New Store Ideas, Let Me Know What You Think

[midwest gamer]

Hey guys and gals-

I am thinking about opening a new gaming store and I wanted ask for any inputs you all have.

I will let you know what my thoughts are and any and all comments are welcome. These are in no particular order.

1st- I will offer more trade in allowance and the prices of the games will be better than GS.

2nd- I will buy, sell, trade USED GAMES ONLY. Also, I will only focus on PS3, XBOX 360 and Wii games.

3rd- I am going to go hard on tournaments. I will make sure they are lucrative for me and my gamers.

4th- All employess will have to play games at work to make sure they can talk about those games to others.

5th- A membership that actually has a benefit to gamers and not juts a free magazine.

6th- 42" LCD monitors and gaming platforms that actually work to be able to test a game before plopping down $25 or $50 bucks on a game.

Here is the biggest question I have for you guys though, and that is if I was able to offer "members" $10 more in trade for a game, what would that be worth to you in a yearly membership?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions-

B



4th-

[cochesecochese]

Jackpot!

[Scorch]

[quote]1st- I will offer more trade in allowance and the prices of the games will be better than GS.

Good

2nd- I will buy, sell, trade USED GAMES ONLY. Also, I will only focus on PS3, XBOX 360 and Wii games.

HORRIBLE. PS2 is still the main seller of all systems, trailed by GBA. If you're in it for money, include PS2 and GBA games.

4th- All employess will have to play games at work to make sure they can talk about those games to others.

Good. Employees should know what they're talking about. I enjoy playing games at my job :D

6th- 42" LCD monitors and gaming platforms that actually work to be able to test a game before plopping down $25 or $50 bucks on a game.

Bad idea and costly, a normal TV would do just fine

Here is the biggest question I have for you guys though, and that is if I was able to offer "members" $10 more in trade for a game, what would that be worth to you in a yearly membership?

There's really no way you could consistantly do that and turn a profit unless you lowered your overall trade-in prices to be equivalent of those at Gamestop or maybe a little higher. Like $25 for new release games, $35 if you have the membership. The only way to turn a profit on that would be to offer a membership monthly. And make it where you add $10 more to the entire total, not $10 more per game. If you charge $5 a month and add $10 to each time they traded in, it'd seem like a good deal to them and you wouldn't lose too much money, as they wouldn't have too much to trade in each month.

[wubb]

Offering more for trades and selling for less than GS is great to say, but you also have to be able to turn a profit. Not saying it can't be done, but you gotta really do some research there.

Used games only is probably going to turn off a lot of customers. I don't mind buying used myself. I assume you'll be doing that because the profit margins are small on new games?

As a used game only place one thing you could do to set yourself apart from GS is different pricing for varying condition. Maybe have a 'same as new' trade in value and sale price for games that are pristine. A 2nd tier for games that are complete and good shape but not mint for some reason. And a 3rd tier for games that are missing something (disc only, no manual, etc.) Or you might want to keep it simple and just have 2 tiers one for complete games and one for incomplete games.

Also have to agree with Scorch that you should carry more than just current gen stuff. Hell have a section for classic stuff (but maybe only take in stuff that's worth more than the plastic of the cartridge :) ) to further set yourself apart from GS.

As far as the membership I probably wouldn't pay much for it, but personally I almost never join any sort of club that has a membership fee. So basically I'm not your target consumer on that sort of thing.

Personally your store would be very interesting to me and I'm sure I'd pop in to check it out at least once if it were in my area. If your selection was good and your prices were better than GS I'd probably visit it regularly.

[InuFaye]

Read the thread entitled, what would make you come to my video game store.
It has alot of good information.

[Draekon]

HORRIBLE. PS2 is still the main seller of all systems, trailed by GBA. If you're in it for money, include PS2 and GBA games.

+ DS
+ PSP


Used games only is probably going to turn off a lot of customers. I don't mind buying used myself. I assume you'll be doing that because the profit margins are small on new games?

Indeed. I'm extremely picky about used games and try and stay away from them if possible. I don't mind spending that extra $5 to $10 more for a new game over used prices whenever possible unless that used game is in mint condition.


As a used game only place one thing you could do to set yourself apart from GS is different pricing for varying condition. Maybe have a 'same as new' trade in value and sale price for games that are pristine. A 2nd tier for games that are complete and good shape but not mint for some reason. And a 3rd tier for games that are missing something (disc only, no manual, etc.) Or you might want to keep it simple and just have 2 tiers one for complete games and one for incomplete games.

I also support this type of idea but I can see why one wouldn't want to due it since it will make things a bit more complicated. Plus you could tie something like this into membership benefits by only offering it to those who pay for a membership (Or else they get bare bones (worst condition) prices on all tradeins: i.e. GS/EB prices) and give them 5% off on purchases on top of that.


Read the thread entitled, what would make you come to my video game store.
It has alot of good information.

Indeed.

[mykevermin]

You lookin' for a tax shelter?

[midwest gamer]

Hey guys-

Well, first let me tell everyone thanks for the inputs and the private messages received.

I am trying to stremline this as much as I can, but here is the difference with my store.

Huge LCD monitors, to really promote people wanting to play the games, as well as very cool for tournaments.

Huge selection of PS3, 360, Wii games. (200-300 of each)

Great trade allowances and pricing. Here is an example-

Call of Duty 4 sells everywhwere for $60. I will give $30 in trade and then price it at $44.99, not the $54.99 that GS sells it for. Even if GS gives a teaser deal to get you in the door of $49.99, I am still less expensive. Now eventhough my trade may not be higher than GS, you can obviuosly see my selling price is way less, and I still have a 50% markup.

Also, my games will be in great condition or I will not take them. Boxes, manuals, disc, will all be in great shape or I will tell them to take to GS as we all know they except anything. I may look into disc repair, but unsure right now. I ahve also found a supplier for maunals and cases, so that could change, but to start, I will only accept really good condition stuff.

Also, like I have siad, I will make it a place gamers want to come. I want to be the store of chioce locally for gamers who really want to play. Moms and dads, eventhough they have a lot of money to spend, will not be my initial market.

Also, I really like the idea of allowing you to play the games before you plop down $40 -$50 for a game, then you get home and the find out your really do not like it.

Just some additioanl thoughts, but I am putting alot of time and obviuosly money into the store to really make it a gamers store.


Keep the thoughts coming.....

[InuFaye]

I didnt think there were 200-300 different wii games, let alone that triple games.

[midwest gamer]

2-300 games available for each system. There will obviously be more than 1 of some games..... :) Hopefully PS3 games will come through and the titles available will continue to grow.....

[RichMeisterMan]

One thing about your employees...Try and make them sales people first and foremost. My local game stores are plagued with reclusive dorks who while knowledgable about games tend to have little skill when it comes to selling things and generally just come off as big booger eating dorks.

Second thing about your membership thing. Make it free! If you offer a free incentive to go to your store then people will always go there. Try doing something like...Whenever you buy 3/4 full priced games at my store you get your choice of any used game or used piece of hardware half off. You know something like that. If the incentive is free though, it gives people a reason to go to your store. Also maybe include something like a trade in bonus or something. The above idea is pretty rough, the amount of games someone needs to buy and the percent off can certainly fluctuate.

Game tournaments are a great idea, you should probably work in corresponding sales, to both drag people to the tournament and to give people already there for the tournament a reason to shop. Charge a fee for the tournaments and as well as having prizes for the winners of the tournament have a raffle for all the people that paid to enter for stuff like t-shirts, and all the other game junk that stores get for free.

That's all I can really think of now.

[schuerm26]

Your making a huge mistake by doing only PS3, 360 and Wii games.