We had 14 players for Standard and 14 players for Modern for our 1st Magic:The Gathering Friday! Modern in the front room. 14 players July 6, 2018! Daniel (left) and Greg (right) were our two 3-0 players in our 3 round Modern Evernt. 3-0 prize is free entry into the $25 M19 sealed event on Friday the 13th, 2018 Standard in the Back room. 14 players July 6th, 2018! Rudy (Left) and Shane (Right) were our 2 undefeated players for Standard. Undefeated Standard prize is Free entry into Friday the 13th M19 Sealed Event.
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Friday the 13th, 2018 was Official release day for core set 2019 for Magic:The Gathering. I call it M19. I decided to run a $25 entry M19 sealed event. Most stores were doing Draft weekend. Bell's isn't in the Cool Kids club yet with the WPN so we don't have any draft promos to give out. To stand out from the crowd of other stores I ran a sealed event for my Friday MTG event. It was risky. Friday July 6th I ran Modern and Standard. We got 14 players in each event. for 28 players. I was pleasantly surprised. Cautiously optimistic. Were people just coming out to check out the new store? Would Friday the 13th prove to be terrifying from a Business point of view? People started rolling in around 6:00pm. and they didn't stop. John, a customer of mine that helped out on July 6th with getting things going with the events looked at me as my 32 player capped event list was full of names and more people kept walking in the door from Nerdstock community... "Do you want me to have Will bring in chairs from my home?" I laughed and then said yes. We had 34 players and 15 tables... So, I assembled 2 more tables while John got in contact with Will. By the time the Tables were assembled Will had shown up with 4 chairs saving the day. We started about 15 minutes late. But we had 34 players for our 1st sealed event. That hits an Advanced WPN metric for number of player in a single event (30+). We had 4 players go 3-0 in our 3 round event. As advertised those 4 players won 7 packs of M19 EACH. Everyone else got 1 pack per win. I even gave the 0-3 players a pack of M19. Sales were by far the best since the store had opened. John looked at me and said wow thing are going pretty good. I couldn't stop smiling. I knew people missed Nerdstock and how I ran things. But I never dreamed it would be like this. Thank you so much for bringing Bell's Gaming Center to Life! I built a place that I would want to game at. And it looks like others like it too :-) I was jumping through Distribution hoops for days. I was jumping through WPN hoops for Days. I bought my POS on Friday June 29. No training until July 5. I ordered my CC machine on Friday June 29. They were supposed to overnight it Monday. Arrive on Tuesday. I get my e-mail from WPN on Friday. They will call me on Tuesday. Even thogh I have a HUGE event planned for July 1. They will activate me on Thursday. I was supposed to get a check from an investor on Friday and meet with a Notary to make it all legal.
Friday rolls by no investor. I am so busy getting all my ducks in a row with everything else it just kind of slips by that it didn't happen. Monday I try and contact WPN. They say nope. Your call is Tuesday Sorry. I contact CC company. Is my CC machine on the way? Where is my tracking number. I call support line. I Email my sales rep at CC company. No Tracking number. Monday is Hurry up and wait... Tuesday Rolls round. I call CC company Where is my CC Machine? Oh we will overnight it to you. It hasn't shipped yet! WPN calls. You will be activated for Thursday. Sorry your 30 player event on Sunday July 1 doesn't count for anything. People keep asking me how is it going. I tell them I have done everything I can do. Now it is Hurry up and wait. So the Wednesday 4th of July was Hurry up and wait... On my way into the Shop on Thursday July 5th, 2018 I got a message that I was approved by a Distributor. This was 10:00AM I get to the shop and Fed ex pulls up moments later with my CC machine. Where are the cords? Oh it doesn't come with cords. Call us when you have them and we will activate for you... A few minutes later I get a call from my sales rep saying If I want product for m19 I need to have an order in by 1:00pm. So down to my last $5.64 in my business account... I pull out My personal credit card and light up my Distributors online cart like a Christmas tree. While on the phone with my distributor my investor walks in from out of the blue ready to give me a check to help pay for all this inventory I was ordering. We run down to the bank to notarize the contract of the loan. The notary was a former online streamer and wants to check out the store. I have to go get some No batteries included parts at Best buy after the bank run to get my CC machine going. I run to my bank to deposit my check. 24 hour hold on the money. Then I get reminder e-mail that my POS online training is starting in 10 minutes. Oh shit that was for Thursday at 3:30pm... I do the onine training. By now its close to 5:00pm. I call my CC company and they activate my CC machine just in time for my 1st paying event customers start rolling in at 5:45. Then 19 commander players roll in at 7PM. By 8:00pm I felt I had sprinted a Marathon. On the other side of the counter customers were extremely happy with the store. How clean and well lit is it. How smoothly the events ran. etc. How they missed Nerdstock and my store has the same vibe as Nerdstock. How they haven't even looked at there Magic the gathering cards since Nerdstock closed. And here they are playing again. It was a great feeling. I will never forget this day. Its the story you tell your grand kids. You do everything right. You jump through all the hoops. You know money is the only barrier. The bank won't loan you a dime. Investor talks had stalled for weeks. How I just kept going, knowing it would all work out somehow. Like a Muse or a Ghost standing behind you saying just keep going, trust me, it's going to work out for you. And then Every barrier in front of you a friend or old Nerdstock customer shows up out of the blue and has the solution to the current barrier. I was down to my last $5.64 and Not knowing how or if financing was going to happen. And then it all comes together at once. I love it when a plan comes together... Sunday July 1, 2018 We opened our doors for a stress test. We invited players to join us for a free Standard event. I didn't know if we we get 16 or 30 players.
It turns out people were very excited to play at a store that I run. They say if you love something. Set it free. If it comes back then the feeling is mutual. If it doesn't then you know they were never yours. We had to Close Nerdstock's Doors in April. I was devastated and wanted the impossible. Try and open my own place without partners. I was pleasantly surprised by how much help and encouragement I got from the community. The impossible became possible and I was able to open Bell's July 1. I had always tried to give people the best gaming experience that I could. After all, I was a gamer my self for the last 30 years. I ran Nerdstock like a place that I wished existed for me to play at. Long Story short. Sunday we had 30 out of a Maximum 30 players the 1st day I opened my doors to the public. The linked video button was taken during the 1st round of the event. Thank you so much for coming back after I had to let all of you go for almost 3 months. Thank you for your feed back and your enthusiasm for the opening of Bell's Gaming Center. I will continue to do everything I can to make your gaming experience the best that I can make it. And I hope that everyone who plays here at Bell's Gaming Center feels the same home away from home feeling that they got when they played at Nerdstock. Your first impression of my store as you pull up might be a little bit like when Luke Skywalker 1st saw the outside of the Millennium Falcon. "what a piece of Junk!"
But Like Han Solo's Answer. "She's got it where it counts kid. I made a lot of special modifications myself..." When you walk through the front door you will be pleasantly surprised at how nice the interior of the store looks vs the outside of the store. And all the technology that you got used to at Nerdstock is operational (Nerdstock's tables, chairs, Digital Flier-Parings-Timer, the PA System, the music, and the slat wall.). I like this contrast and it is a nice unintended allegory for how we treat people at Bell's Gaming Center. People here are not judged by how they look but by the content of there character. I have some great news for you! If you miss the Nerdstock Gaming experience then I invite you to check out Bell's Gaming Center. The overall vibe of Bell's is as close to Nerdstock as I could get it. How do I know? I used to run all of Nerdstock's events. Please go to Bell's Gaming Center on Facebook to see more Photos and updates.
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