Fifteen percent - an update

So it’s true. From Monday I will be altering my till and my banking spreadsheets to reflect a 13 month change in VAT.

Further to Fantasy Flight’s price increases, Esdevium have informed me that Privateer Press have followed suit.

The fantastic new CMG game, Monsterpocalypse, has been a nice hit here in Cheltenham. Primarily amongst the gamers I know. There have been, rumbles shall we say, that I have favoured that game over other new games or expansions for older games.

Truth is, Monsterpocalypse came out at a time when everything else was delayed or just simply absent from the schedules. I thought it looked interesting but was hesitant to stock any new game, but interest from three disparate gamers from different groups of friends suggested that it was worth a punt. It has worked well for the store and it’s a good game so I don’t feel like I’ve shilled a turd. So to speak.

I digress. Monsterpocalypse has now gone up by £1.75 trade price per starter, increasing the price by £2 on the RRP. The boosters have gone up less, only 40 pence, so thankfully that can be absorbed by the VAT decrease.

But once again, I can’t offer any discount to customers who are expecting to see savings instore in light of the 15% rate of VAT.In fact, new editions of the MonPoc starter will go up by £2 as I say. Sigh.

Today is also the first Proud Lion tournament, for Monsterpocalypse no less. We have limited edition monsters for the winners, but support from Privateer Press other than that has been sadly lacking., Despite registering for their website, we aren’t listed - perhaps cos we are in the UK. I had the same trouble with Wizards Of The Coast the other year whilst at Swin City.

The tournament has been dogged by other problems too. The instore posters were wrongly printed by the reprographics house so we had to go without those (they wanted me to pay for their mistake before they’d print corrected ones, disgraceful).

One player cannot make it now after being let down by a colleague who would have covered his shifts, another has not responded and I believe two others will be working. i’m wondering if a Sunday would have been a better bet.

All in all, I’m a little despondent about it. Hopefully the players that do show will have a good time. Currently it’s single round elimination tournament but if it is fewer players then I’ll probably go to a league table system for the day.

We shall see. I’ll update this later…

UPDATE

Well, we did go with the league table system and it all went very well! Kudos to all the players for making the most of it and turning a possibly failed event into something very fun.

More events are planned for the New Year and hopefully with a few days of under my belt I shall be full of renewed vigour!