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Need Advise: Selling games to the local stores

2 replies [Last post]
Anonymous

Hi,

I plan to sell my game to some local stores and I have four questions:

1. Is the stanard selling price 60% of the MSRP (my $25 game sold for $10 to the local store) or is it 50%?

2. What is the standard quanitity that local stores buy in? (sets of 12?)

3. If its a new game, what the best way to sell the item to the store? (send them a free game to play for themself?)

4. What if the store wants to buy at a higher than normal volume....are you expected to even give them more than 60% off (considering that the answer to my first question is 60%)?

Thanks in advance

OrlandoPat
Offline
Joined: 10/16/2008
Selling to retailers

Here are my answers:

1) 50% off MSRP. If your game retails for $10, then you sell it to the retailers for $5.

2) We sell our games in cases of 6 or 12. I believe that's pretty typical.

3) The best way to sell the item to the store is to go to that store and demo the game. Demo it for the store buyers, demo it with some customers, demo it however you can. And before you demo, practice. You don't want any "oh wait, I forgot to tell you about this" or "well, that didn't work, but usually people really like". You want your demo to be smooth and polished - and fun.

4) Protect your price point as much as you can! If you discount too heavily to the retailers, you'll be in real trouble when a distributor comes along. Also, remember that you need to value what you've done. Giving a $25 game away for $6 only tells people that the game is overpriced.

Good luck selling!

- Pat (www.LiveOakGames.com)

P.S. If things go well, check out Discovergames (www.discovergames.com). They're a great way of getting to Toy Fair without mortgaging the house.

Anonymous
Selling to a store

Okay, so this is a dead topic, but I thought the one response was good but incomplete.

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Retail stores buy games at 50% off when they purchase from a distributor -and they usually get free shipping. AND they almost never buy more than 2-4 copies of a game.

Only the largest stores ever buy in case lots.

Most stores don't have $50-$300 to drop on a small, unmarketed game. It costs them nothing to tell you "no".

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Now if you go into a consignment setting, the store might get anywhere from 15-40% of the sale price (so the store would pay you 60%-85% of the MSRP after the game sold.) You make more money, but you only get money after it sells.

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Demoing your game at the store is the best way for you to sell the game. If you are a small publisher, try running a demo, and get permission to sell you game at a 20% consignment fee.

If you consistently sell your game when demoing, and if a nice little buzz is generated at the shop, the store might buy your game outright at the normal 50% off - and then your game gets to sit on their shelf! WOOT!

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Then you can focus on the other 1,999 game stores!!

So get to work.

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