We're having our first profitable March. Yes, it's year five and March has just become a month I no longer dread. That leaves January and April as low points that need filling in. April may always be a bloodbath, thanks to taxes. The concept that you can have periods where you lose money is tough to accept when you get into retail. You become a busy squirrel, saving away during good times because bad times are just around the corner. For example, I envision December and January as one period, since December is a time of plenty and January is dismal. You just hope at the end there's money left over.
Lord of the Rings. Sales of the miniatures in March are neck and neck with Warhammer Fantasy and the War of the Ring book isn't out until Friday. Here's the thing about this game: It's going to get panned by most 40K and fantasy players. I've accepted that now. They have their game; the LOTR game has two strikes against it for them. What surprised me are the number of new people, especially kids, who have expressed interest and bought new models. The multi-genre gamers, those always curious about a new thing, are all over this one. My guess is that these "alpha" gamers will bring more people into the fold when it's seen on the table.
Indie Miniatures. Since there has been interest in the numbers on this, let me say that sales are very good, especially for the first quarter of this year. Like my RPG's, it requires a lot of careful rotation of the stock. About half of what I sell in this category doesn't get re-ordered, but I make a point of trying to figure out what new to buy with that money. We've had some hits too, like cowboys from Artizan and Fenryl multi-stage fanasy models. If I add in games I buy that I consider indie, like Infinity and Uncharted Seas, we're wildly successful. Also, although I don't include them in this category, the Reaper Chronoscope models also sell extremely well. These modern, pulp, and other non fantasy genre miniatures.
