# When the Sharks Finally Catch You: The Death of Geek Chic



## JeffB (Aug 7, 2017)

Geeks don't even want to pay extra for an electronic copy of their D&D books.

I don't find the failure of Geek Chic surprising at all, in fact I am surprised they lasted as long as they did, and surprised they had so many orders in the first place with their whacked business model of full payment up front. 

Dumb Consumers.


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## Tyranthraxus (Aug 7, 2017)

I totally disagree with the premise of basing production in the US. THe overhead costs are way too high and its ridiculous to insist that the tables be made of American Wood.


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## lyle.spade (Aug 7, 2017)

Crazy high prices meant it would only be possible for a very small portion of the gamer market, at best. Stupid business model.


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## snowbound (Aug 7, 2017)

When I grew up and started buying real furniture, I realized that $3500, 6 month lead time, and payment in advance is not unusual for a piece of craftsmanship that will last generations. Often a better deal than Ikea items that fall apart in a few years. Sounds like Geek Chic almost made it, and was actually shipping to paying customers, which is more than most people can say.


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## jhallum (Aug 7, 2017)

I just bought a CGT tablezilla last month, it's slated to come in a few months, after I saw their tables at Origins.   I just didn't need all of the gewgaws and knick-knacks in a geek chic table, along with all of the added costs.  I just need a table with a wide rail for laptops that has a cupholder that can seat 8.  CGT did that for us and at a fantastic price.


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## Evenglare (Aug 7, 2017)

This sucks, I had been following them actually since before Shark Tank and was delighted when I saw them on shark tank. The reality is though that it was just too expensive. I think he should simply work on commission and keep doing it at least as a part time gig, and yes im aware how long it takes to make them, part time doesn't seem like the right word but eh...

It sucks, but you just.. you have to appeal to the mass market, you just have to theres not really any other way around it. Especially being in a somewhat niche hobby. Wish them all the best though.


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## Celebrim (Aug 7, 2017)

In carpentry, there is a way to get US craftsmanship and control costs, but it's not easy.  You find some partners in the Amish community who are willing to work with you.  

I disagree that Carolina Gaming Tables was simply cheaper than Geek Chic.  The big difference is that they have much more stripped down packages than Geek Chic seemed willing to offer, that put their tables on par with what you'd pay for normal furniture.  Geek Chic specialized in 'dream tables' for a high end market, and didn't really offer anything comparable to the very basic designs you get with Carolina Gaming Tables.  Notably, Carolina Gaming Tables stripped down designs sacrificed gonzo gaming functionality for something that looks much more like a normal piece of furniture, which is a good compromise when one spouse is a gaming fanatic and the other is a gamer but also wants a normal life.   

I considered a Geek Chic table when looking for a dining room table, ultimately going with a traditional hand made Amish piece, because ultimately the features of a dining room table outweighed the features of a gaming specific table.  I agree with jhallum that ultimately all the 'geegaws' on a Geek Chic table meant that it was the sort of thing most families would only put into a dedicated gaming room, and that means you are catering to a very limited market indeed.

I'm sad to see Geek Chic go though.  The very idea that they were doing $2 million dollars in sales, and putting that many high end gaming tables out on the market warmed my heart, even though I wasn't a customer.  I have no idea exactly what their struggles were, but I can't help but think one of the biggest issues was the cost of advertising such a heavy and difficult to transport product.  It can't have been cheap to transport the tables to conventions in hopes of encouraging sales, and yet is hard to imagine how they could have created excitement for their product without it.   I also have to imagine that 100 years from now, if there is still such a thing as 'Antiques Road Show', they'll have created some truly exciting and perhaps valuable and collectable conversation pieces.   I can't help but notice that the PnP RPG geek market is such that it's almost impossible to make money keeping things in print, but once things are out of print the prices on them can sky rocket.  Everything desirable seems to become a 'Black Lotus'.


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## Stereofm (Aug 7, 2017)

Anyone knows of a company doing the same kind of tables in Europe ?


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## SteveHardy (Aug 7, 2017)

http://www.geeknson.com/ is based in the UK


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## Staffan (Aug 7, 2017)

There's also https://www.rathskellers.com/ in Greece.


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## Koloth (Aug 8, 2017)

Read about this on another forum.  There was discussion there about possible missing money and some internal strife between investors.  Apparently, there are pending lawsuits so none of the involved parties are talking.  Might be a while before the real story comes out.  Or never, since a lot of settlements involve non-disclosure clauses.  

Just hope all of the folks that already paid either get their orders or a refund.


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## tmanbeaubien (Aug 8, 2017)

I'm an owner of an GeekChic Emissary table. Ordered in January 2015 and delivered in Feb 2016. I love it, it's awesome. I saved up for four years to purchase it and got it for my 50th birthday. I tell everybody it's my mid life crisis motorcycle except it has legs. And I plan to play a hell of a lot of games on it! 

I don't think I'm a dumb consumer. I looked at products available in the marketplace and I decided I was willing to spend more to get a really superior product. One that will easily last the rest of my life if I take care of it. Yes, custom products do cost more and you usually have to pay in advance. 

I do have a dedicated game room - it's a converted garage. But the delivery guys for the table said that only one out of about ten people actually had a space like mine. They said most tables were the dining room style table and they went in the dining room. 

With the mention of price and volume, I feel like it is worth noting that not every business wants to make several bajillion copies of their product. The whole point that Robert Gifford made again and again in interviews is that he wanted to make a product that you could leave to your heirs in your will. It's great wood, it's made very well, and there are no shortcuts. 

Carolina Gaming Tables makes some great stuff too. But they are a somewhat different product, just like a Ford is somewhat different than a Mercedes. Will a Ford meet your needs? Great - you're set. Does anybody need a Mercedes? No, of course not. But that does not invalidate the value of Mercedes' products. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to hate on Fords or CGT. I have owned three Ford vehicles in my life and I liked them all. In this discussion, anybody who is buying a custom made gaming table of any kind is already buying a luxury product.

GeekChic did offer a simpler Emissary style table without all the drawers and such for a lot less. But I bet they didn't sell many of those just because once you are in the showroom, you'll be drawn towards the higher end products they were known for. That's why you came to their website in the first place. So their brand may have actually worked against them selling very many simpler tables.

At the end, none of us know why GeekChic seems to be in bankruptcy and there could be many possible reasons. I wish the best possible outcome for the employees and their customers who had paid towards their tables.


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## Eltab (Aug 8, 2017)

The book *Making It In America* was written by the Plant Manager (and later CEO) of a US-based furniture factory.  His experiences have some bearing on Geek Chic's woes.

Trying to occupy the luxury high-end of a small-ish market, and offering something that will last a lifetime, doesn't sound like a sound long-term plan.  What do you do after you've sold 1 table to everybody?


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## DragonBelow (Aug 8, 2017)

Tyranthraxus said:


> I totally disagree with the premise of basing production in the US. THe overhead costs are way too high and its ridiculous to insist that the tables be made of American Wood.




I am hobbyist woodworker, and I can 100% appreciate the products that Geek Chic was producing, the problem is when people are used to buying disposable, assemble-yourself, type of crap from chain stores, don't value the time and effort it takes to produce an item of the quality Geek Chic was producing. Their prices where perfectly inline for comparable pieces of fine woodworking type furniture. Also, american woods are cheaper in US, walnut, cherry, white oak, are staples of the american woodworker.


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## DragonBelow (Aug 8, 2017)

lyle.spade said:


> Crazy high prices meant it would only be possible for a very small portion of the gamer market, at best. Stupid business model.




Yeah, that's why mercedes and bmw have such trouble selling stuff


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## lyle.spade (Aug 8, 2017)

DragonBelow said:


> Yeah, that's why mercedes and bmw have such trouble selling stuff




...to a market that will never be as big as that of Kia or Ford.


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## tmanbeaubien (Aug 8, 2017)

Eltab said:


> Trying to occupy the luxury high-end of a small-ish market, and offering something that will last a lifetime, doesn't sound like a sound long-term plan.  What do you do after you've sold 1 table to everybody?




Why, you introduce new products which are different than your old ones. Which GeekChic did. They started with one table, the Sultan. The supplemented that with several others over the years. And added the GM Valet as well.


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## Eltab (Aug 8, 2017)

tmanbeaubien said:


> Why, you introduce new products which are different than your old ones.



If you mean like Tesla, which has been moving from 'rich guy's show-off toy' market to 'usable family vehicle' market, then I wish the company well.  (no sarc here)

But for each previous GC customer: how many tables can you buy before you run out of space in the house?  It's just not a repeat-customer-friendly business model.


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## tmanbeaubien (Aug 8, 2017)

Eltab said:


> If you mean like Tesla, which has been moving from 'rich guy's show-off toy' market to 'usable family vehicle' market, then I wish the company well.  (no sarc here)
> 
> But for each previous GC customer: how many tables can you buy before you run out of space in the house?  It's just not a repeat-customer-friendly business model.




And their later products did exactly that - less stupendous, more general purpose but still with features for gaming. Dining room tables where you can eat and do homework, coffee tables with storage bins for your console controllers. 

I get that the number of customers they potentially had was finite, but I seriously doubt that lack of willing customers was the cause of their bankruptcy. Otherwise, they would not have had a 6-8 month wait to start making the ordered goods. Maybe they got crushed by their orders and people withdrawing deposits? Maybe two key pieces of machinery broke at once and they had no more capitol/credit to draw on to get repairs? With the razor thin margins they seem to have maintained, it wouldn't take much to tip over the cart.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 8, 2017)

Eltab said:


> If you mean like Tesla, which has been moving from 'rich guy's show-off toy' market to 'usable family vehicle' market, then I wish the company well.  (no sarc here)
> 
> But for each previous GC customer: how many tables can you buy before you run out of space in the house?  It's just not a repeat-customer-friendly business model.




Depends on how good the product is, how hard the customers are on it, etc.

My folks built a house in 1998.  They've bought 2 round tables for their breakfast nook in that time, and are talking about replacing the current one.  It's not that they buy crap tables, either- they have a 170 year old dining room table a master carpenter wanted to buy from them., and I've been using the rectangular folding oak nook table they gave me when they moved in 1998 as a gaming table (it didn't fit their new nook).

Needs evolve.  Things happen.  So there IS a repeat customer market out there.  The question is of its size.

Another factor is information & market penetration.  Even though I've never heard of any of the companies listed here, I am a potential customer.  But even though I live 10 minutes away from a huge store that sells arcade games, bar furniture, pool tables,  "gaming tables" and the like, the only commercial gaming tables I have ever seen were aimed at poker and other, similar games.  Getting their product in a store like that or getting their ads in front of more eyes would probably have been a positive force on their bottom line.  It isn't just RPGs or geekier war games that could use tables like that.  Many traditional family board games would benefit from that kind of setup.  Risk?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 8, 2017)

tmanbeaubien said:


> And their later products did exactly that - less stupendous, more general purpose but still with features for gaming. Dining room tables where you can eat and do homework, coffee tables with storage bins for your console controllers.
> 
> I get that the number of customers they potentially had was finite, but I seriously doubt that lack of willing customers was the cause of their bankruptcy. Otherwise, they would not have had a 6-8 month wait to start making the ordered goods. Maybe they got crushed by their orders and people withdrawing deposits? Maybe two key pieces of machinery broke at once and they had no more capitol/credit to draw on to get repairs? With the razor thin margins they seem to have maintained, it wouldn't take much to tip over the cart.




There are all kinds of cash-flow traps that can kill a thriving business in mere months.  It's possible they wandered into one.


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## Randall Porter (Aug 9, 2017)

There were two problems the myth of the High End Gamer. Even as a lowly clerk in your friendly neighbor game store salesmen would come in with these expensive games that were stunning to look but very big bucks. They were for our well heeled customer looking for that right game for his den. Well those customers did not exist. This is who Geek Chic was after and they were few and far between.

As ga ga as Europe is about boardgames I see Ikea coming out with a nice gaming table for only a few hundred bucks with all the tricks as thing you buy later on.


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## DragonBelow (Aug 10, 2017)

They had a steady queue of buyers who preordered months in advance, it's fun to play armchair business man/woman, but what exactly happened was not a lack of customers.


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## tomBitonti (Aug 10, 2017)

For folks looking to build a table themselves, this post gives a great outline of what is involved.  Useful in case you are wanting to actually build this yourself, but also to understand the scope of building a gaming table.

https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/4727/build-your-own-geek-chic-gaming-table-fraction-cos

The final product:

View attachment 87017

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2593344_lg.jpg

Needless to say, this is a substantial project.  If you have a decent workshop and are practiced, a pretty easy project.  For dabblers such as myself, it would be quite a few hours setting up and double checking all of the steps.

It doesn't look like finishing steps are included -- which would be yet more steps and time.

Thx!
TomB


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## Randall Porter (Aug 10, 2017)

Bravo Sir! very nice I have been thinking of getting a school table  and then mounting a box underneath. That might be more to my skill set. Still waiting for IKEA to come up with one .


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## LordEntrails (Aug 10, 2017)

Have to say that when I saw this title I was expecting to hear some information on what has happened since the announcement. Sorry [MENTION=3285]talien[/MENTION], but this news is almost 2 months old. Your article is good, but not very timely.

I appreciate the background info, but if there are current lawsuits, who is suing who and why? What about customers that have paid and have yet (if ever) to recieve their tables? Has CGT said anything else since the first week?


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## Alarian (Aug 11, 2017)

As to what officially happened, no one knows yet, but there is a lot of speculation that their downfall didn't have to do with the table side of the business (which from all accounts was still very successful, at least in respect to customers) and more to do with them purchasing a game company called Crash Games for a large sum of money and not doing the proper research into the company.  The company had a large amount of debt that wasn't disclosed and when it was discovered, they were unable to cover the debts and still stay afloat.  The lawsuits stem from the supposed fraud from one of the Geek Chic people not disclosing the debt and with Crash Games for misrepresenting the company.  

If your interested in a 27 page read, you can read about it here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1796053/geek-chic-has-shut-its-doors-confirmation


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 11, 2017)

> ...more to do with them purchasing a game company called Crash Games for a large sum of money and not doing the proper research into the company. The company had a large amount of debt that wasn't disclosed and when it was discovered, they were unable to cover the debts and still stay afloat.




That kind of thing has cratered more companies & partnerships than I care to mention.


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## cmad1977 (Aug 11, 2017)

I'm afraid I think the cost of this business is too high. Expensive and time consuming to produce. Expansion of production facilities would be pretty pricey too. 
Combine a lack of inventory with high prices and a limited customer base that will only buy one produce every what... 10 years? 
I'm sorry. I love the table, I can sense the passion. 
But for those reasons:
I'm out. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## talien (Aug 11, 2017)

My article was written before that new information came to light, and published afterward.  

Here's the latest:
* Polygon overview: https://www.polygon.com/2017/7/19/15999728/geek-chic-bankruptcy-filing-documents-patrick-rothfuss
* Bankruptcy Court Case: https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/wawbke_644375-2-17-bk-13072-geek-chic-design-llc
* Bankruptcy filing: https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/6nk2dv/geek_chics_official_bankruptcy_filing/
* Geeknson is honoring Geek Chic coins: https://twitter.com/geeknson/status/885153816101965824

Hope that's helpful!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 11, 2017)

It's looking like that acquisition was ill-advised, and a major part of their demise.


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## Chaosmancer (Aug 14, 2017)

I'll admit... I'm a bit stunned and crushed. 

I've often told my parents and siblings that if I ever came into the money, I'd spend it on a $14,000 gaming table from GeekChic. Some people want fancy cars or motorcycles or computers, I wanted a fancy dedicated gaming table I could put in a room all its own. 


That dream is now pretty well crushed. I didn't want a cheap, reasonable table from some other place, I wanted one of these tables that is just a symbol of me spending too much money on gaming. 


I'm glad this article appeared on my list, because I had no idea... This is kind of intense for me... I liked that dream table in my head.


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## Randall Porter (Jul 9, 2018)

What wasn't mention was their attemped convention concierge service which shows like Gen Con more than likely shut down. Gen Con had it's VIG program and more than likely did not want the competition. Plus they gave away a lot of product or left at shows. And the fear that IKEA or another bargain furniture manufactor would crank out a similar table for $200.


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## BrockBallingdark (Jul 9, 2018)

I'm hugging my $3500 Geek Chic table right now, it's priceless now!  We've gamed on it since 2011, it's my most prized possession!


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