There is one line of product that absolutely confounds me. I've talked about it before; I even carried it for a short time. I thought very seriously about carrying it again. And if I had opened my second store, it would have been a major part of it.

But the truth is, I can't figure out how what I've experienced, and what I know about business can be so utterly divergent from what others experience and from what others tell me about their business.

Warhammer, by Games Workshop.

This is a British company that creates miniature games. You've seen old movies where some nutty Englishman has a whole room devoted to a landscaped table of a famous battle, and he moves intricate armies around. Well, that's Warhammer, only in the S.F. and Fantasy realm. They have entire stores that sell nothing but their own product -- in metro areas of the U.S. and from what I understand, they completely dominate the gaming landscape in England. In fact, from what I understand, they pretty much crushed the competition partly by finding out which towns sold the most of their product and then opening company stores there.

The product itself is pretty cool. Nicely sculpted and imagined figures, that require painting. Thoroughly imagined worlds and game systems. It's very expensive, but you can almost see why.

But it isn't something you can dabble in. It's more of a lifestyle than a hobby. The fans are...well, fanatic, and they insist that any retailer that carries Warhammer have everything they want.
The company, up until recently, was obnoxiously aggressive.

My experience was: I had customer after customer tell me I should carry the line, and so I went out and bought 2 racks of figures for around 5000.00. And then they sat there. Week after week. The customers would ask, "When are you going to get more?" when I had yet to sell any I had already bought.

I would get a call from my Warhammer rep every few days, hounding me to buy more figures.

"But I haven't sold any!" I'd say.

"What's wrong with you?" the guy would exclaim. "Everyone else is selling them."

I was stunned that a rep of a company who was trying to sell me product would yell at me, hung up, and decided to quit the line.

I just refused. I liquidated the product without a second look back.


A few years pass, and Gambit Games opens and fills a wall with the stuff. By all accounts he's doing great. And then a few more years pass, and Gambit Games is closed. I'd hear constant reports about how the prices would constantly go up, that entire lines would be discontinued, how you had to carry a lot of dead product in order to carry the product that sells. Inventory creep was a huge problem.

I was saved from even thinking about carrying it by the huge expense of money and space and time it would take. On the bulletin boards, some stores would swear by it, and just as many stores would swear off it. Brad at Gambit more or less threatened to destroy me if I dared carry his precious Warhammer, and I just backed away.

When Brad went out, I thought about carrying Warhammer for a few weeks. The company itself seems to have reversed course and is willing to work with you. But I kept getting reports that,
1.) Someone was going to sell in LaPine.

2.) That the hardcore were going to create a buying club, and buy online.

3.) That D's Hobbies was going to buy Brad's stock, and carry the full line.

So I backed off.

A few more months pass. As I'm traveling around the Northwest, I start visiting stores. I go into one store, and the guy tells me he sells 5,000.00 worth of Warhammer a month. I look at his inventory, and he has -- maybe -- 2000.00 worth of product. I've gone back since, the the inventory hasn't increased.

So I'm supposed to believe he is turning his Warhammer over 2.5 times a month? Without him being inspired to buy more? (A turn of 5 or 6 times a year is considered pretty stellar in my business. I turnover my stuff maybe one time a year because I'm following the 'long-tail' model).

So that utterly confounds me.

Then I have a customer who comes in and tells me that a store in a very small town is selling 40,000.00 in Warhammer a month.

"Bullshit," I say.

At the peak of sports cards, I had four stores, and there was a single month where I sold 1000.00 a day among the four stores.

"Total Bullshit," I say. My entire store doesn't even do close to that much, including comics, graphic novels, toys, cards, games, books, and everything else in a downtown Bend store with great foot-traffic and 27 years of experience.

"Complete and utter Bullshit!"

But the guy insisted it was true. Now, I'm utterly confounded. I don't believe it.

What is it about Warhammer that causes everyone to lose perspective?

Warhammer is like a beautiful, alluring woman across the room who you suspect just might make herself available to you if you dropped everything you had and committed everything to her, but who would be high maintenance and would probably cheat on you and after she had emptied your bank accounts, would leave you.

But damn, she's a beautiful woman!

I think it's a really good indication that I should stay far, far away......