Spreadin' the Word

[Koovo]

My local Giant Eagle has a very small display stand dedicated to various gaming products. It is usually half full, best sellers include Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. I spoke to my boss and suggested that the store carry Bleach. He thinks it is best to question the guy who restocks the display. The "card employee" will arrive Tuesday, what information will I need to convince him or whomever it may concern to stock the Bleach TCG?

[Gordon Gekko]

Well, if you're trying to convince someone to sell Bleach, tell them that you'd buy them and try to get more people around you interested in it. As if no one buys it then it would be a waste of money to the store. If you don't think it's going to sell, tell him not to buy so much. I mean around me, I am like one of the only people to play Naruto, but everytime I go to a WalMart or Target, they'll either have no packs or very little amounts. So you'd be surprised who might buy this stuff. If you go to a local gaming store, advertise the game to get people interested in it. That's the best way. Once you get people interested, people will start buying. It's all about supply and demand.

[Koovo]

If successful in persuading the "card employee" or any higher-ups to stock Bleach, I plan to purchase the entire order. This will provide immediate feedback on how well the product will sell, showcasing Bleach’s profit potential. Hopefully this will prompt more orders. Afterwards, I'll buy booster packs here and there to support the game. I used this method to convince my game shop to order and carry Bleach.

That reminds me, I need a few more boxes, time to dig in my couch for loose change.

[Gordon Gekko]

That's good. As long as Bleach sells, they will carry the product, I mean who doesn't like to make money?

[WondaWice]

Bill gates doesn't and Im serious, have you seen how he dresses when he goes on National TV?

Anyway, do you think people at your local shop would be interested in the game or are willing to get interested, I'm sure you have made some friends after going to that shop for a while (Hopefully) you can persuade them to try it, build them a little demo deck and show them how to play.

[Koovo]

Perhaps clarification is in order. Giant Eagle is a grocery store and mostly children buy cards with their parent's money. That is why popular card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon sell. I believe the card display is a separate entity from Giant Eagle. Please excuse my lack of information and possibly confusing readers.

Allow me to rephrase my question: What useful information is necessary to persuade a market dealing exclusively with food items to supply a non-food item such as the Bleach trading card game?

[Gordon Gekko]

I figured that it was a grocery store, we had/have Eagle places around here. I mean it would be nice to go grocery shopping and then to see your TCG you play and pick it up there.

As I said earlier, tell your manager that you'll be purchasing them, and will try to get more people interested in this game. I realize that this scenario is different than being in a gaming friendly environment, but make do with what you have. I assume that there are more people around you that play or if not, convince them to join, and tell them places that would sell them because I usually go to different places to get the variety of cards.

If the other games sell as well as you say they do, Bleach could be in good shape although the only downer is that it targets older audiences.

[soviet prince]

yeah like sideous said inform them that you will buy alot of the prouduct.

[Gordon Gekko]

Also, the only places by me that sell individual packs for Bleach would be Walmart, and I like variety, so if there are not that many stores, it might increase how many people would buy it.

[Koovo]

Hm, I thought Giant Eagle was an Ohio-only location. Interesting.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll see what I can do on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

[Gordon Gekko]

Well, I am not sure if it's Giant Eagle, but we have some kind of Eagle. :)

[WondaWice]

Hm, I thought Giant Eagle was an Ohio-only location. Interesting.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll see what I can do on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

Grocery Stores isn't a very good store to target teens ages 13+, do you have any local shops or anything near that?

Grocery Store woul work, but in some ways it would depend on the age groups who are in there most of the time, which is usually 21+

[Koovo]

The closest store only deals with comic books. My game shop, which is about 9 miles away from my current residence, stocks Bleach.

One or two slots filled with Bleach product may be enough to catch the eye of a potential customer. That's what I'm banking on.

[Gordon Gekko]

Yeah, I wouldn't overdue Bleach too much, I'd just give it a test run to see how it does. If you're buying the most of it then it's still good business.

[WondaWice]

The closest store only deals with comic books. My game shop, which is about 9 miles away from my current residence, stocks Bleach.

One or two slots filled with Bleach product may be enough to catch the eye of a potential customer. That's what I'm banking on.

9 Miles isn't very far, I drive at least 15+ Miles to get from where I am to my local shop, I havent really done the math, but hell.

Anyway, tell your Grocer to stock on 1 box of Bleach, tell him if it doesn't sell out in 3 weeks he wont have to order another one, if people near you are interested I'm sure 12 packs would sell out fairly quickly.

So just give it a shot.

[Koovo]

Status Update!!

I learned a couple things today. I discovered a distributing company I didn't know existed and that chatting to just about anyone may lead you to a wellspring of opportunity. The man I spoke with today was an employee of Excell Marketing (http://www.excellmktg.com). He was informative and helpful in answering my questions. The Excell employee suggested I call the company's toll-free number and direct any inquires to those a few ladder rungs above him. I have done so and hopefully Bleach will be taken into consideration. I also asked about job opportunities and gave him my contact information. I wouldn’t mind working part-time for Excell, but I won’t get my hopes up.

[Justmcnew]

So far at my hobby store there's like 13 people including myself that still play the Bleach TCG but 2 out of the 13 that play are getting out momentarily until the Soul Society expansion is released next month.

My area hasn't had any luck having Bleach Tournaments, we've had to have a Naruto CCG Tournament last Saturday to have Bandai keep shipping in prizes like Playmats and Promo cards.

I still believe the Bleach TCG will pick up when the next set comes out next month but that's in late August which is a pretty long wait If you ask me.

My area is selling out of Bleach packs like crazy as I'm trying to help get people into the game. Plus my store owner is selling Bleach Starters for $7.00 plus tax cause they used to be $12.00 plus tax.

[WondaWice]

so your saying you get a stack full of cards and 2 high techs and 2 boosters for only $7.60? THATS A BARGAIN!

[Justmcnew]

I know, isn't it? I'm just a little disappointed that nobody hasn't bought any lately at my hobby store.

Sometimes when a hobby store marks down the price of something it could also mean the product isn't selling well which has me kind of worried.

It seems some of my friends are getting back into YGO but they still play Naruto and Bleach though.

[WondaWice]

I just got back into Yugioh, but my main game is still for sure Bleach

[Justmcnew]

I don't get why everyone is getting back into YGO these days, it's such a broken TCG and the Anime for it sucks like crap since Yugi isn't the main character anymore.

Most Anime/Manga's don't change their main characters and YGO is one of the ones that does which kinda sucks.

[soviet prince]

yeah Yugioh GT just sucks.

[Turonik]

My store is going through boxes like it hotcakes, and it's the only card shop that sells bleach. Our Tournaments haven't gone past 8 people just yet but we're getting new people and not all the players always show up.

[WondaWice]

I don't get why everyone is getting back into YGO these days, it's such a broken TCG and the Anime for it sucks like crap since Yugi isn't the main character anymore.

Most Anime/Manga's don't change their main characters and YGO is one of the ones that does which kinda sucks.

Prize Structure, Less time Consuming, Fun.

Even if it is broken, I find it fun to play a quick paced game of 5 minutes, I mean Bleach takes like 40 Mins a Game with 2 good players.

Our Yugioh Prize Structure is Amazing $100 for first $45 for second and I'm not sure what the rest get.

[Justmcnew]

While YGO is a fast paced TCG, you have to remember that it was originally designed as a broken TCG with no resource system, no costs to play any cards at all, and it has like 5,000 erratas that it's ridiculous. No TCG should ever have that much errata, it's just too confusing.

Power creep is often common in YGO compared to other TCG's which has some forms of power creep but not that often.

Back when I played YGO, it was extremely difficult to build a budget deck since YGO singles were very expensive at the time and now they got reprinted into commons which is pretty good.

Promos were always slow to release here in the U.S. since Japan had the most YGO promos ever, for us it took forever to come out with the good promos like BEUD and Cyber-Stein. It was a 2-3 year wait that was a pain in the butt.

Probably the main reason why YGO is still around is because the R&D behind YGO finally learned from their mistakes, but considering that it's still a broken TCG that's unavoidable unless they tear apart the TCG and rebuilt it from scratch to make it more balanced.

There is no balance in YGO at all, there never was. That's why I quit YGO back in 2004, plus YGO GX is gay...

[Turonik]

What you really have to keep in mind is the fact that Yugi-oh was designed for cinematic battles in a manga and most of the cards were created by one person for that reason alone. He had no intention of having it become a real life game.

[Ąerŏ]

I'm going to advertise Bleach at my local and see where it goes. I know MTG players would spring to it like nothing, because the two are pretty similar. I used to/still am playing YGO and it's complete trash. The ban lists create formats where games are over in 3 turns tops, no strategy at all, and to even stand a chance against other top tier decks you have to spend about $600.

[The 14th Captain]

There is no balance in YGO at all, there never was. That's why I quit YGO back in 2004, plus YGO GX is gay...

I completely agree with this entire statement. I quit in '04 as well, and GX is a disgrace. All that elemental hero nonsense just turned me off to the game even further. Fusions aren't good, and re-inventing them is just sad.

My local Bleach tourney consists of about 9-11 people on average (like 15 if everyone shows) and we recently got new players. I think it will get bigger once the new set comes out and Ichigo Rush dies, because the three rush decks in my area kill the game for everyone. Once that BS stops it will become fun again, and I can run my reanimator. I have to run a pretty harsh Menos deck just to keep up with the others these days. I can't wait for Kenpachi and Shoot To Kill to restore balance and order to the metagame!

[Justmcnew]

I also quit YGO back in '04 but yet some of my friends got back into it cause it's a bandwagon TCG just like Pokemon as well which some people at my store still play.

There was also 2 people at my store playing the Harry Potter TCG as well, though it would of been better with Lord Voldemort in it but he was never released for the game since the game died of unpopularity.

My area has lost some Magic players due to the World of Warcraft TCG, but Magic is still head strong in my area as we have a large amount of people that still play Magic including myself as well.

I agree with 14th Captain that the Bleach TCG will become more popular when Soul Society is released cause that's when the good action in the series starts off on If you watch the Japanese Subs and Manga.

Right now Naruto is more popular in my area than Bleach is, but I hope that it gets even eventually with Tournament support for both TCG's.