Loyalty

Loyalty is strange in the gaming world, as it's most often associated with one's patronage of a given store. Yesterday, I wrote about the LGS I learned to play at likely closing its doors. That same day, I received an online order from Channel Fireball. Is online shopping hurting brick-and-mortar stores? It can. But sometimes we have no choice.

Why does one order online?

For myself, I tend to order from an online vendor if I can't get a given single at any of the shops in town. While this will sometimes include the two stores I tend to find suboptimal, I consider myself a supporter of small business, and the more LGS we have here, the more events we get. So, as a rule, if I can find it in a shop in town, I will buy there; the caveat being that the price of the card in question has to be within ~$5 for cards less expensive, and within ~$10 for harder to find cards. Your rule might vary, but many folks I talk to are comfortable with similar rules. A few bucks is worth that instant gratification, and you'd likely have to pay that difference in shipping anyway.

I run into a problem, personally, when shops charge obscene rates for cards. I understand that they have overhead costs. I understand that many retailers fall into the Star City Games trap, wherein they believe they can charge the same amount of money that the largest card retailer in the world can. But when a shop has 20, 30, 100 dollar discrepancies?

I tend to take my business to the internet.

Does this make me an unloyal customer? I think the relationship between and LGS and its clientele is a little more complicated than that. Loyalty works both ways. The best shop in my town tends to use SCG for pricing, which can be a problem. I shop there in part because they tend to price a lot of their foils and high end cards (my targets) to sell, rather than what they could charge. They're willing to trade stuff I want for stuff they need (and they give me a better rate than most; usually closer to 100% than the 75% most others get). And due to the money I spend there, I usually get breaks- free singles, sometimes they'll cover the taxes. We've built a relationship, this store and I. I pay a small premium, they make it worth my while to come back. As such, I go in several times a week and seldom leave empty-handed. An example? Before a big Modern event, I went in and traded a set of Jittes, a set of Noble Hierarchs (somewhat regret that now, but keep reading), and a couple Modern and Legacy playable foils I wasn't using for a Beta Badlands. The Badlands isn't in perfect shape, but it's a piece of Magic history. They could have asked about $800 for it, but for me, they let it go for $526 in trade. I keep going back.

Every once in a while, this shop doesn't have what I'm after. It's not common, but it happens. Before I hit the internet, I check out the other two shops. One shop seldom deals in foils, so I don't go there often. Which is a plus, because the place smells like boiled ass and is packed with YGO and Pokemon players. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't 9-year old kids more often than not. That leaves one store.

This place had a lot going for it. It's bright, well ventilated, has a window in the back, has laminate flooring (carpet can absorb smell), and lots of free parking. I helped in a couple small ways to get the store going, and was even offered a job there. I had to decline, because of my day job, but it would have been cool. At least until recently.

I mentioned earlier that they're the most expensive place in town for a lot of their gaming supplies, and their prices on their singles isn't competitive, either. They strictly adhere to SCG prices, which again, isn't a huge problem on its own. I use SCG prices for trading; noone I've ever traded with has had an issue there. But SCG doesn't update their prices as often as other online sellers, like CFB. This can be a problem when trying to buy Standard and Modern cards from shops that take SCG prices as the gospel. $80 for a foil Garruk, Apex Predator, when I can get one for $40 shipped online? Yeah, no.

Loyalty comes from cultivating a give-and-take relationship with a LGS. If a shop is overcharging and even borderline hostile when you happen to mention how expensive things are in realtive terms, you shouldn't feel obliged to spend your money there, even if they're the only game in town. It would suck if you find yourself facing the only store in a reasonable distance closing, given that LGS tend to be a nexus for people to congregate and play together, but only you can decide if that service is worth it to you. I'm lucky, in a way, to have three or more stores within a fair distance, and I understand that not everyone is as fortunate. But for my dollar, I'd prefer not to be price-gouged, even if the bad shop was the only place I could shop and play at.

Now, with regard to the shop I used to play at closing, it has more to do with circumstances that make it impossible for that store to compete with another in the area that can afford to sell at wholesale prices. It's not that applicable to what I wrote above, save for the fact that competetion can hurt stores as much as it helps you. I'd encourage people to patronize a local shop rather than shop online, but only if it makes sense for you to do so.