It's been an interesting week for Magic in Korea.
Kindle shop in Seoul and Elder Dragon in Ulsan are set to close their doors. It's sad and the announcement about Kindle closing seemed to come out of the blue.
In retrospect it should not be that surprising as Magic shops in Korea aren't run very professionally. Kindle had a large playing space but didn't have a website, not exactly 2014 best practise.
Last minute scheduling or scheduling changes are fairly frequent at some stores and I have never seen a program designed at catering for new or casual players. There was an article on MTG Price about foreign cards (http://blog.mtgprice.com/2014/12/16/foreign-language-cards-for-dummies/) and the author laments not being able to find a single Korean retailer who ships overseas.
A lot of stores don't operate proper singles sales or buy lists. Giving up margins of 40-60% in favour of letting players handle singles and taking just 10-15%.
This reliance on the sale and price of sealed product (the prices are fixed and MSRP is never publicly broken by an individual store) means Korean stores are especially vulnerable to a wholesale price increase. Just recently Wizards of the Coast reduced the discount they offered to retailers on sealed product and within months we have seen the closure of two major Korean stores.
Despite all this negativity Dalmuti's in Suwon gave me a pleasant surprise when they announced they were not closing when their old lease expired. Instead they have moved to a new location.
Magic in Suwon now has it's own Facebook group. I don't think I am going out on a limb by saying it is the best thing that has ever been on Facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/303915966473798/)
Kindle shop in Seoul and Elder Dragon in Ulsan are set to close their doors. It's sad and the announcement about Kindle closing seemed to come out of the blue.
In retrospect it should not be that surprising as Magic shops in Korea aren't run very professionally. Kindle had a large playing space but didn't have a website, not exactly 2014 best practise.
Last minute scheduling or scheduling changes are fairly frequent at some stores and I have never seen a program designed at catering for new or casual players. There was an article on MTG Price about foreign cards (http://blog.mtgprice.com/2014/12/16/foreign-language-cards-for-dummies/) and the author laments not being able to find a single Korean retailer who ships overseas.
A lot of stores don't operate proper singles sales or buy lists. Giving up margins of 40-60% in favour of letting players handle singles and taking just 10-15%.
This reliance on the sale and price of sealed product (the prices are fixed and MSRP is never publicly broken by an individual store) means Korean stores are especially vulnerable to a wholesale price increase. Just recently Wizards of the Coast reduced the discount they offered to retailers on sealed product and within months we have seen the closure of two major Korean stores.
Despite all this negativity Dalmuti's in Suwon gave me a pleasant surprise when they announced they were not closing when their old lease expired. Instead they have moved to a new location.
Magic in Suwon now has it's own Facebook group. I don't think I am going out on a limb by saying it is the best thing that has ever been on Facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/303915966473798/)
