Weekly Store Update: 23 June

By Stone Valley | June 23, 2023 |

We have more details to share on our upcoming two-week store closure to be followed by our Summer Sale. It's just amazing how fast time is hurtling by! We switch shipping stickers to align with the new season, and we have some new items and restocks to share. Stop on in and check it all out!

INTRO

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! For our new readers I'm Eric, and Wendy and I run Stone Valley Games. This newsletter is our way to share both local and world-wide gaming news of interest that popped up last week. It also provides our subscribers, both local and remote, some information on the going's on around here so everyone feels like part of the action. At the bottom of this newsletter we show you the restocks, new items, and preorders added to the store last week. It's not too difficult to navigate, so let's get to it!

CHANGING OF THE SEASONS

You might not have noticed, but the seasons officially changed from Spring to Summer on Wednesday. The summer solstice is technically the longest 'day' of the year (with the shortest night), so from here on out the days will be slowly growing shorter.

More importantly, at least to us, the changing of the season marks the transition of our shipping label. As our regular customers know, we affix a store label to most of our packages going out. The only exception is items shipped via Media Mail, as there is a 'no marketing' flag with that type of shipping, and this kind of labelling has been identified as marketing.

Really though, marketing wasn't why we started using the labels. It was a strategy we incorporated that helped identify our packages and made finding any lost items that much easier. We started the practice during the pandemic when so, so many items became mixed-up in the shipping process. I'm proud to say that out of the dozens of wayward packages, we ultimately never lost a single item in transit. Remarkable, really.

With that basic start, over the years we have refined our label art to this point where we have the same basic concept, but with changing seasons. So, as you can see, the blooming Spring has transformed to the fully green Summer. Yes... it's just one more thing we do that's 'different', but we wouldn't have it any other way!

UPCOMING TEMPORARY STORE CLOSURE

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the store is going to be closed for a few weeks while I perform Nurse Eric duties as Wendy recovers from surgery.

The Webstore, Storefront, and Curbside Pickup along with both our TCGPlayer and Deckbox sales channels will be closed from 27 June to 12 July. Now, that 12 July date may move a few days forward or back depending on how things go, but that's the general timeline.

During that time, I will do my best to send out weekly newsletters with basic updates. Additionally, any new releases that launch in that timeframe will still be shipped out. Right now, the upcoming release schedule during those two weeks are:

June 30: Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

July 7: Lord of the Rings LCG: Dream-Chaser Campaign Expansion, Star Wars: Shatterpoint - Plans and Preparation Squad Pack, Star Wars: Shatterpoint - Jedi Hunters, and Star Wars: Shatterpoint - You Cannot Run Duel Pack

If anything changes, I will let everyone know in one of those abbreviated newsletters.

2023 SUMMER BLOWOUT SALE

We're going to try and shoehorn our annual Summer Sale in between surgery recovery and the start of school around here. We're currently penciling in July 23 - 26, which is a Sunday - Wednesday.

As with all of our sales, we will have discounts on items throughout the store. Traditionally those range from 40 - 70+ percent off. Also, as with all of our sales, many of the items will be very limited in stock - so the pressure will be on. We don't mean to cause stress and anxiety but understand that's what limited items on sale can produce. Make sure you perform your deep breathing exercises!

As the event draws closer, I will better refine the dates / times and keep you well informed thru these very newsletters. Also, as is quickly becoming tradition, we will have a game giveaway drawing for our local customers who order for pickup. This will help keep the foot traffic down so we can scramble around fulfilling orders as efficiently as possible.

We look forward to a fantastic event, and hopefully you have a few dollars left after Prime Days to get some good deals with us too!

NEW RELEASES

In a rare occurrence, a large portion of our new releases this week are already sold out. We'll have a few MTG Tales of Middle-Earth products left, but that's about it.

Have you heard about the latest Magic the Gathering Set? It's kind of crazy. Officially, a few sets ago with The Brothers' War, Wizards of the Coast started printing serialized cards. These are marked with a 1/500 (or 1/100 - etc.) where there is only one of each number printed. This has added significant value to these serialized cards and has changed the collectable landscape for MTG yet again.

This is the backdrop for 'The One Ring'. In this latest Tales of Middle-Earth release, Wizards of the Coast is printing a 1/1 card called 'The One Ring.' that will be available in a single English language collector booster. For the first time ever, there will only be one specific version of this card ever printed. Needless to say, it has collectors all up in a tizzy. The last time I checked, there were offers of $3 million dollars for this single card! Wizards of the Coast has even released a public service announcement that warned players to not open collector's boosters in public in case they open this particular card.

In any case, I thought that might be an interesting story for those of you who do not follow Magic the Gathering and are probably slowly shaking your heads right now...

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!