UnboxBoardom – A subscription service for board games!

Articles

When we first started reviewing family board games almost 12 years ago, there was a local board game store that had a rental service. They would rent board games for 10 days 10% of the cost of the game. It was a unique service that we enjoyed using for trying new games.

It gave us a way to experience something fresh on a regular basis.

Well, since then we’ve seen a number of different board game services offered by companies to tap into the joy people find with discovering new and fun games to play.

Recently we heard about a board game subscription service called UnboxBoardom.

We received a new board game through their service last month and wanted to share about this unique option for getting new games on a regular basis.

First, we’ll share information about the service directly from the founder in the form of a Q&A. Then we’ll conclude with our thoughts.

Question: What is UnboxBoardom?

UnboxBoardom is a board game subscription box service in which subscribers receive brand-new board games delivered right to their door to keep.

We feature three games each month, ranging from family board games to strategy board games to even party board games, which customers will get to decide which game they want, or just be surprised!

Customers can also decide how often they want the games — monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. Also, because we want everyone to be able to enjoy the thrill, excitement and personal interaction from playing board games, for every 10 new board game subscription box signups, we donate a board game to an organization that helps kids who can’t afford one.

Question: Where did you come up with the concept?

I’ve always been a big fan of good board games and spending time with friends and family. A few years ago, my girlfriend (now wife), wanted to get me a “board game of-the-month” present for my birthday. When she went to look for this gift idea online, it didn’t exist!

Fast-forward a few years, and I was playing several board games with friends over the holidays. We were all having so much fun, and one of my friends pointed out that I had all of these great, unique games that no one in our group had heard about before. She suggested that I should create an “of-the-month” club for good board games. And with that, UnboxBoardom was born!

Question: What are the reactions you’re getting from participants?

Overall, very positive. People seem to love the service to discover new games they haven’t heard of before. Also, people seem to really like it as a way to offer fun, unique gifts for birthdays, weddings, holidays, and other special occasions.

Question: What has been the biggest challenge for offering such a service?

Finding good games that we know a wide-range of people will enjoy as well as making sure our supplier will have enough games available to feature in any given month.

Question: Do you establish relationships directly with game publishers?

We have worked with some game publishers in the past, but typically we work directly with our distributor who we source our games from.

Question: What’s your favorite game for…

2 players — Baseball Highlights: 2045
A large group — One Night: Ultimate Werewolf
Playing with young kids — Animal Upon Animal
Deep strategy — Everdell
Favorite solo game — Marvel Champions
Outdoors — I don’t like to play outdoors because of the unpredicatability of rain and wind, so I’ll go with an outdoors themed game and say, PARKS 🙂

Our experience with UnboxBoardom

To cut right to the chase, we’ve found the service pretty slick.

For starters, the website is very easy to navigate and it’s simple to sign up. Once you pick your cadence, you’ll get an email with a list of 3 games to choose from for that time period.

Since we have hundreds of board games, this was the part I was most worried about. Since the focus is on delivering games that fit a large audience, our worry was that we’d already have all the games that were an option. Yet at the same time, the selection is part of what makes the service engaging. It’s almost like opening a birthday present — open the email and see what you can get.

And in my case, since it was April, it really was like a birthday present.

So I when I got the anticipated email, I was happy to see a option for a game that we didn’t own and looked like a fun family game — Sonora!

It’s a dexterity game published just last year by Pandasaurus Games. Players flick disks around the desert board trying to get them to rest in the best places to score the most points.

The game arrived quickly and in pristine condition — just as you’d anticipate when getting a new game.

We can totally see this being a fun service for getting a regular supply of new games to play with your family.