Well since this poll was started about me, I guess I'll chime in. To start my post let me define my situation. I do not own a store. My events were originally run at the local community college, but a political change at the campus ended our tour there. I now run my events at a store who's owner is kind enough to let me use the space for the day. His thoughts are that he gets people into the store that would not normally be there during a slow time and might make purchases. Since I do not have a store, most of my prizes come from Ebay. Occasionally I do pick-up a prize worthy card elsewhere, but this is rare. My expenses for an event usually include a fee payed to my judge, my website (since the only reason I have one is to communicate info on my events), a Constant Contact account to e-mail, flyer copies taken to local major events for promotion, my initial cost outlay for prizes, and of course my time from 8am-8pm on the day of the event. On a note about the last item, I work for Comcast, and could if I wanted work an overtime day on a Saturday. That would be an 8+ hour workday at roughly $35 an hour. So, if I just wanted to make money, I could be a good little comtech and come and clean up all the Radio Shack junk that people try to run their internet and HD connections on. LOL.

Instead I choose to try and maintain contact with the Magic community by networking with the many people I have met over the years, offering a service, and staying in touch with the game. Personally I am an awful player, and my 1498 DCI rating attests to that! My usual events have a $25 entry fee and will have 1-2 Beat to shit P9 prizes and other beat crap for 3rd-4th. I started offering 5th-8th prizes at 40+ players last year, and started with draft sets, but based on player feedback, changed that starting with my January event, changed that to a (WOW) FOW. That was given out at 2 of my 3 2009 events, with 1 event not meeting the player total. To change things up at this event, I offered a Delta instead (roughly same value). I decided to change this event to a $20 entry fee for 2 reasons. We are running a side event with all proceeds going to Dan Herd's memorial fund and wanted people to donate extra funds there. Second, my June event is for a Lotus with a higher entry fee.

In response to AJ's statement that I have never bumped my prizes based on attendance, that is totally true, except for one instance. At my last Lotus event, 2nd place went from a Timetwister to a Time Walk and 8th - 16th were given store credit. Additional store credit has also been given out at other events. To his defense, I did not grandly announce these bumps, but simply awarded those players as they finished. Perhaps poor communication skills on my part. Granted, bumps from me usually have to come in the for of store credit since I do not always have "prize worthy" singles available as a back up, since as I stated I don't have access to purchase this stuff often.

As my original post on the tourney announcement stated, I payed $320 for the 1st - 4th prizes. I was projecting about 30 players as is typical for a smaller event. That would make my take $280. But if you factor in the other expenses mentioned above, it would work out to about $200.  Will I make some money selling cards? Maybe, but I usually buy at least as much as I sell. Will I make money on my T2 event? A little, usual T2 is about $50, but especially after a new set is release, T2 turnout is low since new decks are not mainstream yet.  So, that would make my day at about $300 for the day. The side event was all being donated to charity and I put up a $100 prize for that. So, all in all, if it came down to just money and time, I could have worked my regular job and done better.

If anyone who reads this don't think that traditional business practices in the US are not a 100% mark-up have not worked in the real world. To state things in Magic terms, WOTC sells booster boxes to stores at $72, that's $2 per pack. MSRP is $4. For those of you that are fortunate enough to still have a job, I'm sure things work very similar for cost vs. sales at your place of employment. Service industry c vs. s can very a lot, but are usually even more swayed.

So, I guess my next question is was the problem my entry fee or the prize support? Would I like to be able to offer power at a $20 entry fee? Sure, but since I cant buy it at a dealers buy price, it makes that hard. So what is the answer? I'm asking for a LOGICAL solution from the community based on ALL this info. I'm sure the TO bashers will weigh in, and hey this is America you're allowed to, but this is America, and unless you're living with mom & dad still, products and services cost money.

AJ, I'm sorry if I've pissed you off and felt one of my statements was childish (as I said they were just examples), but until you're the bashee and not the basher, it's hard to understand the other side. The one statement you made that really troubled me was when i said you could have called or emailed me to talk about the event and offered suggestions and you said you shouldn't have to. You're right, you shouldn't HAVE to, but could have WANTED to. That's a big problem in this world, people often do or don't do what they HAVE to, but I rarely think about could have WANTED to do.

Thanks for the time on the soapbox, stepping down for now.