When it come to tournaments a lot of times people are hesitant to sign up before the day of the event. The fear that they will have to cancel is prominent of course, however most people don’t realize the benefits both to the store and to themselves of signing up early.
- It lets you and the store plan ahead further: Most stores have a rough idea of how many people will come to each event, but much like in science, data is king. If the pre-signups aren’t living up to the expectations of the store owners then they will often cut back on their product, and people get left out. Not to mention it’s easier to prepare a space for people when you know they are coming.
- It cuts back on wasted product, and keeps your products cheaper: If the store projects a certain number of people and they don’t show up then they have the opposite problem from the first. Here they have a lot of product that is not going to sell, or will sell very slowly. It’s these kinds of things that drive prices up in the long run. Having a more accurate count in the first place will help the stores cut back on wasted product.
- It increases the likelihood of advancement with distributors: Many distributors have a quota for product sold and people enrolled in events. This means that your small town game store may have issues getting the amount of products it needs if the projected crowd is smaller than average. Many distributors work on seller levels, and allocate amounts of product for the level of the store. If you sign up and go to more events, it is more likely that the seller level will go up, letting the store buy more products, and giving you access to the variety of products that you want.
Next time you are planning on an event, make sure and see if there is a sign up sheet beforehand. It helps out your store, and helps you plan.
