RoQuEr

$80 a vhs, but $8 for a dvd!

Jackskeleton

First off, it will be expensive. Not because of the rental fees a store pays (By the way, 80 bucks for a tape is the price only if you are buying it when there is no sell through of the title. so sure a tape can cost that much, but in reality not all tapes run that)

Frankly, You first need to set up a store. And Let me tell you, though you know someone you can get imports from it will be expensive to buy them and you will need to do so in Bulk.

Location is a major key. You say you want to set up across from a college. Good plan, that will get you atleast some customers. But you shouldn't expect all your buisness from that.

Also, renting games. hmmm a little bit of a risk there. you will need to get a lot of insurance for your store and your merchindise i believe.

more advice later

squidget

Howdy!
I'm back went away for the holidays.
Gcribbs,
Yes. I have a friend who is a DBA for the Company I work at who as agreed to create a customer database for me. (for free no less, he's bored at lot) plus since we used to own IC Verify(credit card terminal) I plan to use that for credit card processing (since I still have the software and know how to use it) and have it link back into the database.
To setup a membership I plan to ask for a major credit card and ID.

Deftones17,
Thats what I'm doing. I know its a risky thing, but I always wanted to do something like this, and I figure now would be a good time to start. My life right now, I don't have a lot of bills, no house, no family. So if it fails, the negitive impact will be minimal (as minimal a failing buisness can be anyway) Location will be in the vacinity of George Mason University. There are some Retail spaces for Lease there, one of the locations has a Blockbuster in but gets heavy traffic because of the theatre, the other is on the other side of campus, but is a little run down and doesn't get has much traffic.
There are no royalites for renting games? really? I did not know that. thanks for the info.
Gallant Pig,
ooo Porn. I didn't think of that, thats a good idea.

einTier

I'm a former video store (and game rental store) employee. I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

First, don't assume that just because Blockbuster doesn't carry the games you want, that those are the games that everyone else wants. I watched one video store go out of business because we couldn't convince the owner that his taste in movies weren't exactly what everyone else was looking for. It may seem like a good idea to carry a bunch of stuff that you've been having trouble finding, but if there's only 50 people in town that are interested in that material, you'll have a very hard time running a profitable business out of it. I watched an animae store go out of business in a town of 120,000 because that's all they carried -- imported animae -- and there simply weren't enough people in town interested in animae to keep the business alive.

As far as your old store is concerned, is it still there? Many, many, mom and pop stores have closed up when Blockbuster came to town. Blockbuster is a hard nut to crack, make no mistake about it. If you underestimate them, they will kill you. You'll have to specialize if you want to survive, but you'll have to be broad enough that you appeal to a lot of different people. You also have to have a fairly large customer base to draw from.

I see that George Mason has three campuses. Which one will you be based near? The Arlington campus looks like it is inside the DC area, and that should give you a large customer base, but will probably cost you a lot in rent to keep open. If it's near the Fairfax campus, it appears that you don't have a large enough town to make this viable (100,000 counting visitors and college students during normal business hours, 25,000 permanent residents). Plus, it looks like you're just far enough from DC that people won't drive out from DC to patronize your store unless it's amazingly kickass and there isn't a comparable store in the DC area -- but people will drive from your town to DC to visit the right import store. If it's the Prince William campus, you're screwed.

Now, that's not to say it cannot be done. There's a store here in austin, gamefellas, that's doing pretty much what you want to be doing -- but they are very diverse. They don't carry porn, but you're looking at one of the best video game stores in the area, bar none. They carry a lot of animae, and a lot of imported games -- but it is by no means their primary source of income. It is a hook to get people in the door, and it's certainly a nice thing for them to have, and it does define their business -- but the used video games, and the (domestic) video game/movie/pokemon/sanrio/trendy/mainstream stuff is what subsidises the sexy import toys/animae/hentai/manga/(import)videogames/figurines all other manner of imported japanese miscelleanea.

The last piece of advice I can give you is to do it right, or as right as you can when you launch. Don't try to launch on a shoestring. Go to the bank, and get a small business loan. While trying to save money is a plus, if you can't provide what people want when you launch, you won't be successful -- and this is not exactly an unfilled niche you are trying to address. I can't give you a concrete example with the rental business, but I can give you one of an internet business. The place I'm talking about wanted to open up a cyber cafe -- but didn't want to go into debt to do it. So, they used some older computers they had around, and set them up in an environment that wasn't exactly cosy. They didn't bother to think about the business as a coffee shop first, and a coffee shop that provided internet access second, and they didn't try to figure out what would actually bring traffic to the store. They didn't want to spend thousands on a "real" espresso/cappucino machine, and instead bought one of those fake dispensers you see in truck stops. It was done on a shoe string budget, had crappy product and an uncomfortable atmosphere. The idea was to slowly make money, then build up a real shop. Two months later, someone opened a cafe across the street, with the proper "starbuckian" atmosphere, good coffee with a good variety, a proper deli, and proper desserts. They just happened to have high speed internet access, with proper computers, a "bring your own" policy, and periodic LAN parties with proper routers and servers. Needless to say, the first store wasn't open long.

Now, granted, store number two started probably fifty or sixty grand in the hole. However, their monthly payment on that was probably around $800 a month, if not less, and they were easily making ten times that in profit by the second or third month. By contrast, the first store never cleared more than a couple hundred a month in profit. They never went into debt, but they also weren't ever successful either.

squidget

einTier,
Nope, the old store is gone. They were leasing it was getting too expensive (city of falls church)
looking at the fairfax campus. There are currently (that i know of) 3 stores similar to the business model in my area. Starland with 2 locations one in centreville, and one in arlington and Pandoras cube in Springfield. Fairfax is ideal because of price, and it still will get enough foot traffic.
I plan to shell out big in loans and stuff for this place. (if I can get the loans) just because I'll need to attract people into my store.

My primary question got answered, and I received a lot of ideas. I have a better understanding of what I want to do.
keeps the tips coming!
All those who posted will receive a 10% discount

al_bundy

I read an article some years back that the only real way for a small business to survive is by selling on ebay. Especially niche stuff since you reach a larger market.

Since you said that you plan to make money only on sales of foreign games then I would find a distributor to buy from and sell your product on ebay. If it does well then think about opening up a store since it is going to add up to a lot of overhead. You might also think about an online rental system similar to netflix.

Jason

To get an idea of what it's like to run a videogame store, check out this guy's site:

http://www.actsofgord.com/

It can't be all bad, but there are some real headaches associated with it. Be prepared.

Gallant Pig

Pretty good idea, how about though, instead of buying just from distributors like you say, buy from the poor college kids looking for quick $$$$? Like a pawn shop. Then pawn the stuff on Ebay. Give them half of what the item goes for on Ebay.

Here's the thing though, be nice to the people coming in to sell stuff. Sometimes I'll look for quick money and go to the pawn shop. They usually act like total arseholes if you are looking for more than what they to pay you. Use Ebay as a price guide for what to pay for stuff, give them 50% percent of what the average-lower price it is going for on Ebay or maybe 60% in store credit.

You should get some pretty good swag this way for way cheap letting you pawn it on Ebay.

WOWZY

After visiting the Acts of Gord, I would never think of starting a video gamin rental business.

http://www.actsofgord.com/