Fantization offers no discount for the product you buy from them. What they charge should be about what you can expect a LGS to charge. My biggest grip with them is they carry low numbers on stock and are slow to refill. I would like to see a better online US store that carried both Infinity and Helldorado, but that is not going to happen until Helldorado has a stronger english language support from the parent company.

I'm also sure that in the case of HellDorado, with the US dollar being weak on the Euro, and the fact he has to import it, his mark up to keep from losing money is probably pretty high. I think the trouble is that Fantization does have a bit of a grip on certain lines, especially those from Europe.

I do think that US online stores charge too much for shipping. Especially to Canada. I can see what you paid for shipping, and $20US wasn't it.

That said in the case of Infinity, my LGS actually has it cheaper than the Warstore. I pay $10.95 CAN for a single blister that's $9.99 on the Warstore. Sadly they order direct from Corvus Belli, so we only see re-stocks a couple times per year. I won't even tell you what my Caskuda cost me, because it was a sweet deal at less than $40 CAN.

Yeah, the Sentry Box is pretty unique. Sadly his business sense is sometimes lacking. He complains about product that doesn't move, then orders more of the same. Vampire Wars, Fairy Meat, all the Kenzer & Co, GW (inc all Specialist Games models), PP, all Reaper, Ral Partha, Battletech, Void, Vor, Deadlands, Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, Crimson Skies, tons of dead games, all in stock.

But he won't clear it out, and doesn't understand that all that dead stock is costing him money just sitting there. I won't even get started on how much space GW takes up and how much the guy in charge of GW stuff rips the place off. He accuses people of stealing (me), and meanwhile he's got a guy who takes home all the demo stuff from GW, opens the boxes and parts out the bitz and sells the LE figs on eBay, orders tons of stuff they don't carry and walks out the back door with it. All his staff point it out, but he says they're making it all up.

Shops don't get that having stock sit for years is loosing you more money than blowing it out. He's always hoping for that one guy to pay a premium for it all.

It always makes me wonder what a gaming or comic shop might look like if the owner had even a slight clue how to run a business. Sadly, most of them are just playgrounds and ways for the owner and his buddies to get cheap or free product.

Obviously the real business men just look at the bottom line and know it's not worth it.

I concur and disagree with this statement at the same time.

I think the existing LGS model is a business person's nightmare. It is a nitch product that is able to be purchased in abundance on the internet by distributors w/ low overhead and discounts. The avg age of a player is 15 to 25 w/ a low amount of disposable income. Not to mention there are several places for folks to trade merchandise on line.

Add to that the amount of inventory that it requires to keep folks coming back to your store.

So many customers want...the old stuff, the latest stuff and the fringe stuff. It's extremely mutable inventory.

But I think there are several options that allows you the do the brick and mortar LGS and succeed.

A) service consumers in a large metropolitan area. This allows you to keep the inventory moving (even the fringe stuff). I'd never open an LGS in an MSA with less then 500K of people. Also, pick a location near major freeways/roads. It needs to be easy to access. I like ACME games. But it is brutal to get too unless I'm downtown. It is worth the extra rent to get more foot traffic.

B) Have a net presence. you move more product and can keep costs lower. You just have too much trouble surviving without it. Whether you open an ebay store or compete directly on the net you should have the presence and ability to distribute product in this manner. I have a buddy who does trains and he complains as well that if the Local Train store doesn't have a good web site it's dead.

C)Be a destination location. Create a business people want to go to. Display cases, hobby demos, Good lighting, clean, very cool terrain and tables, event days.
Get your consumer base to buy into the store by delivering well above expectations. Figure out these costs and make it part of your business. Don't consider it something that eats into your profit but consider it as something necessary to maintain market share.

D)Product mix. Sell something else. Maybe sell trains (there is crossover in brushes, paints, terrain). Sell high end models... again cross over in inventory. Be a bookstore that sells hobby stuff and gaming stuff on the side. Just have some product mix to capture beyond 1 nitch. This lowers your fixed cost per unit sold and you appeal to more consumers. By selling trains and Games (example) you probably increase your foot traffic by 1.5 to 2x. Essentially it's like moving from an MSA of 500K to an MSA of 1.0M.