Doctor Recommended

Collectible Card Games

Years ago, many of my friends played a CCG called Magic: The Gathering. While it's not quite Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) it does have flare and genre that the infamous Role Playing Game (RPG) has (I played for 3 hours and was slain by an elf!).

I actually didn't play much M:TG, I was more of a Star Wars CCG buff. But that was an expensive hobby for a high school kid with no steady job. Plus, most of the people you play with at competitions are the types that should not be allowed outside.

This past winter a friend introduced me to a card game with a twist, called Munchkin. It's a Free-For All (though alliances do occur, especially with ones girlfriend) designed for 6-8 players. Here are a few examples of what the cards look like.

My original intention was for Collectrix to actually be an eBay for these sorts of games. PlayerAuctions.com has proven that you can make oodles of money buying and selling characters for games like EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot. And this is where my story begins to mesh with a Slashdot post.

I found out that many distributors and whole-sellers do not like individuals and companies that buy and sell CCGs online. Their Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) is reminiscent of the RIAA and MPAA, fortunately they aren't as conniving as the two said lobbyists are.

I contacted Mr. Jackson to find out the various channels of sellers and distributors I should use and his reply was very surprising, he did not wish to assist me and made it clear that the creators of CCGs do not care much for individuals such as myself (we lower the prices, act competitively and figure out ways to make oodles of ducats, none of which are sent to him). Actually, the more cards I sell, the more I have to buy, the more money he makes, the bigger smile he'll have (in theory).

Two of my old high school buddies work for a dotcom and also operate an online retailer for CCGs like Yugioh (it's like Dragonball Z which is like Transformers was for my age group). They also found that many companies, both distributors and creators refused to do business with them ("it hurts the experience of the buyer"). They pointed me to the direction of a fellow who knew the ins and outs of purchasing large quantities of these sorts of games and I was this close to starting that operation. I even got a dozen or so friends to pool their monies together so that we could buy in bulk (margins were going to be 50-75%).

After a couple weeks of tinkering with the idea, both the energy and motivation basically stopped - and as you can see, Collectrix does nothing that I had originally intended.

Anyways, I noticed at Slashdot, this post regarding War Hammer (another quasi-RPG). It appears the parent company for War Hammer will "refuse to distribute their product to retailers who sell over the internet after July 1." One of the reasons is the ultimate cop-out (yes, I can lambaste them if I so choose) is that showing pictures of the figurines violates their "intellectual property." While I'm no Statist lawyer, this is an asinine claim - to wit:

"Don't show off our products to potential buyers, we don't care for your kind in the first place because [insert fallacious reasons here]."

The parent company does not own anything and everything monetarily connected to the War Hammer name. If they do, then I guess all of you owe them some sort of royalties because you might one day profit off the knowledge and musings provided and transcended by moi (of course, they operate with a double-standard, as I doubt they would complain if/when those selling their games online lost money -- do these resellers then get to demand compensation?).

It's one of the reasons M:TG and D&D are dying off, many of the people you have to deal with (in card shops) are anti-social and use strong-arm tactics (you aren't winning any fans that way) for their own job security. And yes, I am referring to the archetype portrayed in The Simpsons known as: The Comic Book Guy.

Go outside already!

Posted by Tim at April 16, 2003 03:02 PM | TrackBack