CONTINUED
Wiz changed the configuration of their dice bags.
Even a cursory glance at the dice made it clear that the Chinese factory was replacing some of its less stable injection molds for new ones. There was a noticeable uptick in the quality of d6s, for example. The balance was better. They landed much more evenly.
But they bagged much less conveniently. It was suddenly impossible to make the pieces fit together. I could no longer make complete sets with mixed bags; I’d need to be able to buy specific dice, which is something you can’t really do from BryBelly except in huge quantities.
I got desperate. Started buying old configuration bags from Craigslist and eBay—there’s a pretty good scam market online where people try to sell “retail kits” to people who don’t have business licenses.
I bought several. This pushed my costs up. I had to raise my prices just to break even.
My whole business became about breaking even, which (if you’ve been keeping score) meant I couldn’t pay the interest on the loan. I raised prices again. Now I was charging as much as my competition.
I felt sick about this. But I couldn’t afford to default on my loan.
I know, I know. Jumping in too early and all that. I know. But this isn’t that kind of story.
See, you guys kept buying dice from me. Even when I wasn’t the cheapest guy out there. Even when my competition lowered their prices to try to knock me out.
You sent me emails and PMs and said you wanted to support me.
AND YOU FUCKING DID. THROUGH MONTHS OF THE BAD SETS.
I held on. A lot of my competition didn’t. They dropped out, and I was still there.
I was still there when BryBelly changed back to the old configuration, after they were done swapping molds. And they’re better molds. Better dice, just slightly, the d6s I mentioned, but a big improvement in their d20s, which sometimes had sharpness issues that increased roll on the 1-hemisphere (basically, this means 20s landed less often). Not with all of them, just some. Enough that you’d easily notice only if you handled thousands of them.
There are still huge problems with the polishing process. Paint doesn’t always fill the number wells completely or evenly. I don’t let those through.
That’s the other thing I do, by the way. I’m not just remixing the bags, I’m also weeding out the obvious crap ones. This results in waste, but BryBelly knows me, like I said, and they’ve been really good about sending me replacement bags. I call and tell them “I have 500 bad ones from the last X bags” and they send me 5 new bags and I send back the bad ones.
Because of your constant support, I was able to pay my interest and even get a second loan, which I used to buy Chessex again, a brand that’s also popular with /r/rpg-ers, and for which I received over 50 requests of this variety: “I’d love to buy some, but I’m more of a Chessex guy, you know?”
AS A MATTER OF FACT I DO KNOW. AND YOU ARE RIGHT, FELLOW SAVVY CONSUMER. They’re not as good as Koplow (Koplow doesn’t sell to individuals at all, which is why most of you haven’t heard of them), but Chessex is heavier and has a better balance than Wiz, and the styles are some of the best in the business.
But, obviously, they’re pricey. Even to businesses. So.
SO NOW BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS I CAN AFFORD SOME OF THE SINGLES CHESSEX BAGS. This means I can do things.
I even assembled rainbow sets that Chessex doesn’t even make, matching the styles myself.
I got some requests for sets of 10 dice rather than the normal 7: sets with additional d6s, which I’d been unwilling to sell before because of the bad d6s I was occasionally getting before the mold swap. I’m not magical, I couldn’t catch them all. NOW I CAN HAVE SETS OF 10.
To be clear: Chessex has slightly sharper edges and heavier plastic than Wiz. They roll incredibly evenly. In fact, they’re just as accurate as Game Science Dice , but at a fraction of the price. And, as most people know already, they have a much bigger array of styles. Including (now) the rainbow sets that I make myself. So I want to make that available to you guys at cost.
I’m incredibly grateful. You guys have helped me hang on. You probably saved my life. And tomorrow, I’m moving out and into a place with my best friend (the one who lives on my parent’s couch and talked me into posting here in the first place). So you’ve also saved my couch.
I know if I just posted about being grateful it would ring hollow. So I’m going to extend the discounts again.
I’d like to give you guys another, bigger set of coupons. I’m going to discount my entire dice inventory down to COST with coupons I made for Reddit. I’ve put together everything you guys asked for. These items are mostly in response to direct requests, but I’ll explain everything briefly. All but one product has free shipping on Amazon Prime, something that costs so fucking much you guys… Anyway.
**[Wiz Dice 35 pack:]( http://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dice-Pack-Random-Complete/dp/B00NLTCGQI/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR264 **Price: $10.85**
Five of the traditional sets of seven. (d20, d12, d100, d10, d8, d6, d4) Exactly enough for the standard table size. Makes a good “starter set.” Far and away my best seller.
No duplicate sets, you’re guaranteed 5 unique sets.
**[Chessex Dice 35 pack]( http://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dice-Chessex-Random-Complete/dp/B00NLVTAMO/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR264 **Price: $20.50**
The same as the Wiz set, except from Chessex. Better dice, as accurate as the popular Game Science brand (which Chessex sold for a while), heavier, sharper, better numbers, and d4s numbered on the top the way a sane person would do it. (These are pyramid d4s, not double-numbered d8s. Do you want those? Tell me and I’ll probably make a new product.)
These are so hard to put together. These are really costly for me, but you asked for them so I want to give them to you. I have to ship these from home, but shipping is included in the price above. The ONLY difference is that it’ll take 5 days to reach you (on average) instead of 2.
No duplicate sets, you’re guaranteed 5 unique sets.
**[Wiz Dice 100 Pack:]( http://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-Dice-Random-Pack-Sets/dp/B00NLW47VC/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR264 **Price: $23.61**
Ten sets of ten. That’s a traditional set of seven, but with three extra d6s. I wasn’t familiar with this configuration, but I got a bunch of requests for it. My biggest quote-unfuckingquote-“Competition” on Amazon was selling this for $40 last week ($4 a set!!), including a $3 bag from Koplow wholesale with 30 seconds of stitching and a patch logo that’s actually just an ad for their company you carry to the table. Well fuck that and fuck him. This is the dice without the markup. Just for parity, I added a Crown Royal bag as well, for free. And it’ll fucking say “Crown Royal” on it, not /u/GordonAdakai or Buy Pepsi.
Some of the sets will be duplicates, because the puzzle pieces can’t fit together without them.
**[Chessex Rainbow Set:]( http://www.amazon.com/Polyhedral-7-Die-Translucent-Chessex-Dice/dp/B00TXH7U8Q/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR100 **Price: $6.99**
The dice in this set were made by Chessex, but the set itself was mixed together by me. Again, these are all the traditional sets of seven. Sometimes I get tired of always using a uniform color scheme. But I don’t like to mix up my sets. Its… an issue. It seems wrong. So instead, I’ve built a traditional rainbow out of available translucent Chessex color styles (no opaque ones yet). These only come from me.
**[The 20/20 Pack:]( http://www.amazon.com/The-Dice-Pack-Twenty-20-Sided/dp/B00TYMDHU0/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR100 **Price: $7.96**
Man did a lot of people ask for this. This is a pack of twenty d20s from Wiz. These are the new ones, which are very slightly better than the old ones. These aren’t going to be on a quality par with the Chessex, but these are much much more affordable. (Do you guys want Chessex 20/20 packs?)
Some of these will be duplicates, again, because of the way they puzzle together. But not many.
**[The BryBelly 50 Pack]( http://www.amazon.com/6-Sided-Dice-Brybelly-Different-Colors/dp/B00S1UFQDC/)** Coupon Code: RPGSR100 **Price: $8.46**
This was the most requested item. I guess you guys really want d6s. These are pip dice (i.e., they use dots instead of numbers, like casino dice), all d6s, 10 each of Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. A lot of people play Tenzi with these, I guess. These are from the new-and-improved d6 mold, although again, that’s going to mean nothing to anyone who doesn’t sell these things. I’d remove all the crappy ones anyway.
AND THAT’S IT…
And that’s my thank you. You were there for me this whole time, and it’s because of you that I get to do something like this, and that means a lot to me. And by the time you read this, I’ll be out of the house and in a new life that you guys gave me. So I just wanted to say thanks. And give you everything you asked me for. If you want anything else, just let me know.
Oh, I glossed over a lot of little details since this is so long. Talking to someone about how I felt really helped. So did having to lift boxes and boxes of heavy plastic dice around every day (honestly, they are VERY heavy). But even more than the sales and all that… you guys sent me messages of support like every day for weeks.
And that was pretty amazing. It was transformative. I’m a new person. So thank you. You guys changed my life.