[GenCon 2008] Forge Booth: Getting Your Products There

[iago]

I've sent out an email to all the publishers whose contact information I could get from my own resources and Ron, requesting title and pricing information, so I can make sure any IPR printed materials adequately reflect the in-booth demo'd products. 

I'm still working on figuring out what the shipping particulars might be for getting stuff TO GenCon -- from IPR's side of things.

In general, if you are not currently represented by IPR, or are but have product that you won't have to our warehouse before August, you will need to make your own shipping arrangements (often you can contact your hotel and ask them if they can receive packages for you).

Folks hoping to piggyback on IPR's shipment even if not part of IPR very likely can, if you can get your product to us inside of the next two weeks (by or before July 31st).  Please contact me off-forum for shipping particulars: evilhat AT gmail DOT com.

I am still on a voyage of discovery about the specific data I need for IPR's part of the operation, so bear with me.  I'll also be at Dexcon starting today, so apologies if I am not as fast as I would like to be on the reply.  I'll still strive for a 24 hour turnaround on emails sent to me all the same.

Any questions that may be of general use to see answered? Ask them here.

[Eero Tuovinen]

We'll take care of our two products (Zombie Cinema and Solar System) before the convention, as production will take long into August. Will you be able to take the print runs with you to IPR storage when you leave Indianapolis? One would imagine that you'll have some room after selling stuff at Gencon, but it might not be enough if many people have this sort of situations.

[Adam Riemenschneider]

This is my first run at the Forge booth, and Factions is a pretty unknown game line. That said, I'm curious on what kind of sale levels I should prepare for, product inventory wise. I know this is pretty hard to gauge, and I'm generally of the mindset that it's better to have something and not need need it, than ot need it and not have it it.

What kind of sales numbers have new, unknown products had in past years?

[Gregor Hutton]

Hi Adam

I had a pretty unknown game when I took it to the Forge booth. From my experience if your game is a "hit" and one of the top 20 games on the booth then you will sell in the region of 30-40 copies. I sold about 37 Best Friends or so in 2006. Last year I sold 28 or 29, which I thought was a really solid number.

However, good solid sales for an unknown game would be in the region of 20 from my experience. It's possible you might sell less than this. Still, I would recommend having 50 to anyone who was like me.

The games I've seen on the Forge booth that sold (way) more than 40 have been games that were really well-talked about before appearing at the con (e.g. Mountain Witch, Polaris, Burning Empires, etc.).

[iago]

I'll simply reply to say Gregor's experience matches mine. I'd cap out at 50 copies, and hope for sales in the 20-ish range.

Eero, yes, we can likely take stuff back to the IPR warehouse after the con and then sort the details out later. It's just getting stuff TO the con that at this point is going to be a little tricky.

Still doing fact-finding.

[Adam Riemenschneider]

Thank you for the info, guys. Good stuff to know.

[iago]

Okay, those of you expecting IPR to get your books to the con have a small number of days to make sure that we have those books.  I've been semi-formally suggesting that the deadline is "before August", and I'm sticking by that -- on IPR's end it gives us a small number of days to get it all taken in and prepped and whatnot, and a comfortable margin of time for transit, plus an "oh crap, something went south" buffer.

For many of you that will mean you'll need to bring your own books to the convention.

I hear from Ron (though I have no direct personal experience with this) that many hotels will accept a few packages for a guest, even before that guest arrives, so for cost-effectiveness (bringing books along on the airplane will be prohibitively expensive if not outright disallowed for some) I'm going to suggest that folks look into that possibility.

Or you can do what I'm doing -- drive to the convention (it's like a 10-12 hour drive, but I prefer long drives to plane travel these days).  That's how I'm getting Don't Lose Your Mind there, since I already have it on hand and don't want to pay to double or triple-ship the books if I don't have to.

If by plane is your only option, definitely call ahead and make sure your airline's ready and able to do this for you.  You don't want to be making a discovery to the contrary the day you're flying out.

BUT, if you think you can get stuff shipped to IPR's Nevada warehouse in advance of August 1st, that's great! I just need to know that's your intention.  If you haven't contacted me to let me know about this yet, do! I'm evilhat AT gmail DOT com, and I can give you the shipping particulars in such a case.