Although 2020 has had plenty of things that shook up everyone, one of the things that happened before the pandemic closed a lot of stores, was that my local game store, The Rogue’s Roost, closed down. There were a lot of things I liked about The Rogue’s Roost that I now miss, but there are some more subtle things that I just don’t get without having a game store that I visit on a regular basis. I’m going to dig into this a bit below, as I think about what the year has been like without the opportunity to visit any local game store regularly.
After The Rogue’s Roost closed down, I wasn’t really sure what to expect – I got a lot of stuff from them, so I knew that I would have to replace that somehow, but it seemed easy enough. I already ordered occasionally from Miniature Market, Amazon, or direct from the source when I wanted something my FLGS wasn’t able to get, so replacing my ability to get games, seemed easy enough.
It turned out, for me, this was only mostly true.
You see, there was another thing that happened at my FLGS, and that was a regular awareness of what games were coming out, and the fact that I was regularly thinking about which games I was looking for. Namely, I was shopping for games, even when I wasn’t buying games.
This turned out to be a bigger thing than I expected because I don’t shop online very often. When I think about something, I’ll go look for it, and occasionally look for related items, but it’s usually pretty targeted. When I was at The Rogue’s Roost every week, buying online looked less expensive, and, in many cases, there was a price discount. However, now that I was trying to get games solely through online sales, things get a lot more complicated. If I want to preorder things from Miniature market and get free shipping, I have to spend more than $99 and the whole order ships when the last item becomes available. This seemed okay at first, but that wait time can get a bit unwieldy (the last order I put in this way was in February, and it still hasn’t shipped). Amazon looks tempting at first due to free shipping with Prime, but a lot of board game sales go through independent shops that may charge more than MSRP or charge shipping. Direct sales work for some companies, though in that case, you’re definitely paying MSRP, so there’s no savings there (and will almost always also have shipping charges).
The other complication of only buying games when I think about them though, is the complexity of the manufacturing pipeline. I’m not sure if it’s directly related to the pandemic (I suspect not since I’ve seen this before), but board games have a tendency to go out of stock, sometimes very quickly. This means if you aren’t looking at the right time, or don’t have a preorder in, it’s entirely possible to miss out on the latest expansion or game you’re interested in. Sure, there are lots of outlets, so you can probably find it somewhere (hello Ebay), but now you’re paying MSPR+rarity+shipping, and that can really be a pain.
Overall, I’ve been muddling through – I’ve gotten most of the games I’ve wanted this year, though I will say I understand more and more just what a unique and valuable place The Rogue’s Roost was for me.