Posted in: Comics, Games | Tagged: comic store in your future, Magic: The Gathering
Comic Store In Your Future: Goodbye To Gaming So… More Comics?
Comic Store In Your Future: Rod Lamberti says goodbye to gaming so… more comics? What’s going on with in-store gaming right now?
Article Summary
- Gaming distributors now delay, allocate, or ghost orders, making it harder to stock Magic, Heroclix, Pokémon, and more.
- In-store gaming events once felt vital, but prereleases, prize hunters, and Wednesday D&D often hurt time, focus, and sales.
- Casual gaming customers buying for home proved more valuable than die-hard event players who rarely supported the store beyond prizes.
- With gaming supply unreliable and communication poor, comics are covering the gap and pushing the store toward a more comic-led future.
Obviously, comic stores and big businesses all need to make money. Retail businesses buy material to resell to their customers. Simple, right? On a Wednesday (New Comic Book Day), I received a call while checking people out. It was a gaming vendor. I had placed an order online on Monday for more Heroclixes from the latest set, Fight For Gotham, and boxes of Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Marvel Superheroes. What used to be a simple go on their website and place an order now, for some reason, is reviewed by a supervisor after I place an order and takes far longer. Gone are the simple days of going online, placing an order, and actually getting what was ordered within seven days. To me, it is insane.
He asked me if I hosted Magic: The Gatheringgaming events. I said no, I have not done so since before COVID. He asked if I held a prerelease for the latest Heroclix set. I said no because WizKids had the Heroclix prerelease weekend over July 4th; most people were traveling or doing family activities, and the players were not available. Then, he asked about gaming for Magic: The Gathering. I said no, but should have added: “You ship the latest Magic a week after prereleases, because, you know, I have not had a prerelease for years.” The sales rep said his supervisor was still reviewing my order.
I told the sales rep I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I had a line out the door and needed to go. Truthfully, I was annoyed. For years, what was a simple online ordering, no-questions-asked process is now a waiting game and a guessing game about whether what was ordered will even be sent, and how much. When that order finally arrived, the invoice was for eleven items, but I received just seven. My sales rep asked if I read the invoice correctly. I wanted to say that if the invoice were only for the seven items, I wouldn’t have hit the free shipping mark, and this isn’t my first year open. When the shipment arrived, I had a customer here who wanted to buy the items that failed to ship, so there was money to be made if I had actually received what I ordered. Relaying vague info like what I ordered might be in next week to a customer, or customers are not good at customer service. I am trying to buy items to resell, though it is like the gaming vendors do not want my money, so I feel like I am giving poor customer service to my customers.
To add insult to injury, another game vendor sales rep left a voicemail on the store’s phone, asking whether we sell gaming materials and expressing interest in doing business with Rodman Comics. He dropped the name of a gaming vendor in the voicemail. We have been doing business with them for over a decade. The voicemail message even said we could get upcoming Pokémon products, which I thought was funny because this year they have allocated the orders so much that we are lucky to get one box of something from them, of a new set of a card game. Called him back, found out the vendor he dropped was a sister company to his, and I told him I have never even talked to my current sales rep. My last email to the sales rep about trying to find something on their website to order went unanswered.
When I first opened over fifteen years ago, I carried no card games. I played Heroclix and collected them. The back issue bins were designed to hold countertops so the large maps used at the time for Heroclix could lie on them. Magic: The Gathering was popular, and people wanted to play Magic. I did not play Friday Night Magic because I was new and did not want to compete with other stores, so we had Saturday Night Magic and Friday Night Heroclix. No official prize support from either; it was just pure fun. I had a sales rep who was super helpful. I was new, and she was friendly and answered all my questions. I could place orders for Magic: The Gathering and Heroclix without any issues, even though I was not signed up for Magic events.If I wanted twenty boxes of the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set or the upcoming Heroclix set, I knew I could get them. It was like a comic book order; whatever number I wanted, I could get. Over time, people wanted official Magic and Heroclix prize support. I was new and thought that was what the customers wanted, so we started Friday Night Magic and Saturday Night Heroclix. The prize support for Magic was free, while the Heroclix prize support was not. People wanted official Dungeons & Dragons game nights, and to sign up for them, they had to be on Wednesdays, which was new comic day. Again, I was new and thought that if “everyone” else was doing it, I should too. I should have remembered the old line: if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you?
I was gung-ho and proud of myself at the time. Back then, on Saturday mornings right after midnight, stores could hold their first Magic prerelease. A Magic prerelease was a store’s opportunity to sell prerelease kits a week before the next set’s release. I hosted a midnight prerelease, then a noon one on Saturday, then at 8 pm, and would come back Sunday at noon to do the last one. What a stud, right? I would later realize I was an idiot.
Prerelease kits cost $25 when I first started years ago. The prerelease events would last on average five hours. Often, the players were just there for the prize support, not for the fun. I had lost the Saturday Night Magic, which was just for fun. I had people dropping out after the first round if they lost because they knew they could no longer win the grand prize. I learned the die-hard Magic players were just there for prize support. They were not going to buy anything else; they bought everything else online. They couldn’t care less about the store or actually supporting anything other than themselves.
I learned that hosting Dungeon & Dragons gaming on Wednesdays was a mistake. Almost all of the players just hung out for free. It was a distraction on New Comic Book Day that I never should have had. The group stopped getting together after the Dungeon Master told them he had bought old books incompatible with the current ones and said he was going to use them anyway. Others in the group said they did not want that. He said he was still going to use them. Not a very democratic way to do things. The ones that did not want to do that stopped coming, and that was it for the group. People have wanted D&D gaming to return here, though I learned that having it in stores did not boost D&D sales.
For years, ordering gaming material was easy. Heroclix would release a new poster with a date for the next release, and I, along with the Heroclix customers, would joke that the release date was always wrong. Heroclixes were often delayed and still are. Heroclix would start its own version of Wizards of the Coast’s online player tracking, where players signed up online to show they were playing here. Then COVID hit, and that changed everything. There was no in-store gaming at all. Ikoriawas the first Magic set released after COVID. There were no gaming events for it. Rodman Comics made money off it because we did not lower our order while other stores did, even as they wondered whether COVID would hurt demand for Magic: The Gathering. Non-in-store playing Magic customers would come in and spend money in-store, while die-hard gamers would not. The casual Magic player who would play at home would stop in and spend more and be out far quicker than an in-store Magic player. I banked on the casual Magic players still being hungry for Ikoria because they had been waiting for Magic to return after Covid, and I was correct.
Ordering because of COVID did change. Pokémon was ordered 10 times as much as needed so that stores would get something. Currently ordering Pokémon is even tougher.
Though over time, much went back to normal. Wizards of the Coast did not require in-store Magic playing because of COVID. For safety reasons, we did not have gaming. The online Heroclix sign-up was basically forgotten.
People who were gaming in-store often bought everything they could offline instead of in-store. I figured out that instead of hosting gaming events that often felt like babysitting, we could sell more online. It was far more efficient to use the time selling online than hosting gaming. When the die-hards only buy online, why not sell online?
Gone are the days when the supercool customer rep from ACD Distribution would call every week, and I would place orders and receive them without a problem. Wizards of the Coast, for whatever reason, took them to court so they could no longer order Magic: The Gathering.
I miss the days when I could order Magic: The Gathering products directly from Wizards of the Coast.
The lack of gaming did not hurt sales. It increased them here. Instead of using manpower for babysitting, we could actually sell more. Then, slowly, Wizards of the Coast wanted gaming back. I was fine with not doing it; we would have to wait a week to sell Magic product, while stores that did have prereleases got a week’s head start on us. Our Magic single selection still brought in Magic sales. Our sales kept going up—no need for Magic gaming to slow them down. Wizards of the Coast used to own and run their own gaming stores, but it did not work out for them. A business with more money than the average locally owned store could not make a go of it, so it offers prize support for others to host gaming for them.
Never had Pokémon prereleases, never want to. Now, even stores that do have Pokémon prereleases struggle to get Pokémon to meet demand. We do not even carry it anymore. It is red-hot because it is so troublesome to get a new product. Even when we received some in it was not worth it. There wasn’t enough to make money off it, and upping prices gets people to cry price gouging.
My vendors do not even return my calls or emails now, which I have used for many years. I received an email that I even showed to customers, we all thought they were letting their sales force go or something. No, just a long email that could have been one paragraph saying I was getting a new sales rep I would later learn. Said if I had any more questions, to let him know. I emailed questions and never got a reply. I emailed the new sales rep a few weeks ago about trying to find a product I wanted to order, but I never got a response.
Currently, when ordering card games, it is a crap shoot if I will even receive any at times. Magic allocations happen now. When I first opened it, I didn’t play any games; it was far easier to get gaming material than it is now.
I had a customer ask me why I had so many Strange Tales Heroclix boosters. It was because I received my order after the release date. Other stores in the area received theirs on time, but for some reason, my order didn’t ship until after release day. I called and asked what happened. I was told, and quoted, “These things happen.” I should have replied, “Not to the other stores.” It cost me money.
Is Rodman Comics too small for the gaming vendors now? Is a thousand-dollar order or less beneath gaming vendors? I now waste time trying to communicate with my vendors, who seem to care less when customers ask about my gaming orders, to see if what I ordered will even be shipped. I can see online that it shows as available, apparently just not to Rodman Comics? Other card games that we used to be able to get in, we are not even able to carry anymore, because the vendors will not ship them to us. I have multiple customers asking me if I am going to get what they want in, and vendors who seem not to care, which makes Rodman Comics look bad. Games like Flesh and Blood, the card game we used to play, are no longer available. Seems odd to stop shipping to us.
Our gaming orders are declining, while our sales are increasing. Meaning comics are more than making up for it. I want to provide for our gaming customers; the vendors are not letting us. If the issue is with the companies that make the games, tell us, don’t just ignore us.
Ten days have passed after multiple calls about the missing product, and still nothing. This Friday, as I type this, is the release date of The Hobbitfor Magic: The Gathering. It is currently Thursday, looks like even though I ordered it (I do know that the vendor’s warehouses were behind in getting the play boosters, so that may not be available) and had an email saying I would get the non-play boosters for the set, I have no tracking, no emails, nothing again about what is going on. Looks like, once again, a game’s release date will come out, and Rodman Comics won’t have any for unknown reasons. I feel like I am wasting my time with the calling and emails. Talking to the nearest wall will accomplish the same thing.
I have people who want to buy products through Rodman Comics, but the gaming vendors are ghosting me for reasons unknown to me. I wish I knew what was going on. Being told something that is not going to happen is, in effect, jerking the customers around.
Goodbye gaming? More comics at Rodman Comics? It is what gaming ordering is forcing us to do. My thanks to the comic vendors and comic publishers for not being like gaming vendors and gaming companies currently. When I order comics, I can order as many or as few as I like. Imagine ordering 100 copies of Absolute Batman months in advance, only to receive 10 when it comes out. That is basically what ordering games is like currently. If comic publishers or comic vendors did that to me, we would be out of business.
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