Dutch Blitz Sells, Why Not Rook?

Wikipedia nails it in the first paragraph:

Rook is a trick-taking game, usually played with a specialized deck of cards. Sometimes referred to as “Christian cards” or “missionary poker”, Rook playing cards were introduced by Parker Brothers in 1906 to provide an alternative to standard playing cards for those in the Puritan tradition or Mennonite culture who considered the face cards in a regular deck inappropriate because of their association with gambling and cartomancy.

Growing up, my parents were part of a Rook Club consisting of other Evangelical couples, all of whom jokingly referred to the game as “Baptist Bridge.”   While, as in Bridge, trick-taking matters, it does so only to the extent that one captures “counter cards” such as the 5, the 10, and the 14; although there are different variations on the rules, some of which involve using the 57th card in the deck, the rook card.    The bidding tends not contain the nuances of information found in a regular bridge game.

So given its history, why is it so hard to purchase Rook in a Christian bookstore when card games like Dutch Blitz do so well?

Part of it is simply that no distributor has ever seen this as a challenge worth taking.    Interacting with other industries can be tricky, especially when you’re not at all interested in an entire product line.   For that reason, it can be daunting both to wholesalers and individual retailers, especially if the company principals have no previous history with the game.

In our case, it took two years.   A local toy store owner — who also happens to be a Christian — promised me over and over again that she would include a box of 12 Rook decks on her next order, and pass them on to me at her wholesale cost,  but simply never did.    This story repeated over and over again until the owner of the Canadian educational store chain Mastermind offered me a case at a short (30%) discount.

Some of our customers recognized the game right away and wanted to update their current card decks; others required an explanation.   But now I’m sold out again and find the process of getting another case or two rather onerous.

Which is too bad.   I feel like I’m cutting my customers off from a viable piece of Christian culture.    Maybe one of my distributors with more buying power will read this and decide it’s worth stocking this little curiosity item.

Do you have obscure merchandise you’d like to carry in your store but find the process of obtaining it too complex?

Read more of the Wikipedia article about Rook here.