[quote name='liongames']Zoglog. This is a very fair question. I will try to share my train of thought with you and the board. I read the above article. It was well written and so much of it was true. I agree with #1 and 2. I also agree that price protection is very limited. I disagree with the part that the game prices drop quickly. I think they stay up there for quite a long time. Therefore I feel the used market can be quite large. Dvd empire didn't sell used games and I think this fact hurt them. I agree 100% with #4 and 5. Except I get my games on or before street date. I disagree that games are better suited for brick and mortar. They both have trade offs. When you have an online business you have to pay to ship the games. Online retailers transactions are mostly done with credit cards, so we have to pay processing fees most of the time. A brick and mortar store may have some cash transactions as well as personal checks. In these cases there are no processing fees. An online business has no rent expense, no gas bill, and no electric bill to speak of. We do pay for webhosting, but that is a pretty reasonable cost.
Here are some interesting facts. Blockbuster Video is the largest video chain in the USA. They have over 9000 stores, which are for the most part big, bright, and beautiful. Wall street values Blockbuster and their 9000 stores at 1.3 billion dollars. Now Eb/Gamestop on the other hand only has about 4500 stores, that are for the most part, pretty small and dark. Here is the kicker. Wall street values them at a tad over 4 billion dollars. That is over three times the size of Blockbuster. Eb sales were 1.5 billion on 04, 1.8 in 05. and over 3 billion in 06. So I think the video game market appears to be pretty healthy. The next thing to keep in mind is Blockbuster's stock went public in 1998 at $15 bucks a share. Right now they have a good run. and they are at 6 bucks a share. Who know who hurt them right? Netflix, an online retailer. The reason why. is people like convience. I feel that I can offer my customers that same convience while shopping for games. I can also beat my competitors pricing, and honestly I am very very big on customer service. The other reason I like the game business is because it is a difficult business to enter and do it right. Everyone and his brother has a hand in the video business. Macdonalds sells dvd's What is up with that? The other reason for my confidence is my track record. Blockbuster lost 1 billion in 04, 1.2 billion in 05, and almost 600 million in 06. I made money in my video stores in all those years. I did make less the past 3 years then I used to, but I still turned a profit while the big boys were losing their shirts. In short I never been afraid to stand up to the big guys, as long as I dont have to face them in a spelling contest.
:lol: :lol:[/QUOTE]
Thanks for responding
Personally it seems pretty much even divided out there on the legit/wait and see/scam camp for people's opinions of Lion games but i'm more skewed towards the positive and I don't see why people need to give this guy such a hard time. Really the guy is unproven, but nothing's been shown to say whether he's a bad merchant or a good one, so just going out and calling this guy a scammer is a bit unwarranted.
Posting the pricegrabber reviews indeed is a positive step. The reason why he doesn't have too many reviews is because his inventory on pricegrabber is currently limited to 8 games
http://www.pricegrabber.com/SFstore.php/userid=2122510.
But if you'll look at his listings on the games he does answer questions which is generally a good sign.
Personally the main thing that prevents me from preordering really is knowing whether or not the game is going to be any good. I typically like to get a review for the game. Now for Halo 3 it's just way too far off for me to preorder it heh.
Anyway back on subject.
You're right that the used games market is damn profitable. The only problem is I really haven't seen any success for any retailer selling anything used online. The problem is if people sell you the games they would have to take the effort to ship the game to you and get paid less than what they would if they sold it on craigslist or ebay. But then again I could be wrong, the closed thing I can think of is gamefly, but they basically sell off thier used rentals.
As for the getting games on the street date, I sure hope you can because that's a big reason why people don't buy games online quite as much. Also the price online for most retailers only varies by a few dollars which prevents people from really even bothering. It seems many times that if people want games, they will pick it up so they can get it ASAP. But I may just be thinking of hardcore gamers, but I think that's what your site is going to have to appeal to initially.
I think your offers for the preorders are a great idea. And maybe you can find a great balance in pricing for a full downpayment preorder on games in the future. For a game I was certain I was going to buy, i'd definetly preorder it if I could save 15 bucks off the bat and not pay tax (woohoo internets). The Kicker is that i'd have to get it asap =/.
And you're right that online companies have less overhead costs than B&M, but if you plan to expand i'd hope you'd have an office at least and a warehouse in the future
.... Either way I wish you luck
Anyway, I might jump in on the mass effect soon
, how long are you running this promo?
