Is my Game Store Profitable? 

Thanks for being so upfront about your costs its great to get that sort of insight that people rarely share, you and your team put a serious amount of work in to that store every month, keep the vids rolling 🙂

Love seeing the breakdown of what it actually takes to run a small business.

I am the one that donated the miracle piano. Glad you were able to make use of it. My family came from Peoria il on our way to see family in Arkansas. Really nice store and a fun stop.

“Good day to be a business owner!” *throws marker and walks off* 😂

$2770 left in the $5 video game collection

I would like to say that seeing what people buy from time to time would be interesting. It’s great to see the community buy things they are excited about. Just a thought 😊

The fact you can operate that type of business and be in green after expenses is impressive. I'm assuming that's actual profit after you pay yourself.

people forget that he runs whatnot two RU-vid accounts and other side hustles. he's living good I'm sure otherwise he wouldn't do it, he's his own boss around what he loves and seems happy. happiness is more important than money

His profit is in the RU-vid channel….the store is just the platform…..

Now you know why GameStop offers $20 for a PS5 😂

A set of those McDonald's Hercules plates sells for $100+ on ebay surprisingly quickly. All 5 sets I've sold have sold within 3 days or less of listing them. 👍

$4500 is awesome for that size of space. I pay that much for 1200 sqft ice cream store in CA.

Really digging your videos, keep it real!

I bet it'll feel good when that loan is paid off, extra $8k at the end alone for that

I think people forget about both of your RU-vid channels, as well as your whatnot stream, playing with the band in the church, your day job, your family, life, and everything else all at once. I think you're doing a great job, my friend.

Good stuff Rick! LOVED how you kept it transparent as a business, people really have no idea how profits, taxes, breakdowns, marketing, etc work. Hope you have a good next month Sales wise at the store! 🔥💪☺️✨

michael low key the funniest guy. He's hilarious to me.

Thank you for showing the reality of owning a business in this space. You need to keep the shelves full. Its very easy to get behind on inventory or taxes if you do not know what you are doing.

I am not surprised that he is not making much money. Physical stores have a high costs and you just can't get around online selling these days. The only way physical might still work is either the investment costs have already been made back or it offers an unique experience that's worth visiting.

legit love the transparency on this type of stuff rick, honestly i would love to hear more about this on good months or bad months really gives a perspective on on things really work bts

Thank you so much Rick for you honesty and transparency, I never said anything, but had thought it. And now we can all move on, refer to this video anytime anyone asks, and enjoy this awesome Content Creator making videos that give us a home for our happiness.

this is the part about working at a game store seeing all the cool stuff that randomly walks through the door

Love the P&L breakdown. 3% bottom line profit, would love to see your Q4 (Christmas) breakdown.

Great video ! Loyal viewer from Canada

It's pretty good for the first year of business. It's only going to get better homie. Keep it up. I live vicariously through your channels.

Dude. Such an awesome day. So cool to finallly meet you. You’re so nice and down to earth. Just. Keep. Gaming.

$8k monthly loan is crazy. you've basically rebuilt the entire store, changed the store name, and restocked entire shelves twice over by now lol.

Loving this video! like how you explained the actual cost of running your business.

I appreciate the transparency of this channel while operating a small business. Have you considered a video where you talk about working with the company who made your logos? You may have in a past video, but just throwing the idea out if you haven't already :)

I dig the sunken ship background music playing in the store.

Really hope that's after you paid yourself. Thank goodness your channels, shirts and side deals probably supplement a lot of your take home and AK is a LCoL state. You're not getting rich but you're providing jobs and nostalgia

I really appreciate the transparency. Note Rick did not include any stress, sleepless nights and other sacrifices in that list

Glad you explained the costs of owning a gamestore. I talked to the previous owner of GP a few times about wanting to get into the video game store business and you really need to have a lot of money and games to invest up front. It ain't cheap.

Love the channel, love you guys ❤ Much love from Canada

The green is good, love to see it! That doesn’t include all of the other things you do like both channels and such, congratulations on your success!

THANK YOU for sharing your #'s!! As a business owner myself, it's crazy how much per month I spend on dozens of different things! Crap, I spend over $20,000 per year JUST ON lease/rent and our phone system.....ALONE! I love owning my own business, but it's CRAZY expensive!

Packing heat... @00:13

Nice! Good to see you guys making some money and able to put some of it back into store upgrades

Love the transparency - keep up the great work!

After owning my own business, you learn real quick about the expenses. People don’t realize how much money you have to pay to keep everything moving forward it gives you a new perspective on prices at the store when you go to the stores and try to lowball the prices. Keep in mind that when they give you a deal at a lower price, they have to make it up somewhere else because all these expenses are already incorporated in the price.

That final number was in the black and not red, so awesome job to you. That's a solid W. I'm always fascinated by these types of breakdowns. Thanks for sharing.

Hyped that you actually mentioned ‘Dreamcast’. Out of ALL the RU-vid resellers, you’re the first to show the console love. Would LOVE to see more Dreamcast content in the future!

Great analysis for running a brick and mortar video game store. He should get a mom and pop accountant at $300-500 month rate, cap Misc. expenses (or petty cash) at $100-200/month and pay off that nasty $8,000/month loan expenditure!

I understand your pain. Owner of Gaming Therapy in Holland, MI.

Insurance? Work comp?

By The Looks of Your Office Walls......I'D SAY YES!!

Congrats on the sales number! It's crazy when you think about all the little costs and business steps that come in between the sale and profit margins. I won't say where for privacy sake, but I know a local game shop owner who I've been giving business to since my early high school years. About 2 months ago, he told me he did over 1 million dollars in sales for the year of 2023 and I believe him (he does a LOT of online based business too in fairness). What most people don't realize though is that doesn't mean what his profits ended up being. After factoring in costs and overheads you'd be surprised how little that number shrinks in the end.

Damn that Hercules plate takes me back. Had it until a few years ago when it broke.

Always love seeing these small business reality checks. There are so many costs people don’t anticipate. I am interested to know how COGS is calculated. Does that number include Store Credit that you gave out but hasn’t yet been used by the customer? Or just straight cash outflow?

Great content as usual!

You gotta write it ledger style with debits and credits

That’s one of Ron’s best scenes in the entire series!!

It’ll be really hard not to keep all the cool stuff that comes in for the collection the temptation would be so real.

Rick, if you put your store and inventory online to order from, hired a picking and online order fulfillment department that just did that from open to the close of mailing cut offs...You'd be doing incredible numbers and moving a ton of product/inventory. Whatnot and Ebay on the side seem like such gambles.

LOVE YOUR CONTENT RICK

i respect the knowledge, thank u....i always wanted to open a games/fries and burger store...or sell games at home or gamestore. but i get scared of $$$$$$$$ not making money

Loved the low key Rescue Rangers NES music playing in the background during a part of this vid. One of my favorite games as a kid!

how many employees is that 15K divided to? part/full time?

Beautiful Kurzweil keyboard ❤ You can do a lot with it when you plug it into a computer and trigger by MIDI virtual instruments 💕 Best regards from AmpleSound virtual instruments!

At least you have the population to support it, my expenses would be close to the same, but without anyone to come in and buy things.

I’d be curious how a store live stream would do for you guys. Just set up a camera near the registers and let it roll.

that’s actually insane if you only make 2k a month.. actually sad damn :( you deserve way more lol

You forgot to include random ephemera that you buy, like McDonald's signs and other stuff that isn't for sale that adds to the "overall experience".

Mad props to keeping it going for 3k a month lol - that wouldn’t get me out of bed lol

Retro rick is my favorite teacher! Wow what an eye opener

So does Rick live off the 2 grand?

Im glad people are scooping up Dreamcast games fast. It's my favorite console and has sooooo many hidden gems 💎 Im a weirdo who owns the complete north american library and I still keep coming back to play it (especially the fighting games)

Daamn. You guys have god Taxes. Here in Sweden we have 30% Taxes on everything then moms and shiiiit! =D

Whats the loan like 2 millie??

I appreciate the business breakdown! Glad youre in the green but hopefully you can find a way to get that profit % up a bit.

It would be cool to see/show what customers buy!

Doesn’t seem right to only take home so little. I run an eBay business and I have 40-60 percent monthly margins. I’m projected to be making around what you make per month in two years at 30-40 percent margin. So a loss of around 20 percent. Your at 2 percent. No disrespect but unless this helps with making income in other areas somehow I would sell the business and move on.

Positive cash flow and net income in the green. Sounds like a good day to me! Well done!

Its 2 N's and if you didn't have this channel it wouldn't be sustainable. Thank you for what you do we Gen Xers really appreciate your channel and store.

Some of the main memories I have of GameCube are Serious Sam. Super random but only ever played like 5 games on that system, funny how the gaming journey is different for everyone.

How much are you collecting from RU-vid roughly on a monthly basis?

Those figures for "software" "printing" and "accounting/bookkeeping" per month are insane. If you are paying almost $3,000 a month for those services you're getting screwed by somebody.

Yall coming to SFGE in Atlanta? Great stuff!

you're doing AWESOME

I raked leaves and mowed grass in my neighbor hood one summer to buy that exact play it loud clear gameboy brand new at toys r us when I was a kid. It was $80. I also bought Links awakening.l that day.

Those $50k per month on cost of goods is excellent. Your inventory will grow in the long run.

Heckin Steve will still find a way to complain about this like you’re spending HIS money 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Is the money made from whatnot factored into that 96k in sales for the month?

You got insurance on your list? Love your channel.

6:00 Rick, I have an extra Miracle Piano in the box, almost CIB. Missing the foot pedal.

Rick, you either have balls of steel or enjoy sleepless nights. All that risk to clear less than $3k a month. I tip my hat to you and your efforts to keep the hobby going.

I miss your old vids , retro game hunting in old stores and stuff

I would say you are doing pretty well overall being that all your sales are local. Some shops only see success by offering online sales as well. I'm sure there will be some costs you will be able to reduce over time. But hey at least you are still in the green.

Funny i just sold a sealed zelda collectors edition, hadnt seen it before got it for super cheap at a thrift store

I just have a couple of questions. Why aren’t you doing balloon payments on those loans ? Of those salaries, are you included in said salaries ?

You can sell the same online for a fraction of the cost

Yooo I remember eating off the Pegasus plate when I was a kid!

That first trade was extra minty

Why not create a webpage (online store)? You have a huge following. I understand whatnot for perhaps the more affordable options and quick flips.

i still have a 90s Mcdonald’s kids plate the Halloween McNuggets

He's reinvesting the money back into the business in the form of merchandise, which was 46k. He could of spent 20k in new merchandise and would of had 26k in the green.

Always good to the be in the black.

Rick, idk if you've mentioned this before but I'd your store online? I'm from rural area so travel to your store is very costly..long story short is your store online at all?

I thought about buying a building for storage for 4K but I don't make enough to justify the 2500 for yearly property taxes.

am I the only one who noticed him brandish his piece at 0:15