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 talks about the week that Khans of Tarkir, D&D Monster Manual, and Space Hulk all hit his store.
 
It's a quiet evening here in Lake Woebegon… whoops, I have NPR on in the background.  I need something relaxing after the past 48 hours.  Not that it hasn't been a good 48 hours but it has been a hectic 48 hours.
 
In case you missed it, Wizards of the Coast scheduled the pre-release for the new Magic: The Gathering--Khans of Tarkir set this weekend.  That's the one with the Fetchlands (last seen in Onslaught) reprinted in it.  Needless to say, players have indicated just a weeee bit of interest in this set.  I have heard of a number of stores seating 100-200 players just on Saturday and that still leaves Sunday (as I write this) to go.
 
On top of this, WOTC also chose Friday to release the new Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (I hear no-one referring to it as D&D Next anymore.  Do you hear me, NO-ONE!) Monster Manual to WPN stores.  That's a week ahead of when non-WPN stores receive it.  Bonuses like this are a really good reason to work to stay a WPN store in good standing.  Anytime I can get a product in a week ahead of Amazon, I'm a happier store owner.  Do you hear that other game companies?  Give me a week lead time on the online-only store and I will be much more interested in carrying your book.
 
Most discussion among retail stores so far has focused on the Khans' pre-release, since that involves a lot more work and people through the store than does the Monster Manual (unbox them and put them on the shelf and you are done), but I have been very happy with our sales of the book.  Based on our quick sellout of the Player's Handbook, we upped our initial order significantly and have sold through half of it since it hit the shelves.
 
But wait, there's more.  We have the return of Space Hulk after a five year hiatus.  Space Hulk last hit the shelves in 2009 and sold out quickly, with copies currently selling online for around $250.  Emboldened by this, Games Workshop released a revamped Man o' War titled Dreadfleet that quickly flopped (copies now selling online for around $60-$80).  Likely remembering the success of the last Space Hulk release (the stock GW reserved for mail orders sold out three days before the release date), instead of taking a chance on another new revision of one of their older games,  GW has released a 4th edition of Space Hulk at $125, about $25 more than the 2009 version (and this edition too is sold out at GW mail order).
 
Stores I have heard from since Friday have indicated strong sales for the Monster Manual with a supermajority selling half or more of their initial order, while sales of Space Hulk fall all over the map, some stores reporting sales of zero or one while other stores sold every copy they brought in and wished they could get more.  I expect to see Monster Manual sales taper off slowly as the Player's Handbook did, while Space Hulk sales increase as we get closer to Christmas, with commensurate price increases because, well, supply and demand.
 
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.