kaosweaver

I was in at 10:01 and mine is still processing too :)

Yup, the box will be a "kickstarter" packaged box (not the retail version) - less paper, less eco-impact, but will hold the dice (maybe the sleeves if those were popular). Yeah, I know what you mean about Dominion, I do the same thing with games, if I play them a lot, I get sleeves for them. Borwin - yeah I'm wondering that myself (would people either just remember the breakpoints or just use an old die and do that) KOTDT - thanks!

I'm making a game which I intend to fund through Kickstarter, however, I've been known to go overboard buying things for myself, I want to see what everyone else thinks about options for the Kickstarter. It is a card game where you build your deck as the game goes along and try not to go insane or let the game beat you and the other players (which can happen with the harder rules) - the person with the most points at the end of the game wins! The base game will be a pledge of $39 Free USA shipping - for my EU friends, shipping logistics are very cumbersome, but, I'll be EU friendly "ish" with a set shipping charge - right now about $10 - more but shipped within the EU so that should avoid customs. I think I can ship to Canada for $6 and RoW for $20. In the game, you can gain (and lose) insanity points. If you exceed 12 insanity, you're insane (and need to do things to get back under 12 so you can continue to play), if you hit 20 you're out. I've contacted manufacturers to make a special d20 which has 1-12 in white and 13-20 in red. (had to custom have it made, no one does dual colors on the "pips" of a die anywhere...) I have a pledge of $49 (and as an add on for $12) for the game plus the dice (5 of them). The last thing is card sleeves (custom ones) - I can get those made with the artwork and they would be $20 more for the sleeves. (you get 250 sleeves, so, roughly $4 a pack of sleeves that generally sell for $3 to $3.50 for ultrapro sleeves) Assume you loved the game, would you automatically get the dice? Would you consider the sleeves? I'm doing all of the leg work before I run the Kickstarter because I want it to be on time and no drama (which includes some graphical work - you can check it out here - http://duelgrounds.com/cthulhuor if you really love the idea and want to help - pm me, I could use feedback on the KS page too) I appreciate any comments

I wrote to the Trustee and got a reply back today, their is little more information that he will have available until he evaluates the property and determines what to do with it. Here is his reply: ------- The meeting of creditors was held on Friday. The United States Trustee’s office also was present at the hearing and also questioned the debtor. You can purchased the transcript, if you wish, but today, being Sunday, I am not able to provide the contact information. Send me an email on Tuesday and I will give you that information. I have not yet decided if I want to sell the assets, or abandon them – that is a complicated legal matter involving signficant out of pocket costs on my part , and which requires some thought and consultation with others. If I do sell assets, it will be on an “as isâ€, basis without any warranty of any kind, and subject to IP rights, if any, held by third persons.. The administrative costs to administer this bakruptcy are signfiicant and large. I am not sure that I can sell the items and get enough to pay administrative costs and then pay a resonsable dividend to credits. Anyone that buys the assets does so at their own risk. Conducting my investigation of the financial affairs the debtor and in looking at the Kickstarter web cite, I don’t believe the he was engaged in an illegal Ponzi scheme or committed actionable fraud. Remember, being a bad business man or making more decisions does not always equate with fraud. His problems primarily stem from greatly underestimating production and other costs and making poor decisions. But I found no intent to cheat, and I did not see large sums of money diverted from the company for his personal use. Significantly, sd there are no written agreements detailing the investment transactions. It is difficult if not impossible to prove intentional wrongdoing absent written documentation. ----- I seriously do not like the (possible) choice to not sell the assets. However, under the terms he's selling them, the value of them just, literally, became worthless (with some minor exceptions)

Just in case anyone was interested in the proceedings in the legal action, you can find others here who are keeping up to date with that: https://www.facebook.com/groups/742872835767349/?fref=nf

We sold what we could via Craigslist. Due to a landlord/tenant term confusion, I only had 6 days to clear out. We have a strong online presence and will continue to sell off the inventory via TCG and eBay (like the reaper minis we're bundling up and selling off on eBay). Fiscally, because of past experience (see below) - the plan was always written with an exit plan that leaves us in a recoverable position. Sorry to hear about your health, but if that resolves some, it might be worth knowing that the beaches of Hawaii aren't particularly hot or humid. Even in mid-summer, the temp is seldom much above 90 and the humidity usually runs in the 50-60% range. The mountains are more humid (rain forest humid in many cases), but usually about 10 degrees cooler. Thanks for the tip, however, for reference, I generally never wear long pants, even when it was 20F and we had 3 or 4" of snow. I rarely wore a jacket (and usually just so my kids couldn't say "dad's not wearing a jacket, why do I have to") - 90F is about 20F more than I tolerant without AC. Was in Florida for 27 dreadful years, so I can deal with the temp and humidity, I just won't like it. (I lived, literally, 5m from beaches and went there all of a dozen times in the 27 years) Thanks - as my best friend put it - "The negative experiences within this are a good investment for the return you saw" and "but by way of comparison - that was a cheap price if it drew you closer" As for the cash, we have a substantial amount of inventory to sell, and I learned quite a lot about the gaming industry (and learned who makes money and when). It is funny trying to explain the attachment to the business that non-business owners don't get - I liken it explaining sex to a virgin. It is the experience that brings understanding, there isn't enough information to adequately explain the experience. Not our first rodeo either (See below) Yeah, this isn't my first retail business (but probably will be the last). I ran a computer shop back in the 1990's. We ran from 1992 to 1997. The last two years, we did $1.2 million. Sadly, we had $1.5 million in expenses. Ran it with a best friend, we both worked our assets off. Learned a whole lot about business and ownership of issues. Essentially, we picked the wrong retail industry as the markup on products was under 10% towards the end. (we buy at $100 and sell at $110) And a company called Packard Bell was flooding the market with sub $1000 computers that they weren't paying for (they stiffed Intel for months and months and then demanded price protection) - cutting in to our ability to sell systems. I have a lot of funny stories about that shop (all NSFW due to language), we ended up bankrupt from it too. But I wouldn't change that now. Yeah, I would have loved to succeed, but, in the end, it was that failure that got me back in to college, graduated with a very high GPA, landed several good jobs and now I contract from home - work when I want for as long as I want and make more money than I need to cover my expenses (or, more accurately, we live below our income level) - totally beats working a retail shop. During college, I ran a "card" business - essentially, I made enough to cover my cardboard crack habit - selling cards on eBay. That ended as I graduated (and then could afford to buy cards without the extra work of selling them off). Now, I run my own businesses for contracting (and they are very nice) - it was the excess that permitted the game shop to run. Sadly for me, this last run has me not wanting to play Magic ever again. While I won't sell off my (rebuilt) collection just yet, I don't foresee me changing that decision anytime soon. Last thing I want to do is play somewhere else and then have people come up to me expressing whatever about the shop. And I've grown to hate Magic... My next venture is a deck building game, it is all written, just working on the design of the card template. Then we'll have it typeset. With that, I'll be able to have demo copies printed and sent out to a variety of review sites around the web. Once I've got reviews written, I'll open a kickstarter to fund the first run. I'm working on the EU friendly shipping (got a company for that) - and I've already figured out the cost of the product from makers across the country (with delivery times too) - will be doing the Reaper "waves" method of shipping - as I know how many we can process a week. The variable is the artwork creation time, lead times between order and production of products and delivery holdups. I'm already working on the second part of the game (expansion) which, once the first part proves it can be done, will go in to full swing. Want to release something every several months. One thing I got from the shop is a group of playtesters who love the game and are looking forward to the expansions I've mentioned about it too. (I don't mean to insult anyone here with this next one, but it is my perspective) Failure to me is getting a desk job and working for someone else. I've worked hard to make it so I don't worry (much) about money, I can work more and replace that. The shop is closed, it didn't work out - I failed to make it work out. But the shop is the failure not me - and as I unwind and decompress from it, ending it was the right call. (although, nagging, I keep on having this feeling like I forgot to do something each day about the time I usually would go in - I'm sure it will fade with time, but it is like at the end of the day you thinking "I forgot something today" but can't put your finger on what that was)

So, yesterday as I was writing my story out, my wife texts me... As you can see, we're not overly expressive a lot of time with our emotions- which makes this past week so much more meaningful to me - and that I'm able to talk about it, well, that's some personal growth or something :). My house is covered in the inventory and "stuff" from the shop - the guest room's bed (king size) is piled high in inventory and the basement is full. I have to park outside cause the garage is full of the store fixtures that didn't sell (some tables, chairs, computer stand, fridge, etc). We've got a lot of work ahead of us - it will be great working next to her getting it done! One thing my wife did say this past year is that she'd like to go to Hawaii, but figures, due to my health and the fact I hate anything beach or hot or humid, it isn't going to happen... I'm planning on one heck of a trip and can put up with hot sticky weather for a week without complaining too, gonna make it first class, all the way. Would have been nice this year (25 years married), but next year is just as good. Thanks to all who've read and liked my story, I can't brag enough about my wife, she is truly my soul mate, my love and my bride.

Thanks for all of the comments, (and likes) - I cooked tacos for the family tonight, it was nice to have a meal together with them all. I'm very happy to have my family intact and fiscally, we can dig out within a few months - by end of year for sure.

And so it ends.... We closed and removed everything this past week. It sucked. So, quick top list of reasons: 1. I trusted people who said they would support the shop and didn't. 2. I trusted people who said they'd work the shop and didn't. (and by people I mean my son) 3. I maintained by regular job the entire time, thus, I wasn't 100% dedicated to the business (this, however, saved me from bankruptcy) 4. Because of #3 and #2, I wasn't able to do everything in the shop that needed done, I focused only on the revenue generating activities (like online sales) 5. Several mass purchases with intent to flip for profit didn't work out as expected, racking up a significant debt that wasn't overcome. (walked away with a nice sized second mortgage on my home from the business) 6. Eventually, I became bitter and, no matter how you try to hide that, people notice. 7. In the end, I stopped caring at all about the storefront. It was a huge money pit and, except for the first three months, never made money. The first three months of the shop was selling off of my personal collection with valuable cards that the local market didn't normally have access to, plus 9 boxes of modern masters (I owned) that sold for $20 a pack (roughly $450 a box) which skewed the information about income. Technically, it didn't make money the first three months off of new (bought) things from the store's sales/revenue. Online sales were the only thing bringing in enough money to add to the store's income, people coming in disrupted my entering of online products to sell, so I wasn't exactly friendly past the needed sales transactions (some people like to talk for half an hour or so and buy little to nothing, I didn't have time to socialize) 8. I was working between 70 and 90 hours a week between both jobs. The worst part is I made my wife a single mom and my boys at home, sometimes, I wouldn't see my boys for days. My health suffered as well, stress, money issues and an extra 40 hours sitting on my butt in front of a computer. The plus side: We did have a crew of regulars that I am going to miss. We had a couple of guys that were non-CCG players, they were awesome, learned a lot of new games from them. When we had a new set of cards from Magic the gathering, we had 3 to 6 people who would come in and crack packs with us, sort cards and ask for nothing in return (they did get first cracks on buying cards) We achieved more in events planning that most all other stores and ran many successful events (meaning we broke even or made a little off of the event) However, the largest, biggest, BEST thing I got out of this year long "experiment" was how much of a superhero my wife is. Let me explain.... See, she didn't like the idea to begin with, she was against it. (mainly due to she figured #2 would happen and then I'd go to #6 because of it - she was spot on). But no one on this planet supported me more than she did, When we signed the lease, we had the shop put together in 2 weeks, from a messy crappy retail space, to a professional looking, well put together gaming space. During this time, I'd suffered some issues and wasn't able to assist in the work. She stepped up and got that place done. She constantly was stopping by the shop to clean this or that up, to make sure the stock levels of consumables was met (candy, soda, cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, etc). When we went online big time, she handled all of the shipping needs, picking, packing, shipping and delivery to the post office. During my time there, she would make meals and bring them to the shop (sometimes with the boys too) and we'd have a family meal at the shop. She did this every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for a year. (Wednesday, my son "worked" and I took that night off, Friday was FNM and we got fast food as we're too busy for a sitdown meal and Sunday we had dinner after we closed at 6pm). When I had a regular DnD group, she made a treat for everyone (brownies, cupcakes, 7 layer bar, etc) Then, when we knew the end was coming and we were working to close down the shop this past week, she wept for me. She loves me so much, she knew that this was killing me on the inside, she didn't want me to feel like a failure and she cried with me, comforted me and just loved me. Not once did she pull a " I told you so" not once did she ever complain about the (massive) loss of money to our house, not once did she complain about being a "single mom", not once did she add to my stress- she simply said "hey, you tried, most people don't and it didn't work out, we'll be ok". The emotionally worse part was when she was scrapping off the store's hours, name and website address from the front door, just me and her there, we both cried, my hand on the door where our company's name had just been. I've never been so much in love with my wife more than I've been this past week. She is awesome, a rock star, my love and my bride, I'm the luckiest man alive!

You're welcome.

Glad it was a success.

I've actually already sent the funds to them for the after party. Anyone who sends in more funds, those funds would need to be forwarded. Or - you could just wait until Bones 3 comes out and fund that party (then, not now)

Accounting: $463.00 - Received (after Paypal's fees) =============== $201.15 - Pizza $125.99 - Dessert $135.86 - After Party fund ------------------------------- We had a total of 53 contributors, thanks to you all!

Pizza and dessert ordered: Invoice 1: (added $10 for tip) Invoice 2:

Pushing off the pizza party till Thursday, possible snow storm could close down Reaper for the day. So, it is Thursday now.

No one is late, and, as always, I'm sure all of the contributions will be well received. I did a quick estimation, we're over $400.

We're over $300 (haven't exactly counted since Friday) - we're reaching for the after party on Friday (employees meeting outside of Reaper for wrap up for the week's shipping)

As it hasn't been ordered yet, I'm going to venture a "no, it's not too late." What he said, PM replied to.

Hey all, as usual, Reaper fans are kicking in funds from all around the world, I'm thinking we should get them an edible arrangement - specifically, this one: https://www.ediblearrangements.com/fruit-gifts/delicious-celebration-dipped-strawberries-pineapple-bananas-apples-2479?t=1424536649815 And soda with the Pizza. The arrangement would cover the largest number of people when it comes to food issues and give the healthy minded something sweet they can have as well :) Lastly, with anything left over, we can help fund their afterhours (non-Reaper funded) party the last day of shipping (or Friday) with a cash gift. I wouldn't assume anyone would have issue with this, but, please voice them here or PM me if you'd rather not voice them here. I don't want anyone to feel like the funds weren't used as intended. Come Monday/Tuesday, I'll give an account of the received funds and where they're going. If anyone wishes to contribute, please send funds to [email protected] ($5 to $10 is what I'm recommending, but send whatever you'd like to) via Paypal. If you need an alternative way to contribute, PM me and we can make sure your contribution is enjoyed by the Reaper crew.

Alright, sent a crap ton of PMs, if you didn't get one, please PM me :) If you did get one and can't donate, do not feel pressured to, I'm sure with the number of people we have we will make it happen. I will post notes on funds and all. I didn't set aside money for drinks, but if we meet a stretch goal (i.e. everyone sends in more money than needed) I'll look in to adding drinks, then we'll move on to some dessert items and so on. Thanks to everyone on this :)

The plan is to order from Pizza Hut, thin crust pizzas, 3 meat lovers, 3 pepperoni lovers, 1 sausage, 1 veggie and 1 no cheese, pepperoni and some wings (the gluten free option). The order will be under $200 with tip. With the number of people we have, each person shouldn't need to do more than a few bucks. PMs are a coming....

Tentative date for the pizza party is the 25th. More details on the target funds for the party will come shortly (match head count with funding and all) Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the group support, will have details shortly.

Alright. so, they have waves of shipment ... how about we target the pizza party for the (roughly) middle of the waves or 60% done. That's sort of when a morale boost would probably help the most. Thoughts?

Sounds like a plan, I suppose to make it a reality we will need more "advertising" to raise the profile - we had a lot of people contribute during the entire party and then movie effort that showed up and still wanted to chip in.