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

Yup, me too.

I also only play at home so I do not feel obligated to patron another store. Plus, the discount from MM is the only way X wing (and board games in general) fits into my budget.

The age old battle: online vs local stores.

Never really ends well...

Sure it does, it just means that the brick has to offer something other than just the items.

You go to a specialized store for the assistance for instance, someone who will tell you if the clothes you're trying on do not fit, or are a bad match for you. Who can pick out something that suits you and your tastes. Or someone who can steer you in the right direction for a camera, one that doesn't overwhelm you, and teach you the rudimentaries.

Everyone has a kitchen, yet we still go to restaurants.

Well right now I stick to a store because I like the establishment so I am not really getting any discounts (unless I get a voucher from placing in a tournament or something).

Still if they are out of a product (and that can be the case) I look for it elsewhere and I look for the cheapest price.

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.

As much as I don't like it. I think we need to start requiring all online stores to collect sales tax. I think that would do a lot to help brick and mortar stores compete with online.

For the most part it's not a big issue for me. My FLGS gives a 20% discount with 6% sales tax I'm still getting over 15% off of MSRP.

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.

As much as I don't like it. I think we need to start requiring all online stores to collect sales tax. I think that would do a lot to help brick and mortar stores compete with online.

For the most part it's not a big issue for me. My FLGS gives a 20% discount with 6% sales tax I'm still getting over 15% off of MSRP.

I believe that they're supposed to within the US, but I know there are situations where it doesn't happen. Gift cards is a biggie. Retailers don't collect tax on that, which I understand is because they can't distinguish whether sales tax was already paid on the value of the card when it was originally purchased.

But yeah, if you're a fan of things like roads and schools, pay your sales tax.

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.

Sorry, but this is not correct. Vendors owe sales tax, not consumers. The law merely allows vendors to pass the cost to the consumer. And online charging of sales tax only applies if you are buying from a retailer that has a presence in your state, since there is no federal sales tax (in the US). Thus, Amazon charges me for purchases, because I live in Washington State, but when I order minis from CSI, I don't get charged.

The shop I buy from (which is an LGS with an online store) discounts. Hence it gets my business. That being said, that discount is US RRP, so...

The RRP on X-wing is, while not Warhammer, fairly high, and as always the currency conversion form $ to £ is taken as an opportunity to stick another £5 of markup on top of that.

I struggle to believe the margin on X-wing is so small that these stores can't afford to cut the prices on it. People clearly want to buy from them, so make it hurt less. If anything, the extra sales volume'll make up for the slight loss in marginal revenue.

I'm lucky enough to have a LGS that sells for online prices, give or take. £10 per small ship ($15) when most online retailers ask for £10-12, often with postage.

The only time I buy online is when someone is selling a collection on ebay or similar, but even so, the price tends to stay high, especially for things like B-Wings and Falcons, which have previously been very thin on the ground. However I have managed to score a Tantive for £45 which I was very happy with.

Even if they were £12 each locally, I'd still probably buy individual ships from there on a week-to-week basis, but when a new wave/epic ship came out, I'd hit the internet for the best bulk price.

I buy from my LGS almost exclusively. When I first got into the game (shortly after W2) I had to buy a few models from B+N and Amazon since no one else had them in stock (not to mention I bought 4 core sets from Target when they were $12). But besides that I've bought every ship from a LGS, most from my normal one. Back when I was still growing my collection, every time I played at the store (normally once/week, but sometimes I wouldn't be able to make it), I'd buy a ship. Now I don't really have a need to do that.

The way I think about it, I'm basically paying $5 to the store to have a place to go every Thursday to drink beer and play X wing in an awesome place. That's worth a WHOLE lot more to me than the discount that I'd get when buying online. It doesn't hurt that they discount everything 20% for me, so a blister is only $13 instead of $15. But in return, I also always pay cash, so they don't have to pay Visa their 3% or whatever it is (note, I'm one of those guys that'll buy a pack of gum on my credit card, so the fact that I pay cash is a huge deal to me). My latest W6 purchase (MW, Aggressor, Star Viper, 2x Syck) cost me $100 out the door. The same order would have cost me $82 on MM, and in order to get free shipping, I would have bought another Aggressor. So, that means it cost me ~$25 more to buy in my store than I would have paid online. Why wouldn't I do that if it means that I have a place to play every week, and a store to buy Organized Kits for me to run, not to mention apply for SC and Regionals? Heck, if they got a regional, that $25 bucks is cheaper than the gas/hotel I don't have to pay for to go to another regional.

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.

Sorry, but this is not correct. Vendors owe sales tax, not consumers. The law merely allows vendors to pass the cost to the consumer. And online charging of sales tax only applies if you are buying from a retailer that has a presence in your state, since there is no federal sales tax (in the US). Thus, Amazon charges me for purchases, because I live in Washington State, but when I order minis from CSI, I don't get charged.

The Department of Revenue of the State of Washington disagrees with you.

Maybe you should write them a letter? I'm sure once you point out their error, they'll correct their website, tax form, and re-educate all their auditors.

One thing I think always gets overlooked when this discussion comes up is this, let's compare CSI and MM to wal-mart. Where have all the mom and pop businesses gone? Away, driving savings down by selling more is very profitable from a business stand point, but where does it leave you as a community? If all the smaller stores continue to loose sales to online retailers then the only places left to play in store champs and regionals would be at the online stores location. While this might not bother those who live close to miniature market and such it would affect the number of places available to host store champs and such. That would be a fun season, what four or five regionals a year since the number of stores would dramatically decrease. This brings us to what it would do to sales since a large portion of the community is tournament/game nights at a store based. The sales would dwindle which would eventually lead to a drop of the game which would hamper the play at home crowd due to a lack of new options. The moral of the story is support your community and keep money invested there instead of hurting the your community. Where you spend your money affects what's around you in your daily life. If you want to plan a trip halfway across the country because it's the closet place to you in the handful regionals they are doing this year then buy all means keep sending your cash to make improvements in someone else's community.

I typically buy the waves (as they release) with a buddy of mine online (usually through CSI). And I'll typically only do two of each ship, or expansion pack, or Aces, or whatever it is (except the big ships). Then, when the urge hits me to play 3 Mango Scyks, or 3 Star Vipers, then I'll purchase the other one(s) at my FLGS. Best of both worlds, really...

And honestly, there is nothing quite like the instant gratification you can get when you decide you have to have another TIE Advanced right now, and you can go to the local game store and pick it up.

Use tax is not a federal tax. It's determined by state. Not everyone lives in Washington.

Use tax is not a federal tax. It's determined by state. Not everyone lives in Washington.

Or even in merica, it always confuses us in Europe that the price listed isn't the price you pay because tax is added on top.

I think Resale Price Maintenance might implicate antitrust issues under Leegin. (This is for US only, but I would imagine that other countries have similar antitrust laws.)

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.

Amazon is a middleman you know...hell it's probably the third man on the ladder...ffg to distributor to Amazon to you...

I but primarily at my flgs but he keeps his prices more or less in line with the Web stores who he sees as his primary competition...they cost about what the product would run with shipping from online...and I don't have to wait...his preorders rock too. Getting my raider for $70 afree taxes..

But yeah, if you're a fan of things like roads and schools, pay your sales tax.

Meh! - just tell the kids it all happens by magic - problem solved

Use tax is not a federal tax. It's determined by state. Not everyone lives in Washington.

I did mention this was a state taxation issue, not Federal Government.

And all states with a sales tax do have a use tax. I suppose it's technically true that the two don't have to go together, but as a matter of practice they historically have.

My FLGS offers a discount on purchases over $50, and also offers a discount on items they don't currently have in stock/items that your pre-order that stacks with the +$50 discount, so with that I'm fine. It still doesn't beat online price wise, but I love my FLGS so I don't mind paying a little extra to keep them in business.

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

That seems easier said than done lol

Board Game Cafes are starting to be a thing on both coasts. There are huge startup costs in buying dozens of games along with all the standard costs of a Cafe. Then you need larger tables which means fewer paying customers per square foot staying for a longer period of time. The idea works very well in an inner city, pedestrian environment with higher free income.

Board Game Cafes are starting to be a thing on both coasts. There are huge startup costs in buying dozens of games along with all the standard costs of a Cafe. Then you need larger tables which means fewer paying customers per square foot staying for a longer period of time. The idea works very well in an inner city, pedestrian environment with higher free income.

Nothing really like that out here in my part of Ohio. Isn't that combining two of the hardest business types to make profitable? I can't imagine some of these game shop owners being baristas lol.

No sales of games. Just the ability to play a game while drinking your coffee. The games are usually 'rented' to the customers for a buck or two. It becomes a way to spark conversation between tables hence why it preforms better in a pedestrian neighborhood. Picture having Small World on one table, Netrunner next to X-Wing, and Pandemic or Forbidden Island next to that. Meeting new people and hearing the conversations about your game from the next table can be quite fun

I bought all my paint at my local GW. Any rare issues or problems were fixed the next time I went by, shipping charges.

Nothing really like that out here in my part of Ohio.

A new one of these just opened about 2 weeks ago in Macedonia, between Cleveland and Akron, the malted meeple. They advertise "games, milkshakes and craft beer". Basically a $5 cover charge to get access to their game library and play all day. Adequate selection of popular games right now, that will probably grow with time.

I have also heard there is a similar place in Toledo.