Wow… wasn’t it Eventide just last week?

Anyway, next weekend sees Shards of Alara Prereleases at all your
favourite Magic destinations, including Fan Boy Three. For the last
two years, Fan Boy Three has been the number two attendance prerelease
destination in the country. I’ve thought long and hard about what our
pricing policy should be this time, given the changes to WPN
Prereleases (and the fact that Bradford are running for £10 with a
booster box to the winner each day).

When any store/venue could run multiple prereleases – and discount
multiple event attendance - any venue could do what we did, and run
(and discount) three. But the playing field is no longer level.

I don’t feel its appropriate that I should use my Advanced store
status – and the double bill of Prereleases that comes with that – in
a way that would stifle the emergent Core venues in my area. That
seems to be the very opposite of what the WPN was intended to do – to
grow Magic and encourage new play venues. Players in Leeds and
Liverpool are already missing out on a second local prerelease, they
shouldn’t be made to feel that they’re missing out financially as well
if they don’t play in Bradford or Manchester both days instead.

As a result, Fan Boy Three will be running two £15 prereleases – one
on Saturday at 11am, one on Sunday at noon. This time around there
won’t be a discount for playing in both, but there will be a small
bonus prize (likely one of the new intro packs free if we have stock
left).

The DCI have halved prerelease booster support to one booster prize
support and half a booster judge support. We’re going to still try and
ensure that every player walks away with at least one booster of prize
support, while still staying within DCI guidelines (by cannibalising
our judge support). Instead we’ll be employing our judges as staff
(and our staff as judges) for this and subsequent prereleases. I still
think we run a good tournament that’s fun and value for money –
particularly for a more casual player - but I realise that many of you
will probably take this opportunity to play elsewhere.

Dave Salisbury
Fan Boy Three

p.s. this really isn’t a dig at any of the other TO’s – I just needed
to explain why I felt it appropriate to raise my effective prices this
time out. I hope you all have a great prerelease weekend wherever you
play.

Fan Boy Three......Good Job sir......

I couldn't believe it when I read there was £10 release
events......And then some cr-ap about "we make huge loses, but we do
it for our players", lol, amazing!!!.  This helps nobody in business
at all, as everyone know's MTG players are least loyal gamers on the
planet.(and most of them admit it !!)

If "every" TO in the country charged the same entry fee(£15), the best
local stores might stay open for a few more years, and everyone would
have somewhere to play FNM, GPT's, etc....

Its like all these clowns that sell boxes of boosters for £55/£60.
Once again, this benefits one single group, and thats the players.

A business makes naff-all from selling a box for that stupid
price !!!  If every single trader and store sold boxes for say £70 ( I
sell for this), thats a big discount for the player (£20 off rrp), and
the store/trader actually makes an equivalent profit (approx. £20),
and might be able to pay his rent/water/phone/rates/electric/broadband
and the endless list of bills that keep arriving.  Let me tell you
all, I have 2 loyal customers that buy their boxes of boosters from
me, after having the shop open for 9 years.  Both of them buy 4 boxes
each every set, and are happy to pay £70 per box.  The rest of my 9
years worth of "loyal" mtg players buy online from the muppets that
make around £3 to £5 per box (maybe less)

I know not many will support me in this little rant. I just wanted to
get this off my chest, as I'm a little angry that I haven't managed to
take a wage for the last 3 months unfortunately, and things like
Bradford prices and £55 boxes from online traders pss me off as they
are killing me slowly.

Unlike Dave, I "am" having a dig at other TO's, but also online
traders, and the players too, to which I wish would understand, "no
store, no game".

Thanks for taking the tiome to read,

regards,

Gary Campbell,  Highlander Games.

On 19 Sep, 16:24, Fan Boy Three  wrote:
> Wow… wasn’t it Eventide just last week?
>
> Anyway, next weekend sees Shards of Alara Prereleases at all your
> favourite Magic destinations, including Fan Boy Three. For the last
> two years, Fan Boy Three has been the number two attendance prerelease
> destination in the country. I’ve thought long and hard about what our
> pricing policy should be this time, given the changes to WPN
> Prereleases (and the fact that Bradford are running for £10 with a
> booster box to the winner each day).
>
> When any store/venue could run multiple prereleases – and discount
> multiple event attendance - any venue could do what we did, and run
> (and discount) three. But the playing field is no longer level.
>
> I don’t feel its appropriate that I should use my Advanced store
> status – and the double bill of Prereleases that comes with that – in
> a way that would stifle the emergent Core venues in my area. That
> seems to be the very opposite of what the WPN was intended to do – to
> grow Magic and encourage new play venues. Players in Leeds and
> Liverpool are already missing out on a second local prerelease, they
> shouldn’t be made to feel that they’re missing out financially as well
> if they don’t play in Bradford or Manchester both days instead.
>
> As a result, Fan Boy Three will be running two £15 prereleases – one
> on Saturday at 11am, one on Sunday at noon. This time around there
> won’t be a discount for playing in both, but there will be a small
> bonus prize (likely one of the new intro packs free if we have stock
> left).
>
> The DCI have halved prerelease booster support to one booster prize
> support and half a booster judge support. We’re going to still try and
> ensure that every player walks away with at least one booster of prize
> support, while still staying within DCI guidelines (by cannibalising
> our judge support). Instead we’ll be employing our judges as staff
> (and our staff as judges) for this and subsequent prereleases. I still
> think we run a good tournament that’s fun and value for money –
> particularly for a more casual player - but I realise that many of you
> will probably take this opportunity to play elsewhere.
>
> Dave Salisbury
> Fan Boy Three
>
> p.s. this really isn’t a dig at any of the other TO’s – I just needed
> to explain why I felt it appropriate to raise my effective prices this
> time out. I hope you all have a great prerelease weekend wherever you
> play.

I disagree. Independent T.O.'s kept Magic very healthy for many years
in this country, because they had a love of the game, and not because
they sought to make profit. I've seen several of the best T.O.'s leave
the game because the shops are pushing their way in, and i don't like
it!

Mark

You can't really accuse Gary of 'pushing in' Mark - he was running
Magic in Scotland for years when nobody else was.

On 22 Sep, 01:46, Gazza006  wrote:
> Fan Boy Three......Good Job sir......
>
> I couldn't believe it when I read there was £10 release
> events......And then some cr-ap about "we make huge loses, but we do
> it for our players", lol, amazing!!!.  This helps nobody in business
> at all, as everyone know's MTG players are least loyal gamers on the
> planet.(and most of them admit it !!)
>
> If "every" TO in the country charged the same entry fee(£15), the best
> local stores might stay open for a few more years, and everyone would
> have somewhere to play FNM, GPT's, etc....
>
> Its like all these clowns that sell boxes of boosters for £55/£60.
> Once again, this benefits one single group, and thats the players.
>
> A business makes naff-all from selling a box for that stupid
> price !!!  If every single trader and store sold boxes for say £70 ( I
> sell for this), thats a big discount for the player (£20 off rrp), and
> the store/trader actually makes an equivalent profit (approx. £20),
> and might be able to pay his rent/water/phone/rates/electric/broadband
> and the endless list of bills that keep arriving.  Let me tell you
> all, I have 2 loyal customers that buy their boxes of boosters from
> me, after having the shop open for 9 years.  Both of them buy 4 boxes
> each every set, and are happy to pay £70 per box.  The rest of my 9
> years worth of "loyal" mtg players buy online from the muppets that
> make around £3 to £5 per box (maybe less)
>
> I know not many will support me in this little rant. I just wanted to
> get this off my chest, as I'm a little angry that I haven't managed to
> take a wage for the last 3 months unfortunately, and things like
> Bradford prices and £55 boxes from online traders pss me off as they
> are killing me slowly.
>
> Unlike Dave, I "am" having a dig at other TO's, but also online
> traders, and the players too, to which I wish would understand, "no
> store, no game".
>
> Thanks for taking the tiome to read,
>
> regards,
>
> Gary Campbell,  Highlander Games.
>
> On 19 Sep, 16:24, Fan Boy Three  wrote:
>
> > Wow… wasn’t it Eventide just last week?
>
> > Anyway, next weekend sees Shards of Alara Prereleases at all your
> > favourite Magic destinations, including Fan Boy Three. For the last
> > two years, Fan Boy Three has been the number two attendance prerelease
> > destination in the country. I’ve thought long and hard about what our
> > pricing policy should be this time, given the changes to WPN
> > Prereleases (and the fact that Bradford are running for £10 with a
> > booster box to the winner each day).
>
> > When any store/venue could run multiple prereleases – and discount
> > multiple event attendance - any venue could do what we did, and run
> > (and discount) three. But the playing field is no longer level.
>
> > I don’t feel its appropriate that I should use my Advanced store
> > status – and the double bill of Prereleases that comes with that – in
> > a way that would stifle the emergent Core venues in my area. That
> > seems to be the very opposite of what the WPN was intended to do – to
> > grow Magic and encourage new play venues. Players in Leeds and
> > Liverpool are already missing out on a second local prerelease, they
> > shouldn’t be made to feel that they’re missing out financially as well
> > if they don’t play in Bradford or Manchester both days instead.
>
> > As a result, Fan Boy Three will be running two £15 prereleases – one
> > on Saturday at 11am, one on Sunday at noon. This time around there
> > won’t be a discount for playing in both, but there will be a small
> > bonus prize (likely one of the new intro packs free if we have stock
> > left).
>
> > The DCI have halved prerelease booster support to one booster prize
> > support and half a booster judge support. We’re going to still try and
> > ensure that every player walks away with at least one booster of prize
> > support, while still staying within DCI guidelines (by cannibalising
> > our judge support). Instead we’ll be employing our judges as staff
> > (and our staff as judges) for this and subsequent prereleases. I still
> > think we run a good tournament that’s fun and value for money –
> > particularly for a more casual player - but I realise that many of you
> > will probably take this opportunity to play elsewhere.
>
> > Dave Salisbury
> > Fan Boy Three
>
> > p.s. this really isn’t a dig at any of the other TO’s – I just needed
> > to explain why I felt it appropriate to raise my effective prices this
> > time out. I hope you all have a great prerelease weekend wherever you
> > play.

maybe the TOs in question were running the event with only 2 boosters
and a starter  for £10. I agree however that there is no point running
the event at a loss.

graham

On Sep 23, 9:41 am, Fan Boy Three  wrote:
> You can't really accuse Gary of 'pushing in' Mark - he was running
> Magic in Scotland for years when nobody else was.

My apologies to Gary. I don't know him, or his Magic history. Perhaps,
'pushing in' was the wrong phrase to use.

My own experience of competitive Magic, from 2000 until quite
recently, is that independent T.O.'s have run the best, biggest, best
value, most fun tournaments, and that they do so more for love of the
game than for profit. Moreover, I have seen several brilliant T.O.'s
leave the game as Wizards have slashed their scant rewards to the
point where it became unprofitable for them. Case in point, Paul
Spurgeon has quite Magic this week after 11 years (9 as a judge, 3 as
a T.O.), Claire Williams left the game for similar reasons, as did
Steve Griffin.

On 23 Sep, 11:35, magicbusmark  wrote:
> On Sep 23, 9:41 am, Fan Boy Three  wrote:
>
> > You can't really accuse Gary of 'pushing in' Mark - he was running
> > Magic in Scotland for years when nobody else was.
>
> My apologies to Gary. I don't know him, or his Magic history. Perhaps,
> 'pushing in' was the wrong phrase to use.
>
> My own experience of competitive Magic, from 2000 until quite
> recently, is that independent T.O.'s have run the best, biggest, best
> value, most fun tournaments, and that they do so more for love of the
> game than for profit. Moreover, I have seen several brilliant T.O.'s
> leave the game as Wizards have slashed their scant rewards to the
> point where it became unprofitable for them. Case in point, Paul
> Spurgeon has quite Magic this week after 11 years (9 as a judge, 3 as
> a T.O.), Claire Williams left the game for similar reasons, as did
> Steve Griffin.

I know all these people and am sad to see them leave due to the
constant pressure TOs are under to be able to run events at all. I
think unfortunately we will see more and more of this particularly in
the South where hiring venues is really expensive. We will have to see
how things go.