Weekly Store Update: 3 October

In the "spirit" of the season we're bringing you the chance to win four horror-themed games! There's the space adventure Escape the Dark Sector, where the future is definitely not bright and your chances are slim. How about the latest edition of the fun and highly rated Zombicide 2nd Edition, considered by many to be the ultimate zombie game? Then there's the sufficiently creepy and thematic The Night Cage, where things change when the lights go out, and rounding out is one you may never have heard of with a 17 Century Europe full of beasts and heroes in the trick-taking card game Shardhunters. That's over $200 in games...trick or treat indeed! We're drawing the sole (not soul...) winner on 16 October!

NEW USPS SERVICE STANDARDS

By the time you read this the USPS will have implemented their latest service standard modification as outlined in their Delivering for America Strategic Plan. This time the impact is on First-Class mail and periodicals. There will be little change for items travelling locally. However, the Postal Service will increase time‐in‐transit standards by 1 or 2 days for certain mail that are traveling longer distances. The post office offers some tips as well: 

1. Plan ahead – For mail or correspondence that requires a deadline, the Postal Service encourages consumers to plan ahead and send their mail early. 
2. When sending mail long distance, mail early – If it would take you more than a day to drive your mail to its destination, make sure to give your long-distance mail some extra time to travel with USPS.
3. Keep mailing letters! The majority of First-Class Mail will be unaffected by the Postal Service’s new service standards. 

In case you weren't aware, First-Class mail is a lower level than Priority Mail and is relegated to lighter items - most commonly for letters. Remember those? Oh, how email has decimated the post office over the years... this particular modification has a direct correlation to that factoid I'm sure. 

There is also a First-Class parcel service for items under 16 ounces. We use that quite a bit for our lighter items, especially Magic the Gathering cards. Our First-Class parcels generally travel in a tiny box or padded envelope and customers appreciate the much lower price compared to Priority Mail. Now we'll have to wait and see if a few extra days tacked on a cross-country trip will make the more inexpensive cost worth it...

ASMODEE BACK ON THE BLOCK

Remember way back in 2018 when Asmodee was purchased by an investment company for a cool $1.4 Billion? Well, it looks like the investment company has milked, squeezed, and restructured enough to put it back up for sale to the reported tune of $2 Billion dollars. Incredible. So, if you've been wondering why your favorite publishers, like Fantasy Flight, Z-Man Games, Days of Wonder and more have been a bit "off" over the last several years...there's the answer. In case you didn't know, Asmodee is the second largest board game publisher, behind only Hasbro. 

I know a few things about investment company purchases. First, everything is literally about the bottom line. The very first things that go are areas not raking in money. Like...do you remember the Fantasy Flight RPG department? Then the restructuring commences. In my experience, restructuring is a fancy word for moving "like" businesses together, reducing senior managers (the ones that don't just leave), and replacing creativity with PowerPoint charts pointing at dollar signs. I can just imagine meetings in which a cool, yet untested new gaming idea are completely ignored over a rehashed reboot or sequel. Kind of like where the movie industry is. It's true that there is money in games, but without continuing to grow and develop the neat ideas and coolest innovations...things will start to dry up. 

There is a glimmer of hope though. In the best case scenario they will become 'too big to sell.' At that point, depending on who can make some influential moves, the company could settle on long term gains and not short term profits. At that point we might see some of that old spark we had years ago. Here's hoping!

THE WRAP UP

Okay, enough news for 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!