My FLGS recently moved to a new location, and the owner is working on expanding/improving--within reason--game stock.
The owner is largely a comics and CCG expert; he had a games expert on staff but he had to leave a little while ago. I've known the owner for many years as a customer and he asked my advice on ideas for what to carry. I run some Pathfinder and other game demos in the store on occasion.
He says Pathfinder is one of his best sellers for RPGs. I think usually he has the core rulebooks and APG in stock (probably the Bestiary as well but I didn't check the last time I was there).
I suggested he keep some APs on hand, since I know those are Paizo's big sellers. OTOH, I don't usually buy APs myself since I run a homebrew world (although I might start buying a few if he starts carrying them if there is useful material in them... I just don't want to buy sight unseen). So I don't know stuff like -- should he just have the latest "issue" of the APs? The most recent completed AP? Have 1-2 copies or more? Is it worth carrying APs if most people subscribe to them online instead?
He is very sensitive to the need to balance between visibility--showing customers he has or will carry popular items--and not losing money on overstocking items that end up not selling as well as hoped (an eternal conundrum for most FLGSs). Other suggestions welcome as well.
The store is in a suburban shopping plaza area not far from several colleges and high schools.
Thanks.
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I'm no expert on the topic but Black Diamond Games wrote a blog entry about this very recently. You might want to check it out.
David
CEO
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I'm no expert on the topic but Black Diamond Games wrote a blog entry about this very recently. You might want to check it out.
David
That is exactly how I was going to respond to this post! Thanks for ninjaing me David!
-Lisa
I work at a game store. Based on my observations, the RPG line sells very well, the latest AP sells fairly well, the Chronicles and Companion lines sell a little bit, probably more dependent on the content, and the Modules line barely sells at all. The dynamics in your area may be different, although I'm fairly sure keeping all the RPG line in stock will be a good idea anywhere people are playing Pathfinder.
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I'm no expert on the topic but Black Diamond Games wrote a blog entry about this very recently. You might want to check it out.
David
That is exactly how I was going to respond to this post! Thanks for ninjaing me David!
-Lisa
It's my pleasure :)
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While I'm no game shop owner in any sense of the word, I would imagine that getting by with the hardcovers (including the PF Inner Sea Campaign Setting) and some of the peripherals (the flip-maps/map packs/cards) might be good to keep on hand for the bare minimum. If there is a strong Pathfinder Society presence, it might not hurt to have some of the PFS legal materials on hand. I happen to buy the Adventure Paths, Modules, and some of Companions and Chronicles from my local FLGS (provided that they are available for purchase) as well, but that's just me.
Owner - Black Diamond Games
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I've got a Blog Post that breaks down what we sell in a pie chart.
Besides core rulebooks, which make up 60%+ of our sales, Chronicles, Adventure Paths and Flip Mats are very good sellers. Stand alone adventures and map packs don't sell nearly as well.
If I were starting out, I would carry the rulebooks, the last two adventure paths, and Chronicles books related to those paths. The flip mats are great because there's a lot of D&D cross-over. From there, it's easy to listen to customers and bring in requests.
If there's serious demand, as in D&D level demand like my store has, I recommend carrying the full line. Carrying the full line has a "rising tide" effect, where stuff that barely sells with only some of the line suddenly sells very well when you carry the full line.
I'm no expert on the topic but Black Diamond Games wrote a blog entry about this very recently. You might want to check it out.
David
That is exactly how I was going to respond to this post! Thanks for ninjaing me David!
-Lisa
I've got a Blog Post that breaks down what we sell in a pie chart.
Besides core rulebooks, which make up 60%+ of our sales, Chronicles, Adventure Paths and Flip Mats are very good sellers. Stand alone adventures and map packs don't sell nearly as well.
If I were starting out, I would carry the rulebooks, the last two adventure paths, and Chronicles books related to those paths. The flip mats are great because there's a lot of D&D cross-over. From there, it's easy to listen to customers and bring in requests.
If there's serious demand, as in D&D level demand like my store has, I recommend carrying the full line. Carrying the full line has a "rising tide" effect, where stuff that barely sells with only some of the line suddenly sells very well when you carry the full line.
Thanks to all three of you. I will point the owner in the direction of the blog post for his perusal. I don't know if he has the space to carry the entire line of products but I'm sure he'll be interested to see the breakdown regardless.
Thanks to everyone else as well, every reply has been helpful--keep'em coming if anyone has any further thoughts.
Seriously? There is a store that still makes money/ a living off comic books? Truly?
int he late 80s and 90s i collected alot of comics as well as drew a little freelance for marvel (pencils) and maverick comics (inks). It was silly huge then. Now as fas as I am aware they are toilet paper.
a couple years ago I had about 45k I wanted to invest in maybe starting a business. My wife and I wanted to do a book store. (yes with some gaming stuff and maybe some comics) We decided 45k was no where near enough to even dream about getting it on it's feet. A bought a car and some snowmobiles instead! ha!
Seriously? There is a store that still makes money/ a living off comic books? Truly?
int he late 80s and 90s i collected alot of comics as well as drew a little freelance for marvel (pencils) and maverick comics (inks). It was silly huge then. Now as fas as I am aware they are toilet paper.
a couple years ago I had about 45k I wanted to invest in maybe starting a business. My wife and I wanted to do a book store. (yes with some gaming stuff and maybe some comics) We decided 45k was no where near enough to even dream about getting it on it's feet. A bought a car and some snowmobiles instead! ha!
My store sells comics (including bound trades), RPGs, board games, and CCGs and the various other accoutrements that go along with that (thematic t-shirts, action figures, dice and other game supplies). I've been a regular customer since 1995. Probably CCGs earn them the most profit.
My understanding is it is not the most lucrative business in the universe but the owner does well enough to get by and do what he enjoys. Obviously they've been able to do well enough to get the bigger store (although they also jointly bought the restaurant next door; his wife is a chef so some of what they put into the place probably came from her earnings as well).
From my entirely unprofessional standpoint, I think the keys are--beyond of course a general background in business--location, variety, persistence, and good customer service, which they all have. There are a number of comics&game shops in the general area (I can think of at least three more) most of which have been going for at least several years and show no sign of slowing down. I've no idea how much it cost to get the businesses started. Most large commercial bookstores (B&N, Borders) sell comics and games as well which indicates they are strongly in demand in the area--and yet the small stores do well enough that the big stores don't threaten them significantly--to my knowledge of course.
I will note none of them JUST sell comics. One of them is in fact a bookstore much like you describe.
I just wish I had 45K to invest in anything...
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Pathfinder, like most gaming lines, sells best overall when you carry the entire line. I own a game shop in Philadelphia that does a fairly high volume of Pathfinder sales and runs its own Pathfinder open-to-the-public campaign, and we've just made the space to pick up the few remaining products we were missing. Not only is the profit margin very good on most of the paperback Pathfinder supplements, but carrying them looks very impressive and greatly increases interest in Pathfinder overall. What does that translate to? Mostly it means more sales of the Core Rulebook, but the paperbacks are so cheap (and so lucrative when they do sell) that it absolutely makes sense to just carry them all.
Also, I don't know about books, but $45,000 is absolutely enough money to open a game shop. We opened ours on about $20,000. Granted we started small, and have slowly been working our way up from there, but that's honestly a fairly highly recommended way to play the retail game in the first place.
I don't know how well the different products sell, but I would think that it would be a good idea to stock a couple of the stand-alone adventures as a kind of hook to get people interested in Pathfinder.
One of the annoying things about this hobby is that I go into a store, and see rows of beautiful books about how to create characters, run a world, who lives there, what they are up to. But I don't find many usable adventures in the store, and I don't have time to make my own, so those books tend not to get used.
If people would see a good adventure that they could run as a pick up game, they might pick up the adventure and then pick up the Core book to run it. The adventure paths might be intimidating because of the feeling that you need the complete set, but once they pick up the one-shot adventure, they might start buying the adventure paths.
I've also been wondering what to tell the guy running the local comics store in my city, and it would be helpful if there was a guide to say "These are the essentials to stock" and "These are things to stock if you're doing a lot of business."
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CEO
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I've also been wondering what to tell the guy running the local comics store in my city, and it would be helpful if there was a guide to say "These are the essentials to stock" and "These are things to stock if you're doing a lot of business."
We are working on making these exact guides to be handed out at various shows where we interact with retailers. We will also be sending the guides to distributors to send to retailers. My memory is that we are hoping to get these out by summer time.
-Lisa
I've also been wondering what to tell the guy running the local comics store in my city, and it would be helpful if there was a guide to say "These are the essentials to stock" and "These are things to stock if you're doing a lot of business."We are working on making these exact guides to be handed out at various shows where we interact with retailers. We will also be sending the guides to distributors to send to retailers. My memory is that we are hoping to get these out by summer time.
-Lisa
Great!