Sort of OT question about buying at GenCon • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Sort of OT question about buying at GenCon
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Lord Dynel
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:27 pm

Hello all!

I posted this question over at the TLG boards, and while I find the folk most knowledgable there, I figured that it may be better to ask the correct sages my question.

I was talking to a fellow of mine, one of the two who will be accompanying me to GenCon this year, and his big advice is, "Dude, whatever you do, wait until the last day of the con to make the bulk of your purchases. The deals will be awesome."

Now a little bit about this guy. He works at the FLGS and we frequent this local con (MegaCon), though not together, for many a year now. I always go on Friday (the first day of the con) and he always frequents the last day of the con (Sunday). We are both first time GenCon goers.

Now, I go after a bit of more things on the collectable side (harder to find modules, comics, toys, etc) and have always had good luck finding what I want, hitting the dealers room on opening day. Before I go on, I must say that I'm not referring to what oyu probably think as "collectable." I'm talking I-series, N-series, UK-series, Rules Cyclopedia, and the like. I don't usually see the "deals" present on Sundays. He, however, always sees great deals on Sunday and thinks the items I find "rarer" will be there at discounted prices. I don't think they will - in fact, it has always been my policy that if I see something I want and it is usually hard to find, to pick it up immediately without delay to ensure getting it. Rare things, like a Cthulhu/Melnibonean CC&G are going to go for roughly the same price at every booth (give or take $10 or so, I'd reckon). I believe that there are probably some sweet deals on the last day of the con, to blow stuff out, but do collectable, rare things go quicky as I suspect they do? I'd hate to pass up a Queen of the Spiders on Thursday, only to find out it gets sold 5 minutes after I leave the stall.

Any and all advice would be welcome.

Kingofpain89
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:18 pm

I got a great deal at the Troll Lords booth on Thursday for all of their Castle Zagyg stuff. Probably would have gotten the same deal any day of the con.

I found two hard to find out-of-print Call of Cthulhu items at the Pagan booth on Thursday morning. Had I waited another day they would have been snatched up by someone else most definitely.

A lot of the resellers (specifically Titan Games) have great sales on Sunday. Of course this is all on newer stuff and none of the older items you may be looking for.

The few booths that do sell out-of-print items might do you a deal on Sunday for uncommon items but you probably wont see any rares unloaded at cheaper than posted prices unless you are buying multiple items.

If you are really looking for some great deals you should check out the auction. Some of the best deals come during the afternoon auctions. The auction store is also a great place to find common and uncommon items for cheap prices. YMMV though as there will be common items sometimes go for retarded prices as well. Kinda like Ebay in that regard.

If you watch Ebay enough you know what prices are normal for an item. If you see something that normally goes for $50 on Ebay in someone's stall for $100....my advice is to pass it by. If the same item is still there on Sunday, talk to the seller and see if they will come down on the price. If they wont, you at least know you didnt pay more than what you were willing to pay.

And whatever you do, if you see a rare item, dont blurt it out to your buddy before you can buy it. He might just buy it right out from under your nose. :wink:

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

Johnson
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:22 pm

Hi,

don't leave it til Sunday - I'm a seller, and you won't find the sort of stuff you want cheap.

Its the sort of stuff I can sell anywhere, anytime, and there is no point in discounting it.

Many booths will dump cheap crap - but usually its cos they don;t want it taking up storage.

All the really collectible stuff (assuming it is well priced) will go Thursday.
Or Wednesday, if its cheap and I see it

(I have a dealers booth there and will be in the hall a couple of days early).

Cheers,
Malc

copycat
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:42 pm

You leave the common stuff for Sunday -- like, buying 500 Hirst Arts molds, or some book released yesterday. These Acaeum folks will snag anything you don't... so you have to beat them to it.

Snipe.

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Blackmoor
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:25 pm

In my experince buy it when you see it. Otherwise you may see somebody else walking around with it.

Of course if it is common stuff wait until the last day.

Games can get you through times of no money but money can not get you through times of no games!!

Plaag
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:51 pm

For the GenCon exclusive stuff, you'll want to buy the first day.
The early released stuff, you can wait if need be. Many companies do this, but only buy it if you really want it early or to get it signed.
See advice above for all other stuff.

ShaneG.

I reject your reality and substitute my own

Eruantien
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:24 pm

Who is the in the "keep a lookout for" category for when the doors open? I will be going VIG this year and want to make a sprint for the sellers of rare collectibles. I want to make sure I head for quality booths where I can get my fill of old TSR content

Badmike
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:16 pm

Lord Dynel wrote:Hello all!

I posted this question over at the TLG boards, and while I find the folk most knowledgable there, I figured that it may be better to ask the correct sages my question.

I was talking to a fellow of mine, one of the two who will be accompanying me to GenCon this year, and his big advice is, "Dude, whatever you do, wait until the last day of the con to make the bulk of your purchases. The deals will be awesome."

Now a little bit about this guy. He works at the FLGS and we frequent this local con (MegaCon), though not together, for many a year now. I always go on Friday (the first day of the con) and he always frequents the last day of the con (Sunday). We are both first time GenCon goers.

Now, I go after a bit of more things on the collectable side (harder to find modules, comics, toys, etc) and have always had good luck finding what I want, hitting the dealers room on opening day. Before I go on, I must say that I'm not referring to what oyu probably think as "collectable." I'm talking I-series, N-series, UK-series, Rules Cyclopedia, and the like. I don't usually see the "deals" present on Sundays. He, however, always sees great deals on Sunday and thinks the items I find "rarer" will be there at discounted prices. I don't think they will - in fact, it has always been my policy that if I see something I want and it is usually hard to find, to pick it up immediately without delay to ensure getting it. Rare things, like a Cthulhu/Melnibonean CC&G are going to go for roughly the same price at every booth (give or take $10 or so, I'd reckon). I believe that there are probably some sweet deals on the last day of the con, to blow stuff out, but do collectable, rare things go quicky as I suspect they do? I'd hate to pass up a Queen of the Spiders on Thursday, only to find out it gets sold 5 minutes after I leave the stall.

Any and all advice would be welcome.

I would only wait on the common stuff, as everyone says. Anything truly collectible, and a good deal, will be gone by Friday. On Sunday dealers often offer ridiculous deals just to dump stock (last year Titan Games had a buy one get three free offer on Sunday, all 3E stuff but including some really expensive box sets and such). Also, most of the limited edition stuff (Say, any Goodman Games limited release items, or Dwarven Forge specialty pieces, special WOTC minis, etc) will also be gone by Friday morning.

Mike B.

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Kingofpain89
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:44 pm

Eruantien wrote:Who is the in the "keep a lookout for" category for when the doors open? I will be going VIG this year and want to make a sprint for the sellers of rare collectibles. I want to make sure I head for quality booths where I can get my fill of old TSR content

You are just going to have to figure that out yourself before the doors open on Thursday morning. You will be able to get a map of the dealer hall from the Gen Con website about a month or so before the con that will tell you where all the dealers are located. But you never know what they are going to have. The first year I went Crazy Egor had quite a few nice rare items. Last year they didnt have much. And there were a couple of new dealers that werent there from the year before with quite a bit of older TSR stuff. Some of it was a bargain and some of it was overpriced. It's a crap shoot to be sure.

But I believe that as a VIG you get to go into the dealer hall an hour before the doors open for the rest of the masses....or am I mistaken about that? Regardless, I would like to know if paying $500 for your Gen Con badge just to be a VIG is worth it.

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

copycat
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Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:47 pm

OK, I almost promise to not raid Crazy Egor before he goes to GenCon.

Besides, its better to raid him before Origins, since GC is not too long after...

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Mars
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:01 am

serleran wrote:OK, I almost promise to not raid Crazy Egor before he goes to GenCon.

That's what I did last year.

bbarsh
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:09 am

There use to be a time when you could hit the auction store on Sunday morning or Saturday night and get some great deals. I am not sure how that works anymore.

As the time began to run out on the auction and they had piles and piles of "normal" items, they would start throwing them in the auction store because there was no way to get them through the regular auction.

The one thing I will say about the semi-rare stuff at Gen Con is that is generally seems to sell higher than it should. DDGs w/c selling for $75 when you can get them off ebay for $35 or so. Even some rares seem to go higher than they should. So don't think waiting around will help.

However, if the economy is still sucking wind - which it probably still will be - there is a chance you can get a good deal by waiting as sales might be way down. There could be more pressure to sell off on Sunday.

But on the bright side, you are going to get an $8 on each paycheck from now until then...save it up and burn it up at Gen Con!

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

Invincible Overlord
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:47 am

My most senior members here speak quite well on this topic, but just to add my two cents:

1) Wait for all the common items (that vendors sell of their own produced products) on Sunday morning. They will discount it by up to as much as half, or a buy-one get-one-free deal.

2) Visit the GenCon Auction Store Saturday morning, and get in line EARLY! I think it opens around 10:00am Saturday morning, and usually people discout their items in the store by 20% - 50%.

3) Rare items you collect - Buy them early, and often. All that crap about the economy taking a dump will not mean a damn thing. D&D collectors are an odd lot. Someone will always be bidding against the item you want (*cough* Blackmoor *cough*) :wink:

[/u]

Johnson
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:14 pm

Hi,

I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed with Crazy Egors stock last year - I think the only thing I bought off him was the art print set.

I was expecting wonderful stuff to gawp at

Cheers,
Malc

ExTSR
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:03 am

The best /rarest / priciest stuff at the Auction goes on Friday and Saturday nights. There are sometimes reasonably good deals, especially if you stay to the end and wait for everyone else to doze off. ;>

Frank

Lord Dynel
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:19 pm

Thanks for the replies everyone. I definitely hope to be at the auctions, as long as time permits.

Invincible Overlord wrote:2) Visit the GenCon Auction Store Saturday morning, and get in line EARLY! I think it opens around 10:00am Saturday morning, and usually people discout their items in the store by 20% - 50%.

I've heard of the Auctions, but the "Auction Store?" I'm not sure of that one.

But the advice has been great, so far guys, and I appreciate it. Buy older stuff and con exclusives first, wait for newer stuff, try not to have a hernia carrying all the stuff around, keep in mind the place is freaking huge. Got it!

bbarsh
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:28 pm

Lord Dynel wrote:Thanks for the replies everyone. I definitely hope to be at the auctions, as long as time permits.

I've heard of the Auctions, but the "Auction Store?" I'm not sure of that one.

But the advice has been great, so far guys, and I appreciate it. Buy older stuff and con exclusives first, wait for newer stuff, try not to have a hernia carrying all the stuff around, keep in mind the place is freaking huge. Got it!

There is a section at the Auction for items that do not go up for bidding or no one bids on them. There are tables loaded with stuff with a fixed price. Hence, Auction Store.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

Lord Dynel
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:57 am

bbarsh wrote:
There is a section at the Auction for items that do not go up for bidding or no one bids on them. There are tables loaded with stuff with a fixed price. Hence, Auction Store.

So this starts some time after the first auction?

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