So I had to look this up, but "Resale price maintenance (RPM) is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices"

Reading the the discussions about OC Games and Comics struggles with trying to establish an X-Wing clientele brought up another issue. Even if they were to spend the time, effort and money to build up a customer base, would they end up losing their customers to the internet?

It's not right that all these FLGS establish their customer base and then end up losing them to Cool Stuff Inc or Miniatures Market or even to Barnes and Nobles 30% off coupon. As a community, we need places to play and places to meet new players and places to cross-pollinate ideas.

But you can easily save 40% or more by buying online, getting free shipping and avoiding the sales tax. Sales tax is nearly 9% where I live.

Who doesn't want to get $170 worth of stuff for $100?

I want to support my FLGS, but I also want to save $70.

Is there a solution here?

Just do both--it's what I do. I buy some things online and some in the store.

Change the FLGS business model. Turn into something like Starbucks. Pricing based on geographic restrictions/availability does not work very well anymore.

So I had to look this up, but "Resale price maintenance (RPM) is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices"

Reading the the discussions about OC Games and Comics struggles with trying to establish an X-Wing clientele brought up another issue. Even if they were to spend the time, effort and money to build up a customer base, would they end up losing their customers to the internet?

It's not right that all these FLGS establish their customer base and then end up losing them to Cool Stuff Inc or Miniatures Market or even to Barnes and Nobles 30% off coupon. As a community, we need places to play and places to meet new players and places to cross-pollinate ideas.

But you can easily save 40% or more by buying online, getting free shipping and avoiding the sales tax. Sales tax is nearly 9% where I live.

Who doesn't want to get $170 worth of stuff for $100?

I want to support my FLGS, but I also want to save $70.

Is there a solution here?

The way I look at it, the money I save from buying some things online is money that I have available to buy other things at the FLGS. It frees me to be able to pick up a 2-3 small ships a month at the store, plus food and beverages.

This is an issue that is long and complex. Barnes & Noble themselves are struggles because of it.

I have supported local games stores quite a bit. The smaller store has let me down a couple of times not having what I wanted when the larger stores had plenty of inventory. Price too is a factor even for me and it is a give and take. I realize that I pay more at the store I frequent but at the same time the store owner has pointed out that I'm getting a discount (ouch). So I sometimes feel that he only grudgingly gives me the discount.

P.S. Ironically when I did buy from Cool Stuff, I purchased it at their brick and mortar store by driving to it not on-line or delivered. So how does this fit into the discussion?

Just do both--it's what I do. I buy some things online and some in the store.

This. I make my large purchases online (got to get that free shipping), but I do buy a random expansion or two at the store.

Also I buy beer at my store... so.

Not all of us are lucky enough to have a LGS near us and it would really suck to have to pay extra online for no good reason.

I agree to the when buying in bulk hit the web. The extra ships I want I buy at FLGS. I believe in the pay where you play idea. If you play at home with your friends then buy online. If you play at a store buy there. I play about 80% at houses and just now getting to 20% at FLGS. Helps now that the play on a day I'm free to come up.

This. I make my large purchases online (got to get that free shipping), but I do buy a random expansion or two at the store.

That's what I do. If I won't get enough to qualify for free shipping, I buy it at the LGS. So while I bought Wave 6 from Mini Market, I bought Imperial Assault and the wave 1 stuff from my LGS.

As much as I want to support my store, I just can't justify paying an extra $50-70 per wave to buy there. But I do make a point of playing there, and set up a league there. Which lead other people to come play and buy from the store. So that helps too.

While it's true that without the LGS we wouldn't have a place to play, it's also true without people playing there, then no one will find a game. Plus for some games like 40k it's hard to find room to play at home, not everyone has a 3x6 foot table. The same is not true of X-Wing.

So I had to look this up, but "Resale price maintenance (RPM) is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices"

Reading the the discussions about OC Games and Comics struggles with trying to establish an X-Wing clientele brought up another issue. Even if they were to spend the time, effort and money to build up a customer base, would they end up losing their customers to the internet?

It's not right that all these FLGS establish their customer base and then end up losing them to Cool Stuff Inc or Miniatures Market or even to Barnes and Nobles 30% off coupon. As a community, we need places to play and places to meet new players and places to cross-pollinate ideas.

But you can easily save 40% or more by buying online, getting free shipping and avoiding the sales tax. Sales tax is nearly 9% where I live.

Who doesn't want to get $170 worth of stuff for $100?

I want to support my FLGS, but I also want to save $70.

Is there a solution here?

I think it's a difference between planned and impulse buying. If I know that I'm going to buy a bunch of stuff (like Wave 6), I'll get my friends together, and we'll do an order from CSI. I'll know when the order will arrive, and have no problem waiting. On the other hand, I'll often times go into a store, and pick up a ship or two just because I'll have it immediately. I don't mind paying more, because it supports the store.

I don't nor probably ever will play in a game store - I'm playing fairly regularly with other humans too - at my house, with my ships that I bought from Amazon. I'd much rather support the company that makes the game than the middle man. I've got enough friends that are interested in playing that are buying in too from Amazon or MM as well. Sorry FLGS, you just aren't my cup of tea.

I buy most of my stuff from 2 of my local brick and mortar game stores, but when the raider comes out I can probably save $40 buying it online

It's too hard to pass up the deals you can get online. So I buy most everything online. I can't spend $90 on a CR-90 at my FLGS when I can get it for $45-$60 depending if I wait for a sale.

But I try to support them once in a while. I needed a couple quick ships so I ran in and picked them up. But that was poor planning on my part.

I usually try to buy board games at the FLGS, though. I like to go in and talk to people to get a feel for the game. To see if it's good for my wife or if it'll be a guy's night game, etc.

I tend to get a lot of stuff through gifts and gift cards. I'd estimate at least 60-70% of my collection was either a birthday/Christmas gift, or bought through gift cards from a retailer which may have had an additional discount. After S&V hit, I was able to get Most Wanted and two Aggressors for $70 in Amazon credit. That's $100 in retail merch that I was able to obtain without actually spending real money.

Outside of being able to get gift cards for the FLGS (tough for out-of-state family members), there's not much that can be done to really compete against that. But again, it frees my actual earned income to be spent on other things at the store.

The age old battle: online vs local stores.

Never really ends well...

For me personally, I try not to take advantage of my FLGS. If I go in and play a few times on league nights, or go to a big tournament that the store hosts, I'll try to pick up a ship (or game) or two, just to show my support to the store. I figure if enough people have the same attitude, then every time the store hosts a tournament they should see a few hundred dollars worth of sales as a direct result, which will encourage them to do more tournaments and X-wing events. Everybody wins.

Besides really liking my FLGS owner, I also feel that putting money back into his store makes sure that I have a place to game, participate in tourneys and meet new X-Wing players in my area.

All of that is included in the extra cost, to my mind. By demonstrating a willingness to support the X-wing community and in general being a fly-casual kind of guy, my FLGS owner has won my business.

I suppose you could ask if the FLGS could price match or at least meet you in the middle. If they refuse then they probably don't need your business and are doing fine financially. Order online then. You at least made an effort to support.

I suppose you could ask if the FLGS could price match or at least meet you in the middle. If they refuse then they probably don't need your business and are doing fine financially. Order online then. You at least made an effort to support.

That isn't even close to the reality.

Miniature Market is my FLGS...so...yep.

It's not right that all these FLGS establish their customer base and then end up losing them to Cool Stuff Inc or Miniatures Market or even to Barnes and Nobles 30% off coupon. As a community, we need places to play and places to meet new players and places to cross-pollinate ideas.

I don't need any of those things -- just the lowest price.

This isn't exactly a new thing... an FLGS that is still around has adapted to the reality of online shopping discounts.

I used to live far-ish from an LGS, and do felt zero compunction about buying online, saving cash, and playing at home with friends.

Since I've moved, I'm a 20 minute walk from a super-F LGS. I get over there about once a week or so, and I do make an effort to buy things from them. I do still buy stuff online- I'm not going to pass up huge savings, but I do know that my community needs to be supported.

So let's say I'm buying Wave 6 (again). I'll buy several ships from my FLGS, a few ships online, my card sleeves and dice bags from the FLGS, and I will try and sell ships for them. It's a small thing, but even if I can't directly buy something that day, I might be helping them by getting them a sale from another customer.

Also: for the record: if you're hanging out at a restaurant, tip your waiter an _extra_ $5 per hour that you're there. That's over and above the 20% tip you're already leaving. Same principle: you're taking up space and should be paying for it.

I do large orders (i.e. new waves or starting new Warhammer/Warmachine armies) online and pat myself on the back for saving $100+ at a time.

I leave my impluse buys for the FLGS of which I've done many. "Oh ****, dual IG88s is a cool build? I'll buy another here!"

But you can easily save 40% or more by buying online, getting free shipping and avoiding the sales tax. Sales tax is nearly 9% where I live.

Not sure if you did not realize this, but legally you cannot "avoid the sales tax" by buying online.

It's true that the vendor may not always collect the tax you owe, and probably your state's tax authority is never going to find out about it and charge you thousands of dollars of compound interest and back-taxes ...probably.

But, legally, if your state has a sales tax, you always must pay that sales tax no matter where you are buying from. There is a specific section when doing your annual taxes to report the 'use tax' that you owe and are paying.

Obviously, if your state does not have a sale and use tax (Hello from Oregon!) then no problem.