for 24 packs F that.
I'll get my boxes on ebay where i can get a really good price, but i hate when they want like $8.00+ for shipping, A box of VS doesn't weigh that much, freaking people trying to squeeze dollars from anywhere.
whatever---i end up paying anyway --Game On!!!
I shipped a box of yugioh cards cross country and UPS rate was just under $10.00, so yes, they do cost that much
Retail is $3.49. Actually, they might even be $3.69 now, matching Magic's MSRP. Online dealers do NOT have the same issues that local stores do. An online store selling at $54 a box is making 5% above cost. That doesn't come even remotely close to covering overhead for a store. A store that sells at $75 a box is being VERY reasonable, and giving a 20% discount.
Overhead? What the hell is that? Well, unlike online dealers who are usually dealing out of their house and are the only "employee" being paid, they have basically no overhead. On the other hand, your LGS has to pay their employees, taxes, rent, utilities, cost of product, cost of shipping, advertising and many other expenses that you, the consumer, seem to completely forget are there. So, if you go online and buy all of your boxes that way, don't expect your LGS to give a rat's @$$ about the game you play. It's not even worth stocking a game if your customers aren't happy with a 20% discount. You know why so many stores go out of business? Because of crap like that.
As a retailer, I have to tell customers that we will not come even remotely close to matching online prices. $54 a box? Pssssssht. Go ahead and buy it online then, but don't cry when we stop carrying that product. And if we don't carry the product, guess what else we aren't going to do? That's right, run tournaments for that game.
At $54 a box, hell, at $65 a box, we (the brick and mortar retailer) are LOSING MONEY. It's really, truly not worth carrying if that is the only price customers are willing to accept.
I know it's a hard concept to grasp, but when your LGS is offering 20% off, they are being GENEROUS. Customers who expect an all-the-time 20% discount on loose boosters, and a 40% discount on sealed boxes are utterly unreasonable.
I loathe online retailers who are not required to have a brick-and-mortar store, for they quite literally hurt the entire industry. The online stores that DO have a brick-and-mortar store and STILL sell at that high a discount had to either make a gargantuan investment in the game to begin with (ordering hundreds of CASES of product to get into the highest discount bracket, and accepting a loss on a huge percentage of their initial sales), or will be out of business in no time, when they suddenly realize that the "profit" they are making from the online sales is actually translating into an overall LOSS of revenue.
So either support your local store, unless they are gouging, or don't, and live with the fact they they will not stock your game or sanction tournaments for your game. Those are your two options.
Amen to the above post. People seem to think "profit" is a dirty word for some reason, yet profit is the only reason to run a business. All space in a store is worth money not the product that is in that space. If the product is not paying for the space it occupies, then a product that will earn money must be put in its place. Alot of people can't even fathom the concept of overhead or lack thereof. FINALLY Wizkids is giving retailers a shot in the arm with its exclusive "only if you bought it in a store" figs for Heroclix because Wizkids is starting to understand that without storefronts, there is no future for the game and storefronts have a hard time competing with the "fast buck out of garage" sellers. Online dealers and such have their place and help provide product to people who otherwise may not be able to get it so they are not necessarily evil , but the people who get all stupid because a storefront needs to charge suggested retail price (you know....that price that Upper Deck or WOTC or any other company for that matter suggests as a price so you can earn money on their product and therefore continue to restock it as it earns you money ) or as close to it as possible need to get a grip on the hostility directed towards those merchants. Long live Vs.
Ahh... the age old question of loyalty to your store, or loyalty to your pocket book.
My two cents - None of the stores around me will cut any sort of deal... so, it's $75(ish) a box. Or, I could buy online for $50/box. I'm buying 4 boxes. That's $100 I'm saving buying online. Now, if the LGSs around me would cut me a deal (say, $60 a box) - I'd pay that premium. I'd put down a deposit. Come in the day they got them, pay for the boxes, and take 'em with me. If they're paying, say, the $50 a box I'm paying online (and I'm guessing they actually get them cheaper buying in bulk from a distributor, but I don't know that for certain, since I'm not in the business), they're making $40 they wouldn't ordinarily make, it’s not like the stock is sitting on the shelves taking up space… what’s to lose? Make 40 bucks off me, or don’t – but don’t complain that I won’t (can’t!) pay a $25/box premium!
To me, the argument about the cost of overhead falls down when the LGS prices itself out of the competition on preorders. Preorders are a pretty safe bet for the brick-and-mortar, what with deposits and the fact that the people that preorder are anxious to get the cards. They’ll come get ‘em!
Now, that said, every time (EVERY TIME) I go into any of our LGSs to play, I buy packs. Maybe two. Maybe five. But I always buy something. It’s just not right to go to a store, use their facility, and not buy anything. But, it’s also not right for the store owners to think that bulk retail buyers are going to spend $20-30 extra per box when they’re buying their initial stock of new product. Throw us a bone! We want to be loyal, but its tough to justify spending that much extra money.
$75 a box is a deal. MSRP for a box is $83.75 + tax. Here in FL, where that tax rate is a (very, very low) 6%, that's $88.79 a box. $75 a box is slightly under a 20% discount. An 18% or so discount. That is a completely reasonable discount for any retail product. Sorry if you disagree, but the owner of your LGS no doubt laughs inside everytime a customer asks for a $60 box. That's over 30% off. That is most definitely cutting deeply into his overhead. It is not worth price-matching something that low. $50 a box is a 45% discount. That is asinine.
It has nothing to do with him being unreasonable, it has to do with online dealers devaluing the entire product line world-wide. Sorry, but that is the grim, ugly truth. It is one of the specific reasons that Games Workshop first started pressuring retailers to stop deep-discounting online, and eventually made every single store in the world resign their contract to flat out disallow online sales by any retail store with a GW account. They knew their very product line was being devalued as a whole when EVERY SINGLE ONLINE STORE sells their product for AT LEAST 30% off. Not that I agree with GW, their business practices and constant price increases are ridiculous, and they've made their own bed, earning the reputation as an "evil corporation". But I know where they are coming from.
Pre-orders don't mystically cost the store less money, either. Stores give slightly better discounts on pre-orders because they are getting the money ahead of time (usually), so it's more like a bank deposit. They have the money to play with and earn "interest" on (use the cash to buy more product to sell before the pre-order comes in) before giving you the product in exchange, so it is worth the lower discount.
It is the same dilemma countless retailers face when dealing with Wal-Mart. Take toys. It is not worth stocking toys that the mass-market carries AT ALL. Why? Because I can go into Wal-Mart and buy toys for LESS MONEY then buying it from DISTRIBUTORS, or even DIRECTLY FROM THE COMPANY that manufactures the toys. So why the hell would I ever carry a product like that? Simple, I won't. We carry toys exclusive to the hobby industry. We NEVER carry toys that the mass-market does, and we never will again.
Again, the grim, ugly truth rears it's nasty, dirty head. Sucks, don't it? Your LGS thinks the same thing every time you ask them for something even APPROACHING online discounts. Seriously, we can't even match HALF an online retailers discount without losing money, so why bother stocking sealed product? Nah, just sell loose packs now and then, and focus on the product that is not heavily discounted online.
You can make a profit (not 30%, but a profit) by buying boxes, turning around and immediately selling them to me for more than you paid for them
-or-
You can NOT make anything off me.
How is the latter better than the former?
I'm NOT saying that packs shouldn't be sold for $3.49 or $3.69, or whatever the MSRP is for them - but extending that price out over 96 packs is guaranteed to drive customers away.
If there's no risk, no additional expenditure of effort, and there's no significant floating of the investment - any money you make is good.
What do you not understand? If I sell you a box at 30% off or more, I am LOSING MONEY. L-O-S-I-N-G M-O-N-E-Y. I am making a NEGATIVE profit. That is to say, LOSING REVENUE. I'm not making profit, profit is counted AFTER overhead, not BEFORE.
I would be better off not stocking that product AT ALL, not supporting that game AT ALL, and stock product I can actually MAKE money on. So yes, your second option (not making anything off of you) is better than the first option (losing money selling to you).