Weekly Store Update: 2 May

Hard to stay indoors when it's this beautiful out, but we'll take one for the team! I'll tell you what, our restocks this week are on point...so many long awaited great games! Everdell, for example, hasn't been available since July of last year! There's also new items in the shop and a handful of preorders too...including the reprint of Escape the Dark Castle! We also have some shop news to share. 

INTRO

Hello, it's Eric, your purveyor of tactile escapism in its finest form! You may not know, but it's usually just Wendy and I running the shop, but in our division of labor "internet stuff" falls to me. So, let me guide the new folks through our Stone Valley Games newsletter. This top portion contains our store news, but if you want to skip that and get to the games, just jump down to the bottom of the post to see the restocks, new items, and preorders we laid in last week. Not to worry, not much news this week!

BOARD GAME GIVEAWAY

Our latest giveaway is in the books! That's right, we've drawn the winner of the Viscounts of the West Kingdom board game giveaway. I'd love to tell you who it is, but we're going to wait until the next episode of Solosaurus on 7 May where Martin and Michael will reveal the name. I know what you're thinking...when's the next giveaway scheduled for? Well...it's very, very soon... As a matter of fact, you might want to listen to that same episode for more than just the recent winner's name...

IMMINENT PRICE INCREASE

A few weeks ago we mentioned game prices increasing with one of our favorite wargame publishers Dan Verssen Games. Well, there must be something in the water, because Asmodee followed up with their own list, which is kicking in on 1 July 2021. We don't carry all of these games, but I thought you'd be interested in the entire list. We do carry most of the big name miniatures game (like Project Elite, Death May Die, and Rising Sun) for well under MSRP, but this increase is going to affect our prices too, so if you've been holding out, now may be the time.

REVIEWS

Your peek behind the curtain this week is our Review system. I searched for something that would stand as an independent entity outside of our store. I'll tell you what, I was surprised at the lack of solutions! However, I kept at it as I figured it would lend legitimacy to the rating system. After all, I know that if I'm shopping I like to look at the store reviews to see what I'm getting myself into...especially since I shop exclusively at places that don't rhyme with "Babylon"... In any case, I also wanted the system to reward shoppers for writing a review. Again using myself, I often forget to go back and write a review for somewhere I shopped. I figured sending a reminder with a bonus about a week after the order closed would be ideal. In any case I finally found what I was looking for in the appropriately named "Customer Reviews for Woocommerce" or simply CR plugin and it works perfectly. So, if you're on our homepage you can scroll to the bottom and click it to see what folks write about us, and about the products we carry. I'll tell you what, the reviews not only help us out by telling others about our store, but they also really perk us up! So much so that I've been toying with making a "greatest hits" of the ones that get us laughing, or crying, or just feeling wonderful in general. 

THE WRAP UP

See, not too much news this week! Below are the Restocks, New Items, and Preorders added to the shop last week. You can click on the item to learn more, and many of the products have review and gameplay videos so you can see the game in action. If you're visiting our page and you'd like to keep up with our giveaways, sales, new products, and articles like this one just create an account here. Once created you will be subscribed to our newsletter and become enrolled in our loyalty system, instantly earning 50 Stones that you can use on your very first order. A Stone? One Stone is equivalent to One Cent. That doesn't sound like much, but you earn 2 Stones for every dollar spent and 5 for each product review, so though it may seem small, those savings add up fast! Redeem your Stones upon checkout, and they can save you up to 10% off your cart total. Loyalty Matters!