I received an e-mail from Don Redick of Fractal Dimensions of a three-week trip by Catherine Middaugh.

The trip took me along the west coast, up to BC and Alberta, and back down to CA. One of hobbies is stopping off at every hamlet, village, town, etc.... and checking out the hobby/craft/RPG stores. Here is what I found (among other things).

1. The initial CCG bubble has burst. Of the initial 12 retailers we (planned) to visit, 5 had gone out of business in the last year, 3 since January. The locals believed these stores had gone out of business by putting too much of their inventory into CCGs, specifically MTG (Magic the Gathering). However, it was clear that at least one of the stores went under because it was unable to diversify (see 6).

2. Every store that sold MTG had huge discounts on the cards. Most were in the 46-60% off range, even for rare and uncommon cards. Two stores were selling off their entire stock and had no plans to reorder. The remaining stores informed us that Magic and other card games were now making up 25-30% of their monthly retail sales, down from 70-80% last year. Of course, 30% is nothing to sneeze at but it is clear that the CCG market is starting to stabilize. All reported less consumer interest in new releases than last year ( subsuntially less pre-orders).

3. All stores reported that CCGs brought new customers into their stores, plus rekindled interest in those who had left the hobby. One store believed they had seen a 20% increase in foot traffic due to CCGs.

4. The number of new consumers or returning players who hae switched over to other games was too variable to yet have any reliability. As a trend, most stores reported an increase in sales of wargames with an RPG from BATTLETECH and MEKTON were gainers in Canada. Most store managers/owners believed must of the upswing was attributed to ex-CCG players. I find it interesting that one store in insisted that ex-CCGers were picking up RPGs, yet 65% of new game space was devoted to wagames as was about 45% of his remaining shelf space.

5. TSR is selling well again, compared to last year, but all stores reported the bulk of their sales came from gaming related fiction and the new rule books.About half the stores reported spill-over to the gaming products themselves (modules, sourcebooks, etc....), but the increase in sales was modest. Whether sales on gaming products will pick up or not after consumers have digested the PO books remain unseen.

6. Only one store sold only traditional adventure gaming material, and it was close to going under. AII other stores combined RPG's, and RPG flavored wargames with other main product lines.The most common was comics, followed by books and media related products. Fantasy related sculpture and imprinted mugs andT-shirts were an interesting sideline in three of the stores. All of the successful stores insisted that RPG's and related games did not sell well enough to support the store. Several said their number one sellers were gaming related fiction, but they were having a hard time competing with larger book store chains.

7. Pre-1985 RPG materials are extremely scarce. On my last trip through that part of the continent 4 years ago, I picked up a 40% of my current collection from the remainder bins of the stores. In smaller towns, craft stores were still a good source of ancient RPG stuff, but almost all had disappeared from game stores. Even The Sentry Box in Calgary (the equivalent of Crazy Egor's) has little material prior to 1990.

Conclusions??? First of all, I know this is a very small sampling. However, I've found in past years that these cross country trips have been fairly reliable indications for the rest of the country. Collectors prices usually compare well with Gen Con and Origins auction prices, as does product availability.

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