Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A pound of dice.

Every time I make a game order, I order a Pound of Dice. Just a big bag of random dice. 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided. I just throw that in on top of everything else. They are relatively cheap, and I never know exactly what I'll get.

There's something very primal about dice. They make them in all kinds of colors and hues and textures. They even make them out stone and metal. (Not in the pound-of, though).

My crow nature takes over: "Oh, shiny! Like little jewels.....!"

I heard someone say once, "You can never have too many dice." Any RPG player can relate.

So, because it's just a small amount each time, and because I think the bigger the pile of dice the more likely they are to sell, I just keep making that order.

I've been thinking how that is almost a metaphor for how I do business.

Pound it, every day, every week, every month. Get more, more, more.

But do it in such a way that you can pay for it as it goes. Even though much of it won't sell until much later -- hell, some of it probably won't sell until I retire.

About a year ago, hurting for room, I retired a bulky toy set into the basement, intending to bring it back when a space opened up. I more or less forgot it.

A few days ago, a crew of guys came in and specifically asked for exactly those toys -- well, the characters the toys were based on. I pulled them out of basement, sold them off rather cheaply, and they're gone.

Thing is -- other than back issue comics and sports cards, almost everything else in the basement are duplicates.

Proving, once again, that EVERYTHING sells eventually. If you take the long view. Not days or weeks or months, but years, decades even.

You have to have complete knowledge of your inventory -- you have to know how much to discount -- you have to be opportunistic -- and most of all, you have to have faith that you'll still be around years, even decades down the road.

4 comments:

RDC said...

"Even though much of it won't sell until much later -- hell, some of it probably won't sell until I retire."

Your basement will probably be a wonder of discovery for some far future archeologist

Duncan McGeary said...

I'm going to dangle that as in enticement to some future buyer.

Hey, if you're any good at online selling, I have a bonanza of stuff in the basement that isn't even part of the selling price!!!

H. Bruce Miller said...

I keep coming back to your blog, Dunc, because almost every time I learn something new. Like, I never knew it was possible to buy dice by the pound. If I ever need to buy dice in bulk, now I know where to go.

Duncan McGeary said...

You can buy anything by the pound......err....can't you?