Introducting- DUTCH AUCTIONS

For some of our upcoming releases, though not all, we’ll be utilizing a “Dutch Auction” format to sell our limited inventory of a particular SpellGround. The basic idea is: the price of the mat will start high, and over time, come down in price until all the mats are gone.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

Especially when releasing either a Limited Edition mat (LTD), or very constrained quantity of a new SpellGround, it’s often the fans who are fastest at the keyboard/internet that successfully purchase a mat.
Likewise, some folks believe (though we don’t think it’s true) that ‘bots’ scoop up all the mats, only to be resold on the secondary market at 2-3 times the original price.

Some of our fans have actually suggested selling the mats at a higher price to discourage the resellers.
We’ve been hesitant to straight up raise our price, as we set the SpellGround price such that we make a reasonable return on our investment.

It’s our belief that by starting the price higher than our ‘retail’ price, it will discourage the secondary market buyers. If such a buyer typically purchases at X price, and then resells the mat at 4x price, we believe they’ll be less ‘invested’ if their original price is either 3x or 2x, giving them less return on their purchase.

Of course, the prices WILL start higher… but we believe the starting Dutch Auction price will still be comparable or less than a secondary market price. It’s also quite possible that no one will purchase the new release at the starting Dutch auction price, in which case, the price will slowly lower over time until it’s either sold out… or… it’ reaches our standard retail price.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

We will put the designated Dutch Auction mat on sale at the indicated time. Again, NOT all of our releases will be sold through a Dutch auction.

ALL auctions will take place on our website at www.kbgames.com with the SpellGround being sold listed just like any of our other products in our catalogue.

The starting ‘auction’ price will be higher than the ultimate retail price.

The Starting price will be effective for TEN MINUTES.

Then there will be a FIVE MINUTE PAUSE before we lower the price to the next tier.
We’ll use this time to check inventory and adjust the pricing on the website.

After the five minute pause, the new price will appear on the website (Refresh your browser!).

The next tier of pricing will be lower than the starting price, and will again be active for TEN MINUTES.

We’ll repeat this process until the mats are sold out, or they reach their standard retail price.

The amount of price change between tiers will vary from mat to mat.

There will be NO REDUCTIONS IN THE PRICE YOU PAID.
If you paid for a mat at the highest tier price, and you find that two lower tiers later they are still available, your original price stands and you do not get a lower price.

You are LIMITED TO ONE MAT OF EACH STYLE for the duration of the Dutch Auction.
So if you buy a mat at the highest tier, you may NOT purchase a mat at the next tier (This is a change from our First Dutch Auction)

The Dutch Auction ENDS TEN MINUTES AFTER THE LOWEST TIER IS REACHED. After the lowest (standard price) tier has been active for TEN minutes, the auction ends and you may then purchase more mats of any style if they are still available.

SOME DETAILS

You MUST complete your purchase, including shipping, at each tier. The mat is not sold until you have completed the payment process.

As always, do NOT ATTEMPT TO PURCHASE from within the Facebook App.

Your shipping and billing address must match, or the transaction will not complete.

AGAIN, there are NO REFUNDS FOR MATS PURCHASED at a higher tier.