The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Dysplastic wrote:

I'm lucky in that I can always seem to find a buyer by posting on my work's message boards. So here's to working in a 2000 person organization full of fellow geeks.

I did ebay for a while but went the way of Displastic and began postin on our internal board game group. Stuff literally sells in 5 minutes.

I love to experiment with new games and so my collection has a high rate of turn over. I find that if you keep the games in good condition, people will pay a good price.

Sell ... the ... games? But why would I sell my beautiful games?

However, my wife does point out that I have more games than I know what to do with, so I occasionally sell a few. Some of our FLGS's buy used games and give you store credit. One even runs an auction where people sell their games and again the money comes back as store credit. I've done this several times and it results in new games! So you may want to check your local store.

Cross post from the kickstarter thread.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Tycho from PA just mentioned Kingdom Death: Monster on Twitter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

There are only 50 hours left, it has over $1 million in pledges, and the art style is straight out of Dark Souls, imho - which is what interested me the most.

It's a co-op miniatures board game.

It looks like a fun game if you can get past the NSFW sculptures... what do you guys think about the game part?

manta173 wrote:

Cross post from the kickstarter thread.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Tycho from PA just mentioned Kingdom Death: Monster on Twitter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

There are only 50 hours left, it has over $1 million in pledges, and the art style is straight out of Dark Souls, imho - which is what interested me the most.

It's a co-op miniatures board game.

It looks like a fun game if you can get past the NSFW sculptures... what do you guys think about the game part?

I love the monsters - the sculpts are gorgeous, but also damn, the whole thing reeks of seriously juvenile softcore porn.

Gravey wrote:

How do you guys and girls sell your games? (If you sell your games—possibly unfathomable to some.) Craigslist? Kijiji? Ebay? BGG Marketplace?

It seems to cost $15 to mail a game to Can/US, so adding (or subtracting) that to what I could hope to charge someone doesn't make for a more appealing value for the buyer (or me) than buying the game new from an online games store.

So I'm thinking Craigslist.

It depends on how quickly you need/want to sell them. I've had success selling games on the BGG Marketplace, but some of them took several months. Some are still sitting there. However, I've been able to price games a few dollars below the "going" rate for used games and have sold maybe half a dozen that way, some for as little as $10-$12 and others as much as $35. Considering BGG has a userbase of something like 400,000 board gamers, that's a pretty big market to sell to.

HedgeWizard wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Cross post from the kickstarter thread.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Tycho from PA just mentioned Kingdom Death: Monster on Twitter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

There are only 50 hours left, it has over $1 million in pledges, and the art style is straight out of Dark Souls, imho - which is what interested me the most.

It's a co-op miniatures board game.

It looks like a fun game if you can get past the NSFW sculptures... what do you guys think about the game part?

I love the monsters - the sculpts are gorgeous, but also damn, the whole thing reeks of seriously juvenile softcore porn.

Yeah... that's the only reason why I haven't already put in my hundred. I like adult level gameplay/ complexity but I don't need pieces I can't show to the general public.

manta173 wrote:
HedgeWizard wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Cross post from the kickstarter thread.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Tycho from PA just mentioned Kingdom Death: Monster on Twitter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

There are only 50 hours left, it has over $1 million in pledges, and the art style is straight out of Dark Souls, imho - which is what interested me the most.

It's a co-op miniatures board game.

It looks like a fun game if you can get past the NSFW sculptures... what do you guys think about the game part?

I love the monsters - the sculpts are gorgeous, but also damn, the whole thing reeks of seriously juvenile softcore porn.

Yeah... that's the only reason why I haven't already put in my hundred. I like adult level gameplay/ complexity but I don't need pieces I can't show to the general public.

Those are beautifully designed and it looks really cool gameplay wise as well, but yeah I get the same vibe from it. That being said I'm way to lazy for miniature work and I have too many games that I don't play already.

Boudreaux wrote:
Gravey wrote:

How do you guys and girls sell your games? (If you sell your games—possibly unfathomable to some.) Craigslist? Kijiji? Ebay? BGG Marketplace?

It seems to cost $15 to mail a game to Can/US, so adding (or subtracting) that to what I could hope to charge someone doesn't make for a more appealing value for the buyer (or me) than buying the game new from an online games store.

So I'm thinking Craigslist.

It depends on how quickly you need/want to sell them. I've had success selling games on the BGG Marketplace, but some of them took several months. Some are still sitting there. However, I've been able to price games a few dollars below the "going" rate for used games and have sold maybe half a dozen that way, some for as little as $10-$12 and others as much as $35. Considering BGG has a userbase of something like 400,000 board gamers, that's a pretty big market to sell to.

Do you charge the buyer for the shipping?

thejustinbot wrote:

So played Here I Stand yesterday and had an overall terrible experience overall from a few different things. First off, I ended up my a crushing headache for the last three hours which ruined things a lot. Second, the players for the Hapsburgs, Protestands, Catholics and English all would never plan out their turn during the off time while other people went. That and none of them ever seemed to grasp the rules so after ten minutes of hemming and hawing each impulse they would play a card, get halfway through the action, then realize the card didn't do what they thought it did so would take it back and start hemming and hawing about what to do again. Those things can make a 9 hour game kind frustrating, especially when we only got through 5 turns in 9 hours.

Played my second game of Here I Stand today. It was certainly more fun that my original play, if only because I had a more firm grasp of the rules and mechanics.

This time I was the Hapsburgs, and I have to say I really didn't have that much fun playing as them. A lot of the game's balance seems to rely on the Hapsburgs, and I felt like I was handing the win to whoever I wasn't focusing on. In this game I let the Ottoman's go too crazy with piracy so they ended up with the win in turn four. France nearly won on turn three and I think I focused a little too much on knocking them back down when I should've used some of those CPs towards building more ships to stop the Ottomans.

If I play again I'll be sure to play one of the other powers where less of the game comes down to specifically what I choose to do or not do. Having only played once it was just too much for me to try and properly balance.

Had much more fun this time around. Still not sure it's my kind of game. We were all much more aggressive than we were in our first play (and some of the guys got another play in before this without me) which made the map a bit more exciting, but I still like a more dynamic map. It's expensive to get around and take stuff over!

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:
thejustinbot wrote:

So played Here I Stand yesterday and had an overall terrible experience overall from a few different things. First off, I ended up my a crushing headache for the last three hours which ruined things a lot. Second, the players for the Hapsburgs, Protestands, Catholics and English all would never plan out their turn during the off time while other people went. That and none of them ever seemed to grasp the rules so after ten minutes of hemming and hawing each impulse they would play a card, get halfway through the action, then realize the card didn't do what they thought it did so would take it back and start hemming and hawing about what to do again. Those things can make a 9 hour game kind frustrating, especially when we only got through 5 turns in 9 hours.

Played my second game of Here I Stand today. It was certainly more fun that my original play, if only because I had a more firm grasp of the rules and mechanics.

This time I was the Hapsburgs, and I have to say I really didn't have that much fun playing as them. A lot of the game's balance seems to rely on the Hapsburgs, and I felt like I was handing the win to whoever I wasn't focusing on. In this game I let the Ottoman's go too crazy with piracy so they ended up with the win in turn four. France nearly won on turn three and I think I focused a little too much on knocking them back down when I should've used some of those CPs towards building more ships to stop the Ottomans.

If I play again I'll be sure to play one of the other powers where less of the game comes down to specifically what I choose to do or not do. Having only played once it was just too much for me to try and properly balance.

Had much more fun this time around. Still not sure it's my kind of game. We were all much more aggressive than we were in our first play (and some of the guys got another play in before this without me) which made the map a bit more exciting, but I still like a more dynamic map. It's expensive to get around and take stuff over!

Oh, see, I love playing as the Hapsburgs, because you are top dog. It is precisely the insane challenge of keeping France down while saving the world from piracy while defending Vienna, and then trying to make Luther's life as hard as humanly possible is what jazzes me. I actually won a game as the Hapsburgs during the summer. But you do have to know what your options are and the other players have to know theirs as well. Not the easiest with a game as wild and woolly as HIS.

If France and the Ottomans were both so close to winning so early, someone else wasn't doing their job. France basically gets one undisputed VP a turn for chateaux...where the heck were they getting the others from? Was the Papacy at least loaning you fleets to keep piracy down, and was England helping at all with France? Knowing the game--and knowing the dangers--is a huge help, of course, because one power can really rally the other players to help with card play of their own.

As for the map changing, we just have different sensibilities about that. When I won as Charles V, I had liberated Hungary, some German electorates, most of North Africa, and damn if I didn't bring the hammer down on the Aztecs and Incas in the New World. So it can get pretty dynamic!

Gravey wrote:
Boudreaux wrote:
Gravey wrote:

How do you guys and girls sell your games? (If you sell your games—possibly unfathomable to some.) Craigslist? Kijiji? Ebay? BGG Marketplace?

It seems to cost $15 to mail a game to Can/US, so adding (or subtracting) that to what I could hope to charge someone doesn't make for a more appealing value for the buyer (or me) than buying the game new from an online games store.

So I'm thinking Craigslist.

It depends on how quickly you need/want to sell them. I've had success selling games on the BGG Marketplace, but some of them took several months. Some are still sitting there. However, I've been able to price games a few dollars below the "going" rate for used games and have sold maybe half a dozen that way, some for as little as $10-$12 and others as much as $35. Considering BGG has a userbase of something like 400,000 board gamers, that's a pretty big market to sell to.

Do you charge the buyer for the shipping?

Browsing a game or two on there it looks like most people add shipping. It's not in the listed price, but stated in the text of the ad.

Are you looking to trim down your game collection, or just get rid of a game you don't care for? I've had good luck with math trades on BGG. Good way to trade something you're not fond of for something you'd like to play.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Are you looking to trim down your game collection, or just get rid of a game you don't care for? I've had good luck with math trades on BGG. Good way to trade something you're not fond of for something you'd like to play.

Looking to trim down the collection by getting rid of games I'm not playing and don't care for. How do you track down an appropriate math trade? All I can think to do is search Geeklists, which isn't super productive.

FWIW, here are the games and what I'd ask, plus shipping to Can/US ($15):

$15 Descent: Quest Compendium - Like new
$20 Descent: The Road to Legend - NO BOX, punched and assembled, played once, but comes with a sweet Overlord screen
$25 Dominion: Intrigue - Played once
$15 Dwarven Dig - Punched, played once
$25 Lord of the Rings: The Card Game - Punched, played half a time

If I try to sell these on Craigslist with local pick-up, I think I'd tack on $5 to each.

I always have the buyer pay shipping. Occasionally that's been more than the cost of the game, I'm not going to lose money on it. Almost all buyers expect to pay shipping, and I try to minimize it as much as possible.

Actually, I've been surprised at how well my Marketplace offers have sold. I put up maybe 10-12 games awhile back thinking it would be a year or more before anything sold, and two of them were bought within a week. The thing I like about it is they're in the Marketplace permanently, so once I put up the listing I don't have to constantly re-list or even think about it, really.

The one downside is BGG takes a small cut (something like 3%) of your sales, but I can live with that.

onewild wrote:

Played a few new games today. First up was Ticket to Ride Africa - it is Ticket to Ride so great, with a new mechanic involving terrian, basically you can now draw terrian cards that represent 3 colours and if you use them when laying that colour of track, you get double the points however only if you have the same amount or more of any other player.

That's the new map pack right? Sounds cool. Plus you can play it while also playing the song Africa.

Demyx wrote:
onewild wrote:

Played a few new games today. First up was Ticket to Ride Africa - it is Ticket to Ride so great, with a new mechanic involving terrian, basically you can now draw terrian cards that represent 3 colours and if you use them when laying that colour of track, you get double the points however only if you have the same amount or more of any other player.

That's the new map pack right? Sounds cool. Plus you can play it while also playing the song Africa.

Yeah it is the new map pack. It is good, the new mechanic adds something new and the map is really nice to play, also the cards are pretty good at pointing out where the cities are, since I doubt many people are up on their African geography. The board got really busy as well with 4 players, not sure if that was just luck of the draw on the tickets though.

Boudreaux wrote:

I always have the buyer pay shipping. Occasionally that's been more than the cost of the game, I'm not going to lose money on it. Almost all buyers expect to pay shipping, and I try to minimize it as much as possible.

Actually, I've been surprised at how well my Marketplace offers have sold. I put up maybe 10-12 games awhile back thinking it would be a year or more before anything sold, and two of them were bought within a week. The thing I like about it is they're in the Marketplace permanently, so once I put up the listing I don't have to constantly re-list or even think about it, really.

The one downside is BGG takes a small cut (something like 3%) of your sales, but I can live with that.

Thanks for that, I'll give the Marketplace a shot then!

If you want your stuff to sell fairly quickly, and it's not out of print or in really high demand, look at the current Marketplace offerings for that game. Assuming yours are in good condition and are comparable to the others for sale, price it $2-$3 below everything else. I did that with a few games that had several other copies for sale - Rune Age, Mystery of the Abbey, Troyes - and they all sold quickly. I think Mystery of the Abbey lasted maybe 2 days.

There is also always the option of running a BGG auction. I have a friend who did that, and he said that while almost everything was bought, overall he got a lot less than he really wanted. Marketplace seems to bring in more money, but takes longer.

GrandmaFunk wrote:

anyone ever come across some kind of deck box(or an idea for an easy DIY version) for the smaller card formats?

This seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. (heh)

This tuckbox generator might be useful: http://www.cpforbes.net/tuckbox/tuck...

I usually sell mine on the BGG Marketplace. I usually do as Boudreaux said and price it a little under and things sell fairly well as long as there is interest.

Had a friend over for some boardgames and scotch last night and we ended up trying Galaxy Trucker which I got for christmas. Holy spaceships, batman, that is one of the most fun games I've ever played. Not going to go into game play descriptions much (see link above to bgg), but at one point a meteor split my wife's ship in twain and while the other players giggled she had to chose between her weapons and her precious, precious cargo. I really love that at the end of the space ship build (we used the timer) we all walked around the table and pointed out flaws and problems with the other peoples builds, removing sections and hearing "Oh sh*t!! My cannons!!" more than once.

What I loved about this game is that it generated more comments, groans and especially laughter around the table than any other in my collection of board games. I really can't recommend this game enough. Vlaada Chvátil is such a great designer.

Natus wrote:

If France and the Ottomans were both so close to winning so early, someone else wasn't doing their job. France basically gets one undisputed VP a turn for chateaux...where the heck were they getting the others from? Was the Papacy at least loaning you fleets to keep piracy down, and was England helping at all with France? Knowing the game--and knowing the dangers--is a huge help, of course, because one power can really rally the other players to help with card play of their own.

France got control of Genoa and made a move on Italy and sued for peace against me, which combined with a couple other moves put him one away from victory. It was a pretty impressive turn.

I think we all may have forgotten about loaning ships; I certainly forgot that was possible, and I'm guessing the Papal player did as well. That would've helped me out quite a bit. I also mostly neglected my fleets as the Barbary Pirate event happened on the first round of the game, giving the Ottomans an opportunity to jump on his fleet before I could.

Given everything going on in Here I Stand, I'm sure we'll continue to hit somewhat odd victories until we all better grasp the game and its interactions.

Finished our first medium length game of Archipelago last night with 4 players. The game was a blast! As our first play it took us an extra hour (clocking in at 3.5 hours!), but everyone was engaged and enjoying it up to the last.

Everyone really liked how exploring worked in the game. It was cool to try and figure out how to fit the hex next to your guys and then gain an advantage from it. We were pretty slow on the whole "build stuff" portion of the game, which is why I think it took us a bit longer to play. Ideally you want to have some people build markets and ports early to make money since taxing your people requires lots of citizens.

In the end, my wife squeaked out a win against me. We had the town Trend card and a Church Scoring card, and I had very few of either, while she was in first place for those. (Sadly my picture are all grainy, boo! Check some pictures out on BGG!)

Hi, today is the last day to back Tomorrow on Kickstarter. Think Diplomacy but with nukes and biological weapons, with scoring like DEFCON. The final stretch goal is only $1,500 away: little plastic standup mushroom clouds for explosion sites instead of cardboard tokens. I've backed, received, and played their previous game, The New Science, which is excellent, so it's a good group of designers. Troy Goodfellow is somehow involved in the company.

Keithustus wrote:

I've backed, received, and played their previous game, The New Science, which is excellent, so it's a good group of designers.

I got a chance to play this at PenguinCon, and it was a really cool take on a worker placement game - it added an element of helping other players to boost your score, which was really fun, and it made the game feel a lot more interactive than Carcassone. I backed Tomorrow at the level to get both that and The New Science, it was too good a deal to pass up.

Keithustus wrote:

Hi, today is the last day to back Tomorrow on Kickstarter. Think Diplomacy but with nukes and biological weapons, with scoring like DEFCON. The final stretch goal is only $1,500 away: little plastic standup mushroom clouds for explosion sites instead of cardboard tokens. I've backed, received, and played their previous game, The New Science, which is excellent, so it's a good group of designers. Troy Goodfellow is somehow involved in the company.

Damn, if it had just another week or something I'd be able to do so, but I can't afford it right now. Otherwise I'd hit that $59 mark right now.

So going back to the sleeve discussion - I normally don't sleeve my own games, but went out and picked up sleeves for Ticket to Ride and Dominion/Dominion Intrigue copies that we have at the gaming club at the local college.

TTR was getting such heavy rotation that the sleeves just made sense for the trains and routes, and Dominion is being played a handful of times EACH WEEK.

It's funny, I played Dominion once or twice at PAX last year, and it didn't really grab me, I think in large part because I don't really like deck-building games. However, my son has been wanting it, and I finally caved and got him Dominion Intrigue, and I find myself really really enjoying it. We have played at least three games in less than a week, and I'm itching to get more play time in. I don't know if it just that the cards in Intrigue are just that much more interesting, or if I am coming around on deck-builders...

McIrishJihad wrote:

So going back to the sleeve discussion - I normally don't sleeve my own games, but went out and picked up sleeves for Ticket to Ride and Dominion/Dominion Intrigue copies that we have at the gaming club at the local college.

TTR was getting such heavy rotation that the sleeves just made sense for the trains and routes, and Dominion is being played a handful of times EACH WEEK.

I do the almost a penny mayday sleeves because they are both inexpensive and also are not big and bulky like the high quality sleeves.

While these kickstarted games look great, I always balk a bit at the 15$ shipping cost to Canada for an individual game - normally I can get 10$ shipping from a variety of retailers for a bulk shipment of a few games at a time, which is more palatable especially given the cheap prices at those retailers. While those kickstarter games look cool, my bottom line is that I don't have enough time to play games sold at retail that look equally cool and are much more affordable. I do wish companies like Conquistador and Clever Mojo the best, and hope they do well enough so that they can use a distributor to sell more locally and reduce shipping costs. It is comforting that games like Tomorrow will be available for sale at Game Solute post-kickstarter, so that if I get the chance to play it and fall in love, I can still bite the shipping bullet and grab it.

Looking for a new game to play with my parents, we already have and enjoy Ticket to Ride, Carcassone and Small World (well my dad can't play this since the board gives him migraines). So something along those lines would be good, around the 40min to an hour to complete. Although I was thinking of getting a co-op game as well to mix things up abit.

Any advice?