Convention Buying Without Regret: A Board Game Con Plan

Convention board game buying is a different sport from buying at a store. There are hundreds of booths, every game is being demoed by someone enthusiastic, the exclusives will be gone by Sunday, and your friends are all buying things. It is the single best environment ever designed for coming home with a game you will play once.

This article is part of our Smart Buying series, which starts with how to buy used board games. The plan below is not about buying less. It is about buying games that actually hit your table, and doing it with your group so the shared shelf gets better instead of just bigger.

Before you go: audit the shelf and make a list

Regret starts before the convention does. It starts with walking in without knowing what you already own.

Do a shelf audit. A week before the con, look at your collection and your group’s collection together. Which roles are covered: gateway, filler, two-player, party, co-op, stretch? Which are thin? What has not been played in a year and could go? If your group has already run the shelf audit, pull up the results. If not, a quick pass over a shared list is enough.

Write the gap list. From the audit, write down the specific roles or kinds of games your shelf is missing. Not titles yet; roles. “A co-op for four that plays in under an hour.” “A two-player game for the nights only two of us show.” “A party game that works with nine.” This is your shopping list, and it is short.

Write the watch list. Now add specific titles you have been curious about, with a note on which gap each one fills. A title that does not fill a gap can still go on the list, but mark it as a want, not a need.

Set a budget as a number. Pick a dollar figure before you leave home. Illustration: $150 for the weekend. Carry it as a number in your head, and know that going over it is a decision, not an accident.

Share all of this with your group. The whole plan works better when four people walk in with one list. More on that below.

The demo-first rule

Here is the rule that prevents the most regret: do not buy a game at a convention that you have not played at the convention.

Cons are the one place where you can play almost anything before you pay for it. Publisher booths run demos all day. The library has thousands of titles to check out. Open gaming areas are full of people who will teach you what they just bought. There is no better place on earth to play before you pay, and skipping that step at a convention is like going to a tasting and buying bottles unopened.

A demo tells you things a box cannot:

• Whether the teach is manageable for your group.
• Whether the game is as fun as the booth staff’s energy suggests.
• Whether the play time on the box is honest.
• Whether the game is different enough from what you already own.

If the demo line is long, that is information too. Put your name down and come back, or play something else in the meantime. If you cannot get a demo over a whole weekend, the game can wait for retail.

Two small exceptions. A game your group has already played elsewhere and decided it wants does not need a demo. And a cheap filler, say under $20, is a low enough risk that a good explanation at the booth can stand in for a play. Everything else, play first.

The 24-hour rule for anything over $60

Even after a demo, the booth is a persuasive place. The second rule, as an illustration: for any game over about $60, wait 24 hours before buying it.

Walk away. Play something else. Sleep on it. If you still want it the next morning, go back and buy it with a clear head. You will be surprised how often the game you were certain about on Friday afternoon is one you have forgotten by Saturday breakfast. The ones you do remember are the ones worth the money.

Pick your own threshold. For some people it is $40; for a collector who buys a lot, it might be $100. The number matters less than the pause. The point is to separate the moment of excitement from the moment of payment, because those two moments produce very different decisions.

To make the pause easier, take a photo of the box and the price, ask the booth whether they expect to sell out, and remind yourself that nearly every convention release reaches retail within a few months, usually for the same price or less.

The cost per play math also helps here. A $70 game your group plays ten times is $7 per play before dividing by players. A $70 game that gets played once because it was a convention impulse is $70 per play, forever, on the Shelf of Shame.

Con exclusives and the fear of missing out

Exclusives are where the convention floor does its most effective work on your wallet. Limited print runs, promo packs, alternate art, “only available this weekend.” The scarcity is real, and it is also the point.

Ask yourself what the exclusive actually changes at the table. Most convention exclusives fall into three groups:

1. Cosmetic. Alternate art, special box, metal coins. Changes nothing about the play.
2. Small content. A promo card or two, a bonus tile, a mini-expansion. Usually a few minutes of novelty, sometimes a nice addition, rarely the reason a game stays in rotation.
3. Early access. The game itself is not out yet, and the convention is the first place to buy it. This is the only kind of exclusive that means much, and even then the game usually reaches retail within months.

If you were going to buy the game anyway, grab the exclusive version and enjoy it. If the exclusive is what is pushing you from “maybe” to “yes,” it is doing the selling, and the game underneath may not hold up. Exclusives are also traded and sold constantly after cons; the ones you truly want can usually be found later for a reasonable price.

The honest test for FOMO: will anyone in your group notice or care in six months? For nearly every exclusive, no.

Coordinate with your group so only one of you buys

This is the rule that saves the most money, and it is the one most groups never think to use.

Four friends at a convention, each walking the hall alone, will come home with overlap. Two copies of the hot new release. Two copies of the party game everyone demoed together. That overlap is pure waste under The One Copy Rule: a play group needs one copy of a game, not one per person. Every duplicate is money that could have filled a gap on the shared shelf instead.

So before the con, agree on how buying will work:

• One buyer per game. If two of you want the same game, decide who buys it. The game goes on the shared shelf and everyone plays it.
• Use your lanes. If your group has claimed lanes, the co-op person buys the co-ops, the party person buys the party games, and so on. The lanes make the “who buys it” decision automatic.
• Share a running list. A group text or a shared note where everyone posts what they bought or plan to buy. Check it before you pay.
• Demo together. Play the demos as a group when you can. Four opinions beat one, and a game the whole table liked is a safer buy than a game one person loved.
• Split the big ones. For an expensive game the whole group wants, go in on one copy. Agree in advance whose shelf it lives on.
• Apply the 24-hour rule as a group. Text the group before buying anything big. “Still want it?” from a friend the next morning is a useful check.

Done well, the group leaves the convention with more distinct games for less total money than four solo shoppers would, and every one of them is a game the group has already played and liked.

Carrying it home

The last source of regret is logistics. Board games are heavy and awkward, and a convention haul can be a lot of both.

• Know your limit before you buy. If you flew in, every box has to fit in luggage or get shipped. Weigh that into the decision at the booth.
• Ask about booth shipping. Many publishers will ship purchases to your home for a fee, sometimes free above a threshold. For a big game, that beats carrying it across the hall for three days.
• Use a shipping service if the con offers one. Larger conventions often have a shipping desk. Box up the haul on the last day and let it meet you at home.
• Pack games in a hard-sided bag or a box. Soft bags crush corners. If you drove, a plastic tote in the trunk is ideal.
• Keep small boxes and promos in a separate bag. They get lost in the bottom of a big one.

A crushed box is a small regret, but it is an avoidable one.

FAQ

What should I buy at a board game convention?

Games that fill a specific gap on your shelf, that you have demoed at the convention, and that nobody else in your play group is already buying. Do a shelf audit before you go, write down which roles are missing, and shop against that list. Everything else can wait for retail, where it will usually be the same price.

Should I buy convention exclusive board games?

Only if you would buy the game without the exclusive. Most con exclusives are cosmetic or a small promo and change little at the table. If you already want the game, enjoy the bonus. If the exclusive is what is tipping you toward buying, the game may not hold up on its own, and the extras usually show up for trade afterward.

How do I avoid overspending at a board game convention?

Set a dollar budget before you go, demo every game before you buy it, and wait 24 hours before buying anything over a threshold you set, such as $60. Coordinate with your play group so that only one person buys each game. Nearly every convention release reaches retail within months, so there is little to lose by waiting.

How do you get board games home from a convention?

Ask booths whether they ship purchases, use the convention’s shipping desk if there is one, and pack games in a hard-sided bag or tote to protect box corners. If you flew, decide your carrying limit before you buy. Keep small boxes and promos in a separate bag so they do not get lost.

More from Smart Buying

• How to Buy Used Board Games Without Getting Burned
• The One Copy Rule: Why Your Play Group Only Needs One Catan
• Play Before You Pay: The $0 Start to a Board Game Collection
• Claim a Lane: How Four Friends Build a 20-Game Library
• The Kickstarter Question: Should You Back Board Games?

The Smart Buying series wraps up with living under a shelf cap. Subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter to get it, and everything after, in your inbox. The game is the reason. The people are the point.