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| Seven
new imports today |
| Some
pre-orders may ship tomorrow due to split shipments |
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| Color
Gameboy Beatmania |
| The beat goes on. Konami has announced the popular DJ sim Beatmania
for the Color Gameboy. Expected on March 11, 1999 the CGB version will feature 10
music tracks from the Playstation version and 10 original tracks that are exclusive to the
Gameboy. Retail price is expected to be US$40 and pre-orders are now
welcome via the e-mail link posted below. |
| Pre-order
by simply e-mailing NCS
with your name, address, telephone number and a brief message. We'll confirm pre-orders a
few days before the item arrives. |
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| Dreamcast
Magazines |
| New Dreamcast magazines
are now in stock. Feel free to order any of the volumes that are listed. For seekers of
curio, the covers to the first issues of Dreamcast Magazine and Dreamcast Fan are now
available for viewing. NCS does
not have these particular magazine issues for sale and have only sourced a copy each for
our private collection. Our shipment of these magazines were misdelivered and are now lost
to us. If we are ever able to retrieve them, NCS will be glad to fulfill back issue
orders. |
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| Pokemon
Keychains |
| Here we go again. Our shipment of Pokemon Keychains and Dreamcast
Keychains are now listed as "IN TRANSIT" as of last Tuesday. We had hoped to
take delivery last week but it now appears that we should receive the stock this week. |
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| Metal
Gear Solid Watch |
|
The Limited Edition Metal Gear Solid Chrono Watch (US$230)
is now in stock. NCS will contact customers who have pre-ordered this beautiful watch
today. NCS has a number of extra units on hand that we will keep in stock - we're putting
two of them away into our private Metal Gear collection. So far, the NCS collection
includes a used copy of NES Metal Gear, an unopened copy of NES Metal Gear 2, an unopened
Metal Gear Solid Japanese CD, an unopened MGS USA CD, an unopened MGS Limited Edition Box
and an unopened MGS Limited Gold Box. Twelve copies of Millenium's MGS Guide are also in
there, sheathed in 4 mil mylar sleeves. We bought way too many guides. The watch should
complete our mini MG treasure trove for the next NCS generation. |
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| Retail
Ambition |
| NCS is planning on opening up our first retail store in the New
York area. We have reached the point where our on-line presence is strong but the local
retail market is ripe for an import shop that can offer our full range of product and
pricing. National Console stocks a large number of exotics that most stores simply refuse
to put into inventory due to their high prices or their perceived limited audience. The
XRGB-2 upscan, Jamma kits, the Metal Gear Solid Chrono Watch and the Beatmania Zippo
lighter all come to mind. A store would allow us to have a retail channel all our own
where we can control the selection and at the same time, gain an additional outlet to sell
our stock. After giving it much thought, we have decided that this move is critical to our
future. In the past, we have hesitated in making this addition to our enterprise since we
supply many stores in the local area. We hope to continue our relationships with the
retailers that we currently conduct business with. Admittedly however, there will be
conflicts of interest once we set up shop. We'll have to sort out any tensions and effect
a modicum of diplomacy to maintain order in our long standing wholesale accounts. |
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The new store may or may not carry the NCS name but it will essentially be a new corporate
entity under our control. National Console Support is known on the internet and to vendors
but in the local New York market, with the mostly unwired masses, the NCS identity will
not have much impact or draw or meaning. Some new names that we are considering include:
Gamescape, Gamecast, Diesel Gaming, Mega, Game Sauce, Player One, Silvergun Gaming, Three
Lives Left, Game Slice, Blast a Cap, Da Game Bom... One has to wonder what's in a name -
but we suppose it has to convey a sense of gaming... The new shop will be
backed by the full resources and capital of National Console Support so we figure it
should do okay. We'll make sure that it offers a larger import selection than most
distribution houses in Japan. Our full range of import collectible figures, Candy Toys,
high end merchandise, etc will also be represented. The time frame is uncertain but we
feel a sense of urgency to get it up and running within a reasonably short amount of time.
As a business associate once told us, "the first store is the most difficult to set
up - but when that is running, the next couple are easy..." NCS is not looking into a
chain of stores but we have three locations in New York that we ultimately wish to focus
on and build - Manhattan (lower and midtown) and Main Street in Queens. All are high
traffic areas that should serve our goals well. |
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| Capital
Market Position Trades |
| NCS is keeping our two speculative positions that we initiated last week
- namely short one S&P futures and long one IBM call that we opened at the 180 strike.
We added 10 IBM 190 calls this morning with a target price of $230 by January 15-17. To
hedge this move on IBM, we have purchased 5 puts on the DELL 75 contract. NCS has also
boxed our S&P short position by going long on two S&P futures contracts. We see a
rally this week that will take all major indexes to new highs. One final position that we
initiated this morning was the purchase of 10 February calls on the Russell 2000 index at
the 405 strike. Our target is 450. |
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Send e-mail to ncs@escape.com
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