Suggestions for tourny prizes

[SilverBlade]

Anybody have any good suggestions on how to get prizes for tourniments to be donated?

I have only one locally owned game store in area and he would have very little to gain. And I'm guessing Hasbro and the big retailers are not likely to be impressed with "Gee mister, you wouldn't give me some free toys to hand out would you?" I already thought of BYOP.

I need some creative ideas on how to get some decent giveaways with little or no investment. A topic I'm a lot of folks could use some help with. You might donate to the cause for advertiseing? Is there anyway to convince Hasbro to sell at cost?

What do you guys think?

[Ketch]

Correct me if I am wrong, but Hasbro has sent out stuff in the past.
Get a big enough crowd together and IMax might send some dice towers which are worth quite a bit, often the first picked prize!
HouseMouse sometimes sends stuff too.

I too am considering asking the local hobby shop for a donation, it may not be much for them, but its worth asking. You have nothing to lose!
At least thats my theory.

[Pilgrim]

Two easy "do it yourself" ideas in lieu of corporate sponsorship:

1) Charge $5-$10/person. Most people can stomach that, especially if you say it's for prizes. If you get 10 players at your tourny, that's $100 - plenty of $ for some good prizes! I did a little tourny at my house way back in the day (spring 2005) with 9 of us. Charged like $5-10 dollars for prizes and was able to get a few prizes for top players.

2) Ask for donations from players. That's what we're doing now at the MA tourny (see thread link in my sig below and check out all the prizes donated so far). If you have built up a large enough pool of potential players, you'll be amazed at how many will generously donate and provide more than enough prizes for your tourny.

You can also combine 1 + 2 and tell people there will be a cover charge of whatever $, UNLESS there are enough donations.

The prizes do add a sense of reward for competition and make the tourny seem more "real,' but remember: people don't come primarily for the prizes. They come to socialize and have fun playing against and getting to know other players. Work on creating that social atmosphere at your tourny. Name tages, introduce people around, if you're the host be sure to get around and talk to everyone, do a good post-game thread with pix and commentary on people and their game play, etc. That's what builds the friendships and creates momentum for future gatherings.

[BWS2K]

So I just posted this in Pilgrim's Mass. Tourney thread (I'm going) but here's a thought which is as free as you like and still cool for bragging purposes. I suggested that there be badges (maybe players each bring one or two, maybe they're pre-made by the host) for different things. Examples include: Most Figures, Most Badges, Least Consecutive Shields Rolled, etc. You could make these out of index cards or go all fancy-pants too. Maybe on your tourney points board you could have a section to post them then award them at the end or something. Of course, the badges must be warn to future tourneys. 8)

~~BW

[Oogie_Da_Bruce]

How bout one of these.

http://www.vixentorgames.com/

;)

Or make a trophy.

Buy a $5 piece of marble from a trophy shop.
With a $2 engravement on it
Take any master set piece...
... spray paint it gold.
Glue it to the marble.

$7 for material, check.
HS trophy priceless.

[Codeman]

I’ve had very good luck getting prizes donated for our HS tournaments. I haven’t kept track but I know I get turned down less than 50% of the time; most people are willing to donate something. I even had some one that turned me down but latter surprise me as they changed their mind and ending up giving us one of our largest prizes.

Here is what I done with good success.

1. Check with the Chamber of Commerce – they often have goodies to pass out. Ours even furnish me goodie bags to hand out, which also gave me a place to put the items I got ( see item 5 ).

2. Check with local business ( hardware stores, gas stations, restaurants) most are eager to help support an event for youth ( I don’t tell them old guys play it too ) and also something to get visitors to town.

3. We have two game stores about 35 miles away they also were eager to donate and were pleased that an event like this was happening even though they do not carry HS.

4. Don’t forget to ask the on-line game shops- they also seem happy to donate prizes.

5. Companies also have “trinkets” or promotional items they give out. Everyone that came to the TTO got a goodie bag that had - Key Chain Flashlight, Pen ( handy for filling out the entry form ), T-shirt, 20 side dice, Candy Bar, coupons, ect.

6. While at Gen-Con I picked up some stuff cheap and also the HS crew was kind enough to auto-graph some HS cards for me.

7. We also charge $5 entry fee which all goes to prizes. If you buy expansion sets and break them up it will give you two prizes, plus if you combine all the terrain pieces those also make up a nice prize. As it turns out even the last place person ends up getting common squad ( or basically his entry fee back ).

8. After I had all the prizes line-up some things just fall in you lap! I get an e-mail saying House Mouse is sending me a $50 certificate to give-a-way and then I get another that says I have 3 castle sets from Hasbro to add to the prize table. It is great when prizes start to fall from the sky with out even trying. I also had one Heroscaper who could not make the tournament donated a Nerak for the prize table. A few others who did attend the tournament also surprize with some prizes that they donated also.. again I didn't ask it just fell into my lap. Like the movie says " If you build it they will come " and they did.

9. This isn’t a prize but it helps with expenses so all the money can go to prizes – We always find a public place ( restaurant type ) we encourage our gamers to eat there and in exchange we a place to play ( also they furnish the table and chairs ) free of charge while also promoting the game in public.

I probably spent less than two hours total lining up these prizes:


http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n1/Codeman1957/DSC01447PrizeTable.jpg

Hope this helps - good luck

[Codeman]

Anybody have any good suggestions on how to get prizes for tourniments to be donated? Just ask you would be surprized how willing people are to help

I have only one locally owned game store in area and he would have very little to gain. And I'm guessing Hasbro and the big retailers are not likely to be impressed with "Gee mister, you wouldn't give me some free toys to hand out would you?" I already thought of BYOP. It doesn't have to a local store but certainly let the locals donate too.... I would go the " Gee Mister " just tell them the basics about the tournament and ask if they had anything they could donate fo the prize table.

I need some creative ideas on how to get some decent giveaways with little or no investment. I don't think you have to be creative - but you will have to invest some time A topic I'm a lot of folks could use some help with. You might donate to the cause for advertiseing? We did give out t-shirs at two of our tournaments and yes we did put our sponsers on the back and also gave them a t-shirt Is there anyway to convince Hasbro to sell at cost? I would say no... but I would not stop you from asking

What do you guys think? I think once you go out and start asking you will find it not too difficult to end up with a lot of prizes. check out my previous response above. We had over 60 prizes to distribute between 38 contestants :D !