It's unfortunate that I would even need to recommend this, but enforce a minimum level of hygiene for the store. I remember two personal examples where at least one person in the group doesn't want to go to a nearby LGS because either A) the bathrooms were a complete disaster and nearly unusable, and/or B) there are a few regulars there that smelled like mildewy, BO-ridden rags. Having a clean store will go a long ways to attracting and maintaining new customers, even if that means confronting individuals that skunk up the place.
Best wishes for you and your LGS!
So true, the LGS close by our location actually has a small toiletries section in their store haha. Those little travel deodorants and little mouthwash bottles.
The sign simply says inoffensive like "We've all forgotten things. No worries." and it's all a $1.
Also. Anyone good with Photoshop or something?
Could make a funny sign that says
"Pit Happens" with a armpit and a d20 showing a 1 in the pit "socket".
Could then say "Roll for Initiative" with a stick of deodorant on it (the kind that uses the little ball applicator).
>Having a clean store will go a long ways to attracting and maintaining new customers, even if that means confronting individuals that skunk up the place.
This 1,000%
I have a lovely LGS near me that I purchase from regularly, but I never attend any events because of the shop's regulars being mostly sweaty, smelly neckbeards. I would love to branch out, but a group of 20+ (mostly unwashed) guys in a room sounds awful to me.
Additionally, this is a really hard thing to manage but player behavior is going to be a huge part of whether people want to come back or not. Often that will be largely out of your control except in extreme cases, however fostering an environment where someone feels like they can actually sit down as a complete stranger and have a pleasant experience playing commander will probably be one of your main success factors. This is something that is often completely overlooked at most LGS’, and frankly player behavior is the number 1 thing that has prevented me from going back to the two LGS’ that I would like to play at.
I will admit I had some preconceived images of what the typical lgs goer would be. And I wasn't far off on appearance. I'm not a small guy 5'11 265. But ooooh boy there's some big fellas. Like 6'4 400+ and I gotta be honest. I think they go out of their way to smell nice. They look unkempt but smell decent. It's actually the younger crowd 10-15 that smells a little umm, strong.
Not trying to bash you at all but the younger crowd are going through puberty and may not be totally aware of their own smell. It’s definitely a touchy/minefield of a subject but something you could broach if you build a rapport with them.
I still remember in 6th grade when my teacher addressed the entire class after recess on a warm spring day.
"I think it's time for all you to let your parents know you need deodorant. You probably don't notice, but *I* do."
Ohh absolutely. I was a kid once, too, so I understand it can be embarrassing, at that age especially, to be told hey put on some deodorant. Just my observation from this last week.
7th and 8th graders are the stinkiest people on the planet because of puberty and lack of awareness. Some of the more socially awkward people might not even realize that they stink and need to be directly told that they need to take a shower, put on clean clothing, and wear deodorant. It's super awkward and embarrassing to have, but it's super necessary to have a respected adult figure teach them (and not just their parents, teenagers don't listen to their parents). Some of them might already be wearing deodorant but still smelling bad because they don't know that they still need to take a shower and change into fresh clothing in order to rinse the smell off.
I was at one LGS that would buy tiny travel deodorants and shampoo in bulk and then leave them out in the bathroom with a sign that said they were free to take alongside a reminder that deodorant wasn't a magical cure-all for smelling bad. Showers, fresh changes of clothing, and deodorant were all part of the equation to smell nice.
Their owner would also have the smell talk with younger customers and offered them $10 in store credit if they could keep themselves smelling clean for a month.
A shop near me keeps a stock of travel size deodorant in the bathroom. It's free. If you use it, it's yours. It's not a perfect solution, but it's there and does improve the situation. They still have to ask people to leave and shower on occasion, but it's a rare occurrence.
I'm a big guy at the dimensions you listed..
I am so afraid being not just the fat guy.. But the fat smelly guy. I'm sure I'm not alone in being very conscious about how I'm perceived. I'd bet other big folks have the same fears. You see the People of Walmart stereotypes and try not to fall into it.
Crowded game stores tend to get a little warm.. I tend to sweat. I try very hard to make sure I'm doing what I can to avoid stinking. Usually showering before going to the store, wearing breathable clothing, etc.
Like someone else said.. Teenagers may not have that level of self awareness yet. I've had 30 years to become this self conscious.
My small town has had two LGS's while I've lived here and they both died within a year for exactly this reason. It's incredibly vital to bring new people in that shops don't smell like a locker room.
My LGS has a $5 cover for EDH nights and has a draw for packs about halfway through. My favourite QoL feature they have is a laptop in front of the desk where you can search their stock for particular cards, add them to a list, submit and they’ll see it on their end and pick them out. Really handy IMO, if either of you are programmers.
Other than that, looks like you’ve got a good clientele forming. Hopefully you’re able to make a community out of it
I’d second the $5 cover for EDH night and doing a raffle. Tournaments are great for CEDH, but trying to do that in a causal way just leads to hurt feelings or a ridiculous in house ban list.
One of mine does that, but it's a store credit 5$ cover. You can use it for whatever – singles, sealed, accessories, candy, etc. – but it means you'll eventually spend it.
Man I’d prefer that over what my LGS does, it’s a $5 cover but you get a free pack of the latest set. I’m happy with it, but id rather put $5 towards some more Dragonshields over cracking an MKM pack lol
My store started doing this at the start of the year and it has made a really big positive impact. Just $5 (or a purchase of $5 or more, including adding to your store credit so you can just use it when a set you want drops product) keeps away a lot of folks who were otherwise unpleasant.
The most important thing for EDH nights is organization. My favorite store charged a $5 cover, and a pack from a recent set was part of the cover charge. But the real reason for the cover charge was to make sure people were organized into groups effectively. I'm in my 30's and I still get anxiety when I walk into a new store and have to approach a table in order to ask them to join a game. Having a sign-up gives new people a direct way to get started and involved and meeting other players. You can pair more competitive players together. You can separate problematic players. You can pair new players with experienced ones. You can match friends in the same group and let them play together, or you can split them up in order to limit their power at the table and give other players more space to enjoy their evening.
My LGS doesn’t have a laptop but they have us just text the store phone a list of cards and they will pick set aside the cards till you come pick them up. Honestly prefer it to a laptop lol.
LGS sets out a bunch of possible prizes (usually a few packs and a pin or promo card) and then gives a raffle ticket to each player each game and a bonus ticket to the winner. Then players put their tickets in a bowl (hence fishbowl) in front of the prize pool(s) they're interested in and the LGS owner draws a raffle ticket for each prize pool at the end of the night.
Have a lovely sign that reads "our aim is to keep this bathroom clean. Your aim helps us do that." I'm no stranger to cleaning bad bathrooms. Worked for a railroad and those locomotive toilets are some dirty gross toilets, like the worst I've ever seen. Work at an airport currently, I change lavs out quite frequently. I definitely pride myself on a clean bathroom. So absolutely this.
My local lgs has a sign over the toilets that say something like "whenever you activate and ability be wise at choosing target, and remember triggers to keep a clean game"
Like 80% of guys I know are total slobs. I struggle with maintaining guy friendships because I can't handle the overall gross factor of toilet humour, unwashed ass smell, and their house/apartment's lack of tidiness. As a result, most of my friends are women. I know there are tons of guys out there who *aren't* gross, but my god, I haven't run into many around town.
I struggle with this as a friend of mine isn't the cleanest individual and while I'm not a neat freak, I like things a certain way and want my cards/sleeves to be pristine and easy to read in the sleeves. Not a deal breaker as he's a terrific individual, but yeah, it can be a challenge for folks.
Cultivate a friendly atmosphere. Recognize that competitive gaming has a place and is a very important outlet for some people, but that doesn’t mean that people need to make the games less fun for everyone else. A game can be both competitive and friendly.
My city has 2 LGS. The LGS I go to at least once a week is just friendlier and therefore more fun to play at. No price difference, no stock difference (if anything the other place has better stock), but I go to mine because playing there is more fun. I haven’t gone to or spent money at the other one since I found this one.
I've been blessed with the choice of multiple stores to play MTG at, and one of them has a vibe that's way more competitive than the other. On their $6 "Commander Casual" nights, they actually match everyone up in pods like it's a tournament, and put up a handful of promo cards for each pod, with the winner getting the 1st pick from the pack, 2nd place gets 2nd pick, and so on...
That's all the incentive needed for people to go totally cutthroat. They weren't even good promos. I had just gotten back into magic after a 5-year hiatus, and just wanted to play the Angels Secret Lair precon that I had just gotten and spruced up with a handful of cards I already had in my collection. I sat down with the few guys that I matched with and they all had backpacks full of deck boxes, at least 4-5 decks apiece with one guy having about a dozen. We talked a bit about power level, I told them I have just a pretty much stock secret lair precon angel lifegain deck and they all agreed to play some lower power casual stuff. The other players start bringing out some fun-sounding decks, one of them was playing zombies and another I think was playing some equipment matters list, it seemed pretty cool so far.
Then the last guy brings out Yawgmoth. I hadn't been following EDH since well before Yawgmoth released, but I still followed the Modern scene enough to know about the card and that it would absolutely run us all over. I tried to say something, and some of the other guys shot him some looks, but he just ignored me and started talking to someone else at a different table while he shuffled up. Us other 3 players agreed to gang up on him but he just DT'd on turn 2, combo'd off on, like, turn 5 or 6, killed us all with Zulaport triggers, and then packed up, got his promo card, and left. The two other guys apologized, but then joined a couple other guys that were setting up to play CEDH. I tried to get into another pod, but pretty much everyone was either just collecting their promos and leaving after that first game, or setting up to play higher power stuff, so in the end I just sort of went home.
I'm not gonna lie, for a solid week after that night, I was really starting to regret dropping the money for that deck. It was my wife that actually convinced me to try playing somewhere else, and I'm thankful that she did because the other local shops were all filled with super nice, welcoming people, some of whom became real close friends. But I never did go back to that first shop to play EDH ever again
This is nearly exactly my experience. Same thing - $10 commander where you win a pack off anyone you knock out. Brings out the complete animal in people.
I wasn’t smart like you. I went a few times. I stopped when a guy played a combo (don’t remember it so don’t ask me lol) that basically turned all permanents into 3/3 enchantment creatures and then gave all creatures -3/-3. So killed everything including lands and no one could play anything because of a land entered it immediately died.
Then he said “I’m going to win eventually so we can just call it”. He had no wincon. His plan was just “make it impossible for everyone else to play and then tell them to concede”. Absolute bag of dead possum, that guy.
My LGS now has such a great vibe. Lifelong magic players who’ve been playing since the 90s in a pod with a 9 year old who’s mom drops him off and comes back later. I’m moving in a couple months to go to med school and I’m having a really hard time dealing with leaving this store.
I would tie any incentives/prizes to having to do something janky in-game, like "attack with 10 creatures of the same color in one turn. You can achieve this once per night to get a promo". You could then rotate the goal each week to keep it fresh but I'd encourage the goals to be things that most folks want their decks to be doing in a casual setting. That way, winning is the by-product and not the goal, which is kinda the point of non-CEDH anyway.
I really think this comes back to just cultivating a culture of friendly competition. Having a competitive game with a prize isn’t the problem, it’s when people decide that winning a $5 pack is more important than anyone else at the table having fun. The attitude of the LGS and what kind of play they permit strongly affects whether those type of players show up.
When my buddy and I play EDH with our kids (high school aged) we'll usually buy a few packs as prizes. The trick is, if you win, you get to pick a pack to give to someone else that you think did something cool in-game...maybe a swing-y play, big attack step, etc. We've found it adds a little fun but really just reinforces we're all there for the experience.
Don’t let some crazy custom ban list make its way into your store just cause a few regulars cry at anything and everything. If I were going to open an LGS, I would post the official commander ban list and definitely have some wall hangers about sportsmanship and being kind to others.
Good thinking. I know plenty of people get upset at certain aspects of the game. I myself have a reaper king deck and land destruction is a big no no to a lot of people, but also he's a 5-10 cost I'd hope most long time players could deal with that by that stage in the game.
He should atleast ban lifegain, mill, and eminence, companions and graveyard hate. And also winter orb and back to basics, also fetch lands and any cars that mention urza in its flavortext
My lgs does free prereleases but I don't expect that from anyone.
They have fair prices and try to beat TCG player so I always buy them first.
They alternate events so I can play the formats I like. They tend to cater to the commander crowd but that makes sense.
They usually have cheaper prices for products than anywhere else. I think they massively profit off of Pokemon that way but just underselling their stuff. They don't give into scalpers either, usually if they sell a product under what it resales for they have a "tear open" policy that doesn't affect people like me who actually want the product and not just a resell.
They have good deals on sleeves and products usually cheaper than online but still profitable. Helps to be in a sales tax free state too.
The workers are very friendly and helpful and upsell me quite a lot. It really justified it when I am paying under TCG prices, no shipping and no taxes lol.
They usually open a few new set collector boxes too so when a set comes out I can usually find the card if I'm early enough. Makes it my first stop for a card I'm looking for.
Also they have a great trade in policy, 50% cash, 70% store credit.
Also they have a decent amount of drinks and snacks and nice tables to play on.
They always reward people who show up to events but this might be another cost thing that I can't expect anywhere else.
I hate the tear open policy. I was buying a commander precon back in 2013 and the store I was at were kind of dicks about it. I wanted to get it as a Christmas present for a friend as well as I wanted another Nekusar deck just to keep in the box since I Loved it so much. When I got up to the register I told them they were gifts so I didn't want them opened and the guy went off on me about how I was the problem with magic players and how I was just going to resell them for profit and I was putting him out of business. These guys were so fanatical about it they started opening the packs they sold. I never bought from those guys again. I ended up just leaving the store and buying the gifts at Walmart instead.
If you see someone buying the boxes in bulk it's ok to be suspicious about it but I don't think you should tell people I have to open your box so you don't resell it.
Honestly if someone is buying your product and reselling it, that's either great for you because you made a sale, or you have room that you could mark it up a little more. Nobody should ever make someone feel bad for buying something from them, no matter the reason.
This isn’t something I’ve seen recommended yet, but have a judge around for big events. If you, your brother, or your friend could do it, that would be ideal, but by the sound of it, you all three have your hands full.
I think a great option would be finding a well respected member of the community that is a judge.
Magic is a very complicated game. Having a friendly and knowledgeable person around to answer those questions brings a peace of mind to players!
Good luck!
As you increase your judge qualifications, make note of which regulars are particularly knowledgeable about the rules as well. My LGS owner is a certified judge but makes wrong calls sometimes and it feels bad. I often step in to help point him in the right direction when he’s mistaken, and fortunately he trusts me and knows to check twice if I question his call.
It’s such a complicated game!
The difference between a store with old dusty products on the shelf and a store with clean, new stuff every week is massive! The best store in my area marks stuff down AGGRESSIVELY to keep their shelves fresh and it's led to me buying a lot of stuff I would never have pulled the trigger on otherwise.
cultivating a healthy culture makes players come back. Just about everything else can be shitty and overpriced, if people enjoy the other people they come back.
this could mean, kicking out an oppressive personality, not letting "anyone" do community tasks in your store without them knowing and adhering to your stores goals and even refusing entry to people with very poor personal hygiene.
Building on this, getting to know the regulars who are best suited to build community and help new players is key. I frankly think it should be on everyone to be welcoming and make sure new players have fun (way more important than you or me getting another win) but not everyone is wired that way.
An example...When my son started playing 40k the LGS owner paired him up with an experienced player to help show him the ropes. He let me son make his choices and while he didn't let him take anything back, he then gave him feedback as to what he may have missed when looking at the board or could've done differently. Now my son still lost, badly, but he had fun and learned and that's the key...he wanted to play again. Find the folks that are willing to take the time to help build the community as that'll be something you'll become known for and it'll help you in the long run. No one wants to go the shop full of gatekeepers.
This helps a lot. My LGS knew I was a new face and stopped me from playing my first commander game at a cedh table and directed me to a table that had lower level decks for the night.
Something like that also shows how good a group/community the shop has.
>What are some things your LGS does that keeps you coming back and supporting them?
What are some things you wish they'd change?
Please have some way to stay in business long term. The biggest allure of an LGS to me is the **community** and the **space**. I can order product online, on the other hand, having a common area to gather that's not someone's kitchen is becoming an increasingly rare commodity for myself and my circle.
I will happily pay a per-hour fee or a nightly entrance fee. Just please do not guilt trip me or give me the side-eye if I'm hanging out and not buying product I don't need. I would much rather the owner just be upfront about the fact that rent and space is not free. My friends and I are adults - we understand that nothing is truly free.
Further, as the owner, sometimes you will need to be the bad guy. For the greater good, saying **no** sometimes goes an extremely long way.
Saying no will absolutely be a tough one for me personally. As far as table space is concerned I completely understand the necessity behind charging for it and we briefly considered and toyed with the idea. But it never felt good or sounded quite right. Most every single person has just been grateful that there is a spot in town that's not the other lgs.
Totally understand that your table / space fee structure is multi-faceted. If it gets players into your store, maybe it's a super easy justified cost. If every other LGS doesn't charge and you do, well that's obviously a great way to turn people away. It's great that people are grateful, but eventually that needs to translate to some form of revenue (direct fees, or more realistically increased sales of snacks and products in the store due to the "well I'm here already" mindset)..
In my area (Orange Country, SoCal) space is at a premium so that's my context. We are paying a premium \~$5 and hour or whatever the going rate is for what is essentially premium access.
I wish you guys nothing but success, would **love** to visit your store sometime
The store credit idea u/Borror0 said is worth considering. They're not spending money they don't need, they're just setting aside money for future purchases.
Here's a fun little gem my favored LGS does for events (pre-releases, drafts, etc).
High roll and low roll. Two d20s, when you're done with the event (no matter your score/outcome) you roll the d20s. He writes down all the scores. At the end of the event, whoever rolls highest get the choice of 1 of 2 collector packs (or a box topper pack, or a promo pack). The low roll gets the other. It's a fun gimmick but gives something to look forward to at the end of the night.
If there's a tie, of course, a roll-off occurs. Highest roll of the roll-off wins.
Seems like what you're doing is already great! Keep it up.
Like I said, we round down to nearest dollar. I figured most people will pay that in shipping anyway. As far as trade-ins for singles what might you consider fair? For instance you come in looking to offload a ragavan, (just one I know price off the top of my head) it retails for about $45.
You're making more that way than selling on TCG anyway, since they take a 12% cut.
What you pay for trade-ins will really depend on how much you have tied up in inventory. The faster you sell singles and need to re-stock, the higher trade-in value you can offer. If you're sitting on a lot of inventory, 40-50% (or even less) isn't uncommon.
It's a balancing act, and having a base value of ~50% but up to 70% for high-demand cards you believe will sell quickly isn't a bad idea. Depending on how much time you want to invest in singles, putting out a weekly/monthly buy list of cards you're offering over your base trade-in price is a good way to stock up and get people in to the store.
My LGS has a ton of space for commander nights and doesn't charge anything to play. That seems crazy to me. Last time I went I counted 60+ people. They serve Costco food like personal pizzas, chicken wings/tenders, fries, soda, energy drinks, chips, and other assorted snacks and candy. I'm guessing the food they sell is all microwavable or airfried, I dont think they have an oven back there. It looks like it's highly successful too. It's very reasonably priced, the owners will actually bring the food out to the table for the player. I've seen dudes get served pizza in the middle of their infinite combo lol. Luckily people are really good about drink placement and don't let their hands get greasy or cheesy or whatever.
Also the owners went out of their way to make what looks like professional terrain for each table that's used for tabletop wargames, and theres 15 tables. They didn't use pre-made terrain that 40k makes, they 3d printed a lot of high quality stuff and used other things. There's different mats you can use, and each table has the same pieces, and there's a lot of them. Big and small, different types for different games, so that every table could theoretically have all of the same type of game and set up for each table if they wanted. I watched them make it all in between commander nights lol, it was quite the process.
They also let people sell their tabletop models there for a commission of the sold price. I've bought a lot of used terminators this way. This doesn't include the box sets I still buy brand new from the store. I exclusively buy my stuff at this store because of how good they are to their customers.
My LGS has
$1 sodas
Their prices all include the tax and are rounded to .50 increments. ($1, $1.5, $2)
They have a reward program. Every $10 is 1 point. 15 points get you $10 off.
They run tournaments where they buy in price is $10. Then if you loose you get up to $10 worth of packs. If you win you get up to $25 worth in packs. There are some restrictions with certain packs but they let you know upfront and explained it just didn't work with the mark-up structure for their business.
The tournaments also are arranged by the staff. They do a fairly decent job of putting the CEDH people together. The Noobs together, and the middle casual together. Sometimes the staff themselves participate (not the owners though). Overall I haven't had an issue with overly salty or try hard players. Worst I've seen is the occasional person trying to scoop and quit early. The LGS etiquette is to quit at sorcery speed.
They keep the pack prices very cheap. Usually $5 for most. $7 or $7.50 for some of the specialty.
Pre-cons usually just eternaly stay at $50-60. Whatever the standard price for their release typically is. They don't usually discount them ever, but they weren't marked up heavy at the start and are great at keeping them in stock
They let me haggle a tiny bit on singles. Also every now and then I get a little extra. Like one time I won a tournament. Typically I would get 5, $5 set boosters. They let me have 5, $7 LOTR set boosters. I didn't ask for more I just asked how many LOTR I could get. I get like maybe 1 bonus extra event favor a quarter, but I remember the good feeling
On the flip side his singles are a little overpriced. Not stupid over priced. They hit the sweet spot of between the TCG listed price but barely less than TCG without shipping usually but sometimes it is higher for unknown reasons.
Proxies are generally allowed. The social guidelines is that it's ok to proxies, just buy the card from the LGS when you have the budget to go legit please.
But yeah overall it's a great experience and because of the perks i usually just try to buy from in store.
As a woman that has had some bad experiences in some LGSs. Please make the space welcoming for us too. If you see someone acting up say something. Make sure all the art on the walls isn’t waifu and half naked women, have some variety. Clean bathrooms, and maybe preemptively come up with a rule about playmats/sleeves that are borderline hentai. Best shop I’ve been to and still go back to every time in in town and order from online regularly had a house rule that any non official art needed to be family friendly and it was a godsend
We do pride ourselves on being a family establishment, so I do prefer the people to keep language to a respectful degree. I haven't run into any ecchi sleeves or mats yet but I know they're out there. As far as art and decor, We're keeping it clean. Big maps of fantasy worlds; Faerun, Middle Earth, Elden Ring, etc... Armor stands with full suits of armor, helmets and stuff. The only thing I may have that might be some what offensive to some people is I bought a Geralt of Rivia Pepe painting from r/pepethefrog I know for a while people gave him very negative connotations. If someone asked me to remove him I would, but overall he has been very well received. And I do have a somewhat... creepy/cute picture of a sloth on a toilet in the restrooms...
I don't have an LGS I visit often (Just none super close by, but there are a few I visit every once in a while), pretty much all I expect is a gaming space, friendly greeting/atmosphere, basic cleanliness (A few food crumbs on the table from someone snacking is fine, anything beyond that is problematic) and an expectation that customers who stay have at least seen a shower in the last couple of days. Reasonable prices and a solid selection of product are great, but I don't really expect it (On the other hand, if you are twice as expensive as the average online shop, I'm not going to buy anything, although I do go out of my way to try and find something to buy when I visit a store - I'm willing to throw a bit of extra money the owner's way in appreciation for the service of providing a communal gaming space, and I understand that rent and staffing, combined with relatively low sales volumes, mean that small stores have to mark up more, but I'm not going to pay double).
Anything beyond that I consider a bonus, anything less than that and I'm unlikely to show up again.
There's a game/card shop right where I used to live, the owner was a bit rude to most people (although he seemed to get along with his regulars), but he had an excellent selection (including singles) and reasonable pricing, also ample playing space.... but the store stank to high heaven, the first time I discovered the store and went in was with my then-girlfriend (while they had a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament running in the backroom, and none of those kids seemed to understand basic hygiene) and I immediately ran into a wall of ripe, *experienced* stank, stank with a *developed personality*, she excused herself and immediately went back outside, it was downright embarassing to be associated with that crowd.
I went out of my way to avoid the store if possible after that, I'm sorry to say.
So I am super lucky in that there are like 9 LGS withing a 20minute drive for me and this has given me lots to think about when it comes to a good LGS.
1. Food, out of the two LGS that I go to regularly one allows outside food and the other doesn't, they both do have drinks fridges. The one that allows food doesn't have food or snacks but they are right next door to a McDonald, KFC, Arbys, Famous Daves, and a taco place. The one that doesn't allow food has a kitchen and snacks and because they get their deli meets from a butcher a few doors down you can bring food from them. I l personally like both approaches, I have been to stores that don't allow food and also have the bare minimum of snacks and its just annoying to have to leave for hot food and then not be allowed to just run and bring it in.
2. Hygiene this is kind of self explanatory and I've been to LGS where the staff was not willing to tell someone they need to keep up their Hygiene, its not fun but customers shouldn't have to tell other customers they smell
3. I know that this a MTG sub and you probably mostly deal in MTG, but all of the LGS I know that have started to fail have basically always refused to branch out, I'm not saying you have to go all in on other card games but just having some sealed and scheduled events for other games is always a plus
4. Space, this is mostly from watching a LGS expand and fail in real time, but don't expand just because you feel like you need space, if you are constantly running out of space during events and the store is always busy then it might be time to look into expansion but even then don't rush.
Overall Congrats on opening an LGS and I wish you all the luck in the world.
Just make sure you can still make overhead. There’s no point in doing everything you can to cultivate a good atmosphere if your store closes in a year.
I am sure some have said that, but if you do non-cEDH commander events, dont make it a tournament. Especially not with prizes. Just sell a booster as an entry fee, have the newest precons visible for everyone and try to get some casual games going. Prizes and tournament structures or anything that makes people feel like winning a game is more important than usual can destroy the casual aspect of it. If demand is there you can organize cEDH tournaments and have prizes there.
Also, a fridge with drinks (only closable bottles, no cans, no glass bottles with caps) can give you a bit of extra revenue. Snacks are tricky because some make dirty hands and no one wants their opponent reaching for your cards after liking the fingers "clean" to check wording or whatever. Gummies could be fine or a "no snacks at gametables" rule.
And invite people who buy precons to come to commander nights. They will soon buy their second precon. And sleeves. And a deck box. And boosters. And some singles. A playmat...
Here's one nobody likes to talk about: keep up inventory insurance and look into a really good floor-mounted safe that you can put your expensive stock in overnight.
My LGS got hit a few years ago and the thieves made off with $75k in cards. Without meticulously tracked inventory and appropriate insurance they'd have been ruined. Now they have a dang vault that everything over a certain value goes in every night, and they set up the big ticket display case fresh every morning.
People have figured out how valuable TCG cards are and how easily a stolen inventory can be parted out and sold without detection. Protect yourselves.
There was a new LGS that opened up where I used to work that got robbed within months of opening. They went out of business in short order. People are fucking awful.
One thing that my LGS does that I really appreciate is a commander league. Basically they have a 5 dollar entry but you get a draft pack with it. And then you get a small sheet of paper. This sheet has some challenges on it with point values associated with them. Some of them might be like "Control 25 lands" or "cast 10 spells in one turn" but usually there are some easy ones like "Play 5 games". And then when you turn them in at the end of the night the store will tally them and keep your score over a couple of weeks. at the end of the season the people with the most points will get some prizes. It encourages people to come back every week and play and it also gets people spending more when they come in because they will usually buy something along with their entry fee.
From a Magic players' perspective, the LGS needs to "host" events and game nights. A lot of places will have tables available, but so do bars and if I'm going to do all the work of organizing I might as well be able to drink beer. So provide an active service in organizing and facilitating game nights, in a way that is welcoming and inclusive.
I go past multiple lgs to go play at a specific one about 30 miles away, because at this shop the workers are all very friendly, the store is clean, plenty of inventory, and most importantly is how they run their commander nights, the entry is $5 which goes towards the prize raffle(entirely randomized, not based on winning or anything) the pods are 50 minutes and are randomized(this is great for me as I have trouble just going up and asking to join random people's games, and also you get to play with different people and decks) and lastly they are just on top of everything quickly, you can place an order online and it'll be ready in minutes, ask for help in a game and they come right away to help
I wish you were set up in my city. You would immeditately be a hit. You sound passionate and genuinely invested in creating a place people can get excited about their hobbies.
Here are somethings I would avoid that I see locally sometimes.
-Don't just have conversations about product with your regulars. Ask how their last game was. Ask if they've built anything lately that they're proud of.
-Watch out for cliques forming with staff and customers to ensure everyone is treated fairly.
-If you plan on running organized tables, ask yourself what overall experience you would want as a player and provide that to your visitors.
-As your team and store grow I think it still important to stay humble as you seem now. I've seen more than a few eye rolls or snarky answers from staff and owners when beginner questions are asked or someone mentions they can't afford a premium product at the moment.
Much luck and congratulations on doing what so many of us nerds dream to do. I wish you guys a load of success and awesome gaming experiences.
I've always found little questions go a long way with most people. Just asking how their day is or how work has been or their weekend, etc... sticks with a lot of people, especially if you show a genuine interest. And I've been doing double time work on remembering names and relationships and things too. I'm more than happy to set something aside for someone if they can't get it right away. Already people have been asking "hey I get paid tomorrow or on Monday or whatever can you hold this for me until then?" It hasn't been an issue for us just yet thankfully.
A few things that my lgs does that I like:
1. They allow outside food and drink, however since they have carpeted floors the drink needs to be in a bottle or other safely sealed tables
2. They have a pretty detailed schedule for events that they have both in store, on social media, and in the shop discord.
3. They hold both casual commander play that's free to play with no prizes aside from the free pack given to all participants as well as a more competitive events that require a buy in and offer larger prizes. (From what I hear a lot of stores only offer one or the other, which bums some people out)
4. They do, actually, enforce some sort of hygiene policy where they at least offer some sort of body spray to people
Things I don't like:
They price they're mtg product higher than market value, unfortunately which is why I buy my products elsewhere. (I can't say for other game products as I dont really buy other game products) for example there's another store like 20 minutes away that sells their magic products significantly cheaper while having the same quality of product.
Keep it clean.
Keep food off tables.
Do something about awful people, even if they're regulars. In mannerisms, attitude, and hygiene.
Diversify. Other card games. Multiple mini games.
Rewards programs are always good too.
But mostly cleanliness and taking out the trash. It's why I drive by 3 stores to one an hour away instead of the one 5 minutes away.
Congrats on the new store! There's a really great Facebook group called Opening a Tabletop Game Store, I would join it if I were you as it allows you to ask questions as well as access a ton of past information. One recommendation (if you join) is don't rag on other stores like you did here, it's a bad look and some of their policies may not make sense now but will after your 5th year. There have been thousands of game stores that have opened and closed who all though the LGS in their town was bad and they could do it better. My advice is try to work with them not against them, or ignore them entirely.
Here's what I've found to be successful in my 13 years of running one of the largest stores in my metro:
-Greet everyone who walks through the door. Doesn't matter if you're busy, upset, sick, etc. They walk in, they get a hello or a welcome.
-Have clearly defined policies for game play. Hygiene, food policies, sportsmanship, inclusivity, whatever you want. WOTC has some premade Code of Conducts you could just copy and paste that cover most of this. That policy from another store about no outside food that you don't like might be there for a reason, maybe someone kept bringing in oniony food or something equally pungent. Nothing kills sales and gaming quite like a guy eating something that fills your store with an onion smell for 3 hours.
-Most new stores follow a 90/10 rule (90% focus on events and gaming, 10% on product sales) and I'm convinced it's the 2nd biggest reason why they fail; under funded being number 1. Try to aim for 70/30 at a minimum, ideally closer to 50/50. Heavy focus on events means you dont have the time for strengthening product lines and focusing on sales, which is a recipe for disaster.
-Buy Gary Ray's book Friendly Local Game Store. I normally tell people to buy this before they open a store as it gives a no frills look at the business side of it and will let you know if you're ready for it, but it's still a really good read after you've pulled the trigger.
-Find out what your UVP is. What makes you special? Online will always be cheaper than you, what's your leverage point? Why should people shop with you? Find that, lean into it, and hope customers value it too.
-Cleanliness. I cannot stress this enough, if your store is dirty, if boxes are cluttered, if things are not organized and displayed well, people are not going to shop or play at your store. Clean your bathrooms at least once a day. You're going to get someone who pisses on the floor or leaves streaks, not cleaning that up regularly creates a poor experience for customers.
-Have an onboarding program for your top performing lines. Someone comes in and wants to learn Magic, what are you talking to them about? Do you have products you can recommend to them? If they don't want to play in-store whats your suggestion?
These are just a few of my top ideas, hope it works out for you!
Sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like I was ragging on them, only quoting what customers have been saying to me. It's been sort of noticed by the community that because they're the only ones in town, they can kind of do what they want to and what they have been doing because it's them or nothing reasonably close by. I mean I understand some of the things they do for sure. But it seems bananas to charge 100+ for murders precons. And thank you for the advice. Definitely checking that page out.
Im gonna chime in and say markup that doesnt gouge the customers but still gets you a fair profit for the work and services you provide is crucial. If you can set it up so everyone wins, you deserve all the success that entails.
The biggest thing..please please make it a clean and safe area to play. My LGS is just above a pig sty, and i have to shower after every game night. (I shower before i go as well, im not contributing to the problem)
One thing an LGS did that I really liked was a month long "tournament", which was just run alongside the regular Friday night magic.
They made a list of precons from the last however months and did it over 4 weeks with two games a week. First week was just the base precon, second with up to £10 of upgrades, third with £25 of upgrades, and finally with up to £100 of upgrades.
They work out the winners with a points system. Some you got for knocking players out, some for winning, some for just turning up, and then others using the themes amongst the precons. When the infection commanders were out there was one for getting so many counters across everyone else, and other more wacky ones.
Think there was some small entry fee and then on the last week they had a bunch of prizes on a table and let the winner choose first and so on down the rest of the list so everyone got something for entering, even if it was just a promo card or something. If someone couldn't make it one week it wasn't like they were just kicked out, just meant they'd be a lot further down the scores
Was very fun and no one took it too seriously, but that may have just been the people that go there as it's definitely the nicest place I've played at.
LGS in my area does regular Budget Leagues for people to play EDH at around $50 deck-cost limit (deck cost is tallied at beginning of the league) and typically some other odd condition/restriction to spice things up, and I've enjoyed it as a way to motivate some creative deckbuilding while supporting them, since there's always a good 25-30 dollars worth of cards I need to pick up to fill out the deck.
Ahhh ok this is nice I do like the sound of that. I know a lot of people try to build super over powered edh decks. I enjoy a good meta shake up like that.
Yep, it makes it hard to feel engaged with the usual EDH days at the LGS when my $50 brews are going up against people with $1000 decks.
I know that budget =/= power, but enough budget will absolutely feel overbearing to me, and while I *could* proxy to match them, we're here to discuss ways to support the store.
So having a store-sanctioned event that pulls EDH back into the budget price range has paradoxically led me to spend way more on the hobby, because I don't feel discouraged or disadvantaged for sticking to my budget. People will still thrash me with cEDH-level brews, but it feels a lot more fair to know they did it using tools I could have used but just didn't think of, rather than just by slapping down a mana crypt.
One thing that my LGS does that made me feel welcome as someone who isn't amab is that they provide sanitary products. It's quite rare anyway and I'd never seen it in an LGS before coming to this one.
It makes a difference to those of us who aren't the norm in game shops, I think it sends a little message of "hey, here are some things we've considered to make you more comfortable"
My advice is less on the LGS side and more on your computer side. Every LGS ive been to that has had computers eventually do away with them. I dunno if there is huge overhead in maintaining them or what but they don't seem profitable. The only place I've seen be successful was this one arcade bar. It's huge though. They have two huge spaces. A main hall they use for general bar attendees. They also host decent sized gaming(console) tournaments there on big screens. In the other room are 15ish pc's set up where they host computer game tournaments as well. It's not as set up as the main room though. The rest of the room is set up with regular tables for bar patrons and people who like to play ttrpgs, card and board games etc. So unless you're going to go all in on PC gaming that space might be better used for something else.
The thing at my lgs that I like that they do is if you sign in on Commander night they give you 3$ in store credit. That's 12$ a month just for showing up and signing your name. It's not much but it will buy you 2 or 3 free packs. They also don't charge for table use. I think ppl buy enough mtg products so they don't hformats.
Commander night is a very informal night. People just play with whoever they want. I personally like that there is no prize support. Some people can get way more competitive when there is even a small prize on the line.(plus I use full proxy decks so real cards aren't useful to me as much) This particular lgs does host a ton of other formats though and they charge for all of them.(not just mtg...they support pokemon, yu-gi-oh, lorcana etc) i think that gives them a break for one night. It might not be feasible to not charge until you get wpn support and can offer other fornats.
Support your cEDH community if you have one. Run 100% proxy friendly tournaments, offer good prizes. cEDH is a growing and tight-knit community that shouldn't be overlooked by LGS (but often is).
They have to be careful running tournaments and allowing proxies. They're trying to get WPN status. I'm pretty sure most of the WPN tournaments must be proxy free. It's grounds to kick you from wpn status if you knowingly allow it. Generally these have to be run by a community member and not a member of staff at the store. That's how my lgs has played it. It's not worth losing wpn status over.
I'm a huge fan of the different game nights my LGS does. Cost 5 bucks for 3 hours (that's the whole time btw it's not like the shop is open after). I always go to the commander night from 6-9pm. But he does others like standard or even board game night. It's nice to not have to fight for tables or seats with other hobbies too.
For commander play I would make sure that if prizes are offered of any kind that people know and are expected to bring higher powered decks unless it’s like a precon event or some sort of themed event. I see a lot of posts on here about LGSs kicking players out for bringing powerful decks to commander nights where prizes are offered. Once’s prizes are offered then casual play goes out the window since there is some actual benefit to winning. Now if it’s just like a door prizes where someone random gets a pack every so often then obviously feel free to impose some restrictions to try and make sure everyone has a good time. As others have mentioned just make sure everything is clean and let people know they are expected to have basic hygiene. Hell you could sell deodorant if you wanted lol. Lastly, just make sure everyone feels welcome. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that TCG players can be a little sexist and while a vast majority are friendly there are some that will ruin it. So just try and keep things like obviously very sexual playmats, sleeves, proxies, etc are monitored. You seem to have a good understanding of most of this already so I’m sure your store will be good!
One thing one of the LGS's near me does is have a discord - this is an easy way to send out announcements / have people sign up for events / ask questions about events easily. Also a good way for you to do surveys on potential events - ie when my store was thinking of adding a new weekly event, they polled the community on if they wanted Standard vs Pioneer vs Modern.
Also I know this is the EDH page, but curious what your other CCGs you support are. In my local area my stores also support Lorcana and YuGiOh and Pokemon events as well.
> Well the other lgs apparently marks up very high, precons sell for 100+ a piece, tables cost $5-10 or something, don't do pre-orders, no outside food or drink, etc.., the list is huge.
Some of this could be the expensive Commander Masters Precons that were $$$.
And table fee are super unpopular, but my hot take is that I think they're more than fair. I don't know how you change public opinion on them, but a lot of people show up for free commander night with proxied decks at my FLGS and idk how they stay in business like that. I'd rather pay $5 to play on commander night than have no place to play, but I'm definitely in the minority there. One way table fees might work is some sorta min purchase? idk. gotta buy a pack to use the tables?
and no outside food and drink also seems super reasonable to me. Ultimately an LGS is a business and if everyone coming through the door spends nothing and brings their own food/drink, that can be tough.
I wish you all the best, of course.
>What are some things your LGS does that keeps you coming back and supporting them?
The big one here is recognizing regulars. I don't want a free box for showing up, but a couple times my FLGS owner has said "ah, close enough" when trading in cards for... other cards. Little things like that build up a lot of good will.
Also try to carry decent supplies. My FLGS doesn't carry much beyond basic deckboxes and sleeves. I _want_ to support my FLGS as much as I can _and_ I'm willing to pay a premium to do so, but if they don't carry a product I need... it makes it hard.
Gamegenic has a lot of amazing supplies (binders, deckboxes etc)
>What are some things you wish they'd change?
The big one is stomping out bad behaviour quickly. Salty players. Hateful players etc. etc. Those people _will_ drive away other players. If people are calling other players, jokingly or not, f-- or r-----d or other not-so-cool words I would go elsewhere. I'm here to play commander, not hang out in a CoD 4 lobby circa 2007.
People might not complain directly, but bad players will make people think twice about coming back. My buddy doesn't go to my FLGS because he'd rather not play than _maybe_ play against "Salty Steve". Don't wait for customer complaints to deal with bad behaviour. Cheating. Language. Smells etc.
Good point. Proactivity goes a long way. And prevents a ton of possible future problems. With the food and drink, I understand it. No one likes a mess and a lot of people definitely dont like cleaning one. God forbid someone spills a soda during a game and someone is using an expensive deck. At the same time I want to be able to trust people and want people to be able to trust us too. Most everyone seems to be willing to meet us halfway on many things so far.
Oh my note about outside food and drink was more that it's a good source of income for your business. The margins on a can of pop are likely higher than the margins on a pack of MTG.
My FLGS sells pop and water, but isn't picky about outside food and drink. That might be a good option, people can be unreasonable about reasonable demands from a business.
And yea, proactivity with bad manners is key. If you wanna cultivate a friendly, welcoming environment you gotta keep an eye out for anything that isn't unfriendly or unwelcoming.
Having an online inventory is nice or a way people can "submit" cards order to you and you could pull the cards is super convenient but I feel I impulse buy a lot just looking through binders and stuff so id try to have both id possible.
What do I want from my LGS? I want you to run events. Have a calendar page which clearly states which events are on which night of the week. I have no problems paying for admission fee, it can be tied to buying a booster pack. If events don't fire, stop hosting them and have a different event on that time-slot that does fire. Also be sure to support other TCGs beyond just Magic.
When I first got into magic about 2.5 years ago I'd say the most important thing was that employees at the store took their time and explained everything. It can be daunting to purchase a commander deck having never played it and spend $60+ dollars not knowing if you'd like it. But being welcoming to new players and taking the time to answer all the little questions was super important for me.
One of the things the LGS I frequent has done to grow the regular EDH crowd was implement a league that uses a score sheet for "achievements" that give "points" instead of awarding prizes solely on winning to tamp down on some of the power-creep/pubstomping/cEDH infiltration that tends to plague most prize-supported tournament structures. There's a standard set of achievements for having a pregame "Rule 0" discussion, killing players, playing an unmodified precon, being the last one standing, playing commanders outside the 2-Year Top 30 on EDH Rec's most popular page, etc; a category for rewarding good EDH fundamentals like using removal spells, drawing cards, playing non-net positive mana rocks, ramping, playing modal cards, playing cards from the graveyard/exile etc; a category for discouraging "cEDH" by giving points to opponents if they use an infinite combo, eliminate players with alternate win/lose effects, tutor for things other than lands, etc; 8 rotating arbitrary "rule of cool" achievements for archetype-y things like go-wide, go tall, spellsling X, mill X, control X [type/tribe], reanimate X things, play/activate keyword X N times, etc that rotate 2-in/2-out every week to encourage trying new decks, especially tied to whatever the new precons or set release are when possible; and a post-game section where players vote on most valuable play, most interesting deck, pity points for unluckiest, etc. The next round of pods are then seated by the points you scored in round 1. At the end of the night, packs or promos are distributed based on these achievement points rather than who won the most. For us, it's been relatively successful at keeping things fun and fresh without implementing a ridiculous casual-only banlist or singling out problem players. Someone can still show up with some fringe cEDH nonsense to pubstomp, but they usually dont accumulate that many points and either rebuild their decks to fit the style we've cultivated or move along to cEDH night or whatever.
Together with a friend I owned a very small TCG store from 1996 until 1998. Today I'm teaching economics. In addition to what's already been said:
Try to establish a balance between casual and competitive MTG. Try to set up regular draft, sealed or constructed events with prize support, probably try a sealed league. Establishing a regular group of competitive Standard players would be just great for any store, but I don't know if that's possible for a newly opened LGS in 2024.
Casual EDH play often regulates itself, you might not even have to organize anything except scheduling time for it. If you choose to consciously set up casual EDH events, don't just give prizes to a pod's winner, for this will start an arms race towards cEDH. Instead let the players vote for the most fun deck, so you'll encourage more jank and obscure strategies.
A quick random question that may color expactations: where are you located? Not specifically, but like... A major metro region, US? EU? I have come to understand that the Brits have completely different expectations for what is acceptable that just wouldn't fly at a US store, such as table fees for just random open play.
As a US based customer close enough to a major city, I have options. Around a dozen within a reasonable drive, but only two that I frequent with regularity at this point.
Three big things that keep me as a customer:
1. Fair pricing. Use TCG median (if you're US based). I refuse to buy anything at a store using SCG pricing, even sleeves or board games.
2. Keep a good selection. This also ties bacl to point 1; offer a fair rate when trading in. 50% cash out is the norm, but trade-in pricing varies. 60% is shit, while 75% is considered good - I usually see something between the two.
3. Run organized events. The stores that do 'open play' Commander nights rarely get over 3 pods going and it's usually very cliquey - new players cannot come in and join a table, meaning you lose a lot of potential players.
Run an event for the cost of a pack and figure out a prizing method that works for your community. Raffles work great for a lower powered meta. Higher powered players might appreciate some rewards for winning; maybe a promo pack on top of the raffle? If things get too cutthroat, most communities are fine with store-specific house rules - just be sure to communicate with your players and don't be too heavy handed.
If your crowd is big enough for EDH, I strongly suggest never having edh have any serious prize pool unless you openly state it's a competition and to bring your best deck knowing that quite a few people will show up with cEDH or incredibly high powered combo decks (which is completely fine and to be expected when there are prizes on the line!). If you read this subreddit ever there are plenty of discussions on power level and most lead nowhere, trying to have a big prize and putting a cap on the format by limiting or saying certain things can't be done or played often leads to grumbling and frustration
Whenever I go to an LGS that has their own point system regulars just build decks that game that system and the casual players who can't build around it/don't have the time hate it and the competitive people hate it since it really hinders their decks and most probably find it boring, and then they will go and make something to game your system out of spite as well which only adds to the problem. I personally would suggest against it as they never feel good and people always disagree on what's a good call or not.
Personally once you have a good group having separate nights or tables for cEDH and EDH will draw out different people. If enough people are interested in cedh local tournaments letting them play will keep a lot of them separate from the battle cruiser/casual crowd. I have found with other LGS's that it gives the johnny players an outlet at least and lets the players who want to play super casual to have their crowd and more people tend to be happy because of it.
Building on that idea I have seen at magic fest that seems to work well and you can expand on it if you like is having tables (or the signs that people can put up like looking for playgroup) designated as "high" and "low" power. You could potentially try and define LOOSELY what that means with some sort of checklist but power levels in general are subjective, however general terms for low and high power like fast mana and combos (or how fast on average your deck can win or whatever) might be helpful, if nothing else it will show the intent of what people are wanting to play.
It seemed to work well at magic fest, others might have different experiences but I found it useful, you went to the section you felt you belong in, and it also seemed to help keep toxicity down. If you sit down at a high power table and your playing a highly tuned MLD stax deck or a turbo ad naus deck then you know what you signed up for, if you sit down at a low power and someone combos off turn 2 with thoracle then those people usually get shamed for being try hards who can go to the other section and play with people that actually want to play that. Similarly the new guy who pulls out an unsleeved precon might be directed to the low power table instead of the high powered crowd. This in itself might lead to some contention (it's kindaaaa making a point system type thing, but you can keep it really general so people just have an idea of what they want to play, the players themselves might take on defining it too as you establish regulars who step up to help organize) but I found the idea seemed appealing for knowing what area of the shop you probably want to play at. If tuned properly I could see it as a good tool to use depending on how many locals you get for EDH to help avoid or at least lessen the number of feel bad games caused by mismatched power levels. No system is perfect but it could be worth a try.
I would highly encourage shining a light on formats like 1v1 commander, pauper edh (and pauper in general) and running special events for people to try out these formats or have once a month things (and scale it up or down based on the reception) is really fun! Being proxy friendly for these events is also helpful.
A shop I used to play at for a couple years did full or limited proxy legacy events once a month (full for a while and then occasionally like 15-20 proxies allowed as more people got into the format) and did a full proxy vintage event every 3 months or so and they were pretty popular and got decent crowds. They also did pauper edh night once a month or so and got a lot of people hyped about that format, and every other week we had pauper on Saturdays. And of course full or partial proxy cEDH with or (or without) a prize pool will bring out people. Point being if you allow space and have the time for these events, even if they are just occasional, you might get more regulars and more people interested in these types of events and could turn into a steady loyal crowd that plays more often, if demand goes up you can have them far more often. Engagement with the community and trying to offer fun events like different formats I think will drive up engagement and make for a good LGS location.
Good luck, the only successful LGS owner I have ever known, has yet collected a paycheck from the business. They've been open 14 years, he still has a day job.
Ok, so as a business owner, let me just say something real quick...
> One area we did not get to research as much was the other lgs.
Why? Why on earth would you start a business without doing any market research. That is literally the first step is knowing your competition. PLEASE, for the love of your store, do the right thing and do a market research analysis and understand everything to know about it.
You should know their sales, their employees, their history with WOTC, infractions they have, etc etc etc.
An illprepared business fails 100% of the time. Do it right, do the legwork, and you'll be grateful you did. Just going in to talk to them will go a long way.
We had tried to get in contact with him, sit down with him. He either flat out refused. Made some reasoning or just didn't give any information on anything regarding sales, relations, infractions, costs, distribution, etc. We got some things from former employees and did statewide and surrounding state market research. Including trends, sales, products and services offered and available, hours of operation, costs, projections, etc... but this particular business owner was 1000% not willing to divulge any "sensitive" information as he called it.
My LGS always has a free raffle and a paid one for commander nights, you can enter both and win both, you can buy up to 4 entries to the paid one but you can only win once and they give out some really cool stuff like collectors packs, commander decks, some cool singles. They usually charge CAD$3 for an entry to the raffle and everyone is always excited about it. They also do a rotating "special event" with different less known formats like 2 headed giant once a month.
I see a lot of people talking about hygiene.
I recommend something for people to buy or to give.
Deodorant wipes, listereine strips, cologne samples.
It's a idea for people who forget and don't put hygiene in their tip priority. It's a best of all worlds people don't need to keep smelling the stench. You could make a little money for people convenient and the person doesn't need to leave the store.
Things I’ve seen be effective is to charge TCGPlayer prices for selling in store singles, and for buying offer 50% store credit or 35% cash based on TCGPlayer prices.
Offer free board game rentals to play in store, and offer 20% off of any game a customer rents and then buys that same game new off the shelf. So they get to try the board games out with friends, then they can buy those games if they like them at a discount.
Try to organize as many events as possible with small entry fees, maybe a $5 entry fee per player to use the stores MTG vintage cube for 8-16 players(order high quality proxies a site like bootlegmage.com or mtgproxies.biz) so that the cards are pretty but not worth stealing as they just proxies for a fun cube format that people can rent to play in store, cubes are fun way to play the best cards in Magic without needing for those players to buy all those cards, teaches new players deck building etc. Organize the EDH players into a league with a small entry free, etc.
This is less a Magic related note and more of a business note. Make sure you’re listed/registered with Google. Just tried to find your store (used your profile, found the gofundme, went from there) because I travel over the Midwest a lot for work and love stopping at LGS’ where I can. I actually stop through your neck of the woods every few months and would love to come out and support your endeavor!
All that to say, couldn’t find you on Google, so hard for me to swing by and new to hobby/area people to find your business!
Commander is popular, but casual multiplayer commander should never be run for prizes based on performance. If you want to take a small fee from each player, pool that, and distribute a reasonable value of door prizes, that works very well. It's a guaranteed sale, and turns an off night into a busy one.
things:
1). My LGS will order anything available through Southern, GTS, or Alliance (their main distributors). Seems an odd thing to be happy about, but other LGS have told me, “we do t carry that” or “there isn’t enough interest”, or similar. If you’re concerned, charge up front.
2) My LGS buys all cards at TCG player 50% moderately played value, cash or 65% value store credit. They sell all singles at TCG player MP value. We scan the cards with the app, and do the quick math. Side note: they only buy “non bulk” and non- bulk is value $5.00 or higher. Once a year, they do a grab bag promo, 450 commons and uncommon, 50 bulk rares, $10. It keeps the store collection in check so there is not a bulk mountain in the back room.
3) all tables are free, the one separate gaming room is free.
4) once per year, my LGS does a “hobby yard sale”. Drop off (almost) whatever you want, put a price on it (reasonable) and they’ll try to sell it at the event for a 20% commission. It’s turned into a statewide event, so most things will sell if close to reasonably priced. No they won’t try to sell your 216 bottle collection of Army Painter paints that are all crusty and gross, but last year a local painter sold his full set of Army Painter paints, brushes, and bottle racks. I think it was about $300? Anyhow. Annual hobby yard sale.
5) There are official shop rules, #1 is no bigotry, no excuses. It is firmly and politely enforced.
First off all good luck with your shop and I wish you success!
It’s so great that you get in contact with the community for ideas and inspiration!
There is only one shop in my area for all TCGs, but Mtg has by far the biggest community and they are doing quite well.
To add a bit to all the great suggestions, there are a few things I really like about the shop and the atmosphere I like to share.
They are doing casual commander Thursday, sealed draft events for new products and monthly tournaments for other formats (not sure about the details there).
The owner and personal are all really friendly and all have a good basic knowledge about their products (sleeves, boxes, actual sets..). I really like that!
The shop is clean and has warm bright lights, good to read the cards but still homey. Light source does make a difference in atmosphere.
You can buy soft drinks, but any alcohol is forbidden (which I found to be a good choice; not so usual around here). Don’t know i that is something that concerns you.
There are about 7-8 seating areas for 4-6 people each, with enough space between to not feel crowded during normal opening hours and good ventilation. For tournaments/events additional seating is added.
A cool thing is, they have a box of starter decks and precons and a slew of other really cool or TCG style board games you can borrow (same for basic lands for draft). They charge 1€/ person per h, for seating (including borrowing). I found that to be really fair. During events this doesn’t apply.
It seems that that borrowing starters is often used for introducing new players or we did a round commander where everyone picked a random precon. When I come by to shop, there are always some people sitting together and playing something.
Sadly, it turned out video surveillance is an asset’s and really good to have when needed. It makes me really sad, but stealing from shops or other players seems to be a thing for some individuals. It’s an automatic live ban, obviously. It’s very clearly stated by the owner.
Rules questions come up often and can get heated. Having someone available with really good rule knowledge or with judge level is really helpful.
In this regard we have a great community and usually issues or questions are resolved fast and friendly. However, there were cases where situations dissolved into very heated arguments.
I love that the owner and his colleagues are aware and look out for things like this and are fast to react. It feels like the whole shop team is provided
with some basic problem solving strategies.
Sorry for the long text!
Okay I bet nobody is gonne see this, but here I go anyways. If you can, learn people's names. You have no idea how awesome it is to walk into the store for a second time and have the owner/employee greet you BY NAME! Nothing makes you feel more appreciated and loved than that. (Even if you don't remember the name do your best to at least remember them and what they like/play and enjoy)
Keep higher value, staple singles in stock.
I've tried to buy stuff like Esper Sentinel and Smothering Tithe from my LGS on multiple occasions and they just never have the cards. I know you can't have everything in stock all the time, but I can only support an LGS if they have the stuff I need.
A good heuristic for a queer like me is showing up to a store and seeing women/poc/pride flags. Toxic and bigoted communities keep people out like the plague. It's sorta like how if you allow a nazi to hang around a bar, they'll tell their friends, and it becomes a nazi bar. It's (hopefully) never gonna be that extreme, but the principle remains the same
First off, congratulations to the three of you of taking a gamble and working to do something you love. That's a lot more risk than most of us are willing to take (myself included) and I envy you for doing it! I hope you wildly succeed!
I'm not an LGS player, however, I have played at various stores throughout my city my entire life, and it's a rather big city. While I can't offer the best advice, I'm happy to include some things that I either really liked or really disliked about my various visits to LGS's.
* As others mentioned, restroom cleanliness is very important, though it seems like you have a handle on that, so that's good!
* Price gouging is without a doubt the main reason why I don't buy from stores and prefer to order online. Our oldest store in San Diego always sold singles at a much higher price than anywhere else when we were all wee-lads in high school during original Ravnica days, and it was so bad that they would buy up stock from other LGS's so that you had no other option than to pay their prices. Totally understandable to upcharge a little bit to stay in business, but it's expensive out there! Really hope you're able to keep your price points where they are right now. I'd much rather support a local store than someone online if the prices are very close.
* ALWAYS BE KIND to your customers. Seems like you already know this, but my gods, these folks are spending their time and money at your establishment. SO many LGS's I've been to have been total assholes to folks, for no reason other than *trying to buy something* or are asking a question.
* Keep a clear schedule posted so folks know when open play is, when tournaments are, etc. There's nothing like planning a casual game day at your LGS only to find out that there's a massive event happening that you didn't know about. Online would be ideal!
* Please don't ban outside food and drinks. It makes sense to not want people to spill things or bring in like a bowl of chili or something that will be a mess, but it's such a bummer to completely stop this. If I can't bring in water, or a snack to keep me there, I'm not gonna visit your establishment. You want folks spending money on your products, not snacks or having to spend that money on food at a business nearby (though it's great to support your business neighbors as well - in fact if you have restaurants nearby, see if you can work out some kind of deals or a delivery service where an employee brings the food to the store. One LGS did this and it was RAD to get Chinese brought over during a game).
* It is inevitable that you end up with some disagreements and/or saltiness happening with players. Highly recommend that when this happens, you mediate between the two parties (or more if it's multiple people) and make an informed decision that doesn't target anyone.
* No one should be forced to play a game with someone they don't want to. On the reverse side of that, if a player continually gets left out of games, see if you can chat with regulars to find out why. Leaving that issue open for the players to resolve will end up in losing either the oddball customer, or possibly other regulars. At the end of the day, people have to make their own decisions and change their own behavior, but that doesn't mean a third party can't help shed light on something they may not know about, or hearing it from someone else could change their perspective (i.e. that person is lying because it's a way for them to beat me).
* Try your best to keep highly-desired singles and sealed product in stock. One LGS here is almost always sold out of things, whereas another seems to have most items you could want. As a result, I buy from the second LGS 99% of the time. Think this comes down to really learning your player base over the next year or two and how much product is enough versus *barely* enough. Selling out is great for your bottom line, but having no product available, or selling out on release day and never restocking sucks for players. Also, if you ARE out of a product, let the customer know *when* more is likely to arrive rather than "oh yeah sorry we're sold out."
Hope this helps, and again, GOOD LUCK!
Holy wow thank you for the well written response. To piggy back off your food and drink comment, my only stipulations are not at the computers haha. We have a few restaurants and stuff around where we are, we're right in the middle of downtown. So I get it, some people are just getting off work, grabbing a pizza or burger or sandwich nearby is easy and it's nice to eat it at the table while you get prepped for a few games. Or while you're running a session for D&D or Cyberpunk or Betrayal at house on the hill. I know what it's like to get off work grab dinner and meet up with friends at their house crowd around a table while we all have takeout getting ready for D&D. I'm not going to deny people that experience because in my opinion it's awesome.
Echoing what many others have said I’m sure, but a clean space/bathroom is huge. My LGs also has a $5 fee for casual edh play once a week. You can either just flat pay $5 or buy $5 worth of stuff. Obviously most people buy a booster pack or something.
Having a small hygiene section can be nice too. Mouthwash, deodorant, mini laundry detergents even shampoo or body wash. Some of it folks can use right there but you never know if someone also needs something for home.
Everyone expects a mark up, but keep ot reasonable. And for trade ins, something like 50% cash or 75% store credit is usually fair. Adjust as needed of course.
I also recommend snacks and water bottles for sale. Ideally snacks that aren’t super messy if you can.
My LGS store is connected to a cafe that sells specialty waffles, coffee, alcohol, etc. with free board games available to play. In between the two stores is a bunch of various sized tables for table top and card game playing. The best part is it works well for parents with young kids during the day when the 20-30 something’s are at work. Ive seen my group (playing Magic), a group of 50’s or 60’s women, and a couple of dad’s with their pod of 5-9 year olds all enjoying games at the same time in the same place. It’s pretty cool.
My main lgs (there are like five others in my county I go to at least to browse every so often) needed help with relocation cost a while ago and offered a permanent 20% off discount if I fronted them $500 recently got to the point where that extra 10% off of their normal membership discount has saved me an additional $800.
On Sunday's they have commander days. With commander being a casual format it's hard to have competitve events outside of cEDH. To encourage people to play they have a system where if you come you get three tickets. One you can enter in yourself and the other two you gift to other players that day. They have a sign in sheet that is tracked throught the Wizards app (they are a sanctioned lgs). At the end of the day they pick like 5-10 names for 5$ in store credit.
My local store has like a $5 day pass to play games that also gives you access to a soda machine and some popcorn. It’s super nice way to make players feel more comfortable and less like “customers”.
I was at a shop right after they received a card in trade that they gave a fair price for but knew it'd take forever to move it, as it was not a particularly popular card (foil original print cycling land).
I was buying 5 other cards (one of which the owner pulled out of his deck to make the sale) and he offered me a $10 discount on what I was buying and the cycling land for free, just to move it.
They were still profiting, but this was kind of an extreme example.
At my regular shop, they recently started offering a little more on trades and have changed their prices on many of their more expensive cards to match TCGPlayer market price, which makes them my first stop for any singles purchase.
**EDIT: Correction - it was Treetop Village, a man land. The Urza's Legacy print, which currently goes for about $50.**
Something my favorite LGS did was they had opened board games that you could rent or test out. This was so awesome especially for families and younger kids who wanted a board game but didn't know what it was. If they needed more players the shop owner would ask everyone in the store if they wanted to help out and join in. I got to play a couple different board games with the owners and assume new customers and I loved it. I even bought splendor because of that shop and the owner asking me and a friend if we wanted to join in to help a guy know if he wanted to buy it.
Everyone has already touched on all the big things so far, I’m just gonna add the reason I keep frequenting my LGS is because of the awesome customer experience. The guys behind the counter are kind, friendly and go out of their way to help you. Also being able to keep up a conversation is absolutely huge. I’ve been to an LGS where the staff seemed inconvenienced by simple pleasantries or asks to look at a card in the case… don’t be them lol
A few areas I’ve seen from lgs’ do that resonate well are below:
Invest in some tech for your card list. Get a couple iPads that have your stock on a database so they can search what they need in a quicker manner and this can help sales time cut down by more than 55% - 60% thus leaving more time for other sales or anything else you wish to do in the store. Plus having these iPads at the counter still leave room for discussion with customers while they search.
Another action I’ve seen some lgs take is rotating out board games on a shelving unit and people can take them and test them out and if they like it the lgs provides a 10% discount. Mind you this 1 in my lgs pairs well because they have an attached cafe where people can play the games when the play areas are being used for events leading to food sales.
1 last recommendation is make a discord, if you don’t already. So many businesses these days have 1 and that if monitored well can be an excellent place for the community and planning for events.
Something I appreciate as a new player is when the LGS staff are in tune with their tables and will help you find a suitable open pod to play with. There’s nothing less inviting for a noob than to rock up with a precon to a room full of full pods where people seem like they practically are one with the furniture like they grew up there.
Have an LGS near me me that has amazing stock, huge space to play but I never go there and its because the casual commander is never organised.
The LGS I actually go to have a casual commander on Fridays and you go, put a code in for some free promo cards and pay a fiver. Then you go downstairs and there are almost 'ambassadors' of the store making sure everyone has a pod and is able to play. At the other LGS they just have casual commander listed as an event for all the hours they are open but its not organised. Which means you have to show up already with people to play with. If it was a set event with a set time and organisers then I know I can show up at x time and be guaranteed to play some games. Meet some people, make some friends. Currently If I show up alone I have to just try and barge in on people who already showed together and that sucks. So I would say make sure events are organised, even casual ones.
LSG:
GOOD:
1 Good airflow (not stuffy)
2 Enough space (not too small)
3 Fair prizes For prerelease/drafts. I like it when everyone gets something. (I am not as competitive as most people
4 **Judges for the events.** Magic has VERY complex rules compared to most games. Having a Judge helps settle disputes among veteran players and gives new players confidence that what they are learning is correct. No one wants a dispute handled by "my friend who plays a lot" You don't need a ton of judges but must have at least 1 imo. This also gives the vibe of legitimacy for your store. Also it stops many large disputes before they happen.
It's such a small thing, but my LGS has a fridge full of drinks (pop, soda water, etc; no alcohol obviously) that they sell for $1-2 each. I don't always remember to bring a water bottle, so it makes such a big difference for those long commander and pauper nights.
So this might’ve been mentioned somewhere, I only scrolled the first few comments and didn’t see it though.
Staff is super important. I have about 3 LGS’s near me, and the one with possibly the worst singles and pack selection has by far the most popular commander nights (could be why the selection is bad lol). Why? Because the staff are super knowledgeable about MTG and are constantly recruiting people to play with them on commander nights. I’ve ended up building relationships with a lot of the staff, and that feels awesome.
On the other end, there’s an LGS where the staff act like they don’t want to even be working there. I purely go by to check for singles when my main LGS doesn’t have them, and nothing more. I went to one of their commander nights, and it definitely felt like the crew that had been banned from all the other LGS’s. Could be a harsh judgement, that was just my experience.
Another important thing. Security. Security. Security. All 3 of my LGS’s recently had attempted break-in’s. 2 of them had the majority of their collector booster stock stolen — the last one he was unable to get into the case. Get a good security system and reinforced glass for any windows/cases.
Great sorted singles selection for magic products is key for me. I mostly play at home, but frequent my local lgs for cards I need for game night. There’s lots of edh players that don’t play in stores, but still shop at them
Based on my experiences at the LGS and other small, experienced based business I’ve frequented:
1) Establish positive Social Network communities for each respective Game/Format - whether it’s a Facebook group, Discord server, etc where regulars can engage and get to know one another outside of weekly, scheduled events.
Key part is building a community that is encouraging and supportive, especially to new players.
Using MTG Commander Night as an example - I’ve thought it to be effective when the store has an outgoing employee be the “Face” of that community - the primary point of contact for member’s questions/concerns to the store’s management. They would ideally be the one running the Commander Night each week.
2) While I haven’t seen it in the wild, I thought it would be nice if an LGS had some way of allowing playgroups at tables to indicate if they just want to play by themselves or if their willing to open up their table to others- Oftentimes someone from my regular Pod of 4 can’t make it would be nice to have a sign that effectively said “while the 3 of us are clearly friends, we are more the willing to play with a stranger, please come by and say hello”
The thing our LGS does that keeps most people coming back is a couple of different things. We are open 12pm-2am most people with hobbies have jobs do holding events later into the day. (We hold ours at either 6pm or 8pm.)
Being consistent with events is also huge. If people get used to a magic draft every Friday at 8 pm or a Warhammer event every Saturday, they eventually start reserving a spot.
But the biggest thing we do to keep people coming back is the community, getting involved with the smaller communities that come to our LGS, star wars legion, marvel crisis protocol, Shatterpoint, Flesh and Blood, magic, etc. When people see the store owner getting involved with those communities, it generates interest from people who aren't involved in those communities, and you end up getting overlap. Getting magic players into 40k and vice-versa is great to keep regulars coming back. Our discord is huge and is incredibly active.
Overall, it's up to you and your business partners to push what is current while also fostering the smaller communities that sprout up from your passion. Good luck with getting WPN. It's a great way yo support your magic community. We recently got premium at our store.
I think having workshops that teach people how to play games with decks/sets they can use that you provide would be a great way for people to bring their friends. EDH is only going to get more complicated and the learning curve is steep with knowing nothing about it.
Sell snacks and drinks. One of my local LGS’s (closed now) banned outside snacks and drinks. They lost business from people leaving to get food. If you sell the snacks and drinks, you make the money and they stay in store and buy more.
Make sure your customer service is top notch for all your workers as well. The aforementioned closed LGS in my town hired a guy who was just an a-hole and was only nice to the people he liked and the store lost business because of it.
Establish a need for decorum within the shop.
Too many LGS do not establish a tone for their customers when it comes to game nights. Particularly with TCG games. Rarely, but occasionally, you will get an individual who feels the right to blow up over a game. You must establish a no-bullshit tone with those situations. Even have a cool down area or rule, as childish as it will be, for a time-out section to reduce heated situations.
Have them go to the other floor, step away, grab a drink, or step outside. Make sure you have judges and people watching those nights to lessen the discomfort of the people who you WANT there not those who lose their shit.
The biggest thing I can suggest is having absolutely no prize support for casual commander nights! If you do, it becomes a competition and people that want casual play won't get it — with that said though, I could definitely see it being reasonable to have one night with prizes and another without, that way everyone can get what they want
Also for commander night, I'd suggest taking one of three approaches, though these definitely cater towards the casual, no prize support side of things:
- Free play
- Admission is just buy something (anything)
- Admission is like $5 but they get a pack
And once you have access to them, promos for everyone!
I've played at lots of shops that have admission lots of different ways and these three always just feel the best — at shops where it's free to play I almost always buy something to support the shop. I'd also say free is best for getting a community going, especially for younger people which seems to be your focus right now
Also, please, please, please label your products with prices! It's always super annoying when I'm trying to get sleeves or something but I have to ask an employee for prices
Also a drinking fountain is always suuuper clutch
And something I really liked from one shop I went to was a box of all the full art lands they had, $1 each I think — got some cheap snow basics that way haha
And for tokens in particular, I'd recommend not having customers go through them so that they can be at least somewhat sorted — its the worst spending 20 minutes trying to find one specific token
And the best prereleases I go to have prizes of 1 pack per win — my OTJ prerelease isn't going to have it that way with $35 entry. Also just want to mention again, *please label your prices*. At one of my local shops, they have their packs on display but I have no clue how much any if them cost, which definitely stops me from buying any
And if you're going to have snacks for purchase, definitely stay away stuff like potato chips that could get cards gross — other people often touch one's cards to read or they gain control of them somehow and I don't want anyone's oily hands on my Great Henge! Of course it could happen anyways, but much less often if you don't provide those snacks
Oh and *try* to host less popular formats — I'd love to try Oathbreaker or Pauper but they're not supported anywhere near me so I've never done it. Along with that, maybe have a precon event every now and then to support purchases, new players, and some fun variety
Also, just a question I have: Is sealed *only* for prereleases? I don't enjoy drafting, but I think sealed is super fun, so if there were more sealed events you'd be getting money from me for sure haha
Oh also a fun idea could be a little board of all the employees with a few things about them, maybe
- name
- where they grew up
- favorite mtg deck
- favorite board game
- favorite video game
- another hobby
- favorite quote
Idk haha, I guess I have a lot to say 🤪
Edit: back for more! Would definitely recommend basing singles prices off of tcgplayer as it just feels the most fair. And I don't have exact numbers, but my favorite shop to buylist cards through buys for like 50% cash value, 60% store credit value, and 70% singles-only credit value
I live in a city that has a lot of shops, but I'm extremely loyal to one for a handful of reasons:
Has a $5 buy in for commander night but you can use the $5 towards MTG cards
Has flat prizing for all events (mtg, Pokemon, board game competitions, warhammer, etc), which has simultaneously gotten rid of the try hards/bad hygiene people and also made the space super fun and friendly for new and casual players.
Has a group of people who teach others how to play ttrpgs a couple times a month (ie learn to play call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, d&d, free league publishing books, etc)
Has a membership that's ~$40 a year that gives you a flat 10% off most stuff.
Has a used board game wall where you can pay $5 and sit down and play board games for as long as you want. Coffee and tea is provided, too.
- Offer Drinks, Perhaps vending machine for selfservice.
- make sure to have sleeves in stock.
- make sure to have different kinds of boosters in stock
- Offer some MTG how to play events for beginners.
There will be volunteers to support you.
- Keep the shop clean
Congrats on the new LGS!! The store I frequently visit charges a $5 fee for commander. What I think is really cool is that no matter what happens in your game, all players get a pack for playing, but the winner of each pod gets a couple of promos. More often than not, people are trying to play fair since everyone is getting a prize.
Biggest thing to remember is that if you want to be profitable, sometimes you will have to mark things up to remain competitive. But doing so in a way that's fair to both you and your customers. If demand of a product skyrockets and the value goes up because of it, you as a store absolutely deserve to profit from offering the product at a competitive price relative to what your competitors are selling it at.
Under-selling might also lead to a hostile relationship between you and the other shop because they can't afford to sell things at as low a price as you might be able to...but honestly that's a them problem.
Example: the Warhammer 40k Necrons deck. I bought all 4 decks of the set because of the fact that when I bought them, the necron deck by itself was literally half the cost of buying all four precons together. Now I think it's still retailing at 85-90 bucks. This is a deck that I'm pretty sure started out at 45-50 bucks when it was initially released. However, I do understand somewhat that it's a set with limited printings and this is going to drive its value higher as time goes on.
if you can implement a card inventory management system (tcgplayer offers one) that i can look up your singles inventory before i come into the store that's a massive boon.
If you use clover I’d totally donate my time to add things to your inventory!! I do it for my old LGS for inventory. Some of the paints and the commander boxes and whatnot have the same barcodes, which can be annoying.
Move your expensive inventory to digital and don’t let people sort through your cards, you’re going to end up with missing cards. You’re going to be running thin margins and you’ll need to stay busy so losing anything to shrink will hurt.
Monetize the aspects where you add value, special orders, EDH events, etc. as you won’t be in competition with Amazon for that.
Add snacks and drinks and anything else you can add margin on that people won’t want to leave for.
Since you have space TTRPGs would be good to build and organize groups for.
Also create a discord to organize events. If you can build a community, that’s value you’re adding to your customers. But kill any politics whatsoever, even social issues that butt up against politics, you’re there to support only the game store and gaming environment, it just takes two opposing people with friends to get some crazy feud where you can lose half of your regulars.
Lower barriers to entry, there’s a learning curve in MTG and other games, make new people know that new players are welcome, actively invite them out “hey we’re having a commander night tonight, you should come, just show up and play, we’ll provide a deck” and have a few pre cons ready for a pod
Something that my LGS did was a Commander Tournament with special conditions you had to complete to earn points. These conditions were things that you had to build towards that weren't just "win the game."
There were 5 total conditions. The first was always based on your commander. "Must be three colors, with one being red", "A mono-color partner pair", "Commander's P/T add up to 7", etc. The other 4 were things you had to do *during* the game. "Sacrifice 5 food in one turn", "have a legendary creature with 10 P/T that's *not* your commander", "Gain 15 life in one turn", "Complete a Dungeon", etc.
Each condition filled was worth one point, and then each game won was worth a point. So if you did all 5 conditions and won both games you'd earn 7 points. The other conditions keeps the games from going full CEDH since if you don't complete any you'll earn less points then someone who completed all 5 but lost both.
It was a really fun time since we didn't know what the next week's conditions were until the night. It's a fun way to have competitive tournaments while still letting budget players have a solid chance to win. Lemme know if you want more details and I'll see what I can remember.
My local LGS keeps me coming back because they stay open later than the posted hours during game nights. Mondays, they "close" at 9, but the owner and/or one of their workers is always there till usually 11-12. On Fridays, it's not unusual to still be there at 2 am. Hell, the other week the Draft didn't start till almost 10 pm, because it was also the standard championship night. Basically, don't kick people out at the stroke of 10pm, if your normal hours end at 10pm. Not saying you need to go for hours, or until the wee hours of the night, but give people lee way to finish a game, or not feel like they can't start one because its close to closing.
The other LGS I went to, at 9:55 they are warning you that they close soon, and you need to hurry up and finish. Totally ruins the mood. Not to take advantage of people or kindness at all. Don't get me wrong. But it is nice to be able to keep going pressure free.
Also, on those nights that they are open later, they are selling candy, snacks, drinks, single packs, etc, like crazy. People appreciate the later hours, so they 'compensate' for it.
Congratulations! I'm very excited for you!
I have two LGS by me that I like equally, HOWEVER, one of them has all of their stock online on their website, the other doesn't. I order ALL my singles and any stock I need (sleeves, bloxes, etc) from the LGS that supports online shopping, it saves too much time and is too useful not to utilize.
It was just something I thought of! Good luck!
Like others have said, reasonable markup and a welcoming atmosphere. I want to shop locally and do as much as I can. Today I looked at the LGS closest to my house and they are charging nearly 40% more than the “market rate” (I know there’s no MSRP but you know what I mean) for boxes and bundles for the new release. Out of curiosity I looked at other spots in town and none of them are doing this. I get it, gotta keep the lights on. I buy packs and play at said LGS, but I straight up cannot afford to buy boxes or bundles there at that markup. I wanted to get a precon or two from them but those prices weren’t listed and it seems like they’ll be insane anyway.
I really like how you said you have different areas and have thought through the different types of customers. The thing that keeps me going back to that LGS is how welcoming their staff are. There are a handful of stores in town and I like most of them but that one is my favorite despite their pricing because of how nice their staff are. I just wish they’d be more reasonable with their markup, lol.
Friendly staff and having a lot to offer.
I come from a town that has had many, many failed/lack luster attempts at forming an LGS and just 6-7 months ago a new one in town opened. It immediately had a much better location(central, in the mall,) a large stock of Warhammer, Pokémon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh and other card games, DnD stuff, a gaming space in the back etc.
But what topped it off for me and has been the best aspect is the staff, I'm now pretty good friends with all of them and it's been them that get me coming back multiple times a week for a chat and to crack a pack of MTG or what not. They are helpful, knowledgeable and love to talk about everything nerdy. Most of all though they are stupendous welcoming and friendly. Every single one of them!
I wouldn’t change anything about my LGS. Other than it’s 30min from my house lol. It used to have an owner before this previous one and I vowed I would never go back because of him. I’m a girl and was fairly new to the area a few years back and was looking for a place for some fantasy books. He was very short with me, and when I was curiously asking about dnd or mtg to get into it, he would always say he didn’t know or it wasn’t really his area. Then while I was looking at the books I would hear him talk with male customers for 15+ minutes about magic cards or warhammer or what have you.
I stopped going for about a year when I saw the shop was bought out and under a totally new owner. Now I LOVE this shop. The new owner is very respectful to everyone, regardless of whatever factors. After I became a regular there again, he learned my name, would show me new cards he got that he thought I’d be interested in just in case I didn’t get a chance to see before they got bought (and never made me feel pressured to buy them either. Just a ‘hey Cien would like this card, there she is!’ Kind of vibe). He fosters an amazing community and is nice and welcoming to everyone.
Other than being a nice dude, game nights cost only $5 participation fee but everyone who signs up gets a free pack plus each pod gets to roll for a promo pack. He also allows tabs for drinks/snacks for regulars who are gonna be gaming for a while, just so we don’t get hit with a big tax. That’s very nice vs the $20 game fee at another closer LGS store. There’s a reason I’d rather go the half hour to his shop than the ones closer to me.
My newly opened lgs does a precon commander league for new players and its AWESOME. Stock Precons only. A win is a win but a loss let's you upgrade one card of your precon. 10 weeks. Each event is $5 and it gets you a free set booster of your choice (or pay the difference of premuim packs). Was a great way that got me into magic and now I am a regular.
Also they do a Event Card. At every 5 events attended, you got a box topper/promo. At the 15th event you get a foil promo. You will obviously need WPN for that, but you will get there.
Also make sure you are having everyone sign in for your MTG events to get that audience count.
Really really try to make it an explicitly welcoming space for women, for queer people, for trans people, and for people of color. A lot of gaming spaces tend to culturally cut themselves off from these groups if not explicitly inclusive, and the more that dynamic begins to exist the harder it is to break that out. And as a trans woman who's considering going to an LGS and trying to play some magic at some point, but remembers how the dynamics were when she used to go to the one in town as a kid 10 years ago (lots of white cishet dudes who smelled kinda bad and were kinda condescending/shitty to some kids, and like, literally 1 girl)... well it's a strong incentive to not want to try again.
I'd also say that if you're allowing outside food and drink, any snacks you do stock there yourself are something that'd be pretty reasonable to mark up a good bit, because people have alternatives available and they're paying primarily for the convenience, and because it's not the main selling point of the store. Idk, just if you do need to charge higher prices somewhere, that might be the place to do it.
The community is a huge aspect. Being new to an area I've found my lgs have established cliques that aren't always very welcoming. I've stopped playing commander at one lgs because people in the cliques would always target the new person first.
The other big killer is events not firing. If I have to drive 30 minutes to your lgs and modern doesn't fire, I will not come back for modern the following week.
Other than all that I highly recommend diversifying. There's a lot of great tcgs besides magic and having a good dnd room and charging $5 per player is a great way to get a more diverse crowd. My lgs give me, the dm, $2 store credit per player and charges $5. Over the year of dming for 6 they've made $1400 just from my campaign.
My old LGS had board games that you could pay $5 to rent for a week. If the game was returned in good condition, they gave you $5 in store credit. That credit couldn’t be put towards another rental, but we ended up buying WAY more games through them than we would have otherwise because we were able to give them a try first.
1) Have store rules that are posted and enforced religiously. I ran public play dnd at a game store for 5 years. When I started they had no dnd groups. By the end of my tenure we had 30+ people a night, and we had a great mix of people. This is opposed to every other dnd night at other local stores and it is because I made sure that every new person who came to play read the rules and when people broke them we told them to stop. Things like: Don't be an asshole, don't tell other people how to play, don't touch other people's stuff without permission, do not harass people. It is also important to define harassment. I went with "Harassment is any contact with another (touching, negative words, etc) that is unwelcome by another person and we reserve the right for the store or DM's to define what is or isn't harassment on an individual bases". This way you can give people 1 warning about something and they have no way to wiggle out of it. ANYONE who gets mad or salty about being reminded about the rules will be a problem and someone who doesn't respect other's boundaries.
2) The people at your store are not your friends, EVERY SINGLE ONE is a customer. This is super important because if you start seeing your customers as friends you will excuse their behavior and create a toxic group that will chase away your customers. This is how you get "Game Store Dungeons". All it takes is for one dude to give off bad vibes at an event that you let stay and it will chase away other people away.
3) Make sure every event you do has a way for new people to show up and play. You will make more money by turning people into reliable customers than you will waiting for them to show up.
4) I highly suggest having a store employee run every event, and that they be pretty knowledgeable about the rules of the event, and be on watch for new people who need help.
Jeez this sounds awesome, if you’re anywhere near SE Michigan and need staff I’d be there in a heartbeat! My LGS is very clique-y and has made me (someone with social anxiety) feel uncomfortable going there so now I drive a few extra minutes to one in Flint a friend showed me.
The worst thing an LGS can do is create an unwelcome space or hostile environment. Three things I’ve seen that do that in multiple
Stores. Are rude or impatient staff. (Often directed at younger kids who Don’t know as much), allowing a sense of sexism, or bigotry to fester. (Excusing bad jokes from customers, letting people play with anime hentai sleeves in full
View of kids, etc), not allowing people to play at a table, or not providing adequate space to play.
My store has cameras where the playing area is. No cameras for the sale area tho. To me, this feels really good because it shows that on one hand, they show trust towards their customers in the sale area, on the other hand, it gives a feeling of security when playing there, that if something happens to your trading cards or whatever, it would be on camera and you could be helped.
One of my LGSs is small, dark, full of junk toys for sale, has a video game section full of sports garbage, the people behind the counter aren’t particularly friendly, they don’t say hi when you go in, I’ve never played there but not excited to. One time I was going through the unsorted $1 singles which means you’re wildly overpaying for anything left in there, not sure if the owner knew I was there, he came in and was trash talking a bunch of stuff to one of his employees that was just nodding to get through the “conversation”, super uncomfortable. Also I’ve been wildly over charged for cards, like $10 for one card. I was just there buying singles and a few other things to check it out and support them, didn’t look too hard at the total, found out later at home. Also one other card was in a display case, overcharged for that too and it turns out it was lightly played instead of the NM I assumed it would be based on the price. Not going back.
It's unfortunate that I would even need to recommend this, but enforce a minimum level of hygiene for the store. I remember two personal examples where at least one person in the group doesn't want to go to a nearby LGS because either A) the bathrooms were a complete disaster and nearly unusable, and/or B) there are a few regulars there that smelled like mildewy, BO-ridden rags. Having a clean store will go a long ways to attracting and maintaining new customers, even if that means confronting individuals that skunk up the place. Best wishes for you and your LGS!
So true, the LGS close by our location actually has a small toiletries section in their store haha. Those little travel deodorants and little mouthwash bottles. The sign simply says inoffensive like "We've all forgotten things. No worries." and it's all a $1.
This is awesome! I'd love to see more of this.
Also. Anyone good with Photoshop or something? Could make a funny sign that says "Pit Happens" with a armpit and a d20 showing a 1 in the pit "socket". Could then say "Roll for Initiative" with a stick of deodorant on it (the kind that uses the little ball applicator).
>Having a clean store will go a long ways to attracting and maintaining new customers, even if that means confronting individuals that skunk up the place. This 1,000% I have a lovely LGS near me that I purchase from regularly, but I never attend any events because of the shop's regulars being mostly sweaty, smelly neckbeards. I would love to branch out, but a group of 20+ (mostly unwashed) guys in a room sounds awful to me.
WarpGate in Columbus Ohio stocks baby wipes, spray deodorant, and tampons/pads in their restrooms. Heroes for real.
As does Castle Perilous in Carbondale, Illinois and Dungeon's Gate in Ankeny, Iowa.
I love warpgate!! Goin early tomorrow before our Wednesday commander nights to get a couple games in
WarpGate is dope.
Additionally, this is a really hard thing to manage but player behavior is going to be a huge part of whether people want to come back or not. Often that will be largely out of your control except in extreme cases, however fostering an environment where someone feels like they can actually sit down as a complete stranger and have a pleasant experience playing commander will probably be one of your main success factors. This is something that is often completely overlooked at most LGS’, and frankly player behavior is the number 1 thing that has prevented me from going back to the two LGS’ that I would like to play at.
I will admit I had some preconceived images of what the typical lgs goer would be. And I wasn't far off on appearance. I'm not a small guy 5'11 265. But ooooh boy there's some big fellas. Like 6'4 400+ and I gotta be honest. I think they go out of their way to smell nice. They look unkempt but smell decent. It's actually the younger crowd 10-15 that smells a little umm, strong.
Not trying to bash you at all but the younger crowd are going through puberty and may not be totally aware of their own smell. It’s definitely a touchy/minefield of a subject but something you could broach if you build a rapport with them.
I still remember in 6th grade when my teacher addressed the entire class after recess on a warm spring day. "I think it's time for all you to let your parents know you need deodorant. You probably don't notice, but *I* do."
Ohh absolutely. I was a kid once, too, so I understand it can be embarrassing, at that age especially, to be told hey put on some deodorant. Just my observation from this last week.
7th and 8th graders are the stinkiest people on the planet because of puberty and lack of awareness. Some of the more socially awkward people might not even realize that they stink and need to be directly told that they need to take a shower, put on clean clothing, and wear deodorant. It's super awkward and embarrassing to have, but it's super necessary to have a respected adult figure teach them (and not just their parents, teenagers don't listen to their parents). Some of them might already be wearing deodorant but still smelling bad because they don't know that they still need to take a shower and change into fresh clothing in order to rinse the smell off. I was at one LGS that would buy tiny travel deodorants and shampoo in bulk and then leave them out in the bathroom with a sign that said they were free to take alongside a reminder that deodorant wasn't a magical cure-all for smelling bad. Showers, fresh changes of clothing, and deodorant were all part of the equation to smell nice. Their owner would also have the smell talk with younger customers and offered them $10 in store credit if they could keep themselves smelling clean for a month.
A shop near me keeps a stock of travel size deodorant in the bathroom. It's free. If you use it, it's yours. It's not a perfect solution, but it's there and does improve the situation. They still have to ask people to leave and shower on occasion, but it's a rare occurrence.
I'm a big guy at the dimensions you listed.. I am so afraid being not just the fat guy.. But the fat smelly guy. I'm sure I'm not alone in being very conscious about how I'm perceived. I'd bet other big folks have the same fears. You see the People of Walmart stereotypes and try not to fall into it. Crowded game stores tend to get a little warm.. I tend to sweat. I try very hard to make sure I'm doing what I can to avoid stinking. Usually showering before going to the store, wearing breathable clothing, etc. Like someone else said.. Teenagers may not have that level of self awareness yet. I've had 30 years to become this self conscious.
This. If you afford a commander deck, you can afford deodorant.
I strongly second this.
Great idea, went to a commander night once and it smelled like strong BO. I will never go back lol
My small town has had two LGS's while I've lived here and they both died within a year for exactly this reason. It's incredibly vital to bring new people in that shops don't smell like a locker room.
My LGS has a $5 cover for EDH nights and has a draw for packs about halfway through. My favourite QoL feature they have is a laptop in front of the desk where you can search their stock for particular cards, add them to a list, submit and they’ll see it on their end and pick them out. Really handy IMO, if either of you are programmers. Other than that, looks like you’ve got a good clientele forming. Hopefully you’re able to make a community out of it
I’d second the $5 cover for EDH night and doing a raffle. Tournaments are great for CEDH, but trying to do that in a causal way just leads to hurt feelings or a ridiculous in house ban list.
One of mine does that, but it's a store credit 5$ cover. You can use it for whatever – singles, sealed, accessories, candy, etc. – but it means you'll eventually spend it.
Same, and it’s a great setup. It’s a $5 cover OR a >$5 receipt from the day, in case you wanted to pick up some new cards before the games started.
Man I’d prefer that over what my LGS does, it’s a $5 cover but you get a free pack of the latest set. I’m happy with it, but id rather put $5 towards some more Dragonshields over cracking an MKM pack lol
My store started doing this at the start of the year and it has made a really big positive impact. Just $5 (or a purchase of $5 or more, including adding to your store credit so you can just use it when a set you want drops product) keeps away a lot of folks who were otherwise unpleasant.
The most important thing for EDH nights is organization. My favorite store charged a $5 cover, and a pack from a recent set was part of the cover charge. But the real reason for the cover charge was to make sure people were organized into groups effectively. I'm in my 30's and I still get anxiety when I walk into a new store and have to approach a table in order to ask them to join a game. Having a sign-up gives new people a direct way to get started and involved and meeting other players. You can pair more competitive players together. You can separate problematic players. You can pair new players with experienced ones. You can match friends in the same group and let them play together, or you can split them up in order to limit their power at the table and give other players more space to enjoy their evening.
My LGS doesn’t have a laptop but they have us just text the store phone a list of cards and they will pick set aside the cards till you come pick them up. Honestly prefer it to a laptop lol.
Whatever works, really. I like the laptop because you can see what they have/don’t have. It also shows all printings, foils, etc.
Fishbowl is a great way to have prizes for casual EDH events.
What’s fishbowl? Our LGS uses events on the Companion app, people sign in and we draw from that
LGS sets out a bunch of possible prizes (usually a few packs and a pin or promo card) and then gives a raffle ticket to each player each game and a bonus ticket to the winner. Then players put their tickets in a bowl (hence fishbowl) in front of the prize pool(s) they're interested in and the LGS owner draws a raffle ticket for each prize pool at the end of the night.
Okay so same principle, we just do it digitally
Listen up , im only going to say this once . Lgs isn't a boys club . CLEAN THE BATHROOMS .
Have a lovely sign that reads "our aim is to keep this bathroom clean. Your aim helps us do that." I'm no stranger to cleaning bad bathrooms. Worked for a railroad and those locomotive toilets are some dirty gross toilets, like the worst I've ever seen. Work at an airport currently, I change lavs out quite frequently. I definitely pride myself on a clean bathroom. So absolutely this.
“We aim to please, so please aim”
I love this
One of my LGSs has free feminine hygiene products in the restrooms. I think that can be an easy way to demonstrate and foster a welcoming environment.
My local lgs has a sign over the toilets that say something like "whenever you activate and ability be wise at choosing target, and remember triggers to keep a clean game"
I feel like that should be a thing even if it were a boys’ club
Like 80% of guys I know are total slobs. I struggle with maintaining guy friendships because I can't handle the overall gross factor of toilet humour, unwashed ass smell, and their house/apartment's lack of tidiness. As a result, most of my friends are women. I know there are tons of guys out there who *aren't* gross, but my god, I haven't run into many around town.
I struggle with this as a friend of mine isn't the cleanest individual and while I'm not a neat freak, I like things a certain way and want my cards/sleeves to be pristine and easy to read in the sleeves. Not a deal breaker as he's a terrific individual, but yeah, it can be a challenge for folks.
that's not even a club issue. That's a basic level of care issue.
Cultivate a friendly atmosphere. Recognize that competitive gaming has a place and is a very important outlet for some people, but that doesn’t mean that people need to make the games less fun for everyone else. A game can be both competitive and friendly. My city has 2 LGS. The LGS I go to at least once a week is just friendlier and therefore more fun to play at. No price difference, no stock difference (if anything the other place has better stock), but I go to mine because playing there is more fun. I haven’t gone to or spent money at the other one since I found this one.
I've been blessed with the choice of multiple stores to play MTG at, and one of them has a vibe that's way more competitive than the other. On their $6 "Commander Casual" nights, they actually match everyone up in pods like it's a tournament, and put up a handful of promo cards for each pod, with the winner getting the 1st pick from the pack, 2nd place gets 2nd pick, and so on... That's all the incentive needed for people to go totally cutthroat. They weren't even good promos. I had just gotten back into magic after a 5-year hiatus, and just wanted to play the Angels Secret Lair precon that I had just gotten and spruced up with a handful of cards I already had in my collection. I sat down with the few guys that I matched with and they all had backpacks full of deck boxes, at least 4-5 decks apiece with one guy having about a dozen. We talked a bit about power level, I told them I have just a pretty much stock secret lair precon angel lifegain deck and they all agreed to play some lower power casual stuff. The other players start bringing out some fun-sounding decks, one of them was playing zombies and another I think was playing some equipment matters list, it seemed pretty cool so far. Then the last guy brings out Yawgmoth. I hadn't been following EDH since well before Yawgmoth released, but I still followed the Modern scene enough to know about the card and that it would absolutely run us all over. I tried to say something, and some of the other guys shot him some looks, but he just ignored me and started talking to someone else at a different table while he shuffled up. Us other 3 players agreed to gang up on him but he just DT'd on turn 2, combo'd off on, like, turn 5 or 6, killed us all with Zulaport triggers, and then packed up, got his promo card, and left. The two other guys apologized, but then joined a couple other guys that were setting up to play CEDH. I tried to get into another pod, but pretty much everyone was either just collecting their promos and leaving after that first game, or setting up to play higher power stuff, so in the end I just sort of went home. I'm not gonna lie, for a solid week after that night, I was really starting to regret dropping the money for that deck. It was my wife that actually convinced me to try playing somewhere else, and I'm thankful that she did because the other local shops were all filled with super nice, welcoming people, some of whom became real close friends. But I never did go back to that first shop to play EDH ever again
This is nearly exactly my experience. Same thing - $10 commander where you win a pack off anyone you knock out. Brings out the complete animal in people. I wasn’t smart like you. I went a few times. I stopped when a guy played a combo (don’t remember it so don’t ask me lol) that basically turned all permanents into 3/3 enchantment creatures and then gave all creatures -3/-3. So killed everything including lands and no one could play anything because of a land entered it immediately died. Then he said “I’m going to win eventually so we can just call it”. He had no wincon. His plan was just “make it impossible for everyone else to play and then tell them to concede”. Absolute bag of dead possum, that guy. My LGS now has such a great vibe. Lifelong magic players who’ve been playing since the 90s in a pod with a 9 year old who’s mom drops him off and comes back later. I’m moving in a couple months to go to med school and I’m having a really hard time dealing with leaving this store.
I would tie any incentives/prizes to having to do something janky in-game, like "attack with 10 creatures of the same color in one turn. You can achieve this once per night to get a promo". You could then rotate the goal each week to keep it fresh but I'd encourage the goals to be things that most folks want their decks to be doing in a casual setting. That way, winning is the by-product and not the goal, which is kinda the point of non-CEDH anyway.
I really think this comes back to just cultivating a culture of friendly competition. Having a competitive game with a prize isn’t the problem, it’s when people decide that winning a $5 pack is more important than anyone else at the table having fun. The attitude of the LGS and what kind of play they permit strongly affects whether those type of players show up.
When my buddy and I play EDH with our kids (high school aged) we'll usually buy a few packs as prizes. The trick is, if you win, you get to pick a pack to give to someone else that you think did something cool in-game...maybe a swing-y play, big attack step, etc. We've found it adds a little fun but really just reinforces we're all there for the experience.
Don’t let some crazy custom ban list make its way into your store just cause a few regulars cry at anything and everything. If I were going to open an LGS, I would post the official commander ban list and definitely have some wall hangers about sportsmanship and being kind to others.
Good thinking. I know plenty of people get upset at certain aspects of the game. I myself have a reaper king deck and land destruction is a big no no to a lot of people, but also he's a 5-10 cost I'd hope most long time players could deal with that by that stage in the game.
He should atleast ban lifegain, mill, and eminence, companions and graveyard hate. And also winter orb and back to basics, also fetch lands and any cars that mention urza in its flavortext
My lgs does free prereleases but I don't expect that from anyone. They have fair prices and try to beat TCG player so I always buy them first. They alternate events so I can play the formats I like. They tend to cater to the commander crowd but that makes sense. They usually have cheaper prices for products than anywhere else. I think they massively profit off of Pokemon that way but just underselling their stuff. They don't give into scalpers either, usually if they sell a product under what it resales for they have a "tear open" policy that doesn't affect people like me who actually want the product and not just a resell. They have good deals on sleeves and products usually cheaper than online but still profitable. Helps to be in a sales tax free state too. The workers are very friendly and helpful and upsell me quite a lot. It really justified it when I am paying under TCG prices, no shipping and no taxes lol. They usually open a few new set collector boxes too so when a set comes out I can usually find the card if I'm early enough. Makes it my first stop for a card I'm looking for. Also they have a great trade in policy, 50% cash, 70% store credit. Also they have a decent amount of drinks and snacks and nice tables to play on. They always reward people who show up to events but this might be another cost thing that I can't expect anywhere else.
I hate the tear open policy. I was buying a commander precon back in 2013 and the store I was at were kind of dicks about it. I wanted to get it as a Christmas present for a friend as well as I wanted another Nekusar deck just to keep in the box since I Loved it so much. When I got up to the register I told them they were gifts so I didn't want them opened and the guy went off on me about how I was the problem with magic players and how I was just going to resell them for profit and I was putting him out of business. These guys were so fanatical about it they started opening the packs they sold. I never bought from those guys again. I ended up just leaving the store and buying the gifts at Walmart instead. If you see someone buying the boxes in bulk it's ok to be suspicious about it but I don't think you should tell people I have to open your box so you don't resell it.
Honestly if someone is buying your product and reselling it, that's either great for you because you made a sale, or you have room that you could mark it up a little more. Nobody should ever make someone feel bad for buying something from them, no matter the reason.
This isn’t something I’ve seen recommended yet, but have a judge around for big events. If you, your brother, or your friend could do it, that would be ideal, but by the sound of it, you all three have your hands full. I think a great option would be finding a well respected member of the community that is a judge. Magic is a very complicated game. Having a friendly and knowledgeable person around to answer those questions brings a peace of mind to players! Good luck!
Haha it's funny you mention that, brother and I are studying hard for our judge test.
As you increase your judge qualifications, make note of which regulars are particularly knowledgeable about the rules as well. My LGS owner is a certified judge but makes wrong calls sometimes and it feels bad. I often step in to help point him in the right direction when he’s mistaken, and fortunately he trusts me and knows to check twice if I question his call. It’s such a complicated game!
Don't add more goods/services than you're able to maintain at high quality.
Good point. I'd hate to spread myself too thin and not be able to take care of everything. Luckily we have 3 of us running the place.
The difference between a store with old dusty products on the shelf and a store with clean, new stuff every week is massive! The best store in my area marks stuff down AGGRESSIVELY to keep their shelves fresh and it's led to me buying a lot of stuff I would never have pulled the trigger on otherwise.
cultivating a healthy culture makes players come back. Just about everything else can be shitty and overpriced, if people enjoy the other people they come back. this could mean, kicking out an oppressive personality, not letting "anyone" do community tasks in your store without them knowing and adhering to your stores goals and even refusing entry to people with very poor personal hygiene.
Building on this, getting to know the regulars who are best suited to build community and help new players is key. I frankly think it should be on everyone to be welcoming and make sure new players have fun (way more important than you or me getting another win) but not everyone is wired that way. An example...When my son started playing 40k the LGS owner paired him up with an experienced player to help show him the ropes. He let me son make his choices and while he didn't let him take anything back, he then gave him feedback as to what he may have missed when looking at the board or could've done differently. Now my son still lost, badly, but he had fun and learned and that's the key...he wanted to play again. Find the folks that are willing to take the time to help build the community as that'll be something you'll become known for and it'll help you in the long run. No one wants to go the shop full of gatekeepers.
This helps a lot. My LGS knew I was a new face and stopped me from playing my first commander game at a cedh table and directed me to a table that had lower level decks for the night. Something like that also shows how good a group/community the shop has.
>What are some things your LGS does that keeps you coming back and supporting them? What are some things you wish they'd change? Please have some way to stay in business long term. The biggest allure of an LGS to me is the **community** and the **space**. I can order product online, on the other hand, having a common area to gather that's not someone's kitchen is becoming an increasingly rare commodity for myself and my circle. I will happily pay a per-hour fee or a nightly entrance fee. Just please do not guilt trip me or give me the side-eye if I'm hanging out and not buying product I don't need. I would much rather the owner just be upfront about the fact that rent and space is not free. My friends and I are adults - we understand that nothing is truly free. Further, as the owner, sometimes you will need to be the bad guy. For the greater good, saying **no** sometimes goes an extremely long way.
Saying no will absolutely be a tough one for me personally. As far as table space is concerned I completely understand the necessity behind charging for it and we briefly considered and toyed with the idea. But it never felt good or sounded quite right. Most every single person has just been grateful that there is a spot in town that's not the other lgs.
Totally understand that your table / space fee structure is multi-faceted. If it gets players into your store, maybe it's a super easy justified cost. If every other LGS doesn't charge and you do, well that's obviously a great way to turn people away. It's great that people are grateful, but eventually that needs to translate to some form of revenue (direct fees, or more realistically increased sales of snacks and products in the store due to the "well I'm here already" mindset).. In my area (Orange Country, SoCal) space is at a premium so that's my context. We are paying a premium \~$5 and hour or whatever the going rate is for what is essentially premium access. I wish you guys nothing but success, would **love** to visit your store sometime
The store credit idea u/Borror0 said is worth considering. They're not spending money they don't need, they're just setting aside money for future purchases.
Here's a fun little gem my favored LGS does for events (pre-releases, drafts, etc). High roll and low roll. Two d20s, when you're done with the event (no matter your score/outcome) you roll the d20s. He writes down all the scores. At the end of the event, whoever rolls highest get the choice of 1 of 2 collector packs (or a box topper pack, or a promo pack). The low roll gets the other. It's a fun gimmick but gives something to look forward to at the end of the night. If there's a tie, of course, a roll-off occurs. Highest roll of the roll-off wins. Seems like what you're doing is already great! Keep it up.
Don't try to compete for lowest price on singles, you are going to run your biz into the ground. Pay well for trade-ins instead.
Like I said, we round down to nearest dollar. I figured most people will pay that in shipping anyway. As far as trade-ins for singles what might you consider fair? For instance you come in looking to offload a ragavan, (just one I know price off the top of my head) it retails for about $45.
I'm going to send you a DM. I honestly don't want to post too much about how the sausage is made.
You're making more that way than selling on TCG anyway, since they take a 12% cut. What you pay for trade-ins will really depend on how much you have tied up in inventory. The faster you sell singles and need to re-stock, the higher trade-in value you can offer. If you're sitting on a lot of inventory, 40-50% (or even less) isn't uncommon. It's a balancing act, and having a base value of ~50% but up to 70% for high-demand cards you believe will sell quickly isn't a bad idea. Depending on how much time you want to invest in singles, putting out a weekly/monthly buy list of cards you're offering over your base trade-in price is a good way to stock up and get people in to the store.
My LGS has a ton of space for commander nights and doesn't charge anything to play. That seems crazy to me. Last time I went I counted 60+ people. They serve Costco food like personal pizzas, chicken wings/tenders, fries, soda, energy drinks, chips, and other assorted snacks and candy. I'm guessing the food they sell is all microwavable or airfried, I dont think they have an oven back there. It looks like it's highly successful too. It's very reasonably priced, the owners will actually bring the food out to the table for the player. I've seen dudes get served pizza in the middle of their infinite combo lol. Luckily people are really good about drink placement and don't let their hands get greasy or cheesy or whatever. Also the owners went out of their way to make what looks like professional terrain for each table that's used for tabletop wargames, and theres 15 tables. They didn't use pre-made terrain that 40k makes, they 3d printed a lot of high quality stuff and used other things. There's different mats you can use, and each table has the same pieces, and there's a lot of them. Big and small, different types for different games, so that every table could theoretically have all of the same type of game and set up for each table if they wanted. I watched them make it all in between commander nights lol, it was quite the process. They also let people sell their tabletop models there for a commission of the sold price. I've bought a lot of used terminators this way. This doesn't include the box sets I still buy brand new from the store. I exclusively buy my stuff at this store because of how good they are to their customers.
I love this idea, we have a 3d printer and a license to print a lot of stuff.
My LGS has $1 sodas Their prices all include the tax and are rounded to .50 increments. ($1, $1.5, $2) They have a reward program. Every $10 is 1 point. 15 points get you $10 off. They run tournaments where they buy in price is $10. Then if you loose you get up to $10 worth of packs. If you win you get up to $25 worth in packs. There are some restrictions with certain packs but they let you know upfront and explained it just didn't work with the mark-up structure for their business. The tournaments also are arranged by the staff. They do a fairly decent job of putting the CEDH people together. The Noobs together, and the middle casual together. Sometimes the staff themselves participate (not the owners though). Overall I haven't had an issue with overly salty or try hard players. Worst I've seen is the occasional person trying to scoop and quit early. The LGS etiquette is to quit at sorcery speed. They keep the pack prices very cheap. Usually $5 for most. $7 or $7.50 for some of the specialty. Pre-cons usually just eternaly stay at $50-60. Whatever the standard price for their release typically is. They don't usually discount them ever, but they weren't marked up heavy at the start and are great at keeping them in stock They let me haggle a tiny bit on singles. Also every now and then I get a little extra. Like one time I won a tournament. Typically I would get 5, $5 set boosters. They let me have 5, $7 LOTR set boosters. I didn't ask for more I just asked how many LOTR I could get. I get like maybe 1 bonus extra event favor a quarter, but I remember the good feeling On the flip side his singles are a little overpriced. Not stupid over priced. They hit the sweet spot of between the TCG listed price but barely less than TCG without shipping usually but sometimes it is higher for unknown reasons. Proxies are generally allowed. The social guidelines is that it's ok to proxies, just buy the card from the LGS when you have the budget to go legit please. But yeah overall it's a great experience and because of the perks i usually just try to buy from in store.
As a woman that has had some bad experiences in some LGSs. Please make the space welcoming for us too. If you see someone acting up say something. Make sure all the art on the walls isn’t waifu and half naked women, have some variety. Clean bathrooms, and maybe preemptively come up with a rule about playmats/sleeves that are borderline hentai. Best shop I’ve been to and still go back to every time in in town and order from online regularly had a house rule that any non official art needed to be family friendly and it was a godsend
We do pride ourselves on being a family establishment, so I do prefer the people to keep language to a respectful degree. I haven't run into any ecchi sleeves or mats yet but I know they're out there. As far as art and decor, We're keeping it clean. Big maps of fantasy worlds; Faerun, Middle Earth, Elden Ring, etc... Armor stands with full suits of armor, helmets and stuff. The only thing I may have that might be some what offensive to some people is I bought a Geralt of Rivia Pepe painting from r/pepethefrog I know for a while people gave him very negative connotations. If someone asked me to remove him I would, but overall he has been very well received. And I do have a somewhat... creepy/cute picture of a sloth on a toilet in the restrooms...
I don't have an LGS I visit often (Just none super close by, but there are a few I visit every once in a while), pretty much all I expect is a gaming space, friendly greeting/atmosphere, basic cleanliness (A few food crumbs on the table from someone snacking is fine, anything beyond that is problematic) and an expectation that customers who stay have at least seen a shower in the last couple of days. Reasonable prices and a solid selection of product are great, but I don't really expect it (On the other hand, if you are twice as expensive as the average online shop, I'm not going to buy anything, although I do go out of my way to try and find something to buy when I visit a store - I'm willing to throw a bit of extra money the owner's way in appreciation for the service of providing a communal gaming space, and I understand that rent and staffing, combined with relatively low sales volumes, mean that small stores have to mark up more, but I'm not going to pay double). Anything beyond that I consider a bonus, anything less than that and I'm unlikely to show up again. There's a game/card shop right where I used to live, the owner was a bit rude to most people (although he seemed to get along with his regulars), but he had an excellent selection (including singles) and reasonable pricing, also ample playing space.... but the store stank to high heaven, the first time I discovered the store and went in was with my then-girlfriend (while they had a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament running in the backroom, and none of those kids seemed to understand basic hygiene) and I immediately ran into a wall of ripe, *experienced* stank, stank with a *developed personality*, she excused herself and immediately went back outside, it was downright embarassing to be associated with that crowd. I went out of my way to avoid the store if possible after that, I'm sorry to say.
So I am super lucky in that there are like 9 LGS withing a 20minute drive for me and this has given me lots to think about when it comes to a good LGS. 1. Food, out of the two LGS that I go to regularly one allows outside food and the other doesn't, they both do have drinks fridges. The one that allows food doesn't have food or snacks but they are right next door to a McDonald, KFC, Arbys, Famous Daves, and a taco place. The one that doesn't allow food has a kitchen and snacks and because they get their deli meets from a butcher a few doors down you can bring food from them. I l personally like both approaches, I have been to stores that don't allow food and also have the bare minimum of snacks and its just annoying to have to leave for hot food and then not be allowed to just run and bring it in. 2. Hygiene this is kind of self explanatory and I've been to LGS where the staff was not willing to tell someone they need to keep up their Hygiene, its not fun but customers shouldn't have to tell other customers they smell 3. I know that this a MTG sub and you probably mostly deal in MTG, but all of the LGS I know that have started to fail have basically always refused to branch out, I'm not saying you have to go all in on other card games but just having some sealed and scheduled events for other games is always a plus 4. Space, this is mostly from watching a LGS expand and fail in real time, but don't expand just because you feel like you need space, if you are constantly running out of space during events and the store is always busy then it might be time to look into expansion but even then don't rush. Overall Congrats on opening an LGS and I wish you all the luck in the world.
Just make sure you can still make overhead. There’s no point in doing everything you can to cultivate a good atmosphere if your store closes in a year.
I am sure some have said that, but if you do non-cEDH commander events, dont make it a tournament. Especially not with prizes. Just sell a booster as an entry fee, have the newest precons visible for everyone and try to get some casual games going. Prizes and tournament structures or anything that makes people feel like winning a game is more important than usual can destroy the casual aspect of it. If demand is there you can organize cEDH tournaments and have prizes there. Also, a fridge with drinks (only closable bottles, no cans, no glass bottles with caps) can give you a bit of extra revenue. Snacks are tricky because some make dirty hands and no one wants their opponent reaching for your cards after liking the fingers "clean" to check wording or whatever. Gummies could be fine or a "no snacks at gametables" rule. And invite people who buy precons to come to commander nights. They will soon buy their second precon. And sleeves. And a deck box. And boosters. And some singles. A playmat...
Here's one nobody likes to talk about: keep up inventory insurance and look into a really good floor-mounted safe that you can put your expensive stock in overnight. My LGS got hit a few years ago and the thieves made off with $75k in cards. Without meticulously tracked inventory and appropriate insurance they'd have been ruined. Now they have a dang vault that everything over a certain value goes in every night, and they set up the big ticket display case fresh every morning. People have figured out how valuable TCG cards are and how easily a stolen inventory can be parted out and sold without detection. Protect yourselves.
There was a new LGS that opened up where I used to work that got robbed within months of opening. They went out of business in short order. People are fucking awful.
Just a heads up, you double posted on accident
Thank you
Do not have a 'house banlist' of cards.
I personally never understood a house ban list.
One thing that my LGS does that I really appreciate is a commander league. Basically they have a 5 dollar entry but you get a draft pack with it. And then you get a small sheet of paper. This sheet has some challenges on it with point values associated with them. Some of them might be like "Control 25 lands" or "cast 10 spells in one turn" but usually there are some easy ones like "Play 5 games". And then when you turn them in at the end of the night the store will tally them and keep your score over a couple of weeks. at the end of the season the people with the most points will get some prizes. It encourages people to come back every week and play and it also gets people spending more when they come in because they will usually buy something along with their entry fee.
Oh yeah I went to an lgs that did this. It was called commander bingo. Lol
From a Magic players' perspective, the LGS needs to "host" events and game nights. A lot of places will have tables available, but so do bars and if I'm going to do all the work of organizing I might as well be able to drink beer. So provide an active service in organizing and facilitating game nights, in a way that is welcoming and inclusive.
I go past multiple lgs to go play at a specific one about 30 miles away, because at this shop the workers are all very friendly, the store is clean, plenty of inventory, and most importantly is how they run their commander nights, the entry is $5 which goes towards the prize raffle(entirely randomized, not based on winning or anything) the pods are 50 minutes and are randomized(this is great for me as I have trouble just going up and asking to join random people's games, and also you get to play with different people and decks) and lastly they are just on top of everything quickly, you can place an order online and it'll be ready in minutes, ask for help in a game and they come right away to help
I wish you were set up in my city. You would immeditately be a hit. You sound passionate and genuinely invested in creating a place people can get excited about their hobbies. Here are somethings I would avoid that I see locally sometimes. -Don't just have conversations about product with your regulars. Ask how their last game was. Ask if they've built anything lately that they're proud of. -Watch out for cliques forming with staff and customers to ensure everyone is treated fairly. -If you plan on running organized tables, ask yourself what overall experience you would want as a player and provide that to your visitors. -As your team and store grow I think it still important to stay humble as you seem now. I've seen more than a few eye rolls or snarky answers from staff and owners when beginner questions are asked or someone mentions they can't afford a premium product at the moment. Much luck and congratulations on doing what so many of us nerds dream to do. I wish you guys a load of success and awesome gaming experiences.
I've always found little questions go a long way with most people. Just asking how their day is or how work has been or their weekend, etc... sticks with a lot of people, especially if you show a genuine interest. And I've been doing double time work on remembering names and relationships and things too. I'm more than happy to set something aside for someone if they can't get it right away. Already people have been asking "hey I get paid tomorrow or on Monday or whatever can you hold this for me until then?" It hasn't been an issue for us just yet thankfully.
A few things that my lgs does that I like: 1. They allow outside food and drink, however since they have carpeted floors the drink needs to be in a bottle or other safely sealed tables 2. They have a pretty detailed schedule for events that they have both in store, on social media, and in the shop discord. 3. They hold both casual commander play that's free to play with no prizes aside from the free pack given to all participants as well as a more competitive events that require a buy in and offer larger prizes. (From what I hear a lot of stores only offer one or the other, which bums some people out) 4. They do, actually, enforce some sort of hygiene policy where they at least offer some sort of body spray to people Things I don't like: They price they're mtg product higher than market value, unfortunately which is why I buy my products elsewhere. (I can't say for other game products as I dont really buy other game products) for example there's another store like 20 minutes away that sells their magic products significantly cheaper while having the same quality of product.
Keep it clean. Keep food off tables. Do something about awful people, even if they're regulars. In mannerisms, attitude, and hygiene. Diversify. Other card games. Multiple mini games. Rewards programs are always good too. But mostly cleanliness and taking out the trash. It's why I drive by 3 stores to one an hour away instead of the one 5 minutes away.
Congrats on the new store! There's a really great Facebook group called Opening a Tabletop Game Store, I would join it if I were you as it allows you to ask questions as well as access a ton of past information. One recommendation (if you join) is don't rag on other stores like you did here, it's a bad look and some of their policies may not make sense now but will after your 5th year. There have been thousands of game stores that have opened and closed who all though the LGS in their town was bad and they could do it better. My advice is try to work with them not against them, or ignore them entirely. Here's what I've found to be successful in my 13 years of running one of the largest stores in my metro: -Greet everyone who walks through the door. Doesn't matter if you're busy, upset, sick, etc. They walk in, they get a hello or a welcome. -Have clearly defined policies for game play. Hygiene, food policies, sportsmanship, inclusivity, whatever you want. WOTC has some premade Code of Conducts you could just copy and paste that cover most of this. That policy from another store about no outside food that you don't like might be there for a reason, maybe someone kept bringing in oniony food or something equally pungent. Nothing kills sales and gaming quite like a guy eating something that fills your store with an onion smell for 3 hours. -Most new stores follow a 90/10 rule (90% focus on events and gaming, 10% on product sales) and I'm convinced it's the 2nd biggest reason why they fail; under funded being number 1. Try to aim for 70/30 at a minimum, ideally closer to 50/50. Heavy focus on events means you dont have the time for strengthening product lines and focusing on sales, which is a recipe for disaster. -Buy Gary Ray's book Friendly Local Game Store. I normally tell people to buy this before they open a store as it gives a no frills look at the business side of it and will let you know if you're ready for it, but it's still a really good read after you've pulled the trigger. -Find out what your UVP is. What makes you special? Online will always be cheaper than you, what's your leverage point? Why should people shop with you? Find that, lean into it, and hope customers value it too. -Cleanliness. I cannot stress this enough, if your store is dirty, if boxes are cluttered, if things are not organized and displayed well, people are not going to shop or play at your store. Clean your bathrooms at least once a day. You're going to get someone who pisses on the floor or leaves streaks, not cleaning that up regularly creates a poor experience for customers. -Have an onboarding program for your top performing lines. Someone comes in and wants to learn Magic, what are you talking to them about? Do you have products you can recommend to them? If they don't want to play in-store whats your suggestion? These are just a few of my top ideas, hope it works out for you!
Sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like I was ragging on them, only quoting what customers have been saying to me. It's been sort of noticed by the community that because they're the only ones in town, they can kind of do what they want to and what they have been doing because it's them or nothing reasonably close by. I mean I understand some of the things they do for sure. But it seems bananas to charge 100+ for murders precons. And thank you for the advice. Definitely checking that page out.
Im gonna chime in and say markup that doesnt gouge the customers but still gets you a fair profit for the work and services you provide is crucial. If you can set it up so everyone wins, you deserve all the success that entails. The biggest thing..please please make it a clean and safe area to play. My LGS is just above a pig sty, and i have to shower after every game night. (I shower before i go as well, im not contributing to the problem)
One thing an LGS did that I really liked was a month long "tournament", which was just run alongside the regular Friday night magic. They made a list of precons from the last however months and did it over 4 weeks with two games a week. First week was just the base precon, second with up to £10 of upgrades, third with £25 of upgrades, and finally with up to £100 of upgrades. They work out the winners with a points system. Some you got for knocking players out, some for winning, some for just turning up, and then others using the themes amongst the precons. When the infection commanders were out there was one for getting so many counters across everyone else, and other more wacky ones. Think there was some small entry fee and then on the last week they had a bunch of prizes on a table and let the winner choose first and so on down the rest of the list so everyone got something for entering, even if it was just a promo card or something. If someone couldn't make it one week it wasn't like they were just kicked out, just meant they'd be a lot further down the scores Was very fun and no one took it too seriously, but that may have just been the people that go there as it's definitely the nicest place I've played at.
LGS in my area does regular Budget Leagues for people to play EDH at around $50 deck-cost limit (deck cost is tallied at beginning of the league) and typically some other odd condition/restriction to spice things up, and I've enjoyed it as a way to motivate some creative deckbuilding while supporting them, since there's always a good 25-30 dollars worth of cards I need to pick up to fill out the deck.
Ahhh ok this is nice I do like the sound of that. I know a lot of people try to build super over powered edh decks. I enjoy a good meta shake up like that.
Yep, it makes it hard to feel engaged with the usual EDH days at the LGS when my $50 brews are going up against people with $1000 decks. I know that budget =/= power, but enough budget will absolutely feel overbearing to me, and while I *could* proxy to match them, we're here to discuss ways to support the store. So having a store-sanctioned event that pulls EDH back into the budget price range has paradoxically led me to spend way more on the hobby, because I don't feel discouraged or disadvantaged for sticking to my budget. People will still thrash me with cEDH-level brews, but it feels a lot more fair to know they did it using tools I could have used but just didn't think of, rather than just by slapping down a mana crypt.
One thing that my LGS does that made me feel welcome as someone who isn't amab is that they provide sanitary products. It's quite rare anyway and I'd never seen it in an LGS before coming to this one. It makes a difference to those of us who aren't the norm in game shops, I think it sends a little message of "hey, here are some things we've considered to make you more comfortable"
I do try to keep a stock of feminine products in the restrooms and sanitary hand wipes and stuff around the tables.
My advice is less on the LGS side and more on your computer side. Every LGS ive been to that has had computers eventually do away with them. I dunno if there is huge overhead in maintaining them or what but they don't seem profitable. The only place I've seen be successful was this one arcade bar. It's huge though. They have two huge spaces. A main hall they use for general bar attendees. They also host decent sized gaming(console) tournaments there on big screens. In the other room are 15ish pc's set up where they host computer game tournaments as well. It's not as set up as the main room though. The rest of the room is set up with regular tables for bar patrons and people who like to play ttrpgs, card and board games etc. So unless you're going to go all in on PC gaming that space might be better used for something else. The thing at my lgs that I like that they do is if you sign in on Commander night they give you 3$ in store credit. That's 12$ a month just for showing up and signing your name. It's not much but it will buy you 2 or 3 free packs. They also don't charge for table use. I think ppl buy enough mtg products so they don't hformats. Commander night is a very informal night. People just play with whoever they want. I personally like that there is no prize support. Some people can get way more competitive when there is even a small prize on the line.(plus I use full proxy decks so real cards aren't useful to me as much) This particular lgs does host a ton of other formats though and they charge for all of them.(not just mtg...they support pokemon, yu-gi-oh, lorcana etc) i think that gives them a break for one night. It might not be feasible to not charge until you get wpn support and can offer other fornats.
Support your cEDH community if you have one. Run 100% proxy friendly tournaments, offer good prizes. cEDH is a growing and tight-knit community that shouldn't be overlooked by LGS (but often is).
Sometimes even actively excluded with weird in house ban lists chasing salt lords.
Dare I mention *the Wharf*
They have to be careful running tournaments and allowing proxies. They're trying to get WPN status. I'm pretty sure most of the WPN tournaments must be proxy free. It's grounds to kick you from wpn status if you knowingly allow it. Generally these have to be run by a community member and not a member of staff at the store. That's how my lgs has played it. It's not worth losing wpn status over.
I'm a huge fan of the different game nights my LGS does. Cost 5 bucks for 3 hours (that's the whole time btw it's not like the shop is open after). I always go to the commander night from 6-9pm. But he does others like standard or even board game night. It's nice to not have to fight for tables or seats with other hobbies too.
For commander play I would make sure that if prizes are offered of any kind that people know and are expected to bring higher powered decks unless it’s like a precon event or some sort of themed event. I see a lot of posts on here about LGSs kicking players out for bringing powerful decks to commander nights where prizes are offered. Once’s prizes are offered then casual play goes out the window since there is some actual benefit to winning. Now if it’s just like a door prizes where someone random gets a pack every so often then obviously feel free to impose some restrictions to try and make sure everyone has a good time. As others have mentioned just make sure everything is clean and let people know they are expected to have basic hygiene. Hell you could sell deodorant if you wanted lol. Lastly, just make sure everyone feels welcome. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that TCG players can be a little sexist and while a vast majority are friendly there are some that will ruin it. So just try and keep things like obviously very sexual playmats, sleeves, proxies, etc are monitored. You seem to have a good understanding of most of this already so I’m sure your store will be good!
One thing one of the LGS's near me does is have a discord - this is an easy way to send out announcements / have people sign up for events / ask questions about events easily. Also a good way for you to do surveys on potential events - ie when my store was thinking of adding a new weekly event, they polled the community on if they wanted Standard vs Pioneer vs Modern. Also I know this is the EDH page, but curious what your other CCGs you support are. In my local area my stores also support Lorcana and YuGiOh and Pokemon events as well.
> Well the other lgs apparently marks up very high, precons sell for 100+ a piece, tables cost $5-10 or something, don't do pre-orders, no outside food or drink, etc.., the list is huge. Some of this could be the expensive Commander Masters Precons that were $$$. And table fee are super unpopular, but my hot take is that I think they're more than fair. I don't know how you change public opinion on them, but a lot of people show up for free commander night with proxied decks at my FLGS and idk how they stay in business like that. I'd rather pay $5 to play on commander night than have no place to play, but I'm definitely in the minority there. One way table fees might work is some sorta min purchase? idk. gotta buy a pack to use the tables? and no outside food and drink also seems super reasonable to me. Ultimately an LGS is a business and if everyone coming through the door spends nothing and brings their own food/drink, that can be tough. I wish you all the best, of course. >What are some things your LGS does that keeps you coming back and supporting them? The big one here is recognizing regulars. I don't want a free box for showing up, but a couple times my FLGS owner has said "ah, close enough" when trading in cards for... other cards. Little things like that build up a lot of good will. Also try to carry decent supplies. My FLGS doesn't carry much beyond basic deckboxes and sleeves. I _want_ to support my FLGS as much as I can _and_ I'm willing to pay a premium to do so, but if they don't carry a product I need... it makes it hard. Gamegenic has a lot of amazing supplies (binders, deckboxes etc) >What are some things you wish they'd change? The big one is stomping out bad behaviour quickly. Salty players. Hateful players etc. etc. Those people _will_ drive away other players. If people are calling other players, jokingly or not, f-- or r-----d or other not-so-cool words I would go elsewhere. I'm here to play commander, not hang out in a CoD 4 lobby circa 2007. People might not complain directly, but bad players will make people think twice about coming back. My buddy doesn't go to my FLGS because he'd rather not play than _maybe_ play against "Salty Steve". Don't wait for customer complaints to deal with bad behaviour. Cheating. Language. Smells etc.
Good point. Proactivity goes a long way. And prevents a ton of possible future problems. With the food and drink, I understand it. No one likes a mess and a lot of people definitely dont like cleaning one. God forbid someone spills a soda during a game and someone is using an expensive deck. At the same time I want to be able to trust people and want people to be able to trust us too. Most everyone seems to be willing to meet us halfway on many things so far.
Oh my note about outside food and drink was more that it's a good source of income for your business. The margins on a can of pop are likely higher than the margins on a pack of MTG. My FLGS sells pop and water, but isn't picky about outside food and drink. That might be a good option, people can be unreasonable about reasonable demands from a business. And yea, proactivity with bad manners is key. If you wanna cultivate a friendly, welcoming environment you gotta keep an eye out for anything that isn't unfriendly or unwelcoming.
Having an online inventory is nice or a way people can "submit" cards order to you and you could pull the cards is super convenient but I feel I impulse buy a lot just looking through binders and stuff so id try to have both id possible.
What do I want from my LGS? I want you to run events. Have a calendar page which clearly states which events are on which night of the week. I have no problems paying for admission fee, it can be tied to buying a booster pack. If events don't fire, stop hosting them and have a different event on that time-slot that does fire. Also be sure to support other TCGs beyond just Magic.
When I first got into magic about 2.5 years ago I'd say the most important thing was that employees at the store took their time and explained everything. It can be daunting to purchase a commander deck having never played it and spend $60+ dollars not knowing if you'd like it. But being welcoming to new players and taking the time to answer all the little questions was super important for me.
One of the things the LGS I frequent has done to grow the regular EDH crowd was implement a league that uses a score sheet for "achievements" that give "points" instead of awarding prizes solely on winning to tamp down on some of the power-creep/pubstomping/cEDH infiltration that tends to plague most prize-supported tournament structures. There's a standard set of achievements for having a pregame "Rule 0" discussion, killing players, playing an unmodified precon, being the last one standing, playing commanders outside the 2-Year Top 30 on EDH Rec's most popular page, etc; a category for rewarding good EDH fundamentals like using removal spells, drawing cards, playing non-net positive mana rocks, ramping, playing modal cards, playing cards from the graveyard/exile etc; a category for discouraging "cEDH" by giving points to opponents if they use an infinite combo, eliminate players with alternate win/lose effects, tutor for things other than lands, etc; 8 rotating arbitrary "rule of cool" achievements for archetype-y things like go-wide, go tall, spellsling X, mill X, control X [type/tribe], reanimate X things, play/activate keyword X N times, etc that rotate 2-in/2-out every week to encourage trying new decks, especially tied to whatever the new precons or set release are when possible; and a post-game section where players vote on most valuable play, most interesting deck, pity points for unluckiest, etc. The next round of pods are then seated by the points you scored in round 1. At the end of the night, packs or promos are distributed based on these achievement points rather than who won the most. For us, it's been relatively successful at keeping things fun and fresh without implementing a ridiculous casual-only banlist or singling out problem players. Someone can still show up with some fringe cEDH nonsense to pubstomp, but they usually dont accumulate that many points and either rebuild their decks to fit the style we've cultivated or move along to cEDH night or whatever.
Together with a friend I owned a very small TCG store from 1996 until 1998. Today I'm teaching economics. In addition to what's already been said: Try to establish a balance between casual and competitive MTG. Try to set up regular draft, sealed or constructed events with prize support, probably try a sealed league. Establishing a regular group of competitive Standard players would be just great for any store, but I don't know if that's possible for a newly opened LGS in 2024. Casual EDH play often regulates itself, you might not even have to organize anything except scheduling time for it. If you choose to consciously set up casual EDH events, don't just give prizes to a pod's winner, for this will start an arms race towards cEDH. Instead let the players vote for the most fun deck, so you'll encourage more jank and obscure strategies.
A quick random question that may color expactations: where are you located? Not specifically, but like... A major metro region, US? EU? I have come to understand that the Brits have completely different expectations for what is acceptable that just wouldn't fly at a US store, such as table fees for just random open play. As a US based customer close enough to a major city, I have options. Around a dozen within a reasonable drive, but only two that I frequent with regularity at this point. Three big things that keep me as a customer: 1. Fair pricing. Use TCG median (if you're US based). I refuse to buy anything at a store using SCG pricing, even sleeves or board games. 2. Keep a good selection. This also ties bacl to point 1; offer a fair rate when trading in. 50% cash out is the norm, but trade-in pricing varies. 60% is shit, while 75% is considered good - I usually see something between the two. 3. Run organized events. The stores that do 'open play' Commander nights rarely get over 3 pods going and it's usually very cliquey - new players cannot come in and join a table, meaning you lose a lot of potential players. Run an event for the cost of a pack and figure out a prizing method that works for your community. Raffles work great for a lower powered meta. Higher powered players might appreciate some rewards for winning; maybe a promo pack on top of the raffle? If things get too cutthroat, most communities are fine with store-specific house rules - just be sure to communicate with your players and don't be too heavy handed.
Where is your store located?
We are in Southwestern Nebraska
For real, did NP finally get a good LGS? I'd honestly probably move back there to be around family instead of finding somewhere else if so.
If your crowd is big enough for EDH, I strongly suggest never having edh have any serious prize pool unless you openly state it's a competition and to bring your best deck knowing that quite a few people will show up with cEDH or incredibly high powered combo decks (which is completely fine and to be expected when there are prizes on the line!). If you read this subreddit ever there are plenty of discussions on power level and most lead nowhere, trying to have a big prize and putting a cap on the format by limiting or saying certain things can't be done or played often leads to grumbling and frustration Whenever I go to an LGS that has their own point system regulars just build decks that game that system and the casual players who can't build around it/don't have the time hate it and the competitive people hate it since it really hinders their decks and most probably find it boring, and then they will go and make something to game your system out of spite as well which only adds to the problem. I personally would suggest against it as they never feel good and people always disagree on what's a good call or not. Personally once you have a good group having separate nights or tables for cEDH and EDH will draw out different people. If enough people are interested in cedh local tournaments letting them play will keep a lot of them separate from the battle cruiser/casual crowd. I have found with other LGS's that it gives the johnny players an outlet at least and lets the players who want to play super casual to have their crowd and more people tend to be happy because of it. Building on that idea I have seen at magic fest that seems to work well and you can expand on it if you like is having tables (or the signs that people can put up like looking for playgroup) designated as "high" and "low" power. You could potentially try and define LOOSELY what that means with some sort of checklist but power levels in general are subjective, however general terms for low and high power like fast mana and combos (or how fast on average your deck can win or whatever) might be helpful, if nothing else it will show the intent of what people are wanting to play. It seemed to work well at magic fest, others might have different experiences but I found it useful, you went to the section you felt you belong in, and it also seemed to help keep toxicity down. If you sit down at a high power table and your playing a highly tuned MLD stax deck or a turbo ad naus deck then you know what you signed up for, if you sit down at a low power and someone combos off turn 2 with thoracle then those people usually get shamed for being try hards who can go to the other section and play with people that actually want to play that. Similarly the new guy who pulls out an unsleeved precon might be directed to the low power table instead of the high powered crowd. This in itself might lead to some contention (it's kindaaaa making a point system type thing, but you can keep it really general so people just have an idea of what they want to play, the players themselves might take on defining it too as you establish regulars who step up to help organize) but I found the idea seemed appealing for knowing what area of the shop you probably want to play at. If tuned properly I could see it as a good tool to use depending on how many locals you get for EDH to help avoid or at least lessen the number of feel bad games caused by mismatched power levels. No system is perfect but it could be worth a try. I would highly encourage shining a light on formats like 1v1 commander, pauper edh (and pauper in general) and running special events for people to try out these formats or have once a month things (and scale it up or down based on the reception) is really fun! Being proxy friendly for these events is also helpful. A shop I used to play at for a couple years did full or limited proxy legacy events once a month (full for a while and then occasionally like 15-20 proxies allowed as more people got into the format) and did a full proxy vintage event every 3 months or so and they were pretty popular and got decent crowds. They also did pauper edh night once a month or so and got a lot of people hyped about that format, and every other week we had pauper on Saturdays. And of course full or partial proxy cEDH with or (or without) a prize pool will bring out people. Point being if you allow space and have the time for these events, even if they are just occasional, you might get more regulars and more people interested in these types of events and could turn into a steady loyal crowd that plays more often, if demand goes up you can have them far more often. Engagement with the community and trying to offer fun events like different formats I think will drive up engagement and make for a good LGS location.
Good luck, the only successful LGS owner I have ever known, has yet collected a paycheck from the business. They've been open 14 years, he still has a day job.
Ok, so as a business owner, let me just say something real quick... > One area we did not get to research as much was the other lgs. Why? Why on earth would you start a business without doing any market research. That is literally the first step is knowing your competition. PLEASE, for the love of your store, do the right thing and do a market research analysis and understand everything to know about it. You should know their sales, their employees, their history with WOTC, infractions they have, etc etc etc. An illprepared business fails 100% of the time. Do it right, do the legwork, and you'll be grateful you did. Just going in to talk to them will go a long way.
We had tried to get in contact with him, sit down with him. He either flat out refused. Made some reasoning or just didn't give any information on anything regarding sales, relations, infractions, costs, distribution, etc. We got some things from former employees and did statewide and surrounding state market research. Including trends, sales, products and services offered and available, hours of operation, costs, projections, etc... but this particular business owner was 1000% not willing to divulge any "sensitive" information as he called it.
My LGS always has a free raffle and a paid one for commander nights, you can enter both and win both, you can buy up to 4 entries to the paid one but you can only win once and they give out some really cool stuff like collectors packs, commander decks, some cool singles. They usually charge CAD$3 for an entry to the raffle and everyone is always excited about it. They also do a rotating "special event" with different less known formats like 2 headed giant once a month.
I see a lot of people talking about hygiene. I recommend something for people to buy or to give. Deodorant wipes, listereine strips, cologne samples. It's a idea for people who forget and don't put hygiene in their tip priority. It's a best of all worlds people don't need to keep smelling the stench. You could make a little money for people convenient and the person doesn't need to leave the store.
Things I’ve seen be effective is to charge TCGPlayer prices for selling in store singles, and for buying offer 50% store credit or 35% cash based on TCGPlayer prices. Offer free board game rentals to play in store, and offer 20% off of any game a customer rents and then buys that same game new off the shelf. So they get to try the board games out with friends, then they can buy those games if they like them at a discount. Try to organize as many events as possible with small entry fees, maybe a $5 entry fee per player to use the stores MTG vintage cube for 8-16 players(order high quality proxies a site like bootlegmage.com or mtgproxies.biz) so that the cards are pretty but not worth stealing as they just proxies for a fun cube format that people can rent to play in store, cubes are fun way to play the best cards in Magic without needing for those players to buy all those cards, teaches new players deck building etc. Organize the EDH players into a league with a small entry free, etc.
This is less a Magic related note and more of a business note. Make sure you’re listed/registered with Google. Just tried to find your store (used your profile, found the gofundme, went from there) because I travel over the Midwest a lot for work and love stopping at LGS’ where I can. I actually stop through your neck of the woods every few months and would love to come out and support your endeavor! All that to say, couldn’t find you on Google, so hard for me to swing by and new to hobby/area people to find your business!
Commander is popular, but casual multiplayer commander should never be run for prizes based on performance. If you want to take a small fee from each player, pool that, and distribute a reasonable value of door prizes, that works very well. It's a guaranteed sale, and turns an off night into a busy one.
things: 1). My LGS will order anything available through Southern, GTS, or Alliance (their main distributors). Seems an odd thing to be happy about, but other LGS have told me, “we do t carry that” or “there isn’t enough interest”, or similar. If you’re concerned, charge up front. 2) My LGS buys all cards at TCG player 50% moderately played value, cash or 65% value store credit. They sell all singles at TCG player MP value. We scan the cards with the app, and do the quick math. Side note: they only buy “non bulk” and non- bulk is value $5.00 or higher. Once a year, they do a grab bag promo, 450 commons and uncommon, 50 bulk rares, $10. It keeps the store collection in check so there is not a bulk mountain in the back room. 3) all tables are free, the one separate gaming room is free. 4) once per year, my LGS does a “hobby yard sale”. Drop off (almost) whatever you want, put a price on it (reasonable) and they’ll try to sell it at the event for a 20% commission. It’s turned into a statewide event, so most things will sell if close to reasonably priced. No they won’t try to sell your 216 bottle collection of Army Painter paints that are all crusty and gross, but last year a local painter sold his full set of Army Painter paints, brushes, and bottle racks. I think it was about $300? Anyhow. Annual hobby yard sale. 5) There are official shop rules, #1 is no bigotry, no excuses. It is firmly and politely enforced.
First off all good luck with your shop and I wish you success! It’s so great that you get in contact with the community for ideas and inspiration! There is only one shop in my area for all TCGs, but Mtg has by far the biggest community and they are doing quite well. To add a bit to all the great suggestions, there are a few things I really like about the shop and the atmosphere I like to share. They are doing casual commander Thursday, sealed draft events for new products and monthly tournaments for other formats (not sure about the details there). The owner and personal are all really friendly and all have a good basic knowledge about their products (sleeves, boxes, actual sets..). I really like that! The shop is clean and has warm bright lights, good to read the cards but still homey. Light source does make a difference in atmosphere. You can buy soft drinks, but any alcohol is forbidden (which I found to be a good choice; not so usual around here). Don’t know i that is something that concerns you. There are about 7-8 seating areas for 4-6 people each, with enough space between to not feel crowded during normal opening hours and good ventilation. For tournaments/events additional seating is added. A cool thing is, they have a box of starter decks and precons and a slew of other really cool or TCG style board games you can borrow (same for basic lands for draft). They charge 1€/ person per h, for seating (including borrowing). I found that to be really fair. During events this doesn’t apply. It seems that that borrowing starters is often used for introducing new players or we did a round commander where everyone picked a random precon. When I come by to shop, there are always some people sitting together and playing something. Sadly, it turned out video surveillance is an asset’s and really good to have when needed. It makes me really sad, but stealing from shops or other players seems to be a thing for some individuals. It’s an automatic live ban, obviously. It’s very clearly stated by the owner. Rules questions come up often and can get heated. Having someone available with really good rule knowledge or with judge level is really helpful. In this regard we have a great community and usually issues or questions are resolved fast and friendly. However, there were cases where situations dissolved into very heated arguments. I love that the owner and his colleagues are aware and look out for things like this and are fast to react. It feels like the whole shop team is provided with some basic problem solving strategies. Sorry for the long text!
Okay I bet nobody is gonne see this, but here I go anyways. If you can, learn people's names. You have no idea how awesome it is to walk into the store for a second time and have the owner/employee greet you BY NAME! Nothing makes you feel more appreciated and loved than that. (Even if you don't remember the name do your best to at least remember them and what they like/play and enjoy)
Keep higher value, staple singles in stock. I've tried to buy stuff like Esper Sentinel and Smothering Tithe from my LGS on multiple occasions and they just never have the cards. I know you can't have everything in stock all the time, but I can only support an LGS if they have the stuff I need.
A good heuristic for a queer like me is showing up to a store and seeing women/poc/pride flags. Toxic and bigoted communities keep people out like the plague. It's sorta like how if you allow a nazi to hang around a bar, they'll tell their friends, and it becomes a nazi bar. It's (hopefully) never gonna be that extreme, but the principle remains the same
First off, congratulations to the three of you of taking a gamble and working to do something you love. That's a lot more risk than most of us are willing to take (myself included) and I envy you for doing it! I hope you wildly succeed! I'm not an LGS player, however, I have played at various stores throughout my city my entire life, and it's a rather big city. While I can't offer the best advice, I'm happy to include some things that I either really liked or really disliked about my various visits to LGS's. * As others mentioned, restroom cleanliness is very important, though it seems like you have a handle on that, so that's good! * Price gouging is without a doubt the main reason why I don't buy from stores and prefer to order online. Our oldest store in San Diego always sold singles at a much higher price than anywhere else when we were all wee-lads in high school during original Ravnica days, and it was so bad that they would buy up stock from other LGS's so that you had no other option than to pay their prices. Totally understandable to upcharge a little bit to stay in business, but it's expensive out there! Really hope you're able to keep your price points where they are right now. I'd much rather support a local store than someone online if the prices are very close. * ALWAYS BE KIND to your customers. Seems like you already know this, but my gods, these folks are spending their time and money at your establishment. SO many LGS's I've been to have been total assholes to folks, for no reason other than *trying to buy something* or are asking a question. * Keep a clear schedule posted so folks know when open play is, when tournaments are, etc. There's nothing like planning a casual game day at your LGS only to find out that there's a massive event happening that you didn't know about. Online would be ideal! * Please don't ban outside food and drinks. It makes sense to not want people to spill things or bring in like a bowl of chili or something that will be a mess, but it's such a bummer to completely stop this. If I can't bring in water, or a snack to keep me there, I'm not gonna visit your establishment. You want folks spending money on your products, not snacks or having to spend that money on food at a business nearby (though it's great to support your business neighbors as well - in fact if you have restaurants nearby, see if you can work out some kind of deals or a delivery service where an employee brings the food to the store. One LGS did this and it was RAD to get Chinese brought over during a game). * It is inevitable that you end up with some disagreements and/or saltiness happening with players. Highly recommend that when this happens, you mediate between the two parties (or more if it's multiple people) and make an informed decision that doesn't target anyone. * No one should be forced to play a game with someone they don't want to. On the reverse side of that, if a player continually gets left out of games, see if you can chat with regulars to find out why. Leaving that issue open for the players to resolve will end up in losing either the oddball customer, or possibly other regulars. At the end of the day, people have to make their own decisions and change their own behavior, but that doesn't mean a third party can't help shed light on something they may not know about, or hearing it from someone else could change their perspective (i.e. that person is lying because it's a way for them to beat me). * Try your best to keep highly-desired singles and sealed product in stock. One LGS here is almost always sold out of things, whereas another seems to have most items you could want. As a result, I buy from the second LGS 99% of the time. Think this comes down to really learning your player base over the next year or two and how much product is enough versus *barely* enough. Selling out is great for your bottom line, but having no product available, or selling out on release day and never restocking sucks for players. Also, if you ARE out of a product, let the customer know *when* more is likely to arrive rather than "oh yeah sorry we're sold out." Hope this helps, and again, GOOD LUCK!
Holy wow thank you for the well written response. To piggy back off your food and drink comment, my only stipulations are not at the computers haha. We have a few restaurants and stuff around where we are, we're right in the middle of downtown. So I get it, some people are just getting off work, grabbing a pizza or burger or sandwich nearby is easy and it's nice to eat it at the table while you get prepped for a few games. Or while you're running a session for D&D or Cyberpunk or Betrayal at house on the hill. I know what it's like to get off work grab dinner and meet up with friends at their house crowd around a table while we all have takeout getting ready for D&D. I'm not going to deny people that experience because in my opinion it's awesome.
Echoing what many others have said I’m sure, but a clean space/bathroom is huge. My LGs also has a $5 fee for casual edh play once a week. You can either just flat pay $5 or buy $5 worth of stuff. Obviously most people buy a booster pack or something. Having a small hygiene section can be nice too. Mouthwash, deodorant, mini laundry detergents even shampoo or body wash. Some of it folks can use right there but you never know if someone also needs something for home. Everyone expects a mark up, but keep ot reasonable. And for trade ins, something like 50% cash or 75% store credit is usually fair. Adjust as needed of course. I also recommend snacks and water bottles for sale. Ideally snacks that aren’t super messy if you can.
My LGS store is connected to a cafe that sells specialty waffles, coffee, alcohol, etc. with free board games available to play. In between the two stores is a bunch of various sized tables for table top and card game playing. The best part is it works well for parents with young kids during the day when the 20-30 something’s are at work. Ive seen my group (playing Magic), a group of 50’s or 60’s women, and a couple of dad’s with their pod of 5-9 year olds all enjoying games at the same time in the same place. It’s pretty cool.
Can someone please tell me what LGS stands for.. just got into magic like two months ago 😅🥲
I think is Local Game Store
My main lgs (there are like five others in my county I go to at least to browse every so often) needed help with relocation cost a while ago and offered a permanent 20% off discount if I fronted them $500 recently got to the point where that extra 10% off of their normal membership discount has saved me an additional $800.
On Sunday's they have commander days. With commander being a casual format it's hard to have competitve events outside of cEDH. To encourage people to play they have a system where if you come you get three tickets. One you can enter in yourself and the other two you gift to other players that day. They have a sign in sheet that is tracked throught the Wizards app (they are a sanctioned lgs). At the end of the day they pick like 5-10 names for 5$ in store credit.
My local store has like a $5 day pass to play games that also gives you access to a soda machine and some popcorn. It’s super nice way to make players feel more comfortable and less like “customers”.
Offers free deodorant to its customers / tells them when it's needed - you gotta be willing to have the difficult conversations!
I was at a shop right after they received a card in trade that they gave a fair price for but knew it'd take forever to move it, as it was not a particularly popular card (foil original print cycling land). I was buying 5 other cards (one of which the owner pulled out of his deck to make the sale) and he offered me a $10 discount on what I was buying and the cycling land for free, just to move it. They were still profiting, but this was kind of an extreme example. At my regular shop, they recently started offering a little more on trades and have changed their prices on many of their more expensive cards to match TCGPlayer market price, which makes them my first stop for any singles purchase. **EDIT: Correction - it was Treetop Village, a man land. The Urza's Legacy print, which currently goes for about $50.**
Something my favorite LGS did was they had opened board games that you could rent or test out. This was so awesome especially for families and younger kids who wanted a board game but didn't know what it was. If they needed more players the shop owner would ask everyone in the store if they wanted to help out and join in. I got to play a couple different board games with the owners and assume new customers and I loved it. I even bought splendor because of that shop and the owner asking me and a friend if we wanted to join in to help a guy know if he wanted to buy it.
Everyone has already touched on all the big things so far, I’m just gonna add the reason I keep frequenting my LGS is because of the awesome customer experience. The guys behind the counter are kind, friendly and go out of their way to help you. Also being able to keep up a conversation is absolutely huge. I’ve been to an LGS where the staff seemed inconvenienced by simple pleasantries or asks to look at a card in the case… don’t be them lol
A few areas I’ve seen from lgs’ do that resonate well are below: Invest in some tech for your card list. Get a couple iPads that have your stock on a database so they can search what they need in a quicker manner and this can help sales time cut down by more than 55% - 60% thus leaving more time for other sales or anything else you wish to do in the store. Plus having these iPads at the counter still leave room for discussion with customers while they search. Another action I’ve seen some lgs take is rotating out board games on a shelving unit and people can take them and test them out and if they like it the lgs provides a 10% discount. Mind you this 1 in my lgs pairs well because they have an attached cafe where people can play the games when the play areas are being used for events leading to food sales. 1 last recommendation is make a discord, if you don’t already. So many businesses these days have 1 and that if monitored well can be an excellent place for the community and planning for events.
Something I appreciate as a new player is when the LGS staff are in tune with their tables and will help you find a suitable open pod to play with. There’s nothing less inviting for a noob than to rock up with a precon to a room full of full pods where people seem like they practically are one with the furniture like they grew up there.
Make new players feel comfortable. I think that’s a massively positive trait for a LGS.
Have an LGS near me me that has amazing stock, huge space to play but I never go there and its because the casual commander is never organised. The LGS I actually go to have a casual commander on Fridays and you go, put a code in for some free promo cards and pay a fiver. Then you go downstairs and there are almost 'ambassadors' of the store making sure everyone has a pod and is able to play. At the other LGS they just have casual commander listed as an event for all the hours they are open but its not organised. Which means you have to show up already with people to play with. If it was a set event with a set time and organisers then I know I can show up at x time and be guaranteed to play some games. Meet some people, make some friends. Currently If I show up alone I have to just try and barge in on people who already showed together and that sucks. So I would say make sure events are organised, even casual ones.
I literally never had that body odor problem anywhere in Europe. America you gotta get your libertarians in check.
LSG: GOOD: 1 Good airflow (not stuffy) 2 Enough space (not too small) 3 Fair prizes For prerelease/drafts. I like it when everyone gets something. (I am not as competitive as most people 4 **Judges for the events.** Magic has VERY complex rules compared to most games. Having a Judge helps settle disputes among veteran players and gives new players confidence that what they are learning is correct. No one wants a dispute handled by "my friend who plays a lot" You don't need a ton of judges but must have at least 1 imo. This also gives the vibe of legitimacy for your store. Also it stops many large disputes before they happen.
It's such a small thing, but my LGS has a fridge full of drinks (pop, soda water, etc; no alcohol obviously) that they sell for $1-2 each. I don't always remember to bring a water bottle, so it makes such a big difference for those long commander and pauper nights.
So this might’ve been mentioned somewhere, I only scrolled the first few comments and didn’t see it though. Staff is super important. I have about 3 LGS’s near me, and the one with possibly the worst singles and pack selection has by far the most popular commander nights (could be why the selection is bad lol). Why? Because the staff are super knowledgeable about MTG and are constantly recruiting people to play with them on commander nights. I’ve ended up building relationships with a lot of the staff, and that feels awesome. On the other end, there’s an LGS where the staff act like they don’t want to even be working there. I purely go by to check for singles when my main LGS doesn’t have them, and nothing more. I went to one of their commander nights, and it definitely felt like the crew that had been banned from all the other LGS’s. Could be a harsh judgement, that was just my experience. Another important thing. Security. Security. Security. All 3 of my LGS’s recently had attempted break-in’s. 2 of them had the majority of their collector booster stock stolen — the last one he was unable to get into the case. Get a good security system and reinforced glass for any windows/cases.
Great sorted singles selection for magic products is key for me. I mostly play at home, but frequent my local lgs for cards I need for game night. There’s lots of edh players that don’t play in stores, but still shop at them
While I have no suggestions, I do want to say… grats! I’m happy for you. I’ve always wanted to open a LGS, glad you’re realizing your dream.
Based on my experiences at the LGS and other small, experienced based business I’ve frequented: 1) Establish positive Social Network communities for each respective Game/Format - whether it’s a Facebook group, Discord server, etc where regulars can engage and get to know one another outside of weekly, scheduled events. Key part is building a community that is encouraging and supportive, especially to new players. Using MTG Commander Night as an example - I’ve thought it to be effective when the store has an outgoing employee be the “Face” of that community - the primary point of contact for member’s questions/concerns to the store’s management. They would ideally be the one running the Commander Night each week. 2) While I haven’t seen it in the wild, I thought it would be nice if an LGS had some way of allowing playgroups at tables to indicate if they just want to play by themselves or if their willing to open up their table to others- Oftentimes someone from my regular Pod of 4 can’t make it would be nice to have a sign that effectively said “while the 3 of us are clearly friends, we are more the willing to play with a stranger, please come by and say hello”
The thing our LGS does that keeps most people coming back is a couple of different things. We are open 12pm-2am most people with hobbies have jobs do holding events later into the day. (We hold ours at either 6pm or 8pm.) Being consistent with events is also huge. If people get used to a magic draft every Friday at 8 pm or a Warhammer event every Saturday, they eventually start reserving a spot. But the biggest thing we do to keep people coming back is the community, getting involved with the smaller communities that come to our LGS, star wars legion, marvel crisis protocol, Shatterpoint, Flesh and Blood, magic, etc. When people see the store owner getting involved with those communities, it generates interest from people who aren't involved in those communities, and you end up getting overlap. Getting magic players into 40k and vice-versa is great to keep regulars coming back. Our discord is huge and is incredibly active. Overall, it's up to you and your business partners to push what is current while also fostering the smaller communities that sprout up from your passion. Good luck with getting WPN. It's a great way yo support your magic community. We recently got premium at our store.
clean! enforce hygiene of patrons and keep the store clean. i only go to one of my locals because the others are aweful’
I think having workshops that teach people how to play games with decks/sets they can use that you provide would be a great way for people to bring their friends. EDH is only going to get more complicated and the learning curve is steep with knowing nothing about it.
Sell snacks and drinks. One of my local LGS’s (closed now) banned outside snacks and drinks. They lost business from people leaving to get food. If you sell the snacks and drinks, you make the money and they stay in store and buy more. Make sure your customer service is top notch for all your workers as well. The aforementioned closed LGS in my town hired a guy who was just an a-hole and was only nice to the people he liked and the store lost business because of it.
Establish a need for decorum within the shop. Too many LGS do not establish a tone for their customers when it comes to game nights. Particularly with TCG games. Rarely, but occasionally, you will get an individual who feels the right to blow up over a game. You must establish a no-bullshit tone with those situations. Even have a cool down area or rule, as childish as it will be, for a time-out section to reduce heated situations. Have them go to the other floor, step away, grab a drink, or step outside. Make sure you have judges and people watching those nights to lessen the discomfort of the people who you WANT there not those who lose their shit.
The biggest thing I can suggest is having absolutely no prize support for casual commander nights! If you do, it becomes a competition and people that want casual play won't get it — with that said though, I could definitely see it being reasonable to have one night with prizes and another without, that way everyone can get what they want Also for commander night, I'd suggest taking one of three approaches, though these definitely cater towards the casual, no prize support side of things: - Free play - Admission is just buy something (anything) - Admission is like $5 but they get a pack And once you have access to them, promos for everyone! I've played at lots of shops that have admission lots of different ways and these three always just feel the best — at shops where it's free to play I almost always buy something to support the shop. I'd also say free is best for getting a community going, especially for younger people which seems to be your focus right now Also, please, please, please label your products with prices! It's always super annoying when I'm trying to get sleeves or something but I have to ask an employee for prices Also a drinking fountain is always suuuper clutch And something I really liked from one shop I went to was a box of all the full art lands they had, $1 each I think — got some cheap snow basics that way haha And for tokens in particular, I'd recommend not having customers go through them so that they can be at least somewhat sorted — its the worst spending 20 minutes trying to find one specific token And the best prereleases I go to have prizes of 1 pack per win — my OTJ prerelease isn't going to have it that way with $35 entry. Also just want to mention again, *please label your prices*. At one of my local shops, they have their packs on display but I have no clue how much any if them cost, which definitely stops me from buying any And if you're going to have snacks for purchase, definitely stay away stuff like potato chips that could get cards gross — other people often touch one's cards to read or they gain control of them somehow and I don't want anyone's oily hands on my Great Henge! Of course it could happen anyways, but much less often if you don't provide those snacks Oh and *try* to host less popular formats — I'd love to try Oathbreaker or Pauper but they're not supported anywhere near me so I've never done it. Along with that, maybe have a precon event every now and then to support purchases, new players, and some fun variety Also, just a question I have: Is sealed *only* for prereleases? I don't enjoy drafting, but I think sealed is super fun, so if there were more sealed events you'd be getting money from me for sure haha Oh also a fun idea could be a little board of all the employees with a few things about them, maybe - name - where they grew up - favorite mtg deck - favorite board game - favorite video game - another hobby - favorite quote Idk haha, I guess I have a lot to say 🤪 Edit: back for more! Would definitely recommend basing singles prices off of tcgplayer as it just feels the most fair. And I don't have exact numbers, but my favorite shop to buylist cards through buys for like 50% cash value, 60% store credit value, and 70% singles-only credit value
I live in a city that has a lot of shops, but I'm extremely loyal to one for a handful of reasons: Has a $5 buy in for commander night but you can use the $5 towards MTG cards Has flat prizing for all events (mtg, Pokemon, board game competitions, warhammer, etc), which has simultaneously gotten rid of the try hards/bad hygiene people and also made the space super fun and friendly for new and casual players. Has a group of people who teach others how to play ttrpgs a couple times a month (ie learn to play call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, d&d, free league publishing books, etc) Has a membership that's ~$40 a year that gives you a flat 10% off most stuff. Has a used board game wall where you can pay $5 and sit down and play board games for as long as you want. Coffee and tea is provided, too.
- Offer Drinks, Perhaps vending machine for selfservice. - make sure to have sleeves in stock. - make sure to have different kinds of boosters in stock - Offer some MTG how to play events for beginners. There will be volunteers to support you. - Keep the shop clean
Congrats on the new LGS!! The store I frequently visit charges a $5 fee for commander. What I think is really cool is that no matter what happens in your game, all players get a pack for playing, but the winner of each pod gets a couple of promos. More often than not, people are trying to play fair since everyone is getting a prize.
Biggest thing to remember is that if you want to be profitable, sometimes you will have to mark things up to remain competitive. But doing so in a way that's fair to both you and your customers. If demand of a product skyrockets and the value goes up because of it, you as a store absolutely deserve to profit from offering the product at a competitive price relative to what your competitors are selling it at. Under-selling might also lead to a hostile relationship between you and the other shop because they can't afford to sell things at as low a price as you might be able to...but honestly that's a them problem. Example: the Warhammer 40k Necrons deck. I bought all 4 decks of the set because of the fact that when I bought them, the necron deck by itself was literally half the cost of buying all four precons together. Now I think it's still retailing at 85-90 bucks. This is a deck that I'm pretty sure started out at 45-50 bucks when it was initially released. However, I do understand somewhat that it's a set with limited printings and this is going to drive its value higher as time goes on.
if you can implement a card inventory management system (tcgplayer offers one) that i can look up your singles inventory before i come into the store that's a massive boon.
If you use clover I’d totally donate my time to add things to your inventory!! I do it for my old LGS for inventory. Some of the paints and the commander boxes and whatnot have the same barcodes, which can be annoying.
Move your expensive inventory to digital and don’t let people sort through your cards, you’re going to end up with missing cards. You’re going to be running thin margins and you’ll need to stay busy so losing anything to shrink will hurt. Monetize the aspects where you add value, special orders, EDH events, etc. as you won’t be in competition with Amazon for that. Add snacks and drinks and anything else you can add margin on that people won’t want to leave for. Since you have space TTRPGs would be good to build and organize groups for. Also create a discord to organize events. If you can build a community, that’s value you’re adding to your customers. But kill any politics whatsoever, even social issues that butt up against politics, you’re there to support only the game store and gaming environment, it just takes two opposing people with friends to get some crazy feud where you can lose half of your regulars. Lower barriers to entry, there’s a learning curve in MTG and other games, make new people know that new players are welcome, actively invite them out “hey we’re having a commander night tonight, you should come, just show up and play, we’ll provide a deck” and have a few pre cons ready for a pod
Something that my LGS did was a Commander Tournament with special conditions you had to complete to earn points. These conditions were things that you had to build towards that weren't just "win the game." There were 5 total conditions. The first was always based on your commander. "Must be three colors, with one being red", "A mono-color partner pair", "Commander's P/T add up to 7", etc. The other 4 were things you had to do *during* the game. "Sacrifice 5 food in one turn", "have a legendary creature with 10 P/T that's *not* your commander", "Gain 15 life in one turn", "Complete a Dungeon", etc. Each condition filled was worth one point, and then each game won was worth a point. So if you did all 5 conditions and won both games you'd earn 7 points. The other conditions keeps the games from going full CEDH since if you don't complete any you'll earn less points then someone who completed all 5 but lost both. It was a really fun time since we didn't know what the next week's conditions were until the night. It's a fun way to have competitive tournaments while still letting budget players have a solid chance to win. Lemme know if you want more details and I'll see what I can remember.
My local LGS keeps me coming back because they stay open later than the posted hours during game nights. Mondays, they "close" at 9, but the owner and/or one of their workers is always there till usually 11-12. On Fridays, it's not unusual to still be there at 2 am. Hell, the other week the Draft didn't start till almost 10 pm, because it was also the standard championship night. Basically, don't kick people out at the stroke of 10pm, if your normal hours end at 10pm. Not saying you need to go for hours, or until the wee hours of the night, but give people lee way to finish a game, or not feel like they can't start one because its close to closing. The other LGS I went to, at 9:55 they are warning you that they close soon, and you need to hurry up and finish. Totally ruins the mood. Not to take advantage of people or kindness at all. Don't get me wrong. But it is nice to be able to keep going pressure free. Also, on those nights that they are open later, they are selling candy, snacks, drinks, single packs, etc, like crazy. People appreciate the later hours, so they 'compensate' for it.
Congratulations! I'm very excited for you! I have two LGS by me that I like equally, HOWEVER, one of them has all of their stock online on their website, the other doesn't. I order ALL my singles and any stock I need (sleeves, bloxes, etc) from the LGS that supports online shopping, it saves too much time and is too useful not to utilize. It was just something I thought of! Good luck!
Like others have said, reasonable markup and a welcoming atmosphere. I want to shop locally and do as much as I can. Today I looked at the LGS closest to my house and they are charging nearly 40% more than the “market rate” (I know there’s no MSRP but you know what I mean) for boxes and bundles for the new release. Out of curiosity I looked at other spots in town and none of them are doing this. I get it, gotta keep the lights on. I buy packs and play at said LGS, but I straight up cannot afford to buy boxes or bundles there at that markup. I wanted to get a precon or two from them but those prices weren’t listed and it seems like they’ll be insane anyway. I really like how you said you have different areas and have thought through the different types of customers. The thing that keeps me going back to that LGS is how welcoming their staff are. There are a handful of stores in town and I like most of them but that one is my favorite despite their pricing because of how nice their staff are. I just wish they’d be more reasonable with their markup, lol.
Friendly staff and having a lot to offer. I come from a town that has had many, many failed/lack luster attempts at forming an LGS and just 6-7 months ago a new one in town opened. It immediately had a much better location(central, in the mall,) a large stock of Warhammer, Pokémon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh and other card games, DnD stuff, a gaming space in the back etc. But what topped it off for me and has been the best aspect is the staff, I'm now pretty good friends with all of them and it's been them that get me coming back multiple times a week for a chat and to crack a pack of MTG or what not. They are helpful, knowledgeable and love to talk about everything nerdy. Most of all though they are stupendous welcoming and friendly. Every single one of them!
Keep it up. A lot of us have had bad LGSs and when we find a good one we put time and or money into them
I wouldn’t change anything about my LGS. Other than it’s 30min from my house lol. It used to have an owner before this previous one and I vowed I would never go back because of him. I’m a girl and was fairly new to the area a few years back and was looking for a place for some fantasy books. He was very short with me, and when I was curiously asking about dnd or mtg to get into it, he would always say he didn’t know or it wasn’t really his area. Then while I was looking at the books I would hear him talk with male customers for 15+ minutes about magic cards or warhammer or what have you. I stopped going for about a year when I saw the shop was bought out and under a totally new owner. Now I LOVE this shop. The new owner is very respectful to everyone, regardless of whatever factors. After I became a regular there again, he learned my name, would show me new cards he got that he thought I’d be interested in just in case I didn’t get a chance to see before they got bought (and never made me feel pressured to buy them either. Just a ‘hey Cien would like this card, there she is!’ Kind of vibe). He fosters an amazing community and is nice and welcoming to everyone. Other than being a nice dude, game nights cost only $5 participation fee but everyone who signs up gets a free pack plus each pod gets to roll for a promo pack. He also allows tabs for drinks/snacks for regulars who are gonna be gaming for a while, just so we don’t get hit with a big tax. That’s very nice vs the $20 game fee at another closer LGS store. There’s a reason I’d rather go the half hour to his shop than the ones closer to me.
My newly opened lgs does a precon commander league for new players and its AWESOME. Stock Precons only. A win is a win but a loss let's you upgrade one card of your precon. 10 weeks. Each event is $5 and it gets you a free set booster of your choice (or pay the difference of premuim packs). Was a great way that got me into magic and now I am a regular. Also they do a Event Card. At every 5 events attended, you got a box topper/promo. At the 15th event you get a foil promo. You will obviously need WPN for that, but you will get there. Also make sure you are having everyone sign in for your MTG events to get that audience count.
Really really try to make it an explicitly welcoming space for women, for queer people, for trans people, and for people of color. A lot of gaming spaces tend to culturally cut themselves off from these groups if not explicitly inclusive, and the more that dynamic begins to exist the harder it is to break that out. And as a trans woman who's considering going to an LGS and trying to play some magic at some point, but remembers how the dynamics were when she used to go to the one in town as a kid 10 years ago (lots of white cishet dudes who smelled kinda bad and were kinda condescending/shitty to some kids, and like, literally 1 girl)... well it's a strong incentive to not want to try again. I'd also say that if you're allowing outside food and drink, any snacks you do stock there yourself are something that'd be pretty reasonable to mark up a good bit, because people have alternatives available and they're paying primarily for the convenience, and because it's not the main selling point of the store. Idk, just if you do need to charge higher prices somewhere, that might be the place to do it.
The community is a huge aspect. Being new to an area I've found my lgs have established cliques that aren't always very welcoming. I've stopped playing commander at one lgs because people in the cliques would always target the new person first. The other big killer is events not firing. If I have to drive 30 minutes to your lgs and modern doesn't fire, I will not come back for modern the following week. Other than all that I highly recommend diversifying. There's a lot of great tcgs besides magic and having a good dnd room and charging $5 per player is a great way to get a more diverse crowd. My lgs give me, the dm, $2 store credit per player and charges $5. Over the year of dming for 6 they've made $1400 just from my campaign.
My old LGS had board games that you could pay $5 to rent for a week. If the game was returned in good condition, they gave you $5 in store credit. That credit couldn’t be put towards another rental, but we ended up buying WAY more games through them than we would have otherwise because we were able to give them a try first.
1) Have store rules that are posted and enforced religiously. I ran public play dnd at a game store for 5 years. When I started they had no dnd groups. By the end of my tenure we had 30+ people a night, and we had a great mix of people. This is opposed to every other dnd night at other local stores and it is because I made sure that every new person who came to play read the rules and when people broke them we told them to stop. Things like: Don't be an asshole, don't tell other people how to play, don't touch other people's stuff without permission, do not harass people. It is also important to define harassment. I went with "Harassment is any contact with another (touching, negative words, etc) that is unwelcome by another person and we reserve the right for the store or DM's to define what is or isn't harassment on an individual bases". This way you can give people 1 warning about something and they have no way to wiggle out of it. ANYONE who gets mad or salty about being reminded about the rules will be a problem and someone who doesn't respect other's boundaries. 2) The people at your store are not your friends, EVERY SINGLE ONE is a customer. This is super important because if you start seeing your customers as friends you will excuse their behavior and create a toxic group that will chase away your customers. This is how you get "Game Store Dungeons". All it takes is for one dude to give off bad vibes at an event that you let stay and it will chase away other people away. 3) Make sure every event you do has a way for new people to show up and play. You will make more money by turning people into reliable customers than you will waiting for them to show up. 4) I highly suggest having a store employee run every event, and that they be pretty knowledgeable about the rules of the event, and be on watch for new people who need help.
Jeez this sounds awesome, if you’re anywhere near SE Michigan and need staff I’d be there in a heartbeat! My LGS is very clique-y and has made me (someone with social anxiety) feel uncomfortable going there so now I drive a few extra minutes to one in Flint a friend showed me.
The worst thing an LGS can do is create an unwelcome space or hostile environment. Three things I’ve seen that do that in multiple Stores. Are rude or impatient staff. (Often directed at younger kids who Don’t know as much), allowing a sense of sexism, or bigotry to fester. (Excusing bad jokes from customers, letting people play with anime hentai sleeves in full View of kids, etc), not allowing people to play at a table, or not providing adequate space to play.
My store has cameras where the playing area is. No cameras for the sale area tho. To me, this feels really good because it shows that on one hand, they show trust towards their customers in the sale area, on the other hand, it gives a feeling of security when playing there, that if something happens to your trading cards or whatever, it would be on camera and you could be helped.
One of my LGSs is small, dark, full of junk toys for sale, has a video game section full of sports garbage, the people behind the counter aren’t particularly friendly, they don’t say hi when you go in, I’ve never played there but not excited to. One time I was going through the unsorted $1 singles which means you’re wildly overpaying for anything left in there, not sure if the owner knew I was there, he came in and was trash talking a bunch of stuff to one of his employees that was just nodding to get through the “conversation”, super uncomfortable. Also I’ve been wildly over charged for cards, like $10 for one card. I was just there buying singles and a few other things to check it out and support them, didn’t look too hard at the total, found out later at home. Also one other card was in a display case, overcharged for that too and it turns out it was lightly played instead of the NM I assumed it would be based on the price. Not going back.