I suspect many of us have a rotating list of “games to purchase” – based on hot new releases, games that are coming soon, or even crowdfunding campaigns that look promising.
It’s not uncommon for me to take a trip to one of my FLGS with no specific purchase in mind. But with several possible purchases on my mental list.
One such occasion happened just a couple weeks ago.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal was a very popular 2022 release that quickly became hard to find at retail. A 2024 reprint recently hit store shelves and I took a trip to the game store thinking, “if they have it, I’ll get it“.
My trip fell on 5/4 – Star Wars Day. As luck would have it, the game store was running a promotional sale in honor of that date – “buy 3 items, get the 4th item free”.
As further luck would have it, they had plenty of copies of Heat: Pedal to the Metal on a “New Arrivals” table just inside the door. I grabbed one, happy to have an opportunity to try it out after hearing such good things for so long!
But I didn’t head straight to the cash register. I’d driven 20 minutes to get there, after all. I might as well browse through the store.
I had my perpetual mental “buy” list running through my mind and there was that sale to consider…
On the other side of the “New Arrivals” table I spotted a single copy of Fictions: Memoirs of a Gangster. I had seen something about that a few months ago and noted at the time that it looked interesting. Maybe not a “definite buy” on my mental list, but certainly one to consider.
Hmm. They also had a copy of the Fallout board game. I’d been semi-interested in that one for a long time and the recent Amazon series was rekindling interest in that intellectual property.
That was 3 items, but I wasn’t finding a 4th item that I couldn’t live without to take advantage of the sale.
Well, that’s not entirely true, I did see a copy of The Plum Island Horror. That game also looks interesting but it’s $95.00 price tag just didn’t seem justifiable as an add-on purchase to reach a 4 item total. Even with a sale going on.
I’d resigned myself to just getting Heat: Pedal to the Metal. It was what I had come for, after all, and I figured I could live without the other titles for now.
Pleased with myself for controlling my discretionary spending, I headed to the register with my copy in hand.
“Did you see the expansion over there?”, the guy at the register asked. No, I hadn’t. There wasn’t one on the table.
“We might still have a copy, let me take a look”.
He ducked behind the counter and rummaged through a stack of set-aside items.
“Here’s one!”
The good news is that, as the lowest-priced item of the four, Heat: Heavy Rain was free!
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