Play before you Pay

This was our motto in 2006 when we began 8 years ago, we have never strayed from the plan. Everything we do in store and out leads towards the belief that if you try it before you buy it, you will be more then satisfied.

In the last 5 years we took it upon ourselves to prove our Industry wrong. You see there were many naysayers out there who think that games can't be borrowed without terrible tragedy befalling them. Here in Sheboygan WI, we knew people were up to the challenge!

We built a program that gave back to our community.  Rent the game at 10% the cost of the game and that 10% is a credit to the future purchase of the same game, when bought within 30 days. Rent and you love it, you get a credit.  You didn't enjoy it, it was a low fee of $2-8 dollars overnight.  Then we upped the ante, if you rent on Saturday you get it 2 days for the price of 1!

So in 2009 we rented our first game.  We rented out 14 games that year,  in 2010 it was 18 games and in 2011 it was only 11, but we doubled down our efforts and in 2012 we rented 22,  in 2013 we rented 45, and in 2014 we rented 186 games!

That's what we are talking about.  Not only is this a great way to spend an evening but its a great way to try our product before you invest.  Demoing a game in your home, with your friends also leads to others trying the product.  Which leads to more folks enjoying this hobby, this industry and loving the wonderful products that are released every month.  WIN!

I recently was describing to a visitor why you should rent and this was how I explained it. Imagine that a new movie is being released...but instead of going to a theater where you can see a trailer. Movie theaters and video rental places no longer exist.  Now movies are being sent directly to DVD/Blue ray, why would you buy it?  Plus without the theaters to drive the sales and gather the sales, costs of those DVD's is going to be much higher.  Probably $50 for a movie. It would seem ridiculous.   Yet that is what the game industry wants us to do.  Sell a $50 game without a showing, preview or rental.

It is up to us to reinvent the ways to sell, but I for one am a huge fan of renting!  Play before you Pay!

See you on Saturday when you pick up that rental!
Love, Lynn

OMG it finally happened!

Can you believe IT?
I couldn't!
I was sure IT would never happen.
But here we are....IT has occurred!      


Here I sit at the store quietly enduring all my emails and enjoying some short conversations with a couple browsers who stopped by.  A quick birthday purchase and run, a request for playing cards and a deep discussion about cribbage boards.  But through it all, I can see IT happened.

Sears is selling it's display pieces and I upgraded to real ways to showcase our sleeve collection!  Doesn't it look pretty?!?!  I am super excited about such a simple change and re-organization, Kevin and I spent 2 days planning and implementing this!!!

Now I can sit back and enjoy organized sleeves, the backyard view at The GameBoard, a cup of tea, a great game and SNOW!  Oh Happy Day!  
~Love Lynn

Merry Christmas! Yeah we said it!

Oh no.  Did you hear that????  They said 'Merry Christmas'!

What you didn't realize was that yesterday I said Happy Chanukah to all my Jewish friends. In exactly two weeks I'll wish you a Happy New Year and I might even throw in a Happy Kwannza from  the 26th to the 1st!  I'm a rebel!

But seriously, I love wishing people a Merry Christmas it's the birthday of someone I hold very dear.  8 years ago, when we started The GameBoard, I had to make a really hard decision....do I say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?

When opening a store the list of things to accomplish, the decisions to make is long and arduous. You have important thoughts like which bank do I go with? What company to hire for the h-vac system? What size hard drive on my computer? How many employees will we need?  What games to fill the shelves? BUT.....do we ever wonder what to say on that December Holiday?

I never realized what an important decision this would be.  I made my decision and then I offered the options to all my employees.  Whatever they felt comfortable with and if their choice was to say Merry Christmas, I would stand behind that greeting.  I head to this holiday every year with excitement and awe at how many of our customers "thank" us for saying Merry Christmas and avoiding the "Happy Holiday" back up!

Try it......It's refreshing.....I promise that nobody here will complain, Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Love, Lynn

Happy Holidays!!

Can you believe it?!?!?  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!   (we are closed!) 

Happy Turkey Day everyone!  Gobble up the food, Gobble up the love, Gobble up the fun!
This Fall season has flown out the door, we have closed up the patio for the year and it is now piled with snow!  Heidi worked hard all October and got the lights up before the first snow fell.  She has created a beautiful light show in our yard and we are excited to be turning it on Friday!

All day folks have been stopping in and picking up the last minute entertainment for their family gathering!  Concept and Snake Oil were rented, Timeline was purchased, people were looking for dominoes (don't forget to give us a few days on some games because we don't always have these in stock), the Shop Small Saturday bags are packed with goodies and we are almost ready for Friday!

Hopefully Kevin and Amado will get to help you on Friday and Saturday! Saturday make sure you shop at the local retailers and help celebrate loyalty to those who support your community!  Stop in and rent a game for the holidays, there is still time tonight to get a good new option for Thanksgiving!

If you are traveling--drive safely and return back to us soon!

But most of all have a GREAT THANKSGIVING!

Love, Lynn

We rocked the Summer!

It's been a while since we last chatted....the summer weather has been keeping me off the computer and closely aligned with being outside!  Now that school has been back for a month and the dust has settled.  It's time to reconnect and fill you in on what we have been up to!

Last you heard from us we were up for an award for the Best Community Outreach Program.  We are pleased to announce that we totally WON!!!!  :-)  This was awarded to us right after school started back and I have been waiting for our plaque to arrive but I didn't want to wait any longer.  When it arrives I will post a photo of the team and our cool award!!

The temperature has been swiftly descending and the tree leaves are beginning to change color...take a few moments to look at the last of the summer green, it will be gone way too fast this season.  Apples are arriving along with pumpkins and we have brought out all our cool new Halloween themed games.

This coming Monday Oct 6 is our official 8 year Anniversary, we are inviting everyone to a  big neighborhood party at our little place on the corner; deep in the northeast side of Sheboygan,  Saturday Oct 4, from Noon - 4 pm.  We are providing Brats and Anniversary cake, please bring a dish to share and join us for food, a gamer garage sale and neighborhood celebration as we dive headlong into our 9th year in this amazing community!

Come rent a demo, buy some of the used games we started with or check out the yummy offerings Saturday is coming and we want you to CELEBRATE with US!!!

See you at the corner,
Love, Lynn

Hoping for the Best Community Outreach Program Award!

#thegameboard we just sent in our nomination for Best Community Outreach Programming. I had 150 words to state what we have accomplished.....This is just a portion of what we have done in 8 years, no wonder I'm tired!

The GameBoard, 1832 N 8th st, Sheboygan WI

We'd like to describe community outreach things we have done in the past 8 years like.......Hundreds of  school fieldtrips, Parkinson's workshops, Dementia Care family programming, senior memory assistance & social play, non-verbal and verbal programming for handicap clients, church events, speech therapy & reading assistance, business workshops for stress reduction & collaboration, Dementia Care Network membership, Alzheimer's partnership- walking as a store, donating & a resource to partners/caregivers/customers, facilitating a passport program for 10 nonprofit/profit organizations to excel tourism, birthday parties, library partner for the summer reading program & year round events,  renting demos to individuals, weddings, picnics, schools,  Aging and Disability brain health workshops, speed dating for business networking, game convention sales, Salvation Army game events, fundraisers, donating to education, presenting and workshops at caregiver conferences, playshops for the Cancer Community, headlining in the newspaper for Brain Health Programs.... we could go on but we ran out of space....

Hopefully you have read about 2-3 programs you never knew we had....give us a call to get an event at your location!
Love, Lynn

What makes it "evil"?

After years of being a person who plays games...I find that sometimes I have to defend my game playing by stating that I believe in Christ, too.
Why is that necessary?

It makes me feel frustrated...
It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong....
It makes me feel evil.....

A drawing, a game, a product doesn't become evil or demand you to be evil.  Sometimes the person interpreting the game makes it bad.  Now I hate conflict, it makes my stomach turn.  But today I had a Dad....a well meaning man, who loves his son and wants what's best for him come to the store.  This Dad was wondering if his son stole some cards from us.  His son had no money as far as he knew, but yesterday, his son came home with a bunch of cards, apparently given to him by a friend.   After being confronted by his Mom he was told to hand them over.  What he did next was wrong, he found them and took them back.

Now he could have spoken up and showed the benefits of the game.  He could have calmly discussed the concerns.  But as I told his Dad the game is a great learning game.  So why was he hiding it? Then it came out.  Well the Dad told me 'we don't allow that kind of game in our house' ....it's evil....as he pointed to a drawing of a horned monster.

Now it takes all my patience to have these chats with parents. I always start out with 'I understand, I am Catholic'....But why do I need to justify my position?  I followed this with, 'this games teaches math, strategy and resource management'.  His Dad said "well then why would he want it? He's bad at math"  UGH!!   I gently told him maybe his son realized math is not as bad as he thought.  It's a great learning tool and an amazing game.

We shook hands when he left and I hope he will go home and think about this game differently.  I did tell him there is far worse things for your son to be into.....  So now here I am in the back room, writing this and praying that this child be given the chance to seek out things that are good for him.  Even if it scares his folks, it's not like it's drugs, or alcohol.  But "Evil"?  I think not.

Love, Lynn