From the experience I had with a local player who ran an ebay store: he got a huge discount from the distributor because he was buying bulk. I'm not just talking 2 or 3 cases bulk but 6 to 8 cases bulk. He could then sell some of the cases at the same cost or a little higher than he paid for them and crack open and sell individual pieces. His profit was made on the opened cases and the remaining sealed cases was just a means to an end. It just required the ability to lay out a large chunk of change up front.

What is this multi-case lot business? Has this been announced?

I know that both of my venues deal with Alliance, and at least one has occasionally just ordered half-a-case of a various sets. Has Alliance changed their policies, or have they announced they are changing their policies because they are the sole distributor of WizKids games (which I imagine would upset WizKids greatly).

The only change I've seen that's been implied deals with Alliance's sales to internet only stores.

(Of course, case sales look unlikely with the currently announced products anyway. It remains to be seen if the Solaris set goes with a model that allows that.)

I talked with both Alliance and Diamond yesterday - it appears you can buy just one booster if that's all you want (as long as you hit the minimum order level).

However, to get a decent discount, you have to be able to purchase larger quantities per month/quarter - your tier is based off previous quarters purchasing, and there are minimum monthly qtys, as well. If a store is only buying Clix through Alliance/Diamond, they will probably get stuck with a pretty poor discount. Some stores may feel they would have to order "multiple cases" to hit the minimums - we will, and to be honest, I haven't decided if we're going to do that long term or not.

It probably won't affect anyone purchasing through them already (short term - who knows long term) but if you haven't used All/Dia, your volume will probably hurt you, and then as a small store won't be able to keep getting product.

If my venue halts MW tourneys from being played there, I will stop playing. There are no more places locally to play. If this new distribution deal makes it so the venue is not making a significant enough profit selling MW, the venue declines to allow us to play.

I believe venues need support from players/buyers to continue to provide space for us to play. If the product is not profitable, the business must find what is the best for them.

I enjoy MW for the fictional world, game mechanics, and competition. If there is no place to compete, I'll stop playing.