Ranting again, events, meaning of life and stuff!!!
So, you might notice that when you click on an item that there are 3 “variants” of that item. We’ve inventoried all our stuff and you are now able to choose from which store to grab it from, that is the variant thing is for. Or use it to see where the thing you want is at. And don’t worry, we’ll be adding pictures back to many of the items over time. A glitch made us lose a lot of them. We have a slate of pre-release events on the horizon for MTG and FOW. We’re also looking to start a Pokemon league. The retro game room in Ionia is getting updated as well, there were a bunch of old systems and games dropped in our lap and we’re testing them out, so keep an eye out for that as well. Ionia has been rearranged (for those that haven’t been by in a while), so pop in and look around. We’re also starting to offer learn a game night in Thusdays. Cedar is ramping up the games with X-Wing mini’s game. They’re also looking to get Flesh and Blood rolling up there in addition to more people playing Digimon. Portland is looking for more geeks. We need your support to help them out. They have all the cool stuff the other stores have, so why not drop in? Our main concept here is to build communities and then to intertwine those communities. If we can get people excited about their local game store, especially ours lol, then we can do more things and offer more to the community as a whole as well. Game stores are a place to hang out and have fun, that is the thing we offer. The focus of CCGPrime is to do this in smaller communities. These places are greatly underserved when it comes to hobbies and places to partake in them. This is a two-way street though; we need local support in order to do this. And I don’t mean just coming in and buying stuff, though it helps. What we want is people to come in and actually use our space to play and hang out. It's about community letting others know we are here. Advertising is hard for a niche store. We can’t just throw money at it and hope people hear or see it. Word of mouth and local events is how we grow and survive. There are only so any DND books that our regulars can own, or dice. Never mind, you can’t have too many dice. We have a nice core group of gamers, but we need more, not necessarily people to come in everyday, but just those that wander in occasionally and grab a game from our library and toss dice. To be able to do more in our towns and offer more. It is truly a relationship that is worth handing. I have spent a lot of time in game stores over my life, and the best ones feel like a second home. That is what we are aiming for at all of our locations. Building up a family of geeks that can debate Picard or Kirk, if Han shot first, what their patronus will be, all of that. Our promise is this, we will try to make every visit fun and get the stuff you want. In return you just have to come in and play, or hang out, or watch a movie (we can play them a little bit). You also have to tell others we’re here. Smaller towns need fun too, and we offer that. We aren’t looking to get rich, which won’t happen with a nerd lair, but we still have overhead and need to grow so we can have find those out of print minis in the back in 20 years. Plus, we have to feed Mufasa, and we know you all love him. But enough of my rambling. We have the Magic Pre-releases on Sept 2nd and 3rd, check our events links to see what time at whatever location you want to go to, and out Force of Will Pre-releases on Aug 20th in Ionia and Portland. Look for more MTG Regional Championship Qualifiers as well, let your local store know what format you want, since we are hoping to get 1 for each next season.
Huge amount of Events and Store hour changes coming!!!
We’re looking to expand out schedule with special events for each of the games we plan to support. For those not in the know here are those games: Magic the Gathering Pokemon Yu-Gi-Oh Force of Will Digimon Flesh and Blood In addition to weekly events for each of the games and other stuff. To help support this we’re planning to expand to 7 days a week being open starting in September. Stay tuned for that announcement. Now for the schedule, it is subject to change as set releases and other “Official” events may supersede what we have planned. All events should be updated if/when they change on our site calendar and Facebook. Magic the Gathering: 8/28 – 2pm – Sealed - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Late Pre-Release - $25 9/26 – 2pm – Standard - $250 cash event - $25* 10/16 – 2pm – Standard - $250 cash event - $25* 10/30 – 5pm – Commander – Commander Fest - $20* 11/13 – 2pm – Sealed – Innastrad: Crimson Vow Pre-Release - $25 11/27 – 2pm – Standard - $250 cash event - $25* 12/18 – 2pm – Standard - $250 cash event - $25* Yu-Gi-Oh: 9/5 – 2pm – OTS – Box Tournament - $10* 10/10 – 2pm – OTS – Box Tournament - $10* 11/14 – 2pm – OTS – Box Tournament - $10* 12/12 – 2pm – OTS – Box Tournament - $10* Force of Will: 8/21 – 1pm – Sealed – The Seventh Pre-Release - $25 8/22 – 1pm – Sealed – The Seventh Pre-Release - $25 9/12 – 1pm – New Frontiers – Box Tournament - $10* 10/17 – 1pm – New Frontiers – Box Tournament - $10* 11/21 – 1pm – New Frontiers – Box Tournament - $10* 12/19 – 1pm – New Frontiers – Box Tournament - $10* Digimon: 8/28 – 1pm – Open House - Free 9/19 – 2pm – Constructed – Store Championship - $20* 10/24 – 1pm – Demo Day – Free 11/7 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* 12/5 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* 1/2 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* Dragon Ball Super: 10/23 – 2pm – Demo Day – Free Flesh and Blood: 9/18 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* 10/9 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* 11/20 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* 12/11 – 2pm – Constructed – Box Tournament - $10* MTG Cash events: Need 8 players to run, if we get at least 8 then payout is guaranteed. 1st - $125, 2nd - $75, 3rd-4th $25. Rest of field gets promo cards. Every player over 10 has their entry added to the prizes pool, additional payout determined by total number of players. Commander Fest – Need 8 players to run, play in pods with prizes based on “points” that you get for knocking out players and winning pods. Prizes will include packs, Commander Decks, and maybe even boxes based on player count. Box Events – Need at least 6 people to play. With minimum players payout is, for 24 pack box 1st -12 packs, 2nd – 6, 3rd-4th 3 packs, rest of field gets 1. For 36 pack box, 1st – 18, 2nd – 9, 3rd-4th 4, rest of field get 1. Each additional player will add packs to the pool as well. Final payout based on number of players, all attempts will be made to use the latest release for each game. $10. Digimon Store Championships – Prizes are Promo packs from Bandai and packs based on number of players.
Well the first day was a thing......
It was an interesting day. Had a lot of nice people stroll through and that was good. Our event ran smoothly as well. But of course as great as technology is, there were the issues. Still learning the system so it might have been operator error, but I don't think that was all it was. If there's one thing about having a game store, it's that you have to know everything involved. Aside from telling you not to do it that is. The learning curve is immense. Knowing all the games (just the basics at least) is the real killer. Having ideas of basic values of the collectibles, and that is just the nerd stuff. I swear that all of the red tape and administrative stuff is enough for a year of college. There is also the tech aspect, the business stuff. It all adds up to make it a nightmare. Then comes the real kicker, having to make actual money. The margins are incredibly thin and knowing all the corners is a must. Just something as simple as how to get deals on shipping for online sales can save you a ton of money depending on how much you move online, which in this industry is a must. There's also time management, which doesn't exist in the game store world, as there is always more to do. Orders to make, cards to sort, social media/site update, double checking inventory. It's a never ending battle and only so much time in a day. Some might say I am being cynical, but one of the most highly recommended books for people wanting to open a game store spends the first third of it telling you not to do it, and for good reason, it's hard, complicated, and might turn a profit in 2-5 years. Most game stores fail in that time frame (75%), so saying it's tough is an understatement and you have to do it for the love of games, not to make a fortune. All that being said, I like it, always have, and someday i might recount the time I had a store in the past and why having partners isn't the way to go.........
Here we are, now what?
Well, I've opened a shop, now what? I guess try to get people in. The thing about a Local game store is that, though it may look all glamorous and fancy, it isn't. This is my second attempt at it, and through some lessons I've learned and all that stuff, i am hoping this time is a bit smoother. With that being said, and this being my first entry in this blog, I will keep it short. This is for a few reasons, first, I am still setting up the shop and messing with the site, so if this works, then cool But time is a thing I don't have a lot of right now. In less than 48 hours I am opening the store for the first time to the masses and there is still so much to be done. In future installments I hope to ramble on more about the things involved with this kind of business, as well as what we'll be doing down at the place. Or more like I will just go on and on about whatever is tickling my fancy at the time i am writing. Thanks for stopping by and reading, I hope to do at least one of these a week. For more info though, check us out on facebook, we have a page and a group. More stuff will be posted there, like events and new arrivals.
