One of the more interesting things to happen in the store in the last six months has been the relative success of board games. It's not enough to keep me in business, but it's become a nice little sideline. And pretty much unexpected.

I brought them in because Gambit Games was closing, and I'd kinda heard rumbles about Settlers of Cataan and Ticket to Ride and Descent. While individually fairly expensive, in the 25.00 to 80.00 range, it's wasn't that hard to get a beginning inventory. As it turned out, they needed a very small footprint. Like Sports Cards, they are stackable and you can really carry quite a bit of product in a small space.

Board games, it turns out, need no real display at all.

Why? They aren't an impulse item. They are sought after. The usual scenario is, I get a call, someone asks in a little bit of a forlorn voice, "Have you ever heard of a game called Carcassone?"

Why yes, I answer, smiling because I know the response I'll get.

"Really! Cool! I'll be right down!"

When I ask them how they heard about the game, the answer is almost always, "We were at a friends house and played it."

It's a pure word-of-mouth game, at that stage where the customer feels as though they lucked out finding it. It's always great when that happens. Like you are an oasis. Unfortunately, this golden age rarely goes on forever. The mass market will eventually catch on, but for now it's fun. This doesn't happen every day, or it would already be taken. No, this is just below the radar.

They aren't electronic, they require sitting down with friends, they are fairly complex and the European games are mostly non-violent: settling a territory, (Settlers of Cataan), building a city,(Carcassone), or traveling (Ticket to Ride.) They are cooperative type games, and I think feel exotic and special to people. I guess the term they use for these games is, German-style....

They aren't difficult to learn, but have complex dynamics which keep them interesting. They all have expansions. I sell one about every other day, or so, maybe every third day....so they aren't raking in the dough, but they do sell, and that is still a surprise.