Nashville, TN – There are a lot of different Boardgame Box services that have sprung up over the last few years, but none of them has provided the consternation caused by the newest service on the block: Boardgames4U. We spoke to local gamer Gomer Gustafson about his recent experience with the service.
“When I saw that Boardgames4U was a mystery box service, I kinda got excited. I’ve been doing LootCrate for years and I usually get some really cool stuff from that so I was on board from the get-go,” Gustafson says. “At $15 per box, it was a temptation I couldn’t resist. I mean, their website had pictures of games like The Castle of Burgundy and Underwater Cities on it. $15 for a copy of one of those games? Yes, please!”
And then Gustafson began his long wait. This is typical for Boardgame Box services. Most offer monthly plans that will automatically bill you and then send you a new game each month with additional one-off options for people that are testing the waters before they commit or just purchasing a gift for a friend or a loved one. Gustafson went all in at the $150 annual commitment—a $30 savings if he had chosen to go month to month.
“I remember it was around the middle of June or July because it was freakishly hot outside,” says Gomer. “I’d just gotten home from work and I saw this massive box sitting on my front porch. I had honestly forgotten I’d signed up for anything, but I was really excited when I saw that it was a shipment from Boardgames4U. It took all of my self-control to not just rip into it right then and there.”
In most instances, the Boardgame Box service will send you a hot title or perhaps even a game that the company had a surplus of. The quality of games can range from high price and highly sought after to bottom of the barrel one or two star games. Typically the game will fall somewhere in between. This was not Gustafson’s experience, though.
“When I opened the box, I got really confused. There were like 4 or 5 gallon-sized Ziploc bags in there with really generic pieces in them. The game board that was included was completely covered with black electric tape and the rule book was heavily redacted. I honestly have no idea what game it was that they sent me. I know there’s a 4 in the publishing date and there’s a little bit of maroon showing through a gap in the electric tape. I assume it’s a euro game of some sort.”
Gomer continues, “When I signed up for a board game mystery box, this definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. If I’m being honest, I sorta feel like I was cheated, ya know?”
Gustafson refuses to give in, though. As of publishing time, he has been working feverishly day and night to solve the mystery of which game he received. He has since received two more mystery boxes and confesses that he might have gotten everything mixed up, or not. Who knows?
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