Swap Meet Questions

Started by keitoghostie, February 28, 2013, 11:26:31 AM

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keitoghostie

Hey I know the swap meet information isn't up yet but after checking last year's rules I still have a few questions:

Is there any restriction on genre?
The bulk of what I'm planning on selling is manga but I have a few miscellaneous items (cosplay (sun)glasses, official but used Homestuck merchandise, band T-shirts, video games, CDs of both Japanese and American origin, other clothes/cosplay items) that aren't directly anime-related but I could see a demand for.  Is it okay to sell those or should I stick only to the anime/manga/figures I want to sell?

I'm (hopefully) hosting a panel sometime during the con, is there any issue with advertising for the panel at my swap meet spot?
To clarify, either a paper flier that stays at the spot or if I included mini-fliers with sold items.

Do I need a seller's permit?

Do I need something dedicated to hold money?
Is a cash box or something similar required or can I use my wallet or a pouch for cash?
Similarly, how much change should I have with me?

Hachimitsu

Quote from: keitoghostie on February 28, 2013, 11:26:31 AM
Hey I know the swap meet information isn't up yet but after checking last year's rules I still have a few questions:

Is there any restriction on genre?
The bulk of what I'm planning on selling is manga but I have a few miscellaneous items (cosplay (sun)glasses, official but used Homestuck merchandise, band T-shirts, video games, CDs of both Japanese and American origin, other clothes/cosplay items) that aren't directly anime-related but I could see a demand for.  Is it okay to sell those or should I stick only to the anime/manga/figures I want to sell?

I'm (hopefully) hosting a panel sometime during the con, is there any issue with advertising for the panel at my swap meet spot?
To clarify, either a paper flier that stays at the spot or if I included mini-fliers with sold items.

Do I need a seller's permit?

Do I need something dedicated to hold money?
Is a cash box or something similar required or can I use my wallet or a pouch for cash?
Similarly, how much change should I have with me?

Is there any restriction on genre?
I sold sonic the hedgehog comics, anime, dc, marvel, all open used items and items reduce off... if you have alot more anime stuff to sell, it would work nice then!.. However always be aware there are alot of pickey people who wants to buy things.
I kinda noticed most fans tend to buy products that was an old anime / anime that was once popular... while the dealers hall most people buy the more recent anime that is popular...
hey i could be wrong but swap meet is swap meet ^ ^!

I'm (hopefully) hosting a panel sometime during the con, is there any issue with advertising for the panel at my swap meet spot?
I think i strong advise NOT to. Seriously, your going to need every penny for change! also i think it would kinda feel like your in the process of dealers hall activity, which swap meet is strongly against!

Do i need a seller's permit?
Don't worry, you dont need one, all you need is to be the age of over 18yrs, must have a valid Identification card, and $20 for a full 10 x 5 swap spot... or was it 4x6......ARGH! i forgot I KNOW its a ten!

Do I need something dedicated to hold money?
you can use both actually O_O!. or either one of them! Seriously, it's alot of people comming through the door. THE LINE for entrance is VERY long!....

Bonus questions::
Can i sell rare anime for what is double than its worth?
yes, but make sure you dont scare them like hell, Alot of people rejected the Keyblade play arts arms and I know that if I sold them for a cheaper price, they will either make a big big deal out of it, OR they might say HA i got this cheaper than amazon.com! Point is, if you have an item and dont know how much it's worth, compare it and reduce the price half off and such! even if it's sealed, and dusted, and kinda bended! who knows!

can i give away bags?
Can't san jose wants you to FORCE them to pay ten cents!....

I have a THINGIE that can swipe credit cards on my cellphone, can i use that as alternative payment?
Seriously i found out that now these stores uses ipods/ipads with built in networks to do this process! I applaud them for their alternative payments because lets face it, IMM not spending $3.50 on a damn atm machine -_-! and alotof people are asking for *can you break a $20, or a $50*.. and walking to chase is very very far!

whats a more recommended day? Thursday / friday / both ?
To be honest, thursday sounds like your desperate to sell your stuff, while friday is more chaotic and fun to sell!
i could say both but they cost $20 a spot! and your only allow to have 1 spot (per day), if you have a family member, then its 2 spots (per day) but they too must have a badge (within those days)![or without considering about thursday!]

AFTER THE BLACK OUT THAT HAS HAPPENED, THE RULE STATES THAT YOU MUST HAVE A BADGE ON THURSDAY! the swap meet administrators had to remove that rule and let them in without the use of a badge for swap meet.

What ever happened to the idea where you can get your badge pick up when you registered for swap meet! BACK THEN that was a cool cool idea! save time from the big line!

keitoghostie


Ecchi ja Nai

Here are a couple of comments to clarify some of the questions/responses posted earlier.  Please keep in mind that I am not a staff member for Swap Meet, and any of this information may differ or can changed at their discretion.  Having said that, however, I do speak with the experience of having sold at the last few meets.

While there are a few exceptions (somebody used an example of roller blades last year) as to what is allowed, there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to the items on sale.  There have been sellers who come with both current gen and retro video games.  Action figures from various sources pop up.  Heck, I even sold a Furby from 2001 last year.  Cosplay items are usually allowed, but remember that mannequins and other large displays are not.  Baseball cards are kind of iffy, but there are always a ton of people selling/trading Magic (and other TCG) cards.  Basically, if there's some crossover between what you'd like to sell and the various fandoms held by the average Fanime attendee, you should be in good shape.

I'm not sure if the panel thing has come up before.  To be honest, I don't know if you'd want to bother with fliers.  They can make a mess if somebody knocks over your stack, and you can be sure Fanime and facility staff aren't going to be very happy about it.  Plus, they'll know exactly who to yell at if you're going to be advertising your own panel.  Besides, you probably won't have any time to actively hand them out since you'll hopefully be busy selling all your stuff.  There shouldn't be any problems with chatting people up for it, though.  There's a lot of con and general anime banter going on, so you should have plenty of opportunity to let people know.

Do you need a seller's permit?  YES!  You absolutely need a seller's permit.  It's actually a temporary permit as required by the state of California, and you will need to have this if you want to sell stuff.  Don't freak out, though, as this isn't as daunting as it may seem.  You will need to print, fill out and sign a single-page form that Swap Meet staff usually have posted as a pdf well in advance.  I should have mentioned this earlier, but there will be a page (hopefully posted soon?) on the main Fanime site with all the rules and requirements to participate as a seller.  They make it really easy to ensure that you've got everything on the up-and-up.  Read and follow everything they post and you shouldn't have a problem.

It's really up to you if you want to have a cash box on hand or not.  Like I mentioned before, I'm usually too busy selling stuff, taking the cash and making change to be able to neatly put the money away.  I do know, however, that there are some sellers who make use of one and don't seem to have any issues with it.  I might suggest having one with you for both transporting any change you'll be bringing (and unless you do have a mobile credit card processor which seemed fairly popular last year, I highly recommend bringing LOTS of small bills) and hopefully the huge stack of cash you're going to be leaving with.  You don't want to walk around with potentially hundreds of dollars stuffed in your pockets when the swap meet gets out late at night.

There were some other fairly random thoughts added above (unless I missed something,) but there were some good points that were brought up.  Bags - can't give them away in San Jose.  At least not plastic bags.  If you happen to have a bunch of reusable shopping bags you don't mind giving away, I don't think there's any conflict with the law there.  If you bring a bunch of paper bags with you, keep in mind that they need to meet certain regulatory standards - which I won't go into detail here - and you'll be required to charge at least ten cents per bag.  I think most people would agree: don't bother bringing paper bags, unless they're for your own use.

Since the con officially begins on a Friday, there aren't quite as many people that show up on Thursday, but there's still plenty of buying/selling to do if you're going to be in the area anyway.  The only conditions that I would let affect your decision to sell/not sell on either day are: 1)Are you going to be in San Jose on Thursday, anyway?  If so, why not check out swap meet?  There are a few sellers who only show up on Thursday, and if you're selling, you may as well try to get rid of some of your stuff so you don't have to haul it all back the next night. 2)Is the seller's fee going to have a big impact on participating?  If you can't afford to pay for both nights, then don't.  I haven't had any trouble making up the fee with what I sell on either day, so if nothing else, at least it's not a financial burden for me. 3)Do you have enough stuff to sell both nights?  If you're lucky you'll sell EVERYTHING you brought on Thursday (has that ever happened for anyone?) and then you'll be able to spend the entirety of Friday night either buying more stuff for yourself or checking out other con stuff.  Are you afraid you won't have enough time with just one night to sell everything you plan on bringing?  Spread it out over both nights and maybe you'll wind up with better results.

The badge pick up at swap meet was mentioned, but I'm not sure if they've figured out all the logistics required to do it.  When they did give it a try, it seemed like an extremely arduous process that, while convenient for the attendees who were also selling, really turned out to be a bigger pain in the side than it was worth.  I think it also really slowed down getting sellers processed, forcing the folks at the end of the line to wait even longer.  I just mention this so people don't get their hopes up.  If someone can figure out a way to pull it off, though, I'd love to see it come back.

tl;dr - If nothing else, be sure to keep your eyes peeled on the Fanime site for news, rules, sign-ups, forms, etc. for the Swap Meet.  Most if not all the important information you need will be posted there.  In years past, there is also an official swap meet thread that pops up closer to the con where that same information and more specific questions will be addressed by staff.  I'm really looking forward to another successful con and meet.  Now I just need to make sure I get my name on the seller's list on time.  Oh, yeah... that last part - also important.

ewu

Hi! I AM staff, but Ecchi ja Nai got it summarized pretty well.


As for sellers permits, if you are a occasional seller, you do not need a sellers permit. Otherwise, you do. An occasional seller is defined by the BoE, but there is a short description on the SM application form. More info here: http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqseller.htm
Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman
FanimeCon Forums Moderator

ericATfanimeDOTcom

Ecchi ja Nai

Quote from: ewu on March 02, 2013, 08:15:21 AM
As for sellers permits, if you are a occasional seller, you do not need a sellers permit.

For my own clarification, if nothing else, are you sure sellers don't need a permit?  Or perhaps I'm mistakenly treating a temporary seller's permit and a full-fledged BoE annual license as two branches of the same tree.  My understanding was that if you were planning on selling normally taxable merchandise, and you are not an otherwise licensed retailer, you need to apply for a temporary permit.  For as far back as I can recall, the completed permit, photo ID, (sometimes a) Fanime badge and the nightly swap meet fee were all required to participate as a seller.  And like I mentioned previously, the form required is available through the swap meet info page; it's not a process that you have to formally work through with the BoE.

To me, a seller's permit is still a seller's permit in this situation, regardless of the fact that almost everyone participating will be using a temporary one.  But perhaps I'm splitting too fine a hair with this.

ewu

Please see here: http://www.boe.ca.gov/formspubs/pub107/

If you qualify as an occasional seller, you do not need a sellers permit, permanent, temporary or otherwise.
Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman
FanimeCon Forums Moderator

ericATfanimeDOTcom

keitoghostie

Ecchi ja Nai you are awesome, thank you so much!!

I live nearby so being around on Thursday is no issue - I think the only issues that I'm worried about are if I'll have enough to sell over the 2 nights (which is probably in the range of 50-80 items?), and if I'll have the time to dedicate to both nights since I already have a lot of plans in the making but maybe that just makes me a good candidate for Thursday-only?

But yeah cash box sounds like it could be a pretty good move! I work part-time as a cashier so I'm used to that sort of thing.

As far as the whole advertisement thing goes, if I decide to go with it i'll probably just tape a single flier to me or my space in an unobtrusive way? Thanks for the comments though yeah I definitely wasn't thinking the handouts thing through!

Quote from: ewu on March 02, 2013, 05:07:05 PM
Please see here: http://www.boe.ca.gov/formspubs/pub107/

If you qualify as an occasional seller, you do not need a sellers permit, permanent, temporary or otherwise.
Thank you for the clarification! I assumed that's what occasional seller referred to but I didn't want to jump to an incorrect conclusion on that one!

Hachimitsu

Quote from: Ecchi ja Nai on March 02, 2013, 04:06:19 AM

Do you need a seller's permit?  YES!  You absolutely need a seller's permit.  It's actually a temporary permit as required by the state of California, and you will need to have this if you want to sell stuff.

NO YOU DONT! the last 6-7 fanimes ago sellers permits was not to be used unless you have a full permit! (with a secondary permit of location listings). Most people just sign your forms and agree with terms of services just to sell their stuff..

Only the artist alley / dealers hall must require permits!..

what makes you so sure this year you need a sellers permit this year? I already heard that swap meet is still going to be at the same hotel as last year, but then again kinda concern about the line you guys made! (found out youknow already)

as of now im kinda concern the lines on swap meet! I felt like the first room of the swap meet was more important than the second room! SO i was wondering if that is ever going to be fixed?

Ecchi ja Nai

I must just be confusing the form that we're required to have when we're being checked in to sell at swap meet.  It's rare, but I have been proven incorrect on occasion.  ;)

Just to get this cleared up for good, can anyone recall what the form is that we're required to have?  We needed to present the fee to sell, a photo ID, sometimes a Fanime badge, and then whatever the heck the form was that I'm thinking of before staff checked over the items you were bringing in.  Well, last year a little different...

I was fairly sure it wasn't an official BoE document, but I thought it still mentioned something about occasional sellers, not available for people who have a resale license, etc.  I suppose it could have been an internal Fanime form that they wanted to keep on hand for whatever legal reason, but again I thought there was enough to suggest it was a temporary sellers permit.

Hey, better yet, let's get some info and signups posted - that would really put this to rest!

Hachimitsu

Quote from: Ecchi ja Nai on March 05, 2013, 08:20:13 PM
I must just be confusing the form that we're required to have when we're being checked in to sell at swap meet.  It's rare, but I have been proven incorrect on occasion.  ;)

Just to get this cleared up for good, can anyone recall what the form is that we're required to have?  We needed to present the fee to sell, a photo ID, sometimes a Fanime badge, and then whatever the heck the form was that I'm thinking of before staff checked over the items you were bringing in.  Well, last year a little different...

I was fairly sure it wasn't an official BoE document, but I thought it still mentioned something about occasional sellers, not available for people who have a resale license, etc.  I suppose it could have been an internal Fanime form that they wanted to keep on hand for whatever legal reason, but again I thought there was enough to suggest it was a temporary sellers permit.

Hey, better yet, let's get some info and signups posted - that would really put this to rest!

darn right ^_^!.. and I hope you too get a swap meet spot! because i BARELY got it into the position for the swap meet positions! !

DangerHeart

How many people can sell at one spot? My friend is looking to sell quite a few gently used lolita dresses and accessories and we're both looking to sell old anime merch and cosplay supplies. Would we both need to sign up separately?

ewu

Quote from: DangerHeart on March 14, 2013, 08:20:46 PM
How many people can sell at one spot? My friend is looking to sell quite a few gently used lolita dresses and accessories and we're both looking to sell old anime merch and cosplay supplies. Would we both need to sign up separately?

The agreement will state that only two max at each spot.

Thanks
Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman
FanimeCon Forums Moderator

ericATfanimeDOTcom

Anon

we're nearing the 2 month mark soon, are we going to see any updates on the event? Same location as last year, or hopefully back at the convention center? Is there staff assigned to it yet? Spot registration date?

otakuya

Quote from: Hachimitsu-ink on March 01, 2013, 06:19:33 PM
Quote from: keitoghostie on February 28, 2013, 11:26:31 AM
can i give away bags?
Can't san jose wants you to FORCE them to pay ten cents!....

I believe that ordinance really only applies to large corporate company stores, so a private swap meet (a la, Fanime) should be ok with plastic bags or whatever. Even some local asian markets here still use plastic bags for free (until the City of SJ tells them not to)

djmonolith

Quote from: Otakuya on March 16, 2013, 04:10:48 PM
Quote from: Hachimitsu-ink on March 01, 2013, 06:19:33 PM
Quote from: keitoghostie on February 28, 2013, 11:26:31 AM
can i give away bags?
Can't san jose wants you to FORCE them to pay ten cents!....

I believe that ordinance really only applies to large corporate company stores, so a private swap meet (a la, Fanime) should be ok with plastic bags or whatever. Even some local asian markets here still use plastic bags for free (until the City of SJ tells them not to)

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find places that give you bags... even my little teeny neighborhood market is all freaked out to give you a bag for free.  Here is the official word on bags:

"The ban will extend to all retailers in the city, exempting restaurants and non-profit reuse organizations"

This is my signature.

M

Quote from: Otakuya on March 16, 2013, 04:10:48 PMI believe that ordinance really only applies to large corporate company stores, so a private swap meet (a la, Fanime) should be ok with plastic bags or whatever. Even some local asian markets here still use plastic bags for free (until the City of SJ tells them not to)

Quote from: djmonolith on March 16, 2013, 04:41:35 PMIt is becoming increasingly difficult to find places that give you bags... even my little teeny neighborhood market is all freaked out to give you a bag for free.  Here is the official word on bags:

"The ban will extend to all retailers in the city, exempting restaurants and non-profit reuse organizations"
We are looking into exactly what will apply to our various events where things are being sold and will hopefully be able to give details before registration opens.
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Eurobeat King

Quote from: Anon on March 15, 2013, 04:58:44 PM
we're nearing the 2 month mark soon, are we going to see any updates on the event? Same location as last year, or hopefully back at the convention center? Is there staff assigned to it yet? Spot registration date?

My thoughts as-well..  The staff is probably trying to figure out where to have the Swap Meet this year, so until they finalize a location, they don't want to say announce anything or open the sign-ups yet.  While I can understand that, it is frustrating.  But we can only hope they announce something soon (like early April)  :-\
"Freedom is the right of all sentient cosplayers."

Eurobeat King

About 7 weeks to go until Fanime is here, and still no updates about the Swap Meet?    :-\
"Freedom is the right of all sentient cosplayers."

djmonolith

Where can I find general information on What the swap meet is... I was standing in line during the swap meet last year and missed it.  Thanks!
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