I just moved to AZ from CA and it seems all of the Cons out there have a flea market. Basically on some day like Saturday for example, they clear out one of the gaming rooms and allow attendees to swap/sell their stuff for an hour or two. sometimes the con rents the space for a nominal price to the sellers. If you don't already have something like this, I think it would be a great Idea. Its usually one of the most exciting moments of the whole con. Although I'm based in TUcson, perhapse I can help arrange this by email and phone if you guys are interested?

I've not yet made it out to a CA con; are these swap meets more for the trading of game-related material, or are they for basically everything under the sun up to and potentially including the proverbial kitchen sink?

They used to be done out here, problem with them is EBAY killed them. It used to be that there was some great cool stuff that you could not find any other place. Now everyone wants to get a great price and puts stuff on ebay. The quality of stuff at the flea markets kept dropping and they fell into disapproval.

What Cons did you go to in CA?

Basically, gamers sell stuff and not much, if anything at all, is swapped. The rules tend to be:

A) For free to about 10 bucks (seen it vary between different cons), a person gets a space about 5 feet square (or something similar) for the goods to be sold.

B) Some portion of the con is cleared out giving the folks about 1 hour to set up. All non sellers are kept away. I've seen this take place in smaller conference rooms in the hotel or outside on grassy areas. If it’s in the hotel, usually it is part of an open gaming area.

C) This is for normal gamers only, not vendors. Vendors need a normal vendor booth. Also, to protect the vendors, the gamers selling stuff here are not allowed to bring in unreasonable quantities of new stuff. Especially any new items that the vendors are selling. Unlimited quantities of used stuff is OK. Maybe limit new things to no more than one of any product, and new items should not be the majority of things sold. That would miss the point of this. Its basically for gamers to unload gaming stuff to other gamers that are interested.

D) The whole thing usually lasts for about two hours and then its over and the sellers need to clean up and things go back to normal.


Usually, not ‘everything’ is sold here. It has always been stuff gamers want like used games, miniatures, books, video games, and stuff gamers usually like fantasy novels and similar items. I have never seen anyone try to sell stuff totally unrelated like shoes or a sink. That would definitely bring down the excitement.

Here are some links for you to check out:

http://www.kublacon.info/kcsearch/kcindex....=&action=search

http://www.kublacon.info/kcsearch/kcindex....18DDCWST106A5CA

We used to have a Used Game Auction for people to sell their games, but decided to go with a Charity Auction this year. It lets us open up to a lot more auction items.

Flea market idea sounds interesting though. Wonder how much action it would see.

I can't say what the draw would be here, but its a tradition at some of the cons in CA and has gotten really popular there. At Kublacon last year, they used a room at least 100' by 50' from open gaming for it. all of the tables were filled with sellers and there was no elbow room for the shoppers. Truely a stampeed getting in too.

Probably not the same here, but it is definitely a hit.

BTW, they also have auctions there, but those seem to draw 25 - 50 buyers. I think the key difference is the auctions can go on for hours, while you can get in and out of this in 30 min if you don't buy too much. Gamers don't have to miss a game to run through the swapmeet really quickly looking for goodies.


Thanks, CHris.

True. For clarification however, our auction is a charity benefit.

Its for Sunshine Acres Children's Home. Its a good cause!

Sounds good. I'l be sure to swing by if I have the oppertunity.

Here's a link to another one in CA in case you are interested.

http://www.strategicon.net/shopping_flea_market.php