Tomorrow is our third quarterly auction, and possibly our last. We call these "Ding & Dent" auctions because we buy up damaged items from manufacturers and distributors at very low costs and then auction them off at bargain prices. The people who sell us this stuff are happy to get this "worthless" stuff out of their warehouses. We're happy because we make very good money in a short period of time, and customers are happy because they get slightly dinged or dented, new games, at a fraction of the price.
This might be our last auction because we're seriously investigating opening an online store. This store would have our entire inventory of games and toys, but the big feature would be these ding & dent items that draw such big crowds on auction days. It would only make sense that we divert these items to the online store, which also has the added bonus of not dumping cheap product into our own back yard. For example, if I'm selling a case of Duel in the Dark at $12 each, what are the chances I can sell that $60 version sitting on the shelf? It messes with my numbers, despite the nice auction sales day.
This brings us to conventions. Conventions have been a great place in the past to "dump" a lot of this ding & dent stuff. It used to be a place to sell large quantities of role-playing games, most of which we bought in ding & dent fashion, but over the last year, that market has dried up. It might be temporary, it might not be. The rest of our auction "fodder" has been other ding & dent stuff, like board games and clearance items. With the auctions (or possibly an online store), we have another outlet for clearance items. We're left with nothing to bring to conventions!
Worse, with Conquest San Francisco moving to the South Bay and Conquest Sac increasingly expensive due to gas prices and other expenses, we simply can't afford to bring standard margin fare to these conventions and still make money. They both now require hotels, meals, fuel and other expenses, while at the same time, the person at the con is making an hourly wage. It's looking like only Dundracon makes sense for us now, unless we consider these conventions "marketing" expenses. This is small business owner code for "I don't see how we can possibly make money, but we'll at least be in the face of potential customers." I'm not a big believer in "marketing" expenses.
Then again.... As of October our TV ad contracts expire and our Yellow Page ad contracts are up for renewal. These are "real" marketing expenses that I've been questioning. We'll probably drop or scale back our TV ads and instead focus on community related marketing, such as support of local schools and community programs. That might include a game convention, where we would attend for that customer face time and where convention sales just deferred some of the costs.
Here's our Ding & Dent auction list. Not included is my Flames of War army, which I'm selling to pay for my Warhammer 40K army.
All items in quantities of 1 to 4.
BOARD GAMES
1960 The Making of the President
Alhambra
Arkadia
Axis & Allies D-Day
Axis & Allies Europe
Axis & Allies Guadalcanal
Axis & Allies Revised
Baffle Gab
Balloon Cup
Blue Moon City
Bohnanza Fan Edition
Carcassonne: Princess & Dragon
Carcassonne: The Tower
Cash & Guns: Yakuza
Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Chrononauts
Condottiere
Cuba
Darjeeling
Descent
Diplomacy
Duel in the Dark
Dungeon Twister, 3/4 player Exp
El Capitan
Grateful Dead
Iliad
In the Year of the Dragon
King Arthur Chess Set
Lost Cities
Mall of Horrors
Medici
Mission: Red Planet
Munchkin 5
No Thanks!
Notre Dame
Nuclear Proliferation
Pandemic
Penguin
Phoenicia
Primordial Soup
Princes of Florence
Prophecy
Rumis
Settlers of Catan
Smugglers of the Galaxy
Soccer Tactics
Talisman
Taluva
The Hidden Emperor
Thurn & Taxis Exp: All Roads
Ticket to Ride
Transamerica
Twilight Imperium
World of Warcraft
WoW Burning Crusades
Zombie Fluxx
Zombies!!!
RPGS
D&D: Book of 9 Swords
D&D: Wizards Presents books
HERO: Battlegrounds
HERO: Villians, Vandals and Vermin
HERO: Viper City
OOTS Start of Darkness
RIFTS: Ultimate Rifts
Tunnels & Trolls Box Set
WW: Dragon Blooded
WW: Lunars
MINIATURES
40K: 4E rulebook
40K: Apocalypse Eldar Cloudstrike Squad
40K: Apocalypse Space Marine Land Raider
40K: Battle for Macragge Box Sets
40K: Chaos Space Marine Army Box
40K: Eldar Army Box
AT43: Accessory Box
AT43: Death Dealer Tacarms
AT43: Hero Box: Odino
AT43: Kossak
AT43: Spetsnaz Commandos
AT43: Therian Bane Goliath
AT43: Tiamat
AT43: UB Wing Troopers
AT43: UNL Steel Tacarms
Battlefield Evolution
Flames of War army boxes
Flames of War Mega Paint Set
Miniature Building Authority box sets
Sparta Warband (wargods of aegyptus)
Warmachine Superiority
