AFAIK, The DWOP kits were only $30 for Month 1-5. The Month 6 was $90. This included the 3 Akorems, the 12 Fighter participation prizes as well as the championship DS9. Stores could also buy an additional DS9 for $90, IIRC.

Obviously, the blind buy brick will be an extra expense. However, I'd not be surprised if a store's actual cost for the brick is considerably lower than $150 (10 x $15). IIRC, when stores ordered the FI kit, it was pretty much the cost of a normal LE kit plus what the store would normally pay for a retail case - as in, the store was NOT paying MSRP for the boosters.

Any store trying to upcharge players for the LE kits -and- the blind boosters are probably charging more than they truely need to do. Now, if your players are ordering ships online and not buying locally, I can truely see why some stores may charge an entry fee. Also, if you have very low player turn out, I can also see charging a nominal fee to help offset the cost of the kit if you are not selling enough retail product due to just not having a ton of players.

My local store charged an entry fee of "a retail booster purchase" in order to participate in the DWOP. As such, the blind booster buy-in is likely not going to be an issue with anyone who is already playing at our venue. Due to the "scarcity" of the ships, I'd expect to see attendance rise a little bit as players begin traveling a little bit more in the hopes of getting all 5 ships (if they want them all).

I can try to get more info from the local store owner if we really want to see the retail side of this issue. Not sure it really matters (other than possibly pissing off some people who may find out their shops are significantly upcharging them).

I'd be happy to pay $25 if the brick ships were more enticing.

I don't find $10 to be unreasonable for tournament attendance - the participation prizes are cool, and almost worth that amount themselves, the venue gives us space to play, we are a low attendance venue (neighborhood of 6 players), and there are 3 prize ships up for grabs since the TO is the store owner, and he doesn't play the game, so he tosses that prize into the pool.

I'm also not opposed to the store making a bit of money on a tournament, running a game store isn't exactly a cake-walk and while everyone tries to buy locally when they can, I know some folks are on a budget and get at least some stuff discounted online, or our purchases are spread out between more than one local store.

It's the $15 for a brick ship that I'm not willing to shell out.

Who knows, though? Maybe they'll change things up with the brick ships. I sure hope so, because I would like to keep going, just need to justify the cost.

For some reason I was under the impression the kits cost the stores $60, at least that was the number I saw thrown around here. My venue only charges $5 to play, but we have a huge group of guys who buy a ton of product too. Not sure what they will charge for the Collective event, or how they plan to do the blind ships either.

Gotta say I love the hijack card. Disabling your opponents crew member and then stealing one of their upgrades is priceless