welcome

Paragon Games & Hobbies was dedicated to collectable card games, role-playing games, and miniature wargames. I opened the store January 23, 1998 and closed July 31, 2004.

To support the gamers, I offered customers gaming space, including: a large (4' x 12') dedicated wargames table, and several smaller tables for card games and role-players.

Having the store was the American Dream.

Well, guess the American Dream is a lie...sorta

Why did I shut down the store?

My main problem was I am I nice person. I worried about making the customers happy and not about keeping the store on budget. When the sales slump hit and 2 other stores opened nearby (thanks again Games Workshop, you dicks!) I couldn't survive. I made it through tough times before, but the last time I was making NO profit, in fact I made some nice debt I'm paying off still.

Did I mention the GW store? Those dicks! "It'll improve your businees" my ass, I lost 25% of my sales to them! Cock sucking money grubbin jerks! Love the games, hate the company...btw you can download all the rulebooks as a PDF file on filesharing programs (emule etc) and I suggest never paying more than 60% of retail on ebay. Suck on that Games Workshop.

Well, rant over...some basic facts...1st year sales $85k, 2nd year $95k, 3rd year was over $100k, then it held steady for the next several years...my last year estimated sales (if I had lasted the whole year) would have been under $65k

But $65k is alot, why did i close? Cost of product is about 60%, so thats $26k left, rent took about $10k, utilities about $3k, customers want discounts that grabbed up about $6k...so $7k isnt much to live on for a full year...

If you know me, and want to contact me, call me at home at 410-676-2675 as I never read my email. Nowasdays I play Star Wars galaxies online and run some rpg's and mini games with local friends from my home.

Thanks to all who saw me through 6 and a half years of my life in business. Thanks to all who made the store a fun place to play. Fuck you Games Workshop (oh GW, I am not paying for White Dwarf mags you keep sending me AFTER I closed, morons)

Last thought: Looking to open your own store? Dont. The future of games is online, and in the hands of big multi million dollar budgets, not in a brick and mortar store. We just need the big software companies to make "gamemaster" utilities so we can write our own content.