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What's up! I'm vacation! Let's talk about why board games get cheaper the longer they've been out and why it's important to pay full price vs discounted.
Righto! So I've talked about the cost of making board games before, highlighting that the first print run often has AWFUL margins. Find the full deets here: https://twitter.com/TheOneTAR/status/989351776661848065?s=09
The TLDR; of that thread is that the first print run has to cover a lot of initial overheads. Design license, artwork, playtesting, marketing.. and manufacturing setup costs. This is one people forget!
Cardboard bits are manufactured with basically giant fancy paper punches. They use dies, which are sheet sized blades that cut the pieces out. These used to have to made by hand, but not also so now. They're still time consuming to make and test. Think cookie cutter for cardboard
The more unique the pieces, the more difficult the dies, and the more you need. Patchwork needs 5 dies! That's a lot for a basic two-player game. Often, publishers try to create only 2-3 dies per a game. Next time you punch a new game, see if you can figure out how many dies used
Next? Wood! Wooden bits like meeples are often made by taking long strips of wood and routing the shape into it. Then, you slice the super crazy long meeple into the thickness you want. These are Dragon's Breath Hatching Dragon Moms!
Whenever you design a new custom meeple shape, you need to make a new custom router bit. This is also traditionally done by hand and takes a carpenter. Like, honest to goodness wood carpenter. This is obviously expensive and time consuming.
Plastic! So plastic bits are made often via injection molding. So if we're talking minis, first you have to hire a sculptor to sculpt the mini to make a mold from. Thanks to computers, they can now sculpt at a slightly larger size than 1:1. Digital sculpts are becoming common too
There's so much plastic nowadays there's some pretty commonly used bits in lots of games. Often a games manufacturing facility will buy the plastic bits from a plastic manufacturer, either with custom shapes or "stock" items. Custom is King now thanks to 3D printing molds.
Inserts! People love to complain about inserts. There's basically 4 types, each with their own pros and cons. Here the types:
1) nothing
2) shipping board supports
3) functional assembled cardboard
4) plastic molded
1) nothing
2) shipping board supports
3) functional assembled cardboard
4) plastic molded
Nothing is sometimes the cheapest choice. I say sometimes because the "shipping board supports" option is often cheaper in the long run. These basic folded inserts are designed to keep the heavy punchboard stacks from knocking around and damaging the game/box during shipping.
Folded cardboard and plastic mold inserts both are varying levels of expensive, but both require some packing design, which can cost $$. Folded cardboard are sometimes just as expensive as the plastic ones, because they require more labor to put in the box. Sometimes.
Plastic molded inserts can be cheap and awful, or super fancy and expensive. There's a few ways to make them nowadays and you can get some super fancy stuff that's has big upfront coats in terms of package design. GameTrayz are a great example, which I don't seem to have onhand
Then there's the machines themselves! Basically, when you're printing lots of the same game with specific custom stuff, it takes time to setup the machines. Sometimes it's a day, sometimes less. That costs $$. The more you print, the easier it is to spread this cost among units.
So yeah! When a game first comes out, all those machining and tooling costs, as well as tool and packaging design costs add up. But! The next print run.. the next print run you've already paid for all that. But that first one.. so much initial overhead.
Often, the 2nd print run can be larger because all of those initial costs are paid for. But only if the 1st, more expensive run, is paid for in a way to a) cover the costs of the making of the game and b) give you enough profit to pay for the next run.
I updated my detailed thread earlier this month on why online discounters hurt the industry, this this ties into it. Online retailers offering discount for pre-orders hurts the whole chain BECAUSE of how truly awful first run costs are. https://twitter.com/TheOneTAR/status/1335319764227424257?s=19
I absolutely get that some people cannot afford the luxury item that is board games at MSRP. But I want to be clear, hobby board games are 100% a luxury good. So, if you really want to support the industry, all I'm saying is pay full price or wait a lil' bit to buy that hottness.
Anyway there's also a whole thing about supply and demand and costs of goods vs time available vs inventory as well, but that's common for any product, not just games. Economics ain't my thing - that's Steve's. But yeah, if you're buying hottness fresh off the line, pay MSRP.
