Anyone here ever wonder how much the store owners of your LGS make per year? Six figures...

Anyone here ever wonder how much the store owners of your LGS make per year? Six figures? Seven if it's particularly popular?

It's not a good choice of career as your primary income, if that's what you're asking.

Seven? Try more like 5.

A store might hit seven figures of revenue, but revenue isnt profit.

Oh god no, its a passion project if anything.
You'll be living in that store if you want to be able too bring in new stuff now and then.

>six figures
>minimum of $100,000 per year
Not even fucking close.

My uncle owned a shop in the 90's in the Greater La county, his revenue was over 300k a year but after everything he brought home less that 17% of that.

Oh you're adorably wrong.

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any lgs is lucky if they can make a decent income. these shops make VERY little profit

You know these things are just fronts for criminal activity, right

No user, not at all. If you're running a LGS, it's because it's a labor of love or you grossly miscalculated.

do you have a single fact to back that up?

>do you have a single fact to back that up?

Sure, right here:

____________________________________________It's obviously a joke, friend. Lighten up.

>making money from an FLGS
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
fucking hell, even my shit min wage job in food service is losing money. I can't imagine how FLGS make shit.

>Six figures?

How can you even think such a thing?

Son, I don't think this is the right career choice for you. If you're not going to go to college, at least start working somewhere so you can build your experience.

Not even. One of my FLGSes just got shut down by the government, which means he wasn't paying his taxes, whether it is sales or income of the employees.

What do you all do for your jobs?

Just a confused 20 year old not knowing wtf to do.

Not that much, and that's if they have business sense. FLGS owners generally seem to have less business acumen than restaurants, where many restaurants go out of business.

I work with retarded people in a group home kinda thing for them.

I help put bad people in jail

If you are smart, drug free, and American, you can try the intel community.

i work the register while methheads sell stolen car chargers and phone cords to the store

I also get to do the same for the occasional rare retro game

Consider a trade job. Good CNC operators, plumbers, welders, and electricians are in constant demand and get paid pretty well.

If you are book smart, consider Physicians Assisstant school.

Unemployed currently. Worked for a card shop for about a year, did IT before that, done a bunch of stuff. Have a real strange resume, actually.

IT consultant. I make money telling people things are a bad idea and reading Veeky Forums on my phone.

Don't fall for the >Everyone should go to college meme
like said trade school is a good option that is under utilized in the US. If I could go back in time i'd do a 1-2 year technical degree instead of getting in debt for a degree that is useless.

if you are at all fit then
>Firefighter
>Cop
are decent options in any major metropolitan area. Starting cops in my city make $65k +good benefits and early retirement at guaranteed level of pay. The firefighters have a similar gig but get paid $50k instead but don't have to deal with being a fucking cop.

>>Firefighter
>>Cop
While I totally agree that these are noble jobs that serve a really important purpose in society, they also have some serious downsides. Cops in particular have a insanely hard job and deal with the worst aspects of humanity pretty much constantly. If you're not able to deal with that, look elsewhere, like the trades.

What if I'm a dumb, drunk, Irishman?

I was originally intending to get an engineering degree from Uni but then I realized I fucking hate engineering.

In fact, I don't even want to go to uni. I just want a comfy job making 50-60k a year and I'm happy forever.

I tell brokers to stop trading and why their clearinghouse wants them to stop trading.

Go to the finance industry- Futures/stock exchanges, work for a broker.

Or hell, series 3 exam, become a broker. Help farmers or energy producers manage their resources by hedging.

If you speak Spanish or Portuguese, I know a massive broker that needs a clerk really badly.

Teacher aide

engineer

>Six figures? Seven if it's particularly popular?

College was fun though. I went and got a masters and paid off my loans in about 5 years. Had fun, no regrets.

Guess how I know OP has never done:

- A tax return
- Corporate taxes
- Business taxes
- Real estate research
- Paid rent
- Run a business
- Taken a course on business
- Taken a course on accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Paying a mortgage
- Owning a home
- Acquiring a bank loan

>comfy job making 50-60k a year
Be a plumber, and don't chase overtime.

If you chase overtime, it's not hard to make 80k.

do I get to have sex with hot women frequently?

You can make a small fortune running a LGS easily. Just start with a large fortune.

Sales Manager for a tech firm

Pipefitter/Welder. Just break into six figures with only a little overtime.

I had to do half of those just to move into a 3 person apartment, I agree this kid might be living in that fantasy world where the guy that owns the comic store must be a millionaire.

Registered nurse. If you aren't sure what to do you can't go wrong with a good trade like electrician. Work is good, pay is good, and you'll be doing real work with other men. Even if you decide to pursue something different later, you won't have student loans or tons of time lost, you'll just have a nice stable job that's satisfying. I would have done this if I could go back, although being an RN isn't horrible.

Canadian military

>canadian
>military
I don't even have a picture to convey what a joke that is and how funny it is to me.

I bet the job is comfy as fuck though.

I don't wanna sperg on you but I don't think you realize just how influential the Canadian Armed Forces are both in history and in modern peace keeping missions. There's a reason the Germans called us Stormtroopers.

I build 3D models for games and television.

ATC. Fun job some of the time but it can be frustrating and scary as fuck as you try not to kill hundreds of people.

Believe it or not, our politians have intentionally kept our military activites out of public eye to keep the peaceful Canada meme secure. Just look at the JTF2 or Operation Medak Pocket, the PM at the time banned our news from reporting on it so he would be seen as peaceful.

Paralegal. I get paid a lot to get people coffee.

Boston PD!

My nigga.
Disposable income ahoy.

Because the weather is terrible up there?

I have a dead end tech support job. It's objectively shitty pay but it pays the bills. At least I don't own a game store, dealing with gamers for a living sounds like something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

>I don't see any firear---oh, wrong type of LGS.

I don't know they always seem ran by a couple of dudes as part of a passion project then anything. The two that used to exist in my town got into legal battles with each other into extinction. However, even then they never seemed to make much even if they were packed with people. At times appeared to be a baby sitting job for children than anything else and not enough buying new card/games/miniatures/whatever. The more popular one of the two would eventually sell their building to one of the gun shops in town. So in a sense my Local Game Shop became my Local Gun Shop with a small selection of W40K/Magic Cards in the back for about four months.

Software developer for a random Honda manufacturing plant.

Yeah, mid 5's if you're lucky.

Anyone that makes more has a franchise going with multiple locations.

Consider your MSRP is double wholesale on most items, that means you have to sell half of what you buy just to break even before taxes, rent, utilities, insurance, payroll, etc.

Now look at all the books and kits on the shelves that didn't sell.

Now look at the poor shlub running the place and now you know why his wife left him.

OK,
you know why we say "support your FLGS?"
becasue
THEY NEVER MAKE ANY GOOD MONEY!!!!
in my state, there is a sick tendency for LGS to crop up, run out all their credit, and die, because none of these fucking MtG players buy in store, and because YGO players run off the serious paying customers.
i've not seen one last more than two years.

>OP really is a faggot. see:

i bet the OP is melanesiac.
they tend to believe fantasies and tell lies.
ask about police sometime

The only LGS in my area closed it doors two years ago.
The shop itself was in a 150k town, in a densly urbanised area, with good connections with neighbouring towns and cities (giving a total population of 1.2 mil) and being placed in a region with most TTRPG players in the whole country.
So I doubt he was making enough to pay the rent for a 120 square meters of shop in not exactly most representative (but still good) street.

a store that used to be near me (before I moved) called Untouchables is still doing really well

they sell single cards in addition to packs, and have a rather respectable Yugioh and MtG collection

people come there constantly to sell their old rares to them. They buy it at like 25% of market price then resell it for 80%. People have no problems with this either. Sold one my cards years ago for $30 then saw it inside the glass container for $90.

>i'll bite
I was an escort trucker for Civilian Contractors operating in 'East Africa"
now, i head a small team of tight-schedule delivery guys for a mid-size corp.
>all my jobs have had NDE.

no.

nice.
i've seen LGS die for the weirdest reasons, but it all comes down to niche purpose store

>Six figures? Seven
Maybe if he's earning in yen or koruna

Librarian.

Pharmacist with Masters, currently working as lab assistant - pays better than working in a pharmacy store. Wouldn't really advice anyone this job. I took it because of purely personal preferences and thus its fun for me, but I know how frustrating it can be to pretty much anyone in the trade.

Local store is where I've spend good part of my teen years and I've managed to befriend the owner over past decade. The shop almost never earns for its rent and the only reason he didn't closed it is because his main source of income is a small company providing internet he started back in '99. He can't employ anyone, because he would be unable to pay them even minimal wage.
It's a purely hobby/passion type of "business". Completely unprofitable, if you are asking about that.

>2 years of education
>$70k starting
>good job security

it's a decent gig

noice

>muh canuckistan pride

I'm Canadian and this chest-puffing bullshit is just dumb.

Other librarian and if you think this job is all about sitting, reading books and sipping tea, then you are wrong.
There is also the internet surfing part. And the one when you need to do an inventarisation once per day. And keep helping each September till Christmas to all freshmen with the library itself, since apparently the most idiot-friendly catalogue imaginable combined with map on each floor, well-described books and shelves along with suprisingly efficient smartphone app are all not enough to handle those monkeys.

I'm gonna bet a fiver one of his parents is American.

Teacher.

Advisor in the city council. It's decent. And it's a government job so the benefits are nice.

I make healthcare software.
If you're really interested in finding out your calling, then take a break and apply to some trade job internships and/or try to learn the basics using online courses, just to wet your feet and see if that's your thing. There's really nothing worse than gambling on a 3/5 years course just because you feel the need to get one and then spiraling into a career that doesn't fulfill you.

Do you like math? Major in engineering.

Do you hate math? Major in business.

So, assuming I want to open my own FLGS and have plenty of funds to do so, how would this sound?
>Two stories with game rooms for private games for rent on the top floor
>Large play area to one side for MtG, WH40K, etc games
>Cards and card accessories as well as most dice behind the counter
>RPGs and boardgames filling up much of the selling floor, one wall dedicated to comics/manga as well
>T-shirts, bags, plushies and other accessories for sale
>A few classic arcades games in the back near the restrooms to act as quarter-eating machines

Thoughts?

Start small

>private rooms
no
>boardgames
no
>tshirts and shit
no
>arcades
no

The most successful game store owner I know of was a disabled veteran whose primary source of income was his pension. That ought to tell you exactly how profitable game stores are.

>Two stories with game rooms for private games for rent on the top floor
God no. Space is expensive as fuck and you're never going to be able to charge prices people are actually willing to pay for renting these.
>Large play area to one side for MtG, WH40K, etc games
Define 'large'. Again, space is expensive.
>Cards and card accessories as well as most dice behind the counter
Sure, the basics.
>RPGs and boardgames filling up much of the selling floor
These won't be your cash cows. Beware.
>one wall dedicated to comics/manga as well
Is this going to be a LGS, or a comic store? Decide. You only have so much space. Shunting in comics will be at the expense of games.
>T-shirts, bags, plushies and other accessories for sale
Only if you can get them cheaply from based Chinaman and reasonably sell them at a shameful profit.
>A few classic arcades games in the back near the restrooms to act as quarter-eating machines
There are cheaper things you can put an 'out of order' sign on.

The FLGS that gets most of my patronage does so by maintaining an online store for most of the merchandise it also sells in-store. I think it cuts into its own profits a little, but it undercuts GW on literally everything 40K-related, so that's a plus. And the customer service is just excellent. Orders are handled and questions are answered promptly.

Corporate lawyer trainee. I love it.

Archeologist
So yeah, im a parasite of society and culture.

Floor space is actually at a premium where I am. There is a warehouse building that's been empty for 5+years now and has been reduced in price drastically to only $200k despite it's fairly good location (just off the main business thoroughfare but still visible from it) and size (15,500 sq ft).
As for the arcade games, one of my high school buddies runs an arcade machine refurbishment shop and has said he'd cut me good deals on the machines (up to half off on some, 20% on most) due to me bailing him out on a small loan a few years back.
Of course I would get the goods from based chinaman.
Again, lots of floor space, I can allocate one wall to comics/manga and merch and still have a fuckton of space.
I may forego the private rooms but that depends on what I can use the upper floor for.
As for large game space on the main floor, I was think of allocating a 50 x 100 space for the games.
And yes, the RPGs and boardgames are not cash cows (that's the card games and accessories for them) but there is a strong boardgame and RPG market here (did a poll a few months back in the area and there is a demand for a better RPG and boardgame store because the other owners only ever have a few books on hand and the players are forced to go to Walmart or B&N for them).
My roommate and fiancee are also computer and networking wonks who are offering free service to set up an inventory system and website for me as well.

Dug any good bones?

>Over a million fucking dollars a year for selling funnybooks

How do you even become so out of touch with reality

Accounts Manager for a small company, have a couple of people under me and I just sit here on Veeky Forums and pass invoices all day.

One of them over where I'm from got shut down by the government because the store was a "non profit" but they were pocketing cash left and right. They even moved locations a few times to dodge stuff but eventually got caught up in it.

Masters of Clinical psychology:
Only thing I qualify for before my doctorate is marriage and couples council.

Pay is shit but temporary. Still wont make much money with my full degree either.

Thank Christ I don't have children and am a man, so I can wait til I'm old as balls and still have a family.

I sell online business management/customer checkout software. Lots of cold calling companies, but the money is decent. I'll probably have made $80k by the end of this year, hoping next year to hit six figures.

My FLG in Chile, is making about USD$ 9000~ on a slow and bad week.
No idea if that is too much outside of Chile.

Student and working my ass off to get my TRPG out (It has been delayed from past summer to somewhere around the end of year due to artist problems).

I'm almost completely burned out on fuels of the Business IT Bachelor's degree I'm working towards.

>>Two stories with game rooms for private games for rent on the top floor
No one rents rooms, don't do this
>>Large play area to one side for MtG, WH40K, etc games
This is a given, have play areas
>>Cards and card accessories as well as most dice behind the counter
You are a store, you will have this
>>RPGs and boardgames filling up much of the selling floor, one wall dedicated to comics/manga as well
Too much of this, you aren't a bookstore or a comic store
>>T-shirts, bags, plushies and other accessories for sale
A few, not many
>>A few classic arcades games in the back near the restrooms to act as quarter-eating machines
No, absolutely not. Keep vidya out of the store

FLGS make money through online MTG new and used and normally 40k + sigmar. Everything else is secondary, but this depends on your local players. Diversify your product lines

>Student and working my ass off to get my TRPG out
Too soon for you son, and if it's just a different take on an existing system, go ahead and stop now

I've got 18+ years of GMing and playing under my belt, a good 2+ years into a RPG game system creation and it's still in an early alpha state. Haste does not make good things that last. There's already a too many RPG rulesets, homebrews and other things out there, welcome to a sea of shit. You need more than just the ruleset to make it at all.

Ehh, I have to try anyway. I'm pretty seriously depressed and otherwise messed up in the head. I can't have peace unless I make games or something of the like. I've struggled a decade trying to compose music, and to this very day I've been unsuccessful. It drives me mad.

And I will tell you right up, the game is not a different take on an existing system. The game is about as unique a tabletop game can be, and while forced uniqueness is a bad thing, I've tried to simply approach game design from a completely different perspective with this beast.

If you've gone to /gdg/ in the past year, you should know about the system. It's Misfortune.

>Misfortune
Personified? You sound to be projecting onto the game system, be careful about that

Keep at what you want, but widen your scope. Offer music to others to use, create a module for a game (RPG or not) and include music as part of it. If you have any skill in making music tracks, merge that into what your RPG as a bonus asset.
You have lots of options, the key is to try different paths with music. There's more than you think.

Being too different from other RPGs is a problem though, it feels too alien for others to play. I've been working with action points and scaling dice results, among other things. Rewarding tactics, not straight up stats. Rewarding results, not levels. Rewarding thought, not builds.
They key is to improve upon what we know from other RPG systems, while not being a better version of said systems at the same time. You don't want to be "Like X", yet you want to be familiar enough for people to sit and play without reading a whole new ruleset.

Code monkey at major IT corporation in random 2nd world shithole. The wage is solid by the county's standard (I make more than both my parents combined), though still shit by western standards.
But really in my county just the combination of speaking passable English and not falling into crippling alcoholism and/or teen pregnancy set you way ahead of the average citizen in terms of employment opportunity.

On topic - we have a guy in the city that runs his own LGS. As a hobby. His real job is graphic design.

I've been wondering - do all dental hygienists press their tits against the patient when drilling off dental plaque as a method of easing the pain or do I just keep getting lucky?

>making six figures koruna a year
>not a month
might as well stay on welfare

Why are you not trying your Russian hand at various freelance gigs? $50-70k is relatively easy to achieve for the most mobile/webdev outsource people with a 60-hour workweek, especially if you've got a corporate background helping you with the business logic.

> when your hobby shop dies and you have to order paints online and they take three months to arrive
I stopped building models because of that

Owner of the local FLGS always said that a game store was the perfect way to make a small fortune... out of a large one.