Opening Day

We as gamers, like to customize our game in some way to show our personality. It has progressed from different colored sleeves and dice, to sleeves with images and life counters in all kinds of various forms. We then started buying playmats sold by the game manufacturers. Now we buy customized playmats from artists or even design our own. You can get them hand drawn or printed. Both ways have no real easy way of getting the playmat you want. Your options right now I either fighting over designs on Ebay or going to your favorite forum and recruiting a designer to make you one. Then you have to pay him for the design and then find a printer to print it for you. There is an easier way. And that is why we are here.

I have been playing collectible trading card games since 1997. I started out with Star Trek. I have played so many different games including Star Wars, Yu-gi-oh!, Pokemon, Game of Thrones, and Magic the Gathering. I also played for a short while, a great werewolf game called Rage, that I am sure was just ahead of its time. In this "Twilight" age I am sure it would be very popular. I started my own gaming store back in 2002 that focused primarily on MtG. We also had poker every Friday night, those were the days. I sold it to larger more well defined competitor a year later and moved on always hoping to start another business in the gaming world later.

 I have always been the type to have different sleeves then everyone else, altered cards, and foil out my decks. I like that I can sit down at a table and play the game in my own way. I have had several ideas for playmats that I wanted but never had any way of getting them to reality. There really wasn't a huge calling as playmat customization has really just taken off in recent years. I have waited for an easy way to get cool different playmats online, but nothing really has ever been made. A few months ago at Magic release event a few players and I were discussing cool ideas for mats we would want and how it really is hard to find a way to get your own. We talked about the con's and pro's of each. Being Magic players we didn't know that there is a pretty vibrant Yu-gi-oh! community that designs and prints playmats.

Some of the drawbacks we came up with the current (at the time) method of getting playmats were:

• There was no well known way to print your own designs
• Hand drawing your playmat is hard and you have to be an artists
• Getting designs from others required pm'ing in forums and searching through several different portfolio's
• The designers never printed, you always have to find a printer to that for you
• The whole process was expensive
• The one place that seemed to do it all was overseas

We also talked about how if your a designer there are some issues selling your designs:

• Selling your design is predicated on the fact the player can also find a printer 
• The timeline takes a while and sales are lost
• It is hard to get your designs to enough people's eyes and you have to rely on forums for marketing
• You can really only receive payments through paypal

These are just some of the issues with getting your own custom playmat, but I am sure you have experienced some issues of your own. Many of these issues have been address with InkedPlaymats.com. 

Our features:

• Easy upload of your design and have it printed all in one transaction
• Low prices
• Full shop of designs for you to buy if you don't have your own
• Easy way to sell your design to other for profit
• Easy way to set up dropshipping if your a designer and want us to print and ship for you
• Quick turn-around time and shipping
• All made right here in the Pacific Northwest United States.

We would like to think that as time comes we will become the one stop shop for all those wanting playmats. We can do all kinds of customization and even offer discounts for bulk orders. And by bulk we mean more than 5. Even teams will get a special discount if they want to all show-off the same team design. 

We also will cater to designers who want to have us dropship their orders. No more telling your customer to find a printer. You can take the whole purchase amount and send the order our way and will will print and ship out your design right away. 

We are excited where the future leads and will be showing and talking about our offers much more this upcoming month. If you see a design you want or want to get inline for printing take advantage of our 20% off sale that runs through July. All orders will be shipping by August 1st, the plan is even sooner, as we get in all our equipment.