I need a way to get support for a great local venue which is starting to struggle. Is there a thread that specifically deals with that here? If not there oughta be. Here's the one I go to:

Heroes Haven
Chesnee, S.C.

incredible place, really great people. If you live in Greenville, Spartanburg or Greer S.C. let me know and I'll give you the number or directions. Hell, if you live around here PM me and we'll discuss other great venues.

Anyway, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GAME-SHOP!!!!!

Luke B. Lobbyin'

Thats the Biggest thing Venues complain about. Not getting the support from its gamers.

I'm sorry but i will buy a few clix boosters from local shops, maybe even trade of buy some singles. But NO WAY i will ever buy 48 boosters at $7 a pop from an open case from them. (I did this when I got into hypertime and still feel jipped) Now its either a sealed case from online for $200 or no more than 5 boosters from a local shop.

Same with comic shops...I will buy new issues all the time but NEVER back issues at book price or TPB at full price when barnes and nobel sells them 30% cheaper and with FREE S&H!

It may sound harsh, but no more than those shops charging more than other places, esp online. They will NEVER buy or trade for anything at a higher price than they could get it elsewhere so WHY should the consumer?

As a venue, I ask, will eBay and other online retailers let you have tournaments at their place? Please keep in mind that your local shop doesn't get the huge discounts other places like Barnes & Noble does. Wow, usually it's Wal-Mart, but I guess it can be said for any large retail chain. So keep that in mind when you buy at cheaper rates. And as a retailer, I offer discounts on mass purchases (even though WK frowns on it) for sealed boxes and cases.

I'm all about the local venues. Keep your money local, instead of helping the economy a thousand miles away.

I've played in 3 tourney's since Hypertime came out. And it seems the tourney's now are all BUY 3 boosters from the venue and play. Not exactly the same as playing with friends for free with the millions of clixs you already bought!

But I'm glad to see some stores offering discounts on sealed cases. I find comic shops sometimes give discounts on tpbs when you tell them "hey, that book has been collecting dust in the back of your store for years, I can buy it NEW for 30% less elsewhere or buy it from you at the same discount" But then I feel like i'm in Mexico and that gets old.

10% or 20% off Suggested Retail Price just doesnt cut it anymore. All the 'local' stores with dusty inventory need to see this change and either change with it or go the way of the dinosaur.

I would like to know what these places that sell a sealed case for $200 buy them for. Anyone have the inside scoop?

Despite the fact that I could have spent the same amount of money and gotten more boosters online, I chose to put my money back into my local economy by spending all of the cash I'd saved up for Critical Mass at my two local stores.

Here's why.

When I spend my money locally, whether I get a huge discount or not, I'm helping my local economy. The money I'm paying in taxes are helping to fix the local roads, and fund the local schools. That money is helping to pay the local police officers and local firefighters.

Additionally, all the profits are going to people I know and see every week. Though the only place that I talk to them is at their stores (one of which I've been to every week for nearly 12 years now), I consider these people friends. Me spending money at their store is helping them to pay their rent. It's helping them to feed their families. It's helping them to make a living. And, in helping them, I'm further helping the community, because then they will also have money to go out and spend at other local shops.

People who run hobby stores will be the first to tell you that they don't do it for money. Most hobby stores struggle just to survive. If I want a place to play, or to judge, or just to go hang out with people with similar interests, I realize that I need to do what I can to support those stores so that they are able to stay open.

The online dicount places sell their cases at prices cheaper than what my local stores can even buy them from their distributors. There is no way that my local stores could possibly match those prices. Period.

And, while buying online might seem like a great deal, if I spend all of my money with them rather than my local stores, I'll eventually have no place to go to play. If that problem becomes wide-spread (which it quickly would), the game will die. And then all any of us will have will be a bunch of little 'collectible' pieces of plastic that have no value whatsoever because no one wants them because no one plays that game anymore.

Think I'm wrong? Check out the prices for the 'Highlander: The Card Game' (or any other 'dead' game) people are trying to get rid of still on eBay. Highlander was a great game during it's time because it was an innovative and fresh 'collectible' card game. Now it's just wasted cardstock.

Personally, I'm willing to spend a few dollars and get a little less if it means that I can be sure that my local store, the friends that I have there, and a game that I love are able to survive for a while longer ...

well those are good social friendly points. I live in Alaska, so we have no state or local taxes. It is just profit for the stores plain and simple.

I dont think the game will die out because a few hobby shops dont have tourneys anymore. I think most people have never been to ANY tourneys. and I bet that the person who has played in the MOST tourneys has played in more friendly games anyway.

Simple fact, if you cant be competitive in your business you should get out of your business. If you do it for love, then it shouldnt matter if you arent making money hand over fist.

Maybe those little shops should go online and sell in bulk too?

I still buy 4 or 5 boosters locally. But when you can get almost 2 boosters online for what it would cost you for 1 locally you arent doing yourself or other consumers any help by supporting that kind of price gouging. It is ineffecient and wasteful.

If you dont agree, then Buy online for half the price and just give ALL the money you save to those local shops for nothing in return, maybe some conversation. Cuz that is what you are doing anyway. No matter how you look at.

and actually, if they cant even buy from their distributors for the price you can get it online, you are giving them MORE profit by doing it they way I suggested.

CHEAP PLUG: Massque Collectables in Northridge, CA. Entrance fees for pre-constructed tourneys are only either $2 or the purchase of one booster. I and two other regular Realms contributors are the regulars there for all things Heroclix, and I'd love to see more players there to throw down.

I agree: The benefits of supporting your local gaming venue FAR outweigh the $20 you'll save from buying your case online or from the Evil Empire, Wal-Mart.

Then, buying locally, you'd get more for your money than I do. The point of the argument was supporting people locally, rather than just supporting yourself.

Actually, the game would die because the only people able to sell it and compete would have to do so by selling it at a loss. That's what the people who sell the boosters and cases online are doing.

It doesn't take a degree in business to tell you that if a business has to take a loss to market a product, they simply are going to stop selling the product altogether.

If you do it for love, but still want to be able to feed your family, you don't have to make money hand over fist but you do still have to make money. In order to pay employees, and overhead simply for running the business, you have to factor that into the cost.

That's where the majority of gamestore profits go. The people who run them tend to live on the very meager amounts they have remaining after paying all of the costs of simply being in business.

Little shops purchase cases from distributors at 30% less than what they sell them for. I know, because I used to buy cases from distributors myself.

That means that they can purchase a case of 48 HeroClix boosters for about $233.52 ... if they were to sell them at $200.00 per case as the online dealers do, they'd lose $33.00+ on every case they sold. Add shipping to that and you're looking at about a $40.00 loss on every case. And that's still before you add the salary that you'll have to pay for time that it takes someone to sort the orders, label the orders, and mail the orders ... the utilities and rent for the space in which your employee is working, the social security and other taxes you're having to pay on top of your employee's salary, the monthly fee for your website hosting, the fees to Visa/Mastercard/Discover for processing the charges related to each order, etc.

You're probably looking at something in the range of at least a $50.00 loss per case. And that's just on this one case.

Say you actually 'do good' and get decent number of customers from people who don't want to pay their local shop's prices and you sell 100 cases. That's a $5,000.00 loss. How do you propose they recoup that cost?

The only way to do it would be to raise the prices of the other things they sell. If they can't stay competitive on those items, those items will stop selling. If those items stop selling, they can no longer cover the cost of selling booster cases at that price and they'll either have to a) stop selling boosters at that price, or b) close down shop altogether because they are unable to maintain a profit.

Selling boosters at the manufacturer's suggested retail price (which almost all venues do) is not price gouging. It's simply doing business. When you realize all of the costs that go into doing business, you might realize that a $2.10 markup on a booster isn't much.

Actually Jacin, the mark up from what they pay for them is more than $2.10. I know because I sell the stuff. It's closer to $3.00 per booster. While for one or two boosters that's not alot, when you are talking about a case, that is a HUGE difference. At the retail that they sell it for, I can save you about $80-100.00 on a case. I don't make a huge profit, but I don't have the overhead that they do. I never take any losses. In my experience your numbers are off . Anyone putting out that amount of money on cases, needs a new distributor-I have 3. I have never paid that much for any cases.

While I agree that people should take every opportunity to support their local game shops...they should'nt be screwed in the process. And knowing both sides of the business like I do (vendor and customer), anyone who pays retail for boosters, or pays more than $230-$240 (that's the most extreme cases) for a case (incl) shippping, is being screwed.

Now the only real advantages to buying from your local vendor, is that you don't have to wait for your stuff to be delivered, and that you are putting money into a place where you play.

For the record, I buy my personal stuff from my local shop, because I can't usually afford to buy a case from myself. Selling this stuff is more a part of the hobby. (weird, I know, but I like wheeling and dealing more than playing )

Plus, anyone that knows the old addage-Don't get high on your own supply-knows that getting into your own stash can lead to problems.

I dont believe that places online selling sealed boosters for $200 + $10-20 S&H are selling at a loss. That just doesnt make sense.

But regardless of whether we can agree that online sellers are still making a profit selling at that price. Would you still buy boosters from your local shop if they sold them for $8.50 each? I have seen some places do this.

Say you buy 4 packs, you just gave them $10 on top of the suggested retail profit. And what if they dont even have tourney's? If you want to give them money for doing nothing, buy online like i suggested and then give them ALL the extra cash you saved. Im sure the stores would love this arrangement more than having to buy and sell stuff.

It just doesnt make sense. Like trying to grow pineapples in Alaska. I bet you could do it with a really really powerful grow lamp, but your pineapples would have to sell for the price of a TV to pay for all the electricity. Which is why Pineapples should be grown where they can be made and sold for the cheapest. Much like heroclixs and everything else.

oops I meant sealed case
and $6 not $10...my bad

I will buy singles off ebay but for my boosters i go to one of my local independent venues. Now, my regular venue is owned by a guy who will stay open an extra hour (or more) because everyone is in the middle of a game. He sells boosters, at least to me, for 5.50 and 6.00 (depending on how new and how fast they are selling) But he never gets the set right when it comes out. He usually gets the second wave of shipping. So i get my first few boosters from a another venue at seven something apiece. I dont really care for this place as much, as the workers are jerks and they have LE's for sale in there glass cases (making me think that maybe the sell of some of the prize support)

my venue cant complain about me

i but all my clix and comics from them