by Novus
This passed Sunday was the bi-annually held (every 2 years!!) Endgame Miniatures Swap Meet. I reserved a table so I could get rid of my Eldar force and some other miscellaneous gaming crap I've collected over the years. I have to say, this is a great idea that every FLGS should consider.
The system is pretty simple. If you have stuff to get rid of, reserve a table. People can trade you directly for stuff (model for model), pay cash (sort of), or buy you something from the store.
If they want to pay cash, you write them a voucher, they would then take it down to the register and pay the amount on the voucher and the guy at the register would sign off on the voucher. Then your customer would bring the signed off voucher to you to prove he paid and you would hand him the merchandise. You then take your collected/paid vouchers to the register at the end of the day and Endgame would turn them into a giant gift card for you. Any "cash" that changed hands did end up in the stores pocket, but so what? You get a gift card from the place you likely buy a bunch of stuff from anyway!
Total number of sellers was upwards of 20 (some shared tables).
There was a lot of 40k and WHFB stuff up for sale. One guy walked away with probably $450.00 worth of Space Marines for $20.00. My Eldar stuff was around $350.00, new (5 years ago). I sold almost all of it for $90.00... I was sick of looking at an army I never played ONCE.
One of the smaller tables had about 12 cubic feet of miniature goodness... but that photo was blurred all to Hell. The seller probably sold 80% of it over the course of the day. 40k kits, some NIB, were selling for $10-$15 each!
If you look closely at some of these photos, you'll see some rare stuff.
Which is the key to this whole event. It's a buyers market because the folks who had tables primarily wanted to unload stuff. Almost none of them were looking to haggle for a fair price. Too bad, it's only held every 24 months.
One table had a good-sized Flames of War army. Another had a Firestorm Armada Aquan force with all the extras. It was a FA starter set for all intents and purposes.
I also picked up a couple of nice items. A limited edition drop pod from Dropzone Commander (happened to be standing next to Tony when he pulled it out of his box of stuff, so I snapped it up quick!) and a radar dish that was part of the trade/purchase of a NIB Fire Prism I had. Through some Herculean self-discipline I came out with a great profit and likely my next 6 Dropzone kits already paid for!
If your FLGS does things like Swap Meets and Bitz Trading nights, consider yourself lucky. Nearly everyone walked out with some sort of amazing deal. If you have a chance to go to one of these, take it. You won't regret it.
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