Oh mighty thread..... WISE FWOM YO GWAAAAAAAABE!
Its late and Im bored, so I thought I'd address this thread.
When will the Swap Meet be this year?
I heard that it'll be Friday and Saturday....but last year it was only on Saturday so.....^^;;
Um...no? To my knowledge, the Swap Meet has always been thursday and friday, since its inception. With the possible exception of its first year. I also happen to know for a fact that it happened on both thursday AND friday last year, because I went both days (I got more than 30 volumes of manga for about 100 dollars, plus other stuff) and I took a break from stuffing bags for thursday's pre-reg to do it.
There is, at this moment, no official word on swap meet schedule or regulations. Tony isnt a sneaky demon. Well...maybe he is, but he certainly isnt maliciously trying to keep information from everyone. Rest assured that as soon as the details are finalised at some staff meeting or other, the website will be updated straight away. Just keep your eye on
www.fanime.com for updates (the swap meet, specifically, is under the "Live Events" option.)
Now, I am not swap meet staff so I dont represent anything even remotely resembling an official word, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt. That said, Ive been around a while....let us say I "hear things." I have "experience" in nebulous "matters." Allow me to offer my educated guesstimations.
In ages past, the swap meet has traditionally been held thusday and friday evenings. I would expect this trend to continue. I cant really guess at exact times, though evenings are standard. For friday, I wouldnt expect it to open until AFTER the dealer's room closes (for various reasons which should be obvious.) My Fanime 2004 schedule (the best I could find on short notice) supports this theory, listing both the dealers room close time and the swap meet opening at 6 pm friday.
For policy, I am less sure. I dont think you need to reserve a spot before hand or anything like that, but maybe you do. I think you just walk in and sit down at whatever empty spot (but Im not at all sure so please PLEASE dont quote me on that.) You may be made to put your name on some sort of "list" along with "information" of a mysterious nature. Indeed! You may be required even to sign something. A
wavier perhaps, dictating that you will behave yourself, or that you wont sue fanime if your merchandise is stolen as a result of your own inattentiveness, or maybe that you will not sell illicit materials to minors. Or EVEN
all of the above. Truly, the intelligent vendor would come prepared for all of these eventualities, and more.