Friday, November 25, 2011

The Apathy of New Releases (December 2011)

This months GTM #142 contains items that should arrive after the Christmas rush: the retail dead zone, when retailers use the Christmas/clearance sale to pay off bills, restock the store of the necessities, and try to weather the literal storms of winter sales. This is not a time to publish obscure tomes or overpriced special limited edition boxed sets.

First off, my wish list: It's amazing what a good pic of a painted mini can do to promote sales. I would have simply passed over the Warlord listing for "US MP on a Harley Davidson," but then they show the pic:

Even at $11.65 apiece, I want a pack of these guys, a la bikers in 40K, and I don't even play WW2 or 40k!

Hitting the Lottery Wish List: Surprisingly, nothing else.

The Imaginary Store List:
Wings of Glory WW2: This is scheduled to be shipped by Alliance in November (which means December... or they already ordered a pile and forgot to solicit them. After 10+ years, they still do that an awful lot.) Of course each of the four planes is packaged in its own case of 6 and each case retails for $77.40. At a 40% dealer discount, that's a outlay of $186.00 just to stock the game. Coming from a small store mentaility, I could do better to spend that on five or six copies of the next hot $40 rpg book, and restock the book and a couple other quick turnover products than stock this and possibly not sell half, much less sell through.
But ViscountEric, you've said that a smart store owner knows his base yet wants to expand! Yes, but (a) I wouldn't stock this with a nice promotion to attract players and to at least cover my expense of the product quickly (b) if this isn't in stock at Alliance right now, I sure as hell wouldn't try this during the Christmas rush and in the middle of winter. Too many distractions, cancelled demos/tourneys/leagues make players turn to the next big thing, no matter what their cash outlay for the game in question.

Memoir '44 Campaign Book Vol 2: I admit ignorance to Volume 1, but anything that gets more play out of the expensive wargames is a plus by me. Drawback: "Please Inquire" with your store as to the price. Probably not a decent profit margin to justify multiple orders for store stock.

Heavy Gear: Jesus Christmas, does anyone have a store that stocks this stuff? And how does one afford to do so with so much product coming out. We aren't talking a couple of fantasy minis at five bucks a pop, or even Battletmechs between ten and twelve buck apiece. Multiple $20+ packs/boxed sets every month is just a huge portion of someone's budget without going balls in to promote it.

Fantasy Flight 40K Rpg books: Dark Heresy: The Chaos Commandment, Black Crusade : Hand of Corruption.

Paradiso: Tile base game creating achipelagos One, it's only $24.95.. Two, they used the word archipelago.

LITKO: a huge number of 4e token sets

Mantic: Warpath vehichles, seriously. Any 40K fan needs to see these, and then buy a couple dozen of each.

Marvel Heroes basic game from Margaret Weis Productions. Yawn, but each game always sells copies.

Mongoose: Star Fleet Minis, near the absurdity of Heavy Gear releases. At $14.99 each, no as bad for the cash outlay, but what store still does gangbusters Star Fleet Battles sales

Osprey: FORCE ON FORCE: DAY OF THE RANGERS - SOMALIA 1993 $24.95 The Force on Force stuff looks better and better, and there's nothing wrong with a little Blackhawk Down love.

Paizo: Six more items in the Pathfinder-esque arena.

Reaper: Lots of neat stuff, but the cost of metal/sculpting confuses me. Two zombies are $8.99, yet a dragon (albeit a small one) is $12.99?

Colonial Gothic: Colonial America with some sorcery, shamanism, and a few other oddities mixed in. Three books are solicited: Philadelphia Affair 13.99, Grimoire 10.99, The Templars $10.99.

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