the stock number thingy

[Jürgen Mayer]

The abbreviations of the company name at the beginning of stock numbers or product numbers, e.g. Key20's Little Fears: KYP1000, Issaries Inc.'s Hero Wars: ISS1101, or Driftwood Publishing's Riddle of Steel: DFW1001,  how do you make sure that your abbreviation does not duplicate that of another company? Is there a list somewhere or how do you select your stock number abbreviation?

[Jared A. Sorensen]

From http://www.wizards-attic.com/Starting.html

"A Product code is a unique set of letters and digits that represent your product in distributors catalogs & ordering databases. Your product code is made up of a three-letter company code assigned to you by the Games Quarterly catalog and a numerical code is which most often four digits long. For example, Joe's Game Company's first product might be called JGC 0001.

The Games Quarterly Catalog has a list of used and available three letter codes you can reference, so that you don't duplicate an already used one. NEVER make up your own company code. It will just cause everyone confusion. In this business, confusion equals lost sales."

[Jürgen Mayer]

Thanks for the info. I wonder how relevant GQC is for German-language products.

[Ron Edwards]

H'm,

I made up my own. I guess I contributed to confusion, potentially.

I admit that using GQC as the authority in this regard sounds a little dubious to me. That body has no actual publishing authority over private business decisions. It might be practical to check with them and go by whatever they assign you, but it still smacks of distributors-come-first, at least at first glance.

Best,
Ron

[Jason L Blair]

Ron,

I would email Richard Martin-Leep at GQC and at least have him put your stock code on file. It may sound dubious to you but it only takes a second and could save another game company some hassle. PM me if you want his email address.

Juergen,

I emailed you Richard from GQC's email address and what information he needs.

[Jürgen Mayer]

What Jason said: it's fast, painless and free.
I emailed Mr. Martin-Leep of GQC yesterday and bang! - five minutes later I got a very friendly email with my stock code in my email inbox.

And I even got "DMP" for my company Disaster Machine Productions. Yay!

That's point 31 in my masterplan for world domination - check.

[mahoux]

Jason-

could you kick me that e-mail address?  I may be looking into KOTR and other publications at some date soon.

Aaron Houx