Updates

IMPT: Suspending in store play/events for ~a month

By / Leave a Comment / Main Page, Updates

Damn….this really bugs the hell out of me, particularly since we were finally able to start opening for kids events, but I can’t figure out anyway for people to sit across the table from each other with a version of the virus that seems to have a flipping cloak of invisibility and only needs a whisper to get people sick.  I know it is a much lest deadly version, but I still gotta do what I think is the right thing, even if it costs us business that we need.

Grrr…. don’t know what this means for the next magic prerelease, but we’ll figure it out.  Stay safe and cough into your sleeve.

D20 Holiday Hours and Sales-Pokémon In Stock!!

By / Leave a Comment / Main Page, Updates

Updates:

  • Holiday hours
  • Great stuff for the last minute adds and stuffers with two great bonues..one for you and for you to get some extra good done.
  • We hid away some great Pokémon so it could be here for gifts, not only snatched up by the hordes.

Hours for the holiday will be: (note hours update to the update…)

12/23 open till 10 pm. (door will be closed cause it’s closed, but knock and come on in.
12/24 open 10 till 4 (well probably be open longer, but folks tend to stop shopping by then.  If you need last minute things, give the store a call, We’ll answer as long as we are there.
12/25 Closed (happy holiday)

Sale stuff: Both for Gifts and for playing together during the annoyingly rainy holiday.  (Dreaming of a wet xmas? Don’t think so..)

Two fun things:

  1. Once you commit to your purchase, you get to roll 3 D6 and get that as a bonus discount.  (We’ll make anything below a 10 into 10, to make sure it is always at least that much.)
  2. You buy and we give too (Every $50 spent, we will give $10 worth of games to the Midway Woman’s Shelter*

(*Many women need to leave in the middle of the night, often grabbing what they can.  We find games that will be good for giving some mental respite and maybe a bit of fun for families in a frequently intensely tough situation. )

We have a bunch of great games both to add under the tree, and for fun things to do in the rain over the holiday that don’t involve mind melding with screens. (preview hint…on the first, I’ll be lobbying for people to build face to face family/friend game time into a regular weekly thing…with phones in a bucket for a couple of hours a week.)

Pokémon in stock..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spend time with people on Friday, but Save the Date (Bucks) Black Friday/Small Biz Saturday

By / Leave a Comment / Main Page, Sale & Deals, Updates

If you’ve been a customers with us for a while, you know that every year I do the same stupid thing and try to get people to stop feeling the need to take away time on a holiday to friggin go shopping.  I know from the business side, taking advantage of being part of a great conspiracy (really, that is the correct use of that for once) to get consumer’s whipped into a frenzy is smart.  But it ain’t what we believe in.   So instead, I’m going to ask you to set aside some percentage of your fun gift purchasing to do with us.

We’re gonna be closed on Thanksgiving, but open starting 12 on Friday.  Our sales will go on for at least a week, so you don’t need to rush.

I’ll announce what the sales will be like on Friday,  and keep an updated list of goodies that we decide to add every day for the next couple of weeks, but I will give one big hint.  We’re gonna have a return of the mystery loot bags, and we have a really great set of new stuff to put in ’em,  A ton of great games, excellent magic loot bags and some great D&D surprises.

Some of the games to go into Game Mystery Loot Bags

I won’t tell you how much to send in our direction, but know, we will appreciate everything you can and will work like bandits to make sure you get as much fun per dollar as we possibly can.

And meantime….have a good Thanksgiving…whatever else has happened, we all have some real reasons to be thankful this year.

Oh, and I’d like to a propose a new tradition.  In addition to saying what you are thankful for this year, say what you want to be thankful for next year that you can help happen.  It matters more than we might think…

-Ben (Store owner guy)

D20 Prizes for wearing mask on the 4th!!

By / Leave a Comment / Updates

Ok.. I’m putting my (little) $$ where my heart is.  Today is the 4th and I know the desire to just have a break form all this being trapped in doors and being told to wear masks all the time is enormous. It is the 4th of July and time for celebrating freedom!

The numbers on this are ideal kinds of masks, cloth will be less, but the idea is exactly right.

So I’m gonna celebrate those of you that are smart, wise and kind enough to realize that wearing masks are the coolest thing ever to do. And I’m gonna give away a huge number of free packs to do it.

Here is how it works.  Take a picture of you and your family outside wearing masks and being safe, and I will send you a code that will let you get a free Pokemon or Magic the Gathering pack, or the equivalent discount on your next order for curbside pick up at the store.  Post a picture today (July 4th, 2020) with the hashtag #d20masksonthe4th on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  or just send the picture to me at [email protected] and we will post it for you.  Send me and email at [email protected] with the email/name that you will use to make the order and I will send you the code for the free pack.  (I know it would be easy to cheat this with an old picture, but I’m counting on you using the honor system.)  The offer is one pack per person in the family, but if you have a couple of smaller kids, let me know in the email and I’ll toss in some extras.

Why the heck am I doing this?

I’m selfish.  I want to reopen the store and I want all my customers alive when I do it.  I know that a whole bunch of you guys are young and could likely smack down this thing if you do get sick.

  1. It is a sneaky little beast and most of the people who have it don’t even know it, they just spread it around. So if you feel fine–Wear the mask anyway!
  2. We spent all this time and sacrificed so much to get this under control (Basically if everybody had actually stayed in place and worn the mask and stayed away from each other for that time, the virus couldn’t have spread and we could really have opened up again by now. )  You can’t do this part time…Wear the mask!
  3. We’ve been trying to slow this down so the scientist/doctors can come up with a vaccine or a treatment, so every day we can really slow it down, less people will die…really. Wear the mask!!
  4. Unless your nose is a fake one made out of wood, you will breath with it and sneeze through it.  Wearing a mask under your nose, or around your neck ain’t a thing.  Wear the mask!! On your face.
  5. I try hard to never put politics into the store related stuff, since I want it to be a place where people can talk, regardless of any of that.  But if you happen to be one of those that believes this is a freedom issue, please reconsider.  There are plenty of other areas to disagree on that don’t involve putting yourself and those around you in danger.  Freedom to choose what to do means you are responsible for your actions.  Please, use your freedom to wear a mask.

Offer is only for the 4th of july and limited to the first 300 people who submit.  Orders made with the offer code will be subject to verification before pack is added so no one takes advantage.  Thanks to everyone who is showing strength by continuing to do right for the people around them.  Really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post Apocalyptic D20 Update-Week 2 Mystery Loot Bags (and more)

By / Leave a Comment / Sale & Deals, Updates

Hey folks,

Trying to keep things (me) from drifting off into the timeless aether.    I can’t tell you how much I miss seeing people in person.

First off…as a fellow owner of a game store, I need to say something about Gamestop’s decision to stay open with the argument that we were “essential” businesses.  NO!…No, no, no, no, stop complaining you utter irresponsible whiners, NO!  Ok, look, I understand the panic of wondering if your business can survive this kind of thing. I get those feelings too.  But if someone came up to me today and said that my folks were sick and the only way to keep them alive was to close the store for a month or two, I wouldn’t even think about it.   So if we need to get bored out of our skin in order to keep this from spreading to even one unnecessary grandma or grandpa, then we’re doing it, even if it puts the business at risk.

Having said that, we are gonna try and do some things to both help folks from getting too stir crazy and to see if we can find some rent money under the cushions.  We are doing “knock up” business…basically knock on the door if the light are on or call before you come and we can come out to the curb. Since we can’t have people do browsing, what we can do is bring stuff to the door.  So that means Specific games if we have them in stock or the next batch of our  mystery loot bags.   The bags are $60-tax included, and have between $80-120 retail worth of games.

Just to be very clear about the nature of these bags.  They are currently the vast majority of our business, and even that like a 10th of our normal business.   We really appreciate the concern for our survival and will need the help, IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT.  For those customers who are struggling too, reach out to us.  The other purpose of the loot bags are to give us a chance to keep from going stir crazy without the mental bad side effects that can creep in with too much screen/phone time. If you are in $$ trouble too, reach out to me.  I’m going to put together some bags for our customers who are hurting too, and for those, pay what you can, and if that is nothing, talk to me. Normally we’d all be helping each other out, but in this instance, I’m the one with unopened, uncontaminated stuff.   The one cavet in that if you can’t afford $$, just pay it back in kindness.  And this isn’t true for most of my customers but I gotta say this anyway, I’ll only have a limited number of the kindness bags, so make sure they are there for folks who need ’em.  We need to count on each other right now, so small does of do the right thing go a long way.

I’m also working on variations to the loot bags.  These will include:

  • Magic Loot bags for sealed fun.-
    • Silver Chaos Loot Bags: $50 (12 random packs—good for 2 person 6 pack sealed, or 3 people 4 pack mini sealed.)  Plus mystery bonus $50-80 value
    • Gold Chaos Loot bag: $100 (A pair of random prerelease kits and a mystery bundle.  Plus a mystery extra magic goody.)  $120-160 in value.
    • Platinum Chaos Loot bag: $200 ( A booster box, fat pack, two prerelease kits, and an extra surprise worth at least $50)$230-270 in value.
    • Diamond Chaos Loot bag: $500 ( A booster box, one of the Analogy sets, Archenemy, 4 prerelease kits, 4 brawl decks and a Conspiracy booster box, and whatever else I decide to toss in.) $550-800 value

And for D&D folks, we got all the basic books back in stock, have the new book in now. and are putting together a set of painting loot bags.  These will be $60 and include mini figs to practice on and dedicated D&D paint sets.

Give us a call before you come over to see if we (I’m) around.  I’ll be in during the day on Saturday and Sunday with the exception of when I go take the pooch to the dog park. Other then that, I’ll be in the store a lot doing various long ignored jobs.  It feels super weird to not be having regular store hours…I worked very hard to take those hours as a promise from me to you guys, but we live in strange times at the moments.

BTW…here is a story that I wrote about that first shelter in place week.

View at Medium.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Games-Special “stuck at home” Drive Up Mystery Loot Game Bags

By / Leave a Comment / Sale & Deals, Updates

Mystery Loot Bags.  These are bags that we are selling for a suggested donation of $60 that have at least 3 or more games with a retail value between $80-$120. (sometimes with bonus demo games thrown in.  These are $60 including tax, so if you have cash,  give us a call about 5 minutes before and then when you are down the street and we will bring it out to you.

Ok…two problems with a common solution.

  1. The next month is gonna be a tough one for us as a store as business drops to the floor.
  2. Its a stir crazy time for people who are home from school or work.

We know that new board games are a great solution, and we will be here to give good recommendations, and will work hard this week to see if we can try and become able to take orders online and but for now, we are doing officially unofficial curbside/at the door delivery as a way to keep things safe and still do what we can for you and to stay alive. .

If you can, we really appreciate the support over the next little bit.  It means a lot to us, and this way we can be here when this is all done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s a Responsible Game Store to Do?

By / Leave a Comment / D&D, Magic, Main Page, Updates

I’ve been struggling with the right thing to do at the shop to be good ducks right now and it is very tough. We don’t wanna be over the top, but we also really want to make sure we keep people safe and do our part to help as we can.  And we can also see how we can shift the business so we are still around when the cough’s clear.

Last week we replaced our usual tablecloths with the not as pretty ones we had that we used for parties, since we can clean/disinfect them. And before we did the magic draft where we passed the cards around we had everyone use disinfectant hand wipes.  Seemed a bit overly cautious at the time, but not so much at this point.  We are trying to figure out the best ways to make events at the store as safe as we can, including lots of disinfectant and even limiting the number of people at the events to insure more space.

We also know that we actually have something to offer to help so that people who are stuck at home as an alternative to video games or getting utterly sucked into phones.  We are going to look into trying figure out how to get people games in ways that don’t necessarily require coming into the store. And we are looking at creating game events for (limited) amonts of kids during the days when they are off school.  We don’t want these to be lots of people coming in and out, instead we need it to be less people who are staying with  a small group for the day.

So here is what we are doing as of now:

  1. Friday Night Magic will be 4 pack sealed instead of a draft:
    For the next few weeks everyone will get a “prize” Pack with the normal 3 and then the prizes will be promo packs for the top 4 players.  Since we now have the Mystery Packs ($5)  in, and were gonna do the drafts for $20 anyway, this should still be plenty of fun, sort of a Chaos Sealed. –Limiting to 26 players to insure there is enough space to have between people.
  2. We are gonna be suspending the Pokemon League for the next 3 weeks at least.  Don’t think there is any way to insure the little ones keep their fingers out of eyes, and mouths between playing/trading.
  3. Enforcing the 6 person max for D&D so there can be space between folks at the tables.
  4. Well–don’t be sick.  😉  We are all doing our best through this, but one of the biggest things is if yer coughing etc, don’t take the chance.  The truth is that a pretty good percentage of the folks who come to the store are young enough that they will likely be fine though this, but that don’t mean that they might not inadvertently pass it on to another kid.  No big deal unless they end up inadvertently passing it on to their grandma.  So to protect all our grandmas…don’t take the chance…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update-Gone Fishing..But the store is in good hands…

By / Leave a Comment / Updates

[Important!! We are in the finals for 2 categories in the Best of Alameda.  Thanks for voting! And please vote again to get us there!]

So for the next couple of weeks I’m gonna take one of these things where you stop working for a bit…I think they are called vacations? 😉  But the store is in the hands of my lovely employees so everything is (mostly) as usual.  A few notes though:

  1.  Two headed giant for both this weekend and next weekend(Feb 16that and 23rd) will be the always popular Fat Pack War, where each team picks a random pack that matches with a Fat Pack/Bundle and they make their decks out of the two sets of 5 packs they get from that.  This is always big fun! $25 pp, start time to get packs/build decks at 4pm.
  2. No Modern on Tuesday this week.  7pm Modern magic tournament on Tuesdays has been building up very nicely, but with me out of town and our usual judge with other commitments, we don’t have anyone to do the late shift on the store this week (Feb 19th).  We’ll be back to this next week.
  3. Singles buying.  The team will do their best with singles purchasing, but since I’m usually the final word, particularly on big purchases, we’ll be waiting on doing most of those till I get back after the 24th.

My goal is to come back with rested brain and recharged for doing some new stuff at the store.  In the meantime, remember to find fun and friends in every game you play.

Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need Yer Best of Alameda Votes Jan 31st!!

By / Leave a Comment / Updates

Hey Folks,

We are up for two categories in the Best of Alameda this year.   Under Lifestyles and Families there is Best Children’s Store and Best Place to take the kids.  These things actually mean a lot to us, both to help get business and because everyone likes to know they are appreciated once in a while. 😉  It doesn’t take a lot of votes to make a difference with these things, so if we’ve done well by you, we’d be grateful if you take a couple of minutes to vote.   (I always forget these things, so whoever nominated us, thanks in the dark!)

http://www.alamedamagazine.com/Alameda-Magazine/Best-of-Alameda-Ballot/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Announcements

By / 1 Comment / Events, Magic, Pokemon, Updates

12/29/17  Biggest Sale of the year…Pop up sales event….

  • Pokemon

    • League  on… 11-1 Pokemon League
  • Magic–.
    • Friday
      • Unsatable For FNM!!! @ 7 pm
    • Saturday:
      • 4 pm..Unstable THG-$20 pp
    • Sunday–
      • Open at 10 am.  1 pm Master’s Sealed- $90 $60 (2 Iconic, 3 Modern (2015 & 2017) and 1 Eternal Masters). Requires minimum of 4 players.

Here is a sealed and draft simulator loaded with the new cards…Draftsim

 

 

Scroll to Top