Who is the all-time most successful salesman of the Dragon Ball Z CCG? Easily it’s Erin Giddings, the man who was behind getting many of your favorite Score Entertainment games into your local game store. These days Erin has shed the trappings of the corporate world and now sells gaming products with Miniature Exchange (including selling Dragon Ball Z Singles).
Kaesi Corne from the Direct Damage Podcast over at geek site Zero Fortitude recently interviewed Erin about his time at Score Entertainment and selling Dragon Ball Z singles in today’s new market.
If you would like to support both a local game store and a former Score Employee, please consider buying your Panini America product from Miniature Exchange by clicking here.
So Erin, exactly how long have you been in the gaming industry?
I started playing Magic the Gathering when I was eleven years old. From there I moved into playing all kinds of games including Warhammer and even Poke’mon. If you go all the way back to when I started playing games, the answer is twenty years!
So you have basically worked in almost every part of the gaming industry. What are some of the highlights of your career thus far?
Well my first step was managing my local game store in Garland, Texas when I was in high school. That was the first time I realized that this industry may be more than just a hobby for me. Then in college I began an internship with Score Entertainment, which at the time was one of the leading sports card manufacturers and a growing company in the gaming industry. Once I graduated college, my position at Score became full time and I had the amazing opportunity to be involved in almost every aspect of designing, marketing, and sustaining major card games. After nearly five years, I left Score and opened my own game store in Grapevine, Texas. I grew that store from the ground up and made it one of the most successful gaming and comic stores in North Texas.
That is quite the gaming industry resume’! So let’s focus on your time working for Score Entertainment and what that was like… Give me a quick description of your top three favorite or most memorable times while there:
I was very fortunate to be in position that allowed me to be involved all over the company. At the time I probably didn’t realize it, but I made some long time friends at Score which I value the most. Second to that, I think the trips to San Diego Comic Con every year was a great highlight of being at the company. In the beginning that was to promote the Dragon Ball Z CCG, but eventually evolved into promoting our other games such as Bleach and Inuyasha.
There are plenty of other great moments, but getting to have input on the design of some of the games with Garrett Wilkinson and Aik Tongtharadol was pretty awesome. Since I was in marketing it was cool to see how it and game design sort of worked hand-in-hand. Those guys were even nice enough to let me design a card or two along the way for some of my favorite characters like Renji in the Bleach CCG.
Score Entertainment is probably best known for it’s work on the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game. Can you describe how you were involved in that while you were with the company?
The height of the DBZ CCG happened when I was an intern at Score and was simply just a paper pusher, but when I became full time DBZ was still a big part of the company. The biggest thing that I did for the game was write marketing material and promote at conventions like SDCC and GAMA. I was probably more involved with the marketing spin when the company decided to discontinue Dragon Ball GT. That part was a crude introduction to the world of game manufacturing.
So you were mainly marketing? Can you explain a little about what goes into promoting a CCG?
Well the first important fact is that Score Entertainment made mostly games that were based off of Japanese properties. This is very different than a product that is an original property or even a property that is licensed from a US company. When dealing with Japanese licensing it is a whole different ball game because of how culture based and strict they are with their brands. Although with Dragon Ball Z things were a little more open between companies, properties like Bleach and Inuyasha were scrutinized all the way down to the mechanics of the game in every set.
This made marketing even more difficult because there were a lot of things we just weren’t allowed to do. For instance, we always wanted to do cash money prizes for events but were always told no. Even though the average age of our player base was over the age of eighteen, to Japan the property was geared at kids and giving cash out for kids competitions was in their eyes like promoting gambling. It’s the reason why many anime based games can’t or don’t award actual cash prizes like what Magic the Gathering does.
As for promoting a successful card game (or really a game in general) it takes awareness and support. These days it is very different than when I first started, but now social media and grass roots efforts pay off far more than most print advertising. One thing I learned is that you have to get a devoted player base that believes in the game and has trust in the company. If you can establish that then they will do the ‘in the trenches’ advertising for you.
So after Score, you opened your own game store. What is that like and what do you advise to others wanting to do so?
I opened Area 51 Gaming and Collectibles in Grapevine, Texas back in 2008. It was honestly one of the best and worst decisions of my life. The original idea was to have a store that was different than the rest and broke the mold in every way. We did that and so much more! In the course of four years we grew from being a small 2,000sq. ft. store to being over 5,000sq. ft. and offering almost every major game title in the industry. At one point we had one of the largest weekly Friday Night Magic tournaments in North Texas. The part that I say was the worst is because I made considerable sacrifice to make that success happen. During the height of business I was working eighty-hour weeks, sleeping at the store and going through a terrible divorce like situation at home. This was all happening prior to age twenty-six.
If I had one bit of advice for anyone wanting to do the same, it would be DON’T DO IT! I know that it seems like a great idea to own a game store. It’s a hobby you love, a fun environment, and you get to be your own boss… what’s not to love? The truth however is very different and is the reason why a majority of game stores fail within their first three to five years. Running a business is no joke and the gaming industry is a hard market to make money in if you don’t have substantial money up front or great connections.
Still want to do it? Great! Start with four times your needed start-up money, start very small and grow slowly over time, and don’t ever let your personal likes and dislikes make decisions as to what you will and will not sell in your store. Make the place clean, inviting, and well lit so as not to feed the stereotypes and don’t hire your buddies or family to run the place for minimum wage or working for store credit. That’s a terrible idea no matter how great it sounds in the beginning or how well they sell you on why you should hire them.
Okay, last question… What are you doing these days as your furthered path in the gaming industry?
Well currently I am the Sales and Marketing Director for a small online company called Miniature Exchange. We are a game company that sells all kinds of gaming products like single cards for Magic the Gathering and Dragon Ball Z as well as miniature games and board games. In 2015 we will be opening up a new side of the company that will cater to both established and new game stores, helping them supply card singles and run events that help them build communities from the ground up without the need to compete with surrounding stores. In addition, next year we plan on opening our own store front to allow customers a place to pick up orders placed online.
Our newest big venture is supporting the new Dragon Ball Z CCG that was just released by Panini. Our website offers single cards from the new release at prices compareable to eBay but without any bidding hassle and direct customer service that always puts the customer first. You can check us out at www.MiniatureExchange.com for all of your new 2014 Dragon Ball Z CCG (Pan-Z) needs!
That’s pretty cool that your career started with DBZ and now it’s come full circle to where you are involved with the game again! Thanks for taking the time to sit down and talk with us here at Direct Damage.
To get some of the best deals on selling Dragon Ball Z singles and Magic the Gathering single cards, visit Erin at www.MiniatureExchange.com!
To get caught up on all of Kaesi Corne’s podcasts and Magic the Gathering talk, visit www.zerofortitude.com and click the Direct Damage Cast link on the right side of the page!
