Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne discusses his picks for holiday gifts in his annual Gifts Week column.
Although it is a bit early, ’tis the season to start thinking about what to stock for holiday sales during Q4. Actually, stores should’ve started thinking about stocking products for Q4 during Q2 with tariffs bouncing around the way they are (U.S. tariffs on a number of Japanese products will drop to 15% next week); those retailers that could bulked up on inventory earlier this summer. A few items we stocked up for the holidays are as follows:
Jigsaw Puzzles. Pop culture-themed puzzles such as those from The Op, Ravensburger, Trefl and Potter Puzzles should do well. Anime and videogame-related puzzles from The Op have proven our best sellers, especially assorted Legend of Zelda and Sailor Moon puzzles, while we have already had to restock Trefl’s Transformer puzzles a couple of times this quarter.
Playing Cards. There are dozens of different designs of playing cards available. We picked up some 70’s rock band-themed decks like the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd as well as some Disney-themed decks and since we have seen a lot of marijuana shops open locally, we picked up some marijuana-themed decks as well. Given that stores can find cat, dog, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Star Wars decks at a cost that allows them to be sold for under $10, playing card decks make a great stocking stuffer or gift exchange item.
Fluxx. I have always been a fan of Fluxx as a gift item for the holidays (see “Games Gift Guide 2022“). With over two dozen varieties of Fluxx currently available (and Dog Fluxx on the way), customers should find a version of Fluxx for everyone on their gift list. Since we are both a college and a hippie town, we do well with the company’s games from its Half-Baked Games division: Stoner Fluxx and Drinking Fluxx. I expect Movie Fluxx sometime in the future to appeal to the cinephiles and maybe a Spicey Fluxx or Fluxx After Dark from the company’s Fully Baked Games imprint.
Trading Card Games. Gift bundles would be great presents for Lorcana, Pokemon and Magic players. However, with demand far outstripping supply and allocations further reducing said supply and driving up prices (I see the Universes Beyond Spider Man Gift Bundle currently pre-selling for around $150.00), a better and easier to find choices to sell to customers are the booster packs themselves. We always point out to unsure gift buyers that TCG packs, especially a quantity of them, make great gifts for the recipients as the buyer can be certain they are not getting them the same thing as someone else and the recipient gets to enjoy the gift twice, once when they first open it and then again when they open the packs.
Dice Blind Bags. With the growing number of blind bag dice sets coming from different companies, “Dice goblins” have become increasingly easy to buy for. FanRoll, Foam Brain, Sirius, Black Oak, 1985 Games and Mystery Dice Goblins all offer assortments of blind bag dice. Foam Brain, as far as I know, were the first in the category, and Sirius offers the best display unit.
An additional benefit of most of these items, with the exception of the gift bundles, retail for under $30, offering a very attractive price point.
For more Gifts Week articles, click here.
The Dave Wallace Celebration of Life
I had the opportunity to attend a celebration of life for Dave Wallace with about 50 other people, one traveling six hours to be there. Several people offered memories of Dave, including some employees who paid him one of the highest compliments a staff member can pay their employer: they worked at the Fantasy Shop for a while, left for whatever reason, then happily came back to work there a second time.
Comments on either gift items or Dave Wallace? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICv2
