Battlefield Bangkok

No new news on shipping, seems to have stalled for a week, which isn’t good news considering our targeted opening date… fingers crossed.
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However the Thai language site is now complete

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I should have a new supplier set up next week too that will massively add to our game pubisher reach! So between them and the 4 present suppliers we’ll have the vast marority of game systems covered!

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Been a day of minor chaos, this week I managed to break the blog, so in an attempt to fix it I upgraded it, which didn’t work, but then I found the problem on the Word Press forum and got that fixed and now the blog is upgraded too.

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Also launched a new forum over on Thailand Boardgames which is an awesome community of local game players, mainly a Thai community but with some bits in English.

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Shipping still giving me headaches, appears the US freight firm wants to increase their prices…this after they have already delivered everything to the port. I have to wonder why they didn’t ask about the price increase when they first got the deliveries from our suppliers… anyway I’ve told our Thai based shippers that we’re “not amused”, I must say that the shipper here has been awesome, a HUGE help to a total shipping newbie! Anyway tomorrow get the store signed. Founds some great gaming tables 5′ by 5′ slightly higher than usual with nice chairs to go with it.

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Anyway with luck we ship very shortly. Then 25 days to get here… then Thai customs….

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Well the initial stock is on the way, around 500 KGs of stock in board games, books, hobby gear and miniatures.  Just waiting on the final price info from our shipping agent and we’ll have the transportation costs done, that just leaves Thai customs and we’ll finally know how much it’s going to cost to get everything here.  Hopefully the costs will be low enough for us to keep the prices near US retail rates. We’ll see soon eough, shipping should take around 26 days we’re told.

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The store location has been picked and the rental agreement will be done this week, then we have most of April to get the store in shape ahead of the arrival of the shipment. Assuming everything goes fairly much to plan then we hope to open on May 1.

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For perhaps a couple of years I have had a crazy dream to launch a games store in Bangkok, selling Board Games, war games, miniatures and RPGs. Yes nuts perhaps but well, a dream, a plan, and potentially not too far off happening.

Challenges are a fair number. Shipping the games here isn’t cheap as they need to be ordered in bulk to get good shipping rates.  Taxes are going to add to the price and then finding a retail spot that will allow the games to be sold at an affordable price and cover the rent will be pushing the edge if I want to sell the games at near US prices.

But I’m getting there, a couple of supplier agreements are done and a major one should be nailed this week. A shipping firm has been found that appear to be able to do the job at reasonable rates and that just leaves the the location.

As “walk by” traffic isn’t going to be a major target, the key is going to be accessability for hobby gamers, rather than finding a spiffingly expensive front row store. I think I’ve found a good spot, but I need to check the cost and how much room they have. The store will need room for products,  staff and of course room to play games in store.

Service wise, well selling games, free access to play test games, bring in your own games, all with no charge, and hope to sell coffee at 20 baht a mug to cover the rent! Sounds like a plan!

Ah yes and staff, still not got around to that yet,  shop staff needed to play games with customers

Stay tuned for updates!

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