bagheadinc
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Day 1: Our little comic and gaming shop barely had enough inventory to cover our walls and fixtures!
Day 1: Our play area with folding tables and chairs
Today: We spent the downtime during quarantine and revamped play area with quality tables and chairs
Today: A wall of games
Today: Replaced old cardboard comic boxes with sturdy plastic ones
Today: Overall, I'm super happy with how our store has progressed through our first year
Our hard work paid off and we managed to become the first WPN Premium store in Maryland! Looking forward to continuing to improve every day and always strive to be better than we were yesterday!
NorseNanuq
Amazing, keep up the good work! Hope you folks are recovering well after the quarantine.
EmporerDragon
#4 I only own 50 of the games pictured there. Looks like I need to build up my collection some more.
LegoMnementh
Shop looks great! Keep up the good work! The struggle is real, I just announced my second retail store (toys/games/hobbies)
thatwoodguy
Reminds me of the 40k stuff I bought in the 80s.
dante979
Gloomhaven player here :) looks great!
TrancedJoe
Looks great! If I'm ever in the area will swing in by!
carlsagansghost
MTG. Keeping hobby shops in the black since 1995. :)
PEnsing
Congratz! Looks amazing, I hope your business continues to thrive! :)
werix
Good on you! I just got into 40k right before COVID, but I've still been buying minis to support them, even if it isn't safe to play yet.
refjazzy
I love supporting local game shops. Keep up the great work!
CassanovaFrankenstain
I’ll take that entire wall of D&D minis and terrain sets I see.
TheDreadPirateMontoya
That username... I love that film.
bagheadinc
Those are our best selling item. Hard to believe a year ago we only had about 10 minis on our wall. Now we have over 400 different minis!
Blatantperformer
Really looks like a nice place... Congrats!
BobbieNell
Nice looking store!
Cthulhukitten
inspirational
L0rd0fTheN00BS
Where in Maryland?
bagheadinc
Easton, MD
Timetoupdatemyusername
Where is this store located and do you have a house for sale nearby?
L0rd0fTheN00BS
Where in Maryland?
Clemptor
If you're still thriving and building after THIS shit-show of a year, you're good.
Dragohax7777
Loves me some games, especially mtg
moonsaves
"Little" - I'd kill to have a gaming shop anywhere near as big as that in my town.
nopenopenopenothanks
Where in Maryland? I’m in the area.
bagheadinc
We're on the Eastern Shore, in Easton, MD
Apothecarius
I'd do a draft tournament there. Nice job!
Nautas
Good luck mate, having a LGS right now must be a struggle during this time.
Mach30ThatsFasterThanMostPlanesCanGo
People in my area (Idaho) are just pretending COVID isn't real. LGS's are doing fine. I won't go to one, though
iguanodont
I don't know - mtg seems to be releasing new product on a bi-weekly basis and people seem to keep buying it.
bagheadinc
Thanks! Definitely not ideal circumstances. We're super lucky that our amazing community has continued to support us during this time
ThomasThundersword
y’all got a website for us out of staters to support?
bagheadinc
Sure do. We spent time during the shutdown to get our inventory cataloged onto the site. portalsshop.com
ThomasThundersword
sweet ty
Oakshand
Depends on your community. I manage a small one in NJ and we are still doing fine. Little lower than we'd like but holding in the black!
40legger
What’s LGS mean? Is that like a store where you actually play the games there instead of buying them?
Nautas
It’s just a Local Game Store and yeah pretty much.
40legger
Gotcha thanks, yeah I imagine that’s rough right now.
enkrypt3d
LGS?
Dimawho
As someone who works in an LGS without events since March, the releases this year on all the major TCGs would keep anyone afloat.
Dimawho
MTG, YGO, and Pokemon have not released a subpar product all year. I know for a fact we sold over 1400 boxes of Ikoria.
SpannerInTheWorx
As a MTG Vendor myself - well played. You're investing into you & your customer's experience. Well done.
bagheadinc
Customer experience is our #1 priority. We have an awesome community, our regulars are practically family at this point
SpannerInTheWorx
Keep that goal in sight - the money will come. It's the services that keeps people coming back again & again.
BurtTyrannosaurusMacklinFBl
I see Gloomhaven! On my wishlist, is it good?
bagheadinc
If you like complex games with a lot of story and role-play, it's awesome. It's best with a few friends who enjoy those games as well :)
BurtTyrannosaurusMacklinFBl
Friends and I are huge Catan nerds and thought of dabbling in DnD and I thought this would be a good stepping stone. Is it?
bagheadinc
Yeah, that's a great way to view it, as a bridge between board games and traditional RPG. If you haven't yet, check out Jaws of the Lion...
bagheadinc
It's a standalone expansion to Gloomhaven. It's a much more wallet friendly entry point and kind of like buying Gloomhaven-lite
bagheadinc
It's actually a prequel, so if you like it, you can continue the adventure with your same characters in the full Gloomhaven!
aghosh93
Where in Maryland I'd love to visit after all this is done
bagheadinc
Easton, MD on the Eastern Shore
chaotropicagent
Looks great! When I was growing up, a local store had a “painting day” where you paid a flat fee to paint miniatures using communal paints
Zarital
I like this idea. Maybe even having some community folks who are better at painting on hand to give some tips before hand. Or a pamphlet.
Drennen
Mine used to have a couple days a year that they would buy plywood, paint it white and invite graffiti artists to make designs on it.
mattrixk
A place in the valley used to have mini painting nights. Pay a flat fee and everything is supplied: mini, paints, brushes, etc.
mattrixk
Unfortunately I only discovered it after the virus shut everything down.
TurtleOwODoom
There is a store here in Reykjavík that did the same thing, except you could paint one figure for free per week, don't know if they still do
Leeuwerik
What is the store called? I am hopefuly going to iceland next year and might be able to visit reykjavik too.
TurtleOwODoom
The store is called nexus
chaotropicagent
I don’t know if it was profitable, but there were always people buying new figures and painting and it’s a warm memory for me
Asadsadsadclown
Events need not be profitable if they produce regular customers.
chaotropicagent
So...need not be profitable if they’re profitable?
Asadsadsadclown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader Correct.
VaultGirl69
The owner of the store usually let's us use 5-6 paints. We get one special/new release of the mini and supplies free for volunteering.
VaultGirl69
Sometimes it's paid for by the mini manufacturer. They give it to the store at cost. I love volunteering teaching people how to paint!
bagheadinc
Pre-pandemic we had monthly paint days run by a former Games Workshop employee who gave pointers and advice. Lots of fun for all
Baromian
I wonder if game stores would be able to do a virtual work shop. It may keep people involved and keep the community until its ok again.
3P3references
At my local games place, my schtick is that I've got this king of spades from an ordinary card deck and I smuggle it into games. >
3P3references
Most of the cards for everything are in card protector sleeves, so I can slip in the KoS overtop of a regular card when nobody's looking >
3P3references
and avoid messing up play that way. My favourite was the time I got it into the Sheriff of Nottingham hold bag, and bluffed the sheriff >
Oakshand
wooo game stores unite! we've been busting our butts trying to get premium lately but hopefully we can secure it soon@
bagheadinc
Awesome! Best of luck in your endeavors! Have you already reached out to your WotC rep regarding premium?
Oakshand
Yep, weve had a few conversations and the last set of photos and video they sent to other countries so heres hoping!
WhereIsMyAppleQuava
Good luck keeping 40k products in stock. They keep running out here in Oz.
bagheadinc
Lol, all of our copies of Indomitus were gone by the end of launch day. We got a decent amount of the starter boxes though
WhereIsMyAppleQuava
Yeah I am bummed I didn't find out about until after launch. Kept myself blind to enjoy the experience. Want some LGS customer feedback?
bagheadinc
Always happy to hear feedback!
WhereIsMyAppleQuava
1. Neatly arrange the store into separate sections so products from different ranges from the same brand is easy to find. (Happened to me)
WhereIsMyAppleQuava
2. Ensure that any board games you have are in easy to reach spots with plenty of aisle space. Annoying getting crammed with other customers
supremecheesehoffinator
I find it wild that gaming shops very similar regardless where you are. Looks like a place in Manchester U.K.
JetFuelEnema
Qualifying to be a WPM premium store sort of requires it; they have some really dumb requirements.
supremecheesehoffinator
That's weird but interesting. I'm gonna wind up seeing it wherever I go now
bagheadinc
Luckily the only requirement that we found strange was not being able to use the display boxes our candy comes in (had to get wire bins)
bagheadinc
Everything else lined up with upgrades we already had planned for the store
JetFuelEnema
is hella inviting and very aesthetically pleasing, just not by Wizard's standards.
JetFuelEnema
requirement for matching chairs and tables alone would cost $20K in renovations. Anyone who's been there though knows that the place (2/x)
JetFuelEnema
Building from the ground up, it's very doable, but my FLGS for example was established well before Premium was a thing and the (1/x)
Eikre
Yeah I'm looking at the store locator for my area and, wow, some very worthy contenders are not making WOTC's cut for "premium."