Board Game Publisher Overstock Program
Board Game Mystery Box Publisher Program
Turn Excess Inventory Into New Players
Every board game publisher eventually has inventory that isn't moving as quickly as expected.
Maybe your Kickstarter campaign had a larger print run than anticipated.
Maybe you manufactured extra copies to reduce your unit cost.
Perhaps a title sold well for several years but has slowed as newer games entered your catalog.
Or maybe you simply need warehouse space for your next release.
Whatever the reason, excess inventory doesn't have to sit on a shelf collecting dust. But you don't want to errode the value of your brand or tell customers that your games will be discounted or dumped in the future. You need to hold to that MSRP. We can help!
At Mayday Games, we regularly purchase copies of quality board games from publishers around the world to include in our popular Mystery Boxes. We sell them at popular conventions like GenCon, Pax Unplugged and Spiel each year and also on our direct-to-customer website. It's an easy way to recover cash, reduce storage costs, and introduce your games to thousands of enthusiastic tabletop gamers.
How Our Mystery Box Program Works
Our Mystery Boxes are one of the most popular promotions we run each year.
Each box contains a carefully curated collection of board games from a variety of publishers. Customers love discovering games they may never have purchased otherwise, while publishers gain additional exposure for their titles.
If your game is a good fit, we'll purchase a limited quantity directly from you and add it to future Mystery Boxes.
It's simple:
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Tell us about your game.
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We'll determine whether it's a good fit.
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We purchase the agreed quantity.
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You ship the games to us, or we pick them up depending on who has better shipping rates and where we want them.
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New gamers discover your game through our Mystery Box program.
No auctions.
No consignment.
No waiting for sales reports.
No dropping of MSRP or putting them in a $5 bin sending the wrong message to your customers. We work hard to include even brand new releases and out of print games in our Mystery Boxes too, keeping the value to our customers as high as possible!
What We're Looking For
We're interested in a wide variety of tabletop games, including:
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Strategy games
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Family games
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Party games
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Card games
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Cooperative games
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Eurogames
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Dice games
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Gateway games
We work with publishers of every size—from first-time independent creators to established publishers with extensive catalogs. We don't accept TCGs or expansions without the base game and any expansions are valued at half the value of any base games as they are just not perceived as well by our customers.
Whether you've published one game or one hundred, we'd love to hear about your inventory.
Typical Purchase Quantities
Most purchases are in the range of:
50–100 copies per title
For particularly strong fits or larger promotions, we may purchase more.
Because every Mystery Box is different, there isn't a fixed quantity. We evaluate each opportunity individually based on factors such as:
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Game type
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MSRP
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Box size
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Theme
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Our existing inventory
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Customer interest
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Shipping logistics
Why Publishers Participate
Recover Cash While Maintaining MSRP
Unsold inventory represents money tied up in your warehouse.
Selling a portion of that inventory generates immediate cash that can be invested into your next project. At the same time because this is not a published discount, your game's value isn't erroded.
Free Warehouse Space
Warehouse storage isn't free.
Whether you're paying for third-party logistics, self-storage, or your own warehouse, excess inventory consumes valuable space.
Reducing inventory today makes room for tomorrow's releases.
Introduce Your Game to New Players
Many Mystery Box customers intentionally buy games they've never heard of.
That's one of the biggest attractions of the program.
Instead of selling only to existing fans, your game reaches entirely new audiences who may become long-term customers of your brand. Remember, every game placed in a fan's hands will likely be played by several other players too!
Many publishers have seen players discover one title through a Mystery Box and later purchase additional games directly from them, or expose the game to their gaming friends/family who go out and buy it.
Lower Your Overall Print Costs
One of the smartest ways publishers use our Mystery Box Program is before the game is even manufactured.
Instead of printing only enough games to fulfill crowdfunding rewards, many publishers print several hundred extra copies to reduce their manufacturing cost per unit. We offer a special program for newer publishers or those needing only 300-800 copies of a crowdfunding project, learn more about that HERE.
Lower production costs often save significantly more than the value of the additional inventory. One recent small-publisher reduced their cost per unit by more than 25% by a deal we did with them to add +500 copies of their production!
Through our Publisher Support Program, Mayday Games may purchase a portion of those extra copies directly from the factory, allowing publishers to:
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Print a larger, more economical production run.
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Lower manufacturing costs.
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Improve crowdfunding margins.
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Receive payment for additional copies immediately.
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Ship those games alongside their fulfillment inventory.
In many cases, the savings from a larger print run more than offset the cost of producing the additional games.
If you're planning an upcoming Kickstarter or Gamefound campaign, ask us whether combining our Mystery Box purchases with your manufacturing plans could reduce your overall costs.
We Buy From Crowdfunding and Traditional Publishers
You don't need to have launched on Kickstarter or Gamefound.
We purchase inventory from:
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Kickstarter creators
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Gamefound creators
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Established publishers
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Independent designers
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Traditional retail publishers
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International publishers
If you have quality games looking for new players, we'd love to hear about them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does Mayday Do This?
The Lore? You want the lore? You can read more of the story HERE but it stated with us having some overstocked inventory at GenCon one year. We didn't want to drop these games into a $5 bin and sell 20 copies at the convention, we were happy to drop the price significantly and sell them in Mystery Boxes. We started out selling 200 of these boxes at GenCon in 2023 and have sold THOUSANDS of these boxes since then, but with almost none of our own products in the boxes.
We luckily own our own warehouse, drive our own 26-foot box truck out from Utah each year to GenCon and have relatively low costs due to our owner being a super tight-wad.
At the conventions we often offer specials on our ULTIMATE GAME NIGHT BAGS or other products when bought in connection with our mystery boxes, adding even more value to customers and helping get our products into the hands of gamers. These sales more than pay for the booth and we find real joy in selling hundreds of these each show!
Do you buy every game?
No. We carefully curate our inventory to provide customers with a great experience. We'll review each title individually based on gameplay, MSRP, theme, audience, and how it fits with our upcoming Mystery Boxes. We have to trim down the number of units we buy and how many titles we can take depending on our own sales and inventory.
How many copies do you usually purchase?
Most purchases are between 50 and 100 copies, although larger quantities are sometimes possible depending on the game and our current needs.
Do you pay upfront?
Yes. We purchase inventory directly—we do not operate on consignment.
How much do you pay?
Yes. Because we are selling to customers at conventions at 75% off MSRP, we need to purchase games at around 90% off MSRP to make it viable. That number can vary a bit depending on where the games are located and where we need them. But even 10 cents on the dollar and getting them out of your warehouse is better than paying to have them sit every month.
Can this be combined with your Crowdfunding Support Program?
Absolutely.
Many publishers combine our Mystery Box purchases with our Crowdfunding Small Print Run Support program. By printing additional copies to reduce manufacturing costs, publishers can often improve margins while allowing us to purchase a portion of the extra inventory directly from the factory.
This creates one streamlined production and shipping process while reducing financial risk.
What kinds of games work best?
We look for quality tabletop games that would appeal to the broad audience of Mystery Box customers. Family games, strategy games, card games, party games, cooperative games, and other genres may all be a good fit.
Let's Talk
If you have excess inventory—or you're planning an upcoming print run and would like to discuss whether Mayday Games could purchase additional copies—we'd love to hear from you.
Our Mystery Box Program has introduced thousands of gamers to publishers they might never have discovered otherwise, while helping publishers recover capital, reduce storage costs, and make room for their next great game, all while keeping the MSRP strong.
Ready to learn more? Contact us today and let's see if your game is a good fit for an upcoming Mayday Games Mystery Box. Drop us an email to emma@maydaygames.com so Emma can help you out!