Warehousing

A container of games has to land somewhere. Unless you are shipping everything straight to a distributor, you need warehouse space: either a fulfillment partner's facility, a third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse, or, for very small runs, your own garage. Warehousing is priced in two parts, receiving (a one-time fee to unload, count, and shelve your shipment) and storage (a recurring monthly fee, usually charged per pallet or per cubic foot).

Typical storage costs run in the range of 15 to 40 dollars per pallet per month in the US, with fulfillment centers on the higher end and bulk 3PL warehouses on the lower end. A standard pallet holds roughly 40 to 80 board games depending on box size, so a 3,000-copy run occupies around 40 to 70 pallets on arrival. That means unsold inventory quietly costs hundreds or thousands of dollars per month, which is why publishers talk about inventory as money sitting on shelves.

The main planning decision is how to split your stock. A common pattern is to ship the backer-fulfillment quantity to a fulfillment partner, send a wholesale chunk directly to a distributor, and hold the remainder in cheaper bulk storage, restocking the fulfillment center as needed. Fulfillment centers charge premium storage because their space is optimized for picking orders, so using them as long-term storage is the most expensive option available.

Ask any warehouse about receiving requirements before the container ships. Most require an advance shipment notice, carton labeling, and sometimes specific pallet configurations. A container showing up unannounced can sit at the port accruing demurrage charges (daily fees for containers not picked up on time), which add up alarmingly fast.