SWAP MEET 2016 OFFICIAL INFORMATION THREAD

Started by Zelyhon, April 20, 2016, 11:12:39 AM

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JC52236

Could anybody confirm if we need to send digital copies of the swap meet agreement and BOE forms to the swapmeet@fanime email, or if we just bring these forms with us when we go to swap meet at con? I remember the latter being the case based on last year, but the instructions on the swap meet registration form were a bit ambiguous so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks!
The swap meet booth the dealers don't want you to know about: https://swapmeet2017.wordpress.com/

Wall scrolls, doujin stuff, and lots of other cool stuff. All Japanese imports (and a lot of stuff from Comic Market!)

Ecchi ja Nai

Quote from: JC52236 on May 18, 2016, 03:51:19 PM
Could anybody confirm if we need to send digital copies of the swap meet agreement and BOE forms to the swapmeet@fanime email, or if we just bring these forms with us when we go to swap meet at con? I remember the latter being the case based on last year, but the instructions on the swap meet registration form were a bit ambiguous so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks!

Print them, sign them, and bring them in with you.  You turn them in to staff while you're being checked in to your spot.

Default

Anyone that hasn't completed their registration want to split the fee on a space please email me at [email protected], I'll answer quicker that way.

Henry Ong
Marketing Staff
ex-3 minute film head
100%Bishounen meat
FOLLOW THE PATH OF THE SEXY COMMANDO!!!

Ivycat

I a question about money exchange, I not comfortable getting 100s or 50s dollar bills from people, fearing it may be counterfeit. Not saying it is but to be safe is it ok to refuse that person? I don't see anything in the rules about money, just want to be sure.

TC X0 Lt 0X

Quote from: Ivycat on May 19, 2016, 05:16:24 AM
I a question about money exchange, I not comfortable getting 100s or 50s dollar bills from people, fearing it may be counterfeit. Not saying it is but to be safe is it ok to refuse that person? I don't see anything in the rules about money, just want to be sure.

I dont see why not, many fast food restaurants and other small vendors dont deal in anything bigger then 20s. You might get someones panties in a bunch, but whatever.
Still, it might be a good idea to look up online how to spot counterfeit bills, as any size bill can potentially be counterfeit. I also Imagine that most people going to Swap Meet are smart enough to bring only cash in 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s. 50s and 100s are viable for expensive products, but generally you want to be able to give the most exact amount possible because some swap meet people wont have enough change laying around =P


"Never beg. You earn. By Winning.
Or else you won't get anything..."

Pro-Pocky Movement

GOT HYPE.

Ruzuki

I emailed the swapmeet@ email two days ago, but dont have a reply yet, and really need one asap. I didnt put a secondary seller on my digital swapmeet application, because I didnt have any friends wanting to sell anything. But then I realized the date I picked, Friday, conflicts with a rehearsal for Cosplay Chess Im supposed to attend. I sent an email asking to either change the date I chose for my Swap Meet space, or if its allowed to add a secondary seller to the physical papers.

Could either a staff reply to the email and switch my spot to Thursday, or someone else let me know if they know if its ok to add another person on the physical papers if they werent on the electronic application, so they could cover the spot while I attend the other thing?
I really need to know asap in case I need to try to arrange something else with the chess rehearsal, because I really dont want to lose my spot, or lose half of the selling time there by arriving after rehearsal.

Zelyhon

Quote from: Ruzuki on May 19, 2016, 09:07:29 AM
I emailed the swapmeet@ email two days ago, but dont have a reply yet, and really need one asap. I didnt put a secondary seller on my digital swapmeet application, because I didnt have any friends wanting to sell anything. But then I realized the date I picked, Friday, conflicts with a rehearsal for Cosplay Chess Im supposed to attend. I sent an email asking to either change the date I chose for my Swap Meet space, or if its allowed to add a secondary seller to the physical papers.

Could either a staff reply to the email and switch my spot to Thursday, or someone else let me know if they know if its ok to add another person on the physical papers if they werent on the electronic application, so they could cover the spot while I attend the other thing?
I really need to know asap in case I need to try to arrange something else with the chess rehearsal, because I really dont want to lose my spot, or lose half of the selling time there by arriving after rehearsal.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we got a lot of e-mails on various issues once Swap Meet opened. I've been working through them after work as well as working on compiling the master list of Swap Meet sellers.  I haven't seen this particular e-mail yet, but I should be coming up on it fairly soon.  Either option you mentioned should be doable.  I'll send you an e-mail back once I get to that point in the backlog asking which you prefer and we can go from there.
Ben Levy
Swap Meet 2023 Head
Staff

Ruzuki

Quote from: Zelyhon on May 19, 2016, 02:33:48 PM
Quote from: Ruzuki on May 19, 2016, 09:07:29 AM
I emailed the swapmeet@ email two days ago, but dont have a reply yet, and really need one asap. I didnt put a secondary seller on my digital swapmeet application, because I didnt have any friends wanting to sell anything. But then I realized the date I picked, Friday, conflicts with a rehearsal for Cosplay Chess Im supposed to attend. I sent an email asking to either change the date I chose for my Swap Meet space, or if its allowed to add a secondary seller to the physical papers.

Could either a staff reply to the email and switch my spot to Thursday, or someone else let me know if they know if its ok to add another person on the physical papers if they werent on the electronic application, so they could cover the spot while I attend the other thing?
I really need to know asap in case I need to try to arrange something else with the chess rehearsal, because I really dont want to lose my spot, or lose half of the selling time there by arriving after rehearsal.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we got a lot of e-mails on various issues once Swap Meet opened. I've been working through them after work as well as working on compiling the master list of Swap Meet sellers.  I haven't seen this particular e-mail yet, but I should be coming up on it fairly soon.  Either option you mentioned should be doable.  I'll send you an e-mail back once I get to that point in the backlog asking which you prefer and we can go from there.

Thanks for the update, its reassuring to at least know that the delay is just a matter of email volume, rather than the email not being monitored lol. Ill indicate my preference when I see the email reply, rather than on here, so you dont have to try to keep track of who I am XD

JC52236

What is the policy on raffles as a method of selling items?
The swap meet booth the dealers don't want you to know about: https://swapmeet2017.wordpress.com/

Wall scrolls, doujin stuff, and lots of other cool stuff. All Japanese imports (and a lot of stuff from Comic Market!)

Zelyhon

Quote from: JC52236 on May 20, 2016, 12:17:42 AM
What is the policy on raffles as a method of selling items?

Raffles are not allowed at Swap Meet.  It gets into its own set of legal issues that are much more trouble than they're worth to deal with.
Ben Levy
Swap Meet 2023 Head
Staff

Amarok

If anyone wants to split a space on Thursday night, send me a message, yooo! I'm already registered and paid, and I'll be there either way, but it would be nice to split costs since I think I can probably condense my stuff to half a space.   :D

JC52236

Quote from: Zelyhon on May 20, 2016, 01:01:09 AM
Quote from: JC52236 on May 20, 2016, 12:17:42 AM
What is the policy on raffles as a method of selling items?

Raffles are not allowed at Swap Meet.  It gets into its own set of legal issues that are much more trouble than they're worth to deal with.

Thanks! Fair enough. What about auction-style sales? I.e. I put a piece of paper in front of some kind of item and people write down bids, with the highest bid winning the item at the end? I figure this might be a bit less dodgy than the raffles since no money exchanges hands until the end.
The swap meet booth the dealers don't want you to know about: https://swapmeet2017.wordpress.com/

Wall scrolls, doujin stuff, and lots of other cool stuff. All Japanese imports (and a lot of stuff from Comic Market!)

Ecchi ja Nai

Quote from: JC52236 on May 20, 2016, 07:13:03 PM
What about auction-style sales? I.e. I put a piece of paper in front of some kind of item and people write down bids, with the highest bid winning the item at the end? I figure this might be a bit less dodgy than the raffles since no money exchanges hands until the end.

I don't know if this is something that would be allowed or not, but speaking as someone who's both sold and bought at swap meet, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

People often take multiple laps around, for various reasons, and you'll more than likely see someone who stopped by at the beginning of swap meet come back around a little later.  What you're not likely to find are all the same people who came at 7:30 come back at midnight just to see if their bid won.  I'd imagine most of the bids would come towards the end of the evening, which means not many people bumping the bids up.  Or, anyone who may have bid earlier would forget about it and wind up not coming back to pick their items up and, more importantly, pay.

If you're trying to get the most out of your sales by having a competitive bid, why not just price your stuff slightly higher than what you'd ask for, then allow people to haggle you down?  If you wanted to create a more dynamic experience with the bids, well, that's not exactly what swap meet is for.  Usually just chatting about the various stuff you're selling and the series they're from creates enough of a back-and-forth between you and anyone who might be interested in buying something from you.

These are just my opinions.  Depending on what swap meet and the city of San Jose allow, it may be a non-issue if it's not allowed in the first place.

Ecchi ja Nai

I've got a couple of questions that don't seem to have been brought up yet:

I know the rules on this aren't likely to differ from last year, but since I don't see it mentioned anywhere, have there been any changes regarding how we transport our items into swap meet?  I'm assuming hand trucks and the like are not allowed per the usual Union rules, but if I were to have a platform of some variety with wheels or casters on it, would I be able to push my items in on that?  I didn't realize how much stuff I've accumulated and I could really do with the freed up space and cash, but I'm a little concerned with how I'm going to get it all in.  I can probably manhandle it with a couple of trips, but I won't have any friends available to help out and I'd rather work smarter than harder, ya know?

What exactly is the restroom situation like for South Hall?  I remember seeing a sign towards the back of the hall that said RESTROOMS with an arrow to the side, but when I looked over in the direction it was indicating it was pointing to a door that was blocked off by trash cans.  I'm guessing there aren't any restrooms actually in the South Hall since it's basically a big tent.  If we have to step out of Swap Meet for a minute to head over to the actual convention center, is there a quick and easy way we'd be able to get back in?  Is there a way we can identify ourselves as sellers to skip any line of buyers to get back in to our spot?

Ruzuki

Quote from: Ecchi ja Nai on May 21, 2016, 05:07:27 AM
I've got a couple of questions that don't seem to have been brought up yet:

I know the rules on this aren't likely to differ from last year, but since I don't see it mentioned anywhere, have there been any changes regarding how we transport our items into swap meet?  I'm assuming hand trucks and the like are not allowed per the usual Union rules, but if I were to have a platform of some variety with wheels or casters on it, would I be able to push my items in on that?  I didn't realize how much stuff I've accumulated and I could really do with the freed up space and cash, but I'm a little concerned with how I'm going to get it all in.  I can probably manhandle it with a couple of trips, but I won't have any friends available to help out and I'd rather work smarter than harder, ya know?

What exactly is the restroom situation like for South Hall?  I remember seeing a sign towards the back of the hall that said RESTROOMS with an arrow to the side, but when I looked over in the direction it was indicating it was pointing to a door that was blocked off by trash cans.  I'm guessing there aren't any restrooms actually in the South Hall since it's basically a big tent.  If we have to step out of Swap Meet for a minute to head over to the actual convention center, is there a quick and easy way we'd be able to get back in?  Is there a way we can identify ourselves as sellers to skip any line of buyers to get back in to our spot?
These are good questions I would like answered too. I have a lot of used books Im hoping to sell (Im moving soon lol), and it says on the Rules that you need to have EVERYTHING with you when you check in, and it sounds like you cant take trips to carry stuff... so are we supposed to somehow be able to carry everything? I planned to try to get a friend to help, but even with a friend... I have three boxes of JUST books. And at least one more box of other stuff I wanted to sell...

And the bathroom thing I had wondered too. The swap meet is for 4.5-5 hours, and we have to get there ahead of time to set up. Do they expect the 'single' sellers to just not drink anything that whole time...? They cant ask the person at the next booth, or text a friend, to just keep an eye on their stuff for 5 minutes?

Ruzuki

Quote from: Ecchi ja Nai on May 20, 2016, 09:42:07 PM
Quote from: JC52236 on May 20, 2016, 07:13:03 PM
What about auction-style sales? I.e. I put a piece of paper in front of some kind of item and people write down bids, with the highest bid winning the item at the end? I figure this might be a bit less dodgy than the raffles since no money exchanges hands until the end.

I don't know if this is something that would be allowed or not, but speaking as someone who's both sold and bought at swap meet, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

People often take multiple laps around, for various reasons, and you'll more than likely see someone who stopped by at the beginning of swap meet come back around a little later.  What you're not likely to find are all the same people who came at 7:30 come back at midnight just to see if their bid won.  I'd imagine most of the bids would come towards the end of the evening, which means not many people bumping the bids up.  Or, anyone who may have bid earlier would forget about it and wind up not coming back to pick their items up and, more importantly, pay.

If you're trying to get the most out of your sales by having a competitive bid, why not just price your stuff slightly higher than what you'd ask for, then allow people to haggle you down?  If you wanted to create a more dynamic experience with the bids, well, that's not exactly what swap meet is for.  Usually just chatting about the various stuff you're selling and the series they're from creates enough of a back-and-forth between you and anyone who might be interested in buying something from you.

These are just my opinions.  Depending on what swap meet and the city of San Jose allow, it may be a non-issue if it's not allowed in the first place.
I'll expand on this idea a bit...
If this IS allowed, depending on the item, this could actually work, and you might get bids... but it HIGHLY depends on the item, and the people who come in. If you asked them to write their phone numbers with their bid, you could close the bidding an hour before the swap meet ends, call them to let them know their bid won, and they can come and collect... but keep in mind, the highest bidder may also just back out, or have just put a fake bid (and possibly fake phone number), and you may have to go down the list a bit. You could also put as a rule that if they dont call back within 5 minutes of you calling, you call the next bidder, to try to hurry it along, too.

Ruzuki

Quote from: Ruzuki on May 19, 2016, 03:47:07 PM
Quote from: Zelyhon on May 19, 2016, 02:33:48 PM
Quote from: Ruzuki on May 19, 2016, 09:07:29 AM
I emailed the swapmeet@ email two days ago, but dont have a reply yet, and really need one asap. I didnt put a secondary seller on my digital swapmeet application, because I didnt have any friends wanting to sell anything. But then I realized the date I picked, Friday, conflicts with a rehearsal for Cosplay Chess Im supposed to attend. I sent an email asking to either change the date I chose for my Swap Meet space, or if its allowed to add a secondary seller to the physical papers.

Could either a staff reply to the email and switch my spot to Thursday, or someone else let me know if they know if its ok to add another person on the physical papers if they werent on the electronic application, so they could cover the spot while I attend the other thing?
I really need to know asap in case I need to try to arrange something else with the chess rehearsal, because I really dont want to lose my spot, or lose half of the selling time there by arriving after rehearsal.

As I'm sure you can imagine, we got a lot of e-mails on various issues once Swap Meet opened. I've been working through them after work as well as working on compiling the master list of Swap Meet sellers.  I haven't seen this particular e-mail yet, but I should be coming up on it fairly soon.  Either option you mentioned should be doable.  I'll send you an e-mail back once I get to that point in the backlog asking which you prefer and we can go from there.

Thanks for the update, its reassuring to at least know that the delay is just a matter of email volume, rather than the email not being monitored lol. Ill indicate my preference when I see the email reply, rather than on here, so you dont have to try to keep track of who I am XD
Do you have an estimate of when you/someone would get to the emails sent on May 17th? Im worried by the time my email is answered (and by the time they get my response with preference), there wont even be any Thursday spots left.

If there are a ton of emails and Thursday spots are running out... Im wondering if its better to just ask for a refund for my Friday spot and try to book a Thursday spot, or share a spot with someone who already got a Thursday one... would that be faster? I know I want to switch to Thursday, but if I can keep my own spot, I also want to add a secondary seller anyways, as a backup for like, bathroom breaks, and to help me carry stuff...

Also in the Rules it says that if what you sell differs from what you declared 'when applying', you forfeit your spot, but the application wont let me go back and see the exact wording of what I declared. If its written on the paper application, is that ok, or does it HAVE to be on the initial digital one?
(Basically, my memory is awful, I should have saved that part but I kind of thought I would get some confirmation with it printed on it, or I would be able to go back and see... so Im not sure exactly how vague I was about certain declarations.  Because, when I first applied,  I wasnt actually quite sure of what I HAD to sell, I only found out about the swap meet application opening a few hours before it opened, and I was still at work right before, and I kind of made a fast decision to try to get a spot, since Im moving to another state soon and have to get rid of stuff, and didnt have time to go through all my stuff looking for what I was going to sell before I had applied so I just tried to think of stuff I knew I had and could sell and tried to be vague...)

And it says Cosplay items are limited to clothing, weapons, and wigs, with crafted accessory items subject to staff approval... what about cosplay shoes? Like, costume boots, dressy shoes? Like, obviously I wont sell smelly worn stuff, but like, what about shoes worn once for like an hour for a cosplay and never again.
(And on the shoes note, do they have to be like, OBVIOUSLY cosplay? I have a ton of pairs of like, nice dressy heels that I literally never wore once that I could try to get rid of too XD [I have a problem lol])

InsaneDavid

Quote from: Ruzuki on May 21, 2016, 04:46:12 PMAnd it says Cosplay items are limited to clothing, weapons, and wigs, with crafted accessory items subject to staff approval... what about cosplay shoes? Like, costume boots, dressy shoes? Like, obviously I wont sell smelly worn stuff, but like, what about shoes worn once for like an hour for a cosplay and never again.
(And on the shoes note, do they have to be like, OBVIOUSLY cosplay? I have a ton of pairs of like, nice dressy heels that I literally never wore once that I could try to get rid of too XD [I have a problem lol])

I've seen at least a couple people selling previously worn cosplay shoes every year I've been to Swap Meet.
I'm ALWAYS active on the forums!

Retro Cosplay, Easy As XYZ

Hey_its_Ame

I've also sent emails in regards to registration questions and verification. I'm hoping I get a response ASAP... :\


My main email was asking about registering with a Dealer badge. I'm attending with a dealer badge, which I do every year since I help out a dealer that vends every year (Fanciful Gifts), and this year I wanted to sell my own personal items the swap meet, that have been taking up a ton of space at home (and of course for much needed $$$). But I'm unsure if it is possible... I've actually already filled out all necessary forms and paid for 2 days. Just waiting on responses back.

Ruzuki

Quote from: Hey_its_Ame on May 21, 2016, 11:27:14 PM
I've also sent emails in regards to registration questions and verification. I'm hoping I get a response ASAP... :\


My main email was asking about registering with a Dealer badge. I'm attending with a dealer badge, which I do every year since I help out a dealer that vends every year (Fanciful Gifts), and this year I wanted to sell my own personal items the swap meet, that have been taking up a ton of space at home (and of course for much needed $$$). But I'm unsure if it is possible... I've actually already filled out all necessary forms and paid for 2 days. Just waiting on responses back.
From the rules, it says "Official stores and dealers, as well as their employees, are prohibited from selling at the Swap Meet. Individuals with Guest of Honor or Dealers badge are prohibited from selling at the Swap Meet.