This week I had the opportunity to try out a new board game delivery service, GetJester.com.
The premise is very much like most subscription delivery boxes for various hobbies out there. The Netflix for board games, if you will. (The old Netflix, like when they still sent DVDs. Ask your parents…)
Signing up is simple—you go to GetJester.com, answer some questions about your gaming preferences, choose a frequency (or a one-time delivery), and wait patiently. The GetJester team reviews your answers, picks some games for you, and ships them to your door.
Now, this service will cost you $20 per delivery. That money isn’t wasted though, any games you like you can keep and that $20 is applied to your purchase. Anything you don’t like, send back. It is a pretty low-risk proposition. Of course, if you don’t like anything they sent you, you are out the $20 fee for picking your games.
That said, I’m sure we’ve all bought games after reading a positive review or hearing some buzz from the Twitter-verse only to be disappointed when we gave it a spin. So getting a box of games (my demo box had three titles in it) and potentially being out $20 if I hate them all isn’t the worst proposition in the world.
Prices are more or less in line with what you’d expect to pay in a FLGS. You also get a 20% discount if you keep everything in the box.
For the box they sent me, it included Taverns of Tiefenthal, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and Dragomino. Given my answers leading to medium-heavy euros and the occasional game to play with my son, these were pretty respectable choices. Taverns especially is one I’ve enjoyed when I had the chance to play someone else’s copy so I was glad to get the opportunity to give it another spin.
If the prospect of games delivered to your door with a promise of try before you buy sounds interesting to you, head over to their website and check out their service.
Board Game Stitch Fix! Sounds cool, though I wish the delivery fee were a little less than $20.
A few things: Be sure to read their terms. That’s where I had to find out if it’s free to return games, and it is. You don’t pay shipping back. (This actually should be prominently written somewhere on their website because it’s an extremely important point).
The problem comes when let’s say you already have all 3 games that are sent to you, or you open the box and go “EWW! I don’t want these games!” I guess you’re out of $20 then, huh? Apparently yes, and that’s stated on their website. Sure, they’re free to return, but the $20 box fee seems to still stand. That would be a huge negative. It may not be to you, but to me it would be (and I’m sure it would irk other people as well). If one of those two scenarios happened (either I have the games already or have no interest in what got delivered), I don’t think I’ll continue the service unless my $20 was refunded. I must say that it could be fun seeing how long it would take to reach that point, and I’m tempted to try that out.
But before I would even consider trying their service, exactly how many board games do they have in stock? None of this is described on their website. How many are in their inventory? Once I know that, I would have a better idea at the selection. And do you get only new games from, say, 2016 to the present? Do you also get some rare games? Perhaps you can choose to get used games if they’re older and not available anymore in new condition? These are critical questions that need to be answered.
Oh, and they spelled “receive” wrong (“recieve your picks”).
Yeah, I’m not sure about their inventory makeup and all that.
And I 100% agree that you will, eventually, find yourself getting a box that costs $20 and you don’t like anything. They will take your current collection into account to make sure you don’t get something you already have. And you can play the games and give them a shot before sending them back.
In theory you still might save in the longer term versus buying games you only play once or twice in the long run. Of course it seems geared mostly towards folks newer to the hobby that might benefit the most from recommendations on things they may like.
My FLGS has a similar program – rent the game for 10% of the list price for X days. If I like it, I get the rental cost applied toward the purchase; AND I get a fresh copy, not the rental one. If I don’t like it, all I’m out is the rental fee. The downside is that I have to drive there. Still, I prefer supporting my FLGS when I can.
Stitchfix for board games? Yeah, that sounds cool, but the delivery fee is a little high.