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 what to sell to gift buyers.

Sitting here with a cuppa mulled cider and a platter of Christmas cookies, I must admit it is rather nice to see the game companies time new releases to hit the shelf just before the Christmas holidays (and right during Hanukkah).  No sarcasm meant.  This is the time of year when people open their wallets (and credit cards) for more expensive items and in the past week we saw the arrival of Star Wars Imperial Assault from Fantasy Flight Games, the Borg Cube for Star Trek Attack Wing, Hostile Intent and Hidden Agenda for The Resistance, Munchkin Legends from our buddies at Steve Jackson Games and probably one or six I am forgetting.  The great thing about having these hit the shelf now is that I have a great answer to "I want to get them something they don't already have."  By having these come in just before Christmas, I have something to point to the customer that I can say, "I can almost guarantee they don't have this, since it just came in a couple of days ago."

Speaking of the desire of the gift-giver to give the gift-givee something they don’t already have, this is when Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, HeroClix, Magic: The Gatherings, Cardfight!! Vanguard and any other collectable game is the perfect gift for those people who do not want to give someone a duplicate product.  Fairly regularly, I have a customer come in, usually a parent or friend, looking for a birthday or other present who doesn't really know what to get.  That is when I put on my salesman's hat and do a little prospecting to find out why they came in here to look for the present rather than one of those stores out at the mall.

Generally, if they come in here, they may have little to no interest in the game we sell but they have heard from the person they want to buy for that they can get the game here; and what they want, much like the Christmas buyer, is to get them something they do not already have.  Collectible or trading games are made for this very situation but they generally require a bit of explanation, since the typical gift buying customer is not familiar with the concept of a collectable game.  This is something that is very valuable for game stores to remember.

The gift buying visitor to a store is most familiar with "traditional" board games.  They know chess, checkers, Monopoly, Clue, Life, Sorry, etc.  Thanks to mention in the mass media as favorite games among millennials, they likely know Cards Against Humanity and Settlers of Catan as well.  However, the concept of a game that does not have fixed components is alien to anyone who has played any traditional boardgame.  This is when you have to explain the concept of the trading card (or miniature) game, how it differs from traditional games and why it makes a great gift, since booster packs by their very nature differ one from another.  The hardest thing, I have found, is to get the customer to understand that although the packs all differ, every pack of Pokemon or Magic or DiceMasters works with every other pack.  Once I make that clear, I can easily sell 5-10 packs with the assurance that getting so many packs will delight the recipient.  I always have to remember that the collectable concept so familiar to game stores is still unfamiliar to many people.

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.