The store just (finally) received a Kickstarter we had backed in the spring of 2023 that the creator had planned to ship in fall of 2023, meaning the company missed its projected release date by somewhat over a year. Now granted, this is Kickstarter, which states up from there is no guarantee of backers ever receiving items they backed, but the way this campaign was delivered reminded me why the store so seldom backs Kickstarter campaigns. I am not going to mention the company or campaign here, but there are certain things any company or creator launching a Kickstarter campaign should provide, if it wants a game store buy in to the campaign.
Decent discounts. A 25% off MSRP discount, which I have seen in the “retailer” tier on Kickstarters, is not a decent discount if you have a MSRP listed for the item. Most items we stock in the store have gross margins of at least 40%. At 25%, almost any store will pass on it, unless the principals are big fans of the product
Un-discounted retail price. If a selling point to Kickstarter backers is that the backer will get the product more cheaply (i.e., less than the posted Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price), than they will when it releases into the retail channel, why would any customer who wants the product pay full retail for it at their local game store? The whole purpose of Kickstarter, at least originally, was to secure funding to make a cool product. A number of manufacturers today use it as a method to promote new products, setting ridiculously low goals so they can point out how quickly they blew past them. If the price gets discounted to supporters, that price becomes the de facto MSRP, as that is how much the publisher values it. Early bird discounts to get customers to sign up early, sure, but discounting the entire production run? I will pass.
Packing lists. With a lot of Kickstarters, a long time passes between solicitation of the product and its arrival, as noted above, over a year in the case of the one that arrived this week. Given the sales cycle, that is a long time to keep a product file active. When the campaign fulfillment arrives, I need information along with the products, a packing list at a minimum. I should not have to go back and search for your Kickstarter campaign of months ago to find out what I should be receiving. I can and I have but I should not have to. Put a list in the package indicating what should be arriving, preferably with the prices on it (Are you listening, Asmodee?). Stores have multiple orders arriving every week and companies that make it easier to buy from them get my money first.
Incidentally, the above applies primarily to game Kickstarters. Although we carry comics, I have abandoned comic Kickstarters for the store shelves for the simple reason that almost all comic Kickstarters are launched by the creator, who if they know what they are doing, are promoting it strongly to their fans, who are the ones that will buy a new book Kickstarted by a favorite creator, meaning stores will likely not see any sales to that creator’s fans, as they already got the book through Kickstarter. After the second one we backed and the second one with no shelf sales after it arrived, we gave future comic Kickstarters a pass.
Comments? Are your experiences different? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
