[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Accessories

I have more than one. I wear them to make me feel pretty, confident, put together or otherwise somehow BA. I match them to my outfits and sometimes bedazzle the heck out of them. I have fancy ones and super good-deal ones, and some in between. I show them off to anyone that will look. I love these wonderful showcases of personality; also known as PURSES.

Well fine and dandy. What the heck does that have to do with anything, much less game store stuff? 

I noticed that the folks at my store have accessories, too. 

Gamer/nerd accessories are a little different than mine; but have similar purposes.

The accessories vary according to the person, but there are a few common denominators. 

DICE- 

These are one of the most common gamer accessories on the market. We sell tons of these babies. We even started carrying loose dice to meet demand. Everyone has a personal preference for size, shape and color, and companies like Chessex have figured that out. When a gamer picks their dice, they aren't just buying plastic or resin. Often, they are buying an expression of themselves that they want to show off in some way, and when someone wants to limit that expression, the results are not pretty.

I've shown off the sizeable collection TheDude has on various occasions. He'll never match TheDiceCollector, but he has a large selection of cool and unusual dice that most folks around here have never seen. 

There are folks that want those really super precise dice, instead of fancy colors. 

Or they really love odd shapes. 

No matter the gamer, the dice matter. They're all individual, but important. 

Other items I have noticed are a little more specific according to market. 

Fancy Minis bags- For a long time, all my customers had to have pistol and/or rifle cases to carry their plastic dudesmen in. They moved on to other bags, and now BattleFront seems to be the most popular. There are tons of other brands out there, and pluck foam still seems to be a local winner, but the idea of laser cut inlays does make some gamers very happy. We keep foam in stock, but custom order bags because it's really tough to determine size, shape or maker for a wide variety of folks.

Fancy/Custom/Foil Magic cards- Foil cards are almost entirely specific to EDH/Commander players; with a FEW Legacy players joining in. Foil cards are usually priced about ten times higher than the regular card, so a guy that has an entire deck "foiled out" has spent a BIG wad of cash. We have a binder dedicated to foil cards to keep those guys happy.

The custom and "fancy" cards are a lot more specific. There's a very odd trend in Legacy to proxy out cards with fantastically altered cards, or just have altered art period.

"Fancy" cards usually means foreign, or promo, or some combination of both. Altered or fancy cards almost always cost a huge stack of cash. While we love to BUY them when they come in, we can't make a huge business of selling them because their market is so limited.

Motorcycles- This last one might be a localized trend, but there is a huge upswing of gamers buying bikes in the past two years where we are. We even have a Facebook group for the folks associated with our store that ride.  There's a real sense of community with these people (helping each other fix/upgrade/buy bikes) and a definite sense of adventure and fun. But there is also a hint of "mine is bigger than yours" going on, too.

I think they ALL want this one...

We've had some interesting ideas for how to market to this customer base, but it's still a work in progress. 

These are some of the accessories I've seen around my area. I'm sure there are more, and I'd love to see if geography has any indication on what's popular. Please share what's "hot" in your area!