You think you're saving.
In reality, you're losing.

That feeling has a precise name. It's not generic anger — it's the feeling of being the only one playing by the rules in a game where rules didn't exist. Because no one had written them down.

This is the point. Not the retailer who discounted — that's the effect. The problem is upstream: in Italy, the tool that would have prevented it from happening is missing. And as long as it's missing, it will happen again. To you, to others, every time someone has stagnant stock and the pressure to clear it.

The MAP policy: the floor that doesn't exist in Italy

The recommended price — what is commonly called MSRP — also exists in Italy. Every product has one. It's the number on the box, the one the market should orient itself around.

But a recommended price, without any tool to protect it, is just a suggestion.

Suggestions are ignored.

The missing tool is called MAP policy — Minimum Advertised Price. It's the rule, set by the publisher, that defines the minimum price below which no retailer can advertise the product. It's not a ceiling — it's a floor. Everyone starts from the same point. Those who want to run promotions do so, but in a planned, communicated way, equal for all channels.

Many of the companies we work with apply it. We see it every day: when a publisher establishes clear rules, the market changes. Retailers know where the boundaries are, promotions make sense, the launch price holds over time. It's not theory — it's what happens when the tool truly exists.

In Italy, almost no one applies it. Not out of malice — it simply hasn't entered the industry's culture yet. The result is a market where every retailer independently decides what to do with prices, based on their current pressures. Low liquidity, full warehouse, competition cutting prices — and the price drops. Without anyone having established where it stops.

How the discount that isn't a gift works

When you see a game discounted by thirty percent a month after its release, the first reaction is: great deal. And that's exactly the reaction that those who set the discount want.

Because that discount doesn't come from generosity. It comes from a inventory problem that someone decided to shift onto your wallet.

The mechanism is precise, proven, and exploits something very human — the fear of missing an opportunity. It's called urgency combined with scarcity: a limited time window, the feeling that the opportunity is about to close. The brain stops evaluating the product and starts evaluating the opportunity.

These are two completely different things.

The point is not that the discount is inherently wrong. It's that a sudden discount, without rules, without planning, doesn't serve the customer — it serves those who need to clear out their warehouse. The difference between the two is enormous. And almost always invisible.

What you buy at a discount and what you never buy

Let's try to reason the other way around.

Imagine a market where MAP policy exists. Prices are stable. Promotions are there — but they are planned, communicated, and have a precise meaning. An end-of-year discount, a promotion on a back catalog title, a well-thought-out bundle. Not a sudden price cut to free up space.

In that market, when you decide to buy a game, you're buying it because you wanted it. Not because it seemed like an opportunity you couldn't miss. Your wish list empties in the right order — the one you decided, not the one the discount dictated.

The paradox of compulsive buying is subtle but devastating: you spend money on games you hadn't planned for, and you no longer have the budget for the ones you really wanted. At the end of the month you've bought — but you haven't bought what you wanted.

But there's a consequence that goes even deeper — and it concerns trust. Not just yours as a customer. Everyone's.

That trust is built over years. It's destroyed in a month. And once the customer understands the mechanism — that they already know how it will end — they don't go back. Day one sales dwindle, pre-orders drop, every new launch starts uphill. Not because the product is bad. Because the customer has learned to wait.

The same goes for the retailer. Those who discounted once are remembered as the ones who discount. Not as a reference point — but as a place to go when it's convenient. No loyalty, no relationship, no trust. Just cold transactions at the right time. And building a business on cold transactions is tiring, fragile, and leads nowhere.

The customer is not the problem. They are the consequence of a system that has trained them to behave this way. A system without rules that, over time, destroys the image of everyone — of the publisher who didn't protect the price, and of the retailer who chose to cut it.

Slowly. Silently. Without anyone noticing until it's too late.

Why MAP policy is good for everyone

We are not talking about high prices on principle. We are talking about a transparent market — where the displayed price means something, where promotions have a logic, where buyers know what they are buying and why.

With MAP policy, the customer knows that the launch price is the real price. They buy when they want to buy, not when a discount pushes them to do so. Control returns over what enters their collection. And trust returns — in the retailer, in the publisher, in the displayed price.

The retailer knows that all competitors start from the same point. They compete on selection, expertise, service — not on who can go lowest. And those who buy from them return because they trust them, not because they had the best discount that day.

The publisher has the margin to invest. Reprints, expansions, localizations, events. They can launch a title knowing that the price will hold — and that those who buy on day one won't feel betrayed a month later. The possibility of building something over time returns.

A simple tool. Already consolidated in many markets we work with every day. Which is still missing in Italy.

This is not a criticism of anyone. It is an observation of where we are and where we could be.

The Italian board game market deserves to function better. It has everything it needs to do so.