GenCon 06
Was about 2 hours
This post is part from memory and part from notes I took of the seminar (shall mostly be notes and not a cohesive report). My personal comments shall be left out of what was said but shall follow the report.
*Bob spoke of the Tolkien/Middle Earth games on the dining room table in 1975.
*Around that time Bill Owen had a Civil War game he was trying to sell to TSR. They didn't accept it
*Bob had a Mylar map of the CSIO shown to TSR
*CSIO maps were dark brown tan at GenCon as they didn't have pebble finish paper at the time
*Maps were sold rolled up with a rubber band
*Bob didn't go to GenCon till Saturday Morning
*Got a table at GenCon for $15
*Sold $12 subscriptions for $10 at GenCon (sold about 250 subscriptions)
*2nd Year of the buisness they had $65k in sales/revenue
*3rd Year of the buisness they had $250k in sales/revenue
*Bob did not charge other companies to be listed in the catalogs
*He liked the Frazetta posters
*Many stores went bankrupt in the 80s
*Bob extended credit to small shops (less then $300)
*1983 has rising interest rates
*Group One took contacts, lists, etc from company computer for their company
*Canada distributor bought 3 orders but Bob never saw the money from them
*At the end of Judges Guild Bob had 1/3 of the product put in a warehouse of Blackhawk Hobbies, 1/3 of the product (Traveller stuff) put in a warehouse, 1/3 of the product put in a local warehouse
*Blackhawk Hobbies had a fire and lost all the product
*Traveller stuff was sent to
GDW
*Bob never got a key for the local warehouse
*Bob auctioned off company equipment like desks and computers, though some were labeled and not to be taken, however they were.
*TSR wanted to buy Bob out and he could work for them for 5-7 years
*TSR violated several acts for competition
**Bob spoke about personal stuff which shall not be mentioned**
*James then began to talk about AGP, the buisness of games now a days, plans for 2007.
(Personal Comments)
Dark Brown maps - either this is actually in refrence to the ink or Bob was confused with something like this:
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/ModPhotos/Camp ... Judge.html or there are some maps out there unknown.
Pebble paper - is that the Campaign Maps like above?, Hammermill Bond?
Warehouses - Was one of these sold to Tony Z. in NY? (Could also explain the abundance of Traveller stuff since it escaped a fire in one warehouse)
Well thats about it from this Seminar, I know 2 others took notes (not sure who they were), but there was about 9 people at the meeting (I didn't go to the other different seminars, so not sure how they went.)
(small edit, Thanks James
)
ShaneG.
