Is GTS’s Membership Club worth it?

GoblinTrader runs a membership scheme called ‘Tarjeta de Socio del Club Goblin’, the card from which is valid at all the GTS locations (of which there’s two in Madrid – GTS Madrid Norte & GTS Madrid Sur).

There are three levels of membership, each valid for a year from the date you sign up. Snotling costs just 1€, Goblin costs 20€, and Fanatic costs 30€.

Snotling (1€/year) gives you a 5% discount on board games and card games, 10% of Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars lines, 15% on anything with a red dot sticker, and 20% on anything with a green dot sticker. It also gives free use of the games libraries at GTS Madrid Norte and GTS Mallorca on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Goblin (20€/year) keeps the 10% discount on FF Star Wars, increases the discount on board games and card games to 10%, red dot items to 20%, and green dot items to 30%. It also extends the free days for the games libraries (at the two locations with them) to Monday-Thursday.

Fanatic (30€/year) likewise has a 10% discount on FF Star Wars but gives a 15% discount on board games and card games, red dot items are 30%, and green dot items 40% off. The free days for the games libraries at this level are Sunday to Thursday.

So, the big question: is it worth it?

Well, for the ‘Snotling’ level, yeah probably.

It’s one euro a year, so you only need to spend 10€ on Fantasy Flight Star Wars stuff, or 20€ on tabletop games to break even. So just one game can do it. Find a green dot item you like, and it only needs to be 5€ to save you the fee.

So, if you think you’ll probably spend that much in a GTS store in the next year, definitely sign up.

The ‘Goblin’ and ‘Fanatic’ levels are a bit harder to give a definite ‘si o no’ for, so let’s crunch the numbers.

Star Wars stuff is the same discount, no matter what level you have so we can safely ignore that.

If you were to buy other tabletop games, not with red or green dots, ‘Snotling’ is the best value for total spends of under 290€ (before discount). At annual spends over 290€, ‘Fanatic’ is the best value. ‘Goblin’ is never the best value, but it’s better value than ‘Fanatic’ at spends under 200€, and better than ‘Snotling’ at spends over 380€.

If you just bought red dot items, then ‘Snotling’ is the best value at spends of 193.33€ or less, with ‘Fanatic’ being best at 193.34€ or above. Again, ‘Goblin’ is never the best category, but it beats ‘Fanatic’ at spends under 100€, and ‘Snotling’ at spends over 380€.

Meanwhile, if you only buy green dot items (you bargain-hunter) then ‘Snotling’ is best at spends under 145€, with ‘Fanatic’ as the best for spends above 145€. Yet again, ‘Goblin’ is never top, but beats ‘Fanatic’ at spends under 100€, and ‘Snotling’ at over 190€.

So, having crunched the numbers, it seems to me that if you even occasionally buy games there, ‘Snotling’ is a no-brainer.

‘Goblin’ seems like it’s not worth it unless both
a) you don’t spend enough for ‘Fanatic’ to be worth it,
and
b) free use of Madrid Norte’s library on Mondays would be something you use regularly.

‘Fanatic’ seems to only be worth it if you’d use the games library a lot on Sundays, or it’s pretty likely you’ll spend at least a couple of hundred euros in the stores over the year.

In conclusion, get ‘Fanatic’ if you’ll spend a lot there, otherwise, get ‘Snotling’, and ‘Goblin’ can probably be ignored.

For more info, or to sign up, pop into either GTS store and ask one of the staff for details.