Prepping for the Locally Crafted Games Fair (LCG Fair)

On July 13, 2019, we are part of the Locally Crafted Games Fair (LCG Fair) being held at the Miniature Market Superstore in St. Louis, MO. So, what did we do to get ready for it? How did we decide what to buy to sell? Here's a little inside look on our thoughts as we've been getting ready. Maybe it will help you prepare for your own local event.

Product Options

Once we got the "yes" from Miniature Market that we would be able to sell some of our games out of the gaming area of their store, we instantly started thinking of what games and how many. We had a few options that we started running, but we knew we wanted to debut at least 1 game there... maybe two.

Our options for what to actually bring to demo and sell were the following:

• Everything - At first we thought about selling everything. Then we realized we had 20 different products or so that we could sell. That makes it hard to focus a customer's attention, and we would not have room to demo everything.
• 3 Games - At the other end of everything was 1 to 3 games max. When we looked at all the stuff we had, we thought that was too limiting. Sure we could demo 3 games, but what if those 3 games are not what the people want? We could get stuck with copies of games no one wants.
• Bring Demos Only - The idea came to only bring demos of games, take orders on site, and then submit orders through TheGameCrafter, and have people receive their games in 2 weeks. Not bad, but it makes it where people do not get their game when they leave, and that is half the fun to us.
• Focus on 3, Bring Others - In the middle lied the idea of focusing on 3 games, but be able to demo all of them, if needed. That meant that we had to have copies of just about everything... in small doses.

---

Product Selection

So what did we decide? The last one with a twist. We are bringing 3 games that we intend to demo heavily, and then a small smattering (about 5 - 10) of some of our other games to show off and take sales on. Also, if we run out of something, we have it set-up where gamers can order copies of our game that day, and we will have them printed and shipped to their house in about 2-3 weeks. This lets us limit our exposure in some games, and lean in on some of our better designs. So which games made the pick?

• Promise Reborn and its 3 expansions. This is a brand new game that came together quick, and we don't know if we ordered enough. Everyone that plays it has asked to play again, a lots of folks have asked for a copy to take with them.
• Drop Racer Battles. This is Henry's sequel to his game from 3 years ago, Drop Racers. It was a semi-finalist in the Geekway to the West Game Design contest this year, and is just fun to play.
• Pyramids of Mars. This is a fun, light game of betting on which city will build a pyramid. We had it ready for a game design contest last year, and opted out to spend a little more time with family. It is time that this game got some attention and time in the spotlight, though.
• BONUS: Master of the Realms. This is not one of our games, but one of our friends made it, and we want them to get the full experience of demoing and selling their game. This is a great, social game in 18 cards, and we enjoy it a lot.

---

Number Crunching for the LCG Fair

Now that we had a plan, we started trying to figure out how many of which games we wanted to bring. This started off by us getting a few facts together.

How many customers? We first had to figure out about how many people walked into the store on a typical Saturday. The number is not important and would be rude of us to say without permission. To get it, though, we simply asked about how many receipts get run through on a typical Saturday.

How many people would buy THAT game? Once we knew the customer number, we used some deductive reasoning based on data from outside sources of what the biggest and smallest categories are for game types. ICV2.com has some great data on this, if you are ever interested. We pretty much figured our games were in the 10% of the pie, with a little bump for the fact that they were seeing and touching the game (aka Experience biased purchasing.

• Collectible card/minis games - 41.81%
• Miniature games - 19.06%
• Board Games - 24.75%
• Card and Dice Games - 10.03%
• RPGs - 4.35%

The calculation became pretty easy after that: [Customer] x [Game category] = [Quantity to Order]. For expansions to games, we figured that about 1/2 would buy the expansion, so we added that to equation for expansions.

Because our catalog of games included so many other game (like War Game Helpers for minis and RPGs), we also ordered a few games from those categories using the same calculation. We'll let you know if our estimates were right.

---

The Logistics

Finally, we had the logistics that we had to figure out. How many tables would we need? How would we display our games? What about the presentation? Here are some quick things we did to prepare for the LCG Fair.

• Square App and Reader. We signed up with Square to be able to take credit card payments. The App store is a breeze to set-up, and works great on all our Android devices. The Readers we ordered from Amazon. So far, they work great.
• Tablecloths. This is a simple thing, but a table with a tablecloth looks way better than one without. So, we are borrowing a couple from some friends, and getting a couple more for ourselves.
• Signs. We needed signs to label the kinds of products (RPGs, War Game Helpers, Dexterity Games, etc.,) and prices ($10, $25, $20, Bundle price of $65, etc.) Thankfully, Steph's mom has done some events before, and she has some great chalk-board temporary signs that look great on the table. She is letting us borrow those for the LCG Fair, and they look great.
• Display stands. We totally don't need these, but we want a way to show off some products in a slightly different way. So, we bought some plastic shelves that are basically PVC pipes and flat surfaces that link together. This will let us have 3 small towers with a space for people to pick up and play a with some parts and pieces. 
• Things to Carry Stuff In. This is a simple one, but a bunch of games loose in a car will get damaged. To make sure that doesn't happen, we're packing all of our games into large Bboard game bags form BoardGameTables.com that we got a while back. If we sell out of games, they fold up (unlike a box) or can carry display stands.
• Cash Box. We are borrowing a cash box from our church who is not using it that weekend. It is very kind of them to loan it to us. If we were not able to have that, we would have used some Zenbin parts holders and an old game box as our cash box.
• Change. If you are going to accept cash, you should have some small bills and coins to make change with, right? We're taking about $200 in small bills and change (maybe less), to be ready for anything. Whatever we don't use is paying for dinner.

---

All Set for the LCG Fair!

That's the checklist... and the games we're taking... and the thought process behind it. I am sure we forgot something. Next time, we'll talk about the contingency plan of digital orders, and why we think it will be something to build on. 

Hope to see you at the Locally Crafted Games Fair on July 13!