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Posted by: 5toosweet Jan 6 2013, 11:57 AM

I will be posting questions that pertain to the hobby on a weekly basis. Dont be afraid to go into full detail with your opinion.

If you would like to submit a question for a future thread please pm me with your suggestions.



This weeks question:

(If you were to own a LCS) How would you attract customers to your LCS?

Posted by: booth9919 Jan 6 2013, 01:46 PM

Trade Nights, Box breaks, Kids days/nights. Free packs if your 12 and under! All stuff I have talked my local store to do to get more of us in there!

Posted by: 5toosweet Jan 10 2013, 12:13 AM

Trade Nights, Box breaks, Kids days/nights. Free packs if your 12 and under! All stuff I have talked my local store to do to get more of us in there!

Posted by: edgerrin32 Jan 10 2013, 01:31 AM

Dancers and grownup drinks!



Just kidding.

Promos. Buy 5 packs get one equal or lesser value for free, within reason. Not like $100 packs. Like maybe $10 and under packs.

A freebie been. Like when people don't want there base or something like that, put it in a box and you can pick out a couple things for free. More for the kids, but available to everyone.

I also used to love the like $1 $2 $5 etc boxes. Back then before jersey cards were a buck each these were cool boxes! Back when pulling any jersey card was cool.

Specials like spends $25 get $5 free store credit, spend $100 get $20. etc.

I do like the trade night idea.

Contest. Like superbowl picks, or stuff like that. Win maybe $10-$25 store credit.

Box busting night/packs. Like where you set of a table or 2 and people buy there packs/boxes and everyone sits there and bust them and they show off there hits and favorites etc. And then they could trade.

Packwars were fun at my old shop. Back when I opens a little here and there. If your not sure what that is, everyone buys a pack (usually the owner gets in as well). And like the owner says lowest batting avg. And whoever gets the card with stat of lowest batting avg then gets everyone's cards. Some might say its gambling but so is opening a pack lol. Then who ever won picks the next thing, like lowest card number or something alone those lines. I lost a lot of good cards this way, and won a bunch of OK things lol. But the way cards are now, some don't even have a pic on them!! lol But im sure there are still brands that work good for this.

Hangout night. Not so much about cards, but like where you just sit around talk sprots or the hobby, maybe bust a few packs etc. Guess you could make this part of trade night or the box busting night.

Pack pull of the week / month / year. Winner gets like $5 buck store credit for the week, $25 for the month pull and $100 for the year. Amounts could be adjusted.

A little deal where you customize mcfarlanes. So it works for the deal, they have to buy there figure there. And put in a fee for paint and supplies. And you make one they don't have and when your done take it home. Would be big with the kids but something I wanted to learn to do but never did. Kinda of a far out type idea, but.

Old school night. Ever shop has those old packs that don't sell for $1 each. Maybe buy 3 get on free on them and everyone bust a bunch of them and see whats cool thats left. And good way to clear them out. You could get a ton of packs and fun for $20 bucks. Try going anywhere and doing something fun for $20!

Ok thats my short list. Now onto my long list. Ok maybe im out of ideas.

Posted by: booth9919 Jan 10 2013, 01:51 AM

How has that turned out for your LCS?

Posted by: northicehero99 Jan 10 2013, 12:22 PM

If I owned an LCS I would try to offer competitive pricing as compared to online vendors and have the affordable boxes.

As incentives I would have trade nights, box break night, give kids freebies, try maintaining boxes of singles for set builders, game night (local sports team on TV) with contests for first person to pull a pack with a player who scored most points/rebounds/best era/longest td, and get whatever the newest popular game card is and have tournaments (Yu-Gi-Oh was big a few years back, not sure if it still is).

Posted by: 19th Century Indiana Jones Jan 10 2013, 02:15 PM

Depends on what kind of customers you are trying to attract.

Posted by: straightbutta14 Jan 10 2013, 02:53 PM

Some things our LCS does..

Monthly drawings for items (boxes, auto'd items)

Rewards card (8% of what your purchase is put towards a credit, claim your credit after 2 months)

Autograph guests

Show the big hits via picture, social media

Social media outlets (FB, Twitter) to post hits, contests

Posted by: redwing40 Jan 10 2013, 03:18 PM

A LCS had a Spin to Win game, they had a poster board with single packs all sports and a couple of nice single cards on it, under each one was a number, they had a spinner that was numbered , for $4 you got one spin, match the number on the board, win that prize, it got me in that store every day!

Posted by: edgerrin32 Jan 10 2013, 07:43 PM

They have a dice game at a store by me. I think its a dollar a roll. 6 dice. And whatever you roll is what you get. Like #6,7,8 and 34, 35, 36 all have nice $ stuff. And the more common the number the less it gets value wise. I know when I was younger o boy if it didn't get me spending my bucks! I remember a couple times hitting 1-2 from the best prizes but never hit the big ones that I remember. But it was fun. I cant remember if its all in one roll or like a 2 roll type deal. Been a long time since I played it, but I still see it there when I go in.

Posted by: 5toosweet Jan 14 2013, 12:08 AM

Those are some great responses!



I wish our LCS would incorporate all or some of these ideas.