Shae-Konnit Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 (edited) Just thought i'd do some market research here, straight from the source of Malifaux. I am a purveyor of games, and Malifaux is one of the things I stock. Now, this whole business venture is off a pile of money I had been saving for a long time and thought it'd be a good time to put it to some good use. I don't have any loans and don't owe anyone anything, but as a result I don't stock absolutely everything.... yet. So what I want to do is something a bit different. A point I raised a while ago in the tournament thread was about tournaments based off Crew boxes; not all the abilities can be represented by the stuff you get in the box. So I was wondering, what if I sold the crew boxes, but with all the peripherals you'd need to make it work. So you'd get the box, plus the models needed to represent their abilities. With Som'er Teeth Jones you'd get a bunch of Gremlins so he could cast "Git yer brother!" without using proxies. Colette would come with her Mechanical Dove and a Coryphee for the Mannequins. etc etc So, if I had such things on a special deal, so you get a complete set to start with and no need for proxies/counters to represent stuff, would that be a cool deal? What do yous think? Would anyone go for that, or do they just want the basic Crew box? Edited June 24, 2011 by Shae-Konnit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgraz Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 Sounds like a cool deal. When I demo / talk about the game, one of the big points I bring up is the low start-up cost. I always say that a starter box and a couple of blisters will get you playing good sized games for a while. Although some starters really don't need much of anything except maybe a totem (Ortega's springs to mind). There are several boxes that would have better playability with a few blisters - a lot of the Ressers are like that. As long as you know what you're doing (as far as minion choices) and only include blisters that will have the most benefit, I can't see it being a bad idea. Plus if you're putting up an entire bundle of things as a special sale, it might give some regular players the excuse they need to start their next master. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 Ok, that's good, thanks! I was just intending on concentrating on the stuff you need to represent the abilities they have, so I suppose The Ortegas may miss out a bit on the deal (that's one of the reasons i'll be using them for intro games; works perfectly out the box ) So I suppose i could add a couple of extras as an incentive, like the Bound Nephilim. But since that is a unit you'd have to pay for with soulstones, would that give them an unfair advantage points-wise, as far as the deal goes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgraz Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 I think I misunderstood a little. You're ONLY talking about crews that have summon-type abilities. I thought you were also considering models that are almost auto-includes with some crews. Some things might be a little out of hand - Kirai for example can summon quite a few different things. But overall I don't think its a bad idea. Though I might consider putting in some alternates that other crews could use. Just so you could offer bundle packs for them also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 (edited) i think you threw Dgraz off the path with the mention of coryphee with colette... it would be a good idea, but feel people do that anyways. the only people your scaring off is the minimal cost gamers. a great idea is a deal on a mini rulebook and starter box with totem. think that sorts ALOT of people out, with maybe a free totem.. also how would it differ from you saying when they come to the register, "Hey if you buy Gremlins, grab another blister of gremlins because you can summon them?" what about nicodem for example. can summon an 30mm or 40mm or 50mm basically... could be hard to manage and may daunt people into running Nico you having a suggestions board or re-boxing them? will it be, i.e. buy gremlins starter and gremlins blister get 10% off? at the end of the day i think your prices need to be competitive or have great facilities to play, then i feel people will go and spend a lil extra. i hope i have given something for you to think about, even if you take nothing on board Edited June 24, 2011 by zero added first sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 (edited) You certainly have given me a lot to think about, thanks! It's going to be money off pretty much, in the form of a bundle deal ie. "Buy The Gremlins box plus gremlins blister which you can summon, saving x amount!". At the moment most of my sales are online. In the real world i'm having to take it very slowly; there are only a couple of Malifaux players locally as GW has a really tight grip here, so a lot of folks are very wary of trying anything else. Main problem is that no single person wants to try out a different game; they're all waiting for their pals to buy it too so they have folk to play against. Nothing's going to be reboxed, just items wrapped up together so i'm well open to suggestion as to what works with what. And my prices are as competitive as hell As for play areas, right now I don't really need them; the target market round here have access to some pretty damn good wargaming facilities set up by one of my former co-workers from GamesWorkshop who founded a large wargaming club which is funded by the local council, and all my customers go there to play. I do all my demo games there to maximise the audience. It's starting to sound like totems would be the better idea; less complications that way. And yeah, my mistake mixing up the mannequins with coryphee Edited June 25, 2011 by Shae-Konnit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergoth Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 It might be easier to keep everything separate, but have a poster or some other sort of promotional material stating whatever bundle deal you'd like to run with. Some gamers may literally have just enough for a starter box, especially younger gamers, and just want that, but say a simple deal like; buy one starter box, a manual and any totem half price. Or as elaborate as you'd like! As long as you're making some profit and keeping interest in the game up it's pretty much all good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 With that in mind, if I sold a manual and crew box together, I may just be able to throw in a totem for free... I'll check that one out. It might cut into my profits a wee bit, but it's a good start for the customer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgraz Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 With that in mind, if I sold a manual and crew box together, I may just be able to throw in a totem for free... I'll check that one out. It might cut into my profits a wee bit, but it's a good start for the customer! manual, crew, and deck....get the totem free? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 Looks like I could have 2 separate deals: one for "New to the game? Pick a faction and get all this stuff!" And another for "Fancy a new crew? Get one with a totem for less!" Could call them Malifaux Faction Action and New Crew respectively Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucklemonkey Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 I like both ideas. Geniunely selling everything someone needs to start up in one special deal can't be bad, and I know that whenever I look to start a new crew it usually is a box with totem and one or two other blisters. (Where in Scotland are you from Shae? I used to live near Stirling and there were quite a few players by the time I left. There was also a club in Glasgow where it was popular.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonelyPath Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 manual, crew, and deck....get the totem free? I think that would be a great starter deal for any new gamer. It's still pretty cheap as not to put off the "low start-up" gamers and gives a person everything they need at a affordable price. I similarly like the 2 separate deals you mentioned Shae. I'd go with the book, starter and deck plus free totem as the introductory offer, then perhaps the starter plus half price totem, or starter, blister and free totem. Either of those will factor in any discount someone might find online and some places have a pretty good discount when you think I got my Mechanical Doves for £5.25 with free shipping. I doubt something like the Doves could become a freebie since they cost a fair bit more than the other totems, but half price on them would be a great incentive for people to go for the deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCarl Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 Honestly, taking a small hit on the start-up purchase will work out better for you in the long run. Like 5 or 6 of the players in my FLGS (we have a miniature gaming community of like, 25 or 30) that have tried Malifaux all have ended up buying either a) more blisters, or another crew entirely. The most important thing is to get us hooked on that pewter crack Something like, Manual + box = free totem wouldn't be too bad I imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 (edited) Ok then, book+crew+totem for beginners it is! Is just crew+totem enough on an incentive for folk wanting to try out additional crews? Oh yeah,@ChuckleMonkey, I'm based in Wishaw but do most of my business in East Kilbride; that's where the real action is. Edited June 25, 2011 by Shae-Konnit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonelyPath Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 With additional crews it may be that the starter + blister/clam + totem might draw them in more. Like I said above though, I wouldn't offer the Mechanical Doves for free though seeing how it's roughly twice the price than other totems clams. a half price deal on it would work out to bethe same discount offer though At the end of the day you have to look at it at a business stand point, if you are getting people into the game, keeping them interested and continuing to play and selling more models and crews while offering a good value or discount and making money (an important bit to running a business I hear, lol) then you are doing something right. It may take a little jiggling to get ti perfect, but once you have the system worked out it will be golden. We're on a (very) small minority in the Malifaux market out there, but at least our opinions as gamers and customers in the hobby will give a honest look and reaction to how people would take to such offers. Personally I wish someone was doing the manual + starter + totem offer when I got into the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 With additional crews it may be that the starter + blister/clam + totem might draw them in more. Like I said above though, I wouldn't offer the Mechanical Doves for free though seeing how it's roughly twice the price than other totems clams. a half price deal on it would work out to bethe same discount offer though Hmm, then maybe i'd just list what you get in the bundle, how much that costs, and then how much you therefore save. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shae-Konnit Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Ok, I got a bunch of stuff in today; not the full set I wanted but as much as I could get anyway! I can do these deals for a good number of th crews! As soon as I split the stuff up into its relevant groups i'll post an inventory of what there is and what I can get away with price-wise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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