Throughout February we're making all of our standard events completely free, with all the same prize support!
The trading card game market has gone crazy – and that leaves shops like ours, that do a lot of business online – with a tricky dilemma. Once we have an idea what local demand is like for a product, what do we do with the extra?
Do we put it online for RRP, where people using ‘bots’ will snap it up and sell it on for a big profit?
Do we put it on at ‘market value’?
Do we hoard it in the back?
In the past, we’ve used that money to expand other product lines – like paints. But we have no space. Anywhere. At all!
Well what we did in January, was typically put it online at the typical ebay price -15% (that way it isn’t as expensive as some, but also meant that it wasn’t worth people buying up to ‘flip’ on ebay).
But that means we had a bumper amount income! What do we do with all that unexpected cash?
First, a note on who we are…
We dearly love and appreciate our online customers, and we hope we offer a quick, reliable, and reasonably priced service. But we got into this business to get people playing more games. And we don’t hide the fact our online business subsidises our local gaming scene.
So what we’re doing is a natural extension of that kind of philosophy.
So what’s ‘Free For Feb’ all about?
From 1st to 28th February, every single ‘standard’ tournament or organised play run by Gamers@Hart (Riftbound, MTG casual league, One Piece, YGO locals, Monday night casual Pokemon, Gundam… the list goes on!) will be completely free, with exactly the same prize support!
By ‘standard’ we mean the typical weekly tournaments that usually cost £6.
It’s that simple. Turn up. Play. Keep your wallet in your pocket.
What’s not included?
The vast majority of our tournaments are included – you can look at here.
However some things aren’t included:
- Casual play where you make a £1 donation to People’s Meeples. Please keep paying that! PM is a separate entity, and they keep the games room open at a very low cost, and do other work in the community too. Gamers@Hart pays for the space we use for official tournaments. Now would be a great time to consider becoming a member for £5 per month and never need to remember to donate again – you can do that here.
- Events, even standard events, where we act ‘in loco parentis’ (e.g. Saturday Morning Pokemon)
- Non-standard events – like prereleases and Pokemon League Cups – typically these are events that cost more than £6. This would mean that your first week to the MTG Casual League would cost the usual £30 (because you get 6 booster packs), but then every other week would be free!