Official Swapmeet FAQ (Fans Ask Questions)

[svchan]

Thanks for that NONexisting 48 hour notice we were promised.I didnt know about the swap meet going up at 7pm and totally missed it. I really needed a spot...:(

It was posted in the thread and the OP was edited.

Edit: Also Facebook and Twitter. Granted, they should have put something on the actual website...

OP doesn't have the link (though it is there within the actual thread).  The actual site still has it as 'coming soon'. I think we can all agree that consistency with the notifications would have been more helpful for many who feel like they were caught unaware because the notifications didn't all line up.

[seerakosumosu]

Other cons have taught me that you need to check every avenue that the con uses to release information, such as the site, forums, and social media accounts. The constantly checking bird gets the worm.

[matthewlow]

Thank you for all your hard work on getting us registered one by one. Four hours later, finally in!

Question though: It says that badge pick up is on the bottom floor of the SJ Convention Center. However, I set to pick up badges at the DoubleTree where Clockwork Alchemy's pick up is, as that's my hotel. Will the voucher to get badges faster work there? What should I do? Thanks!

Also, should the group leader and the swap meet primary be the same person for the voucher to work, or does it not matter?

[Zelyhon]

Okay.  Manual approvals of most of the Step 5-ers have gone out.  There are a few that have not.  Those who left the badge blank (presumably because you are staff or panels or the like) have not yet been approved, but we'll be sending e-mails to all of you regarding the blank spot to check out what's going on.  If you haven't received approval and don't fall within the above group, there may be some processing error or other thing we need to get in touch with you about regarding your spot and we will be in touch shortly.

Otherwise, we'll go over the sign-up list in the next day or two to look over it and make sure everything is alright and that there aren't duplicates or anything like that.

Also, many of you requested specific spots or spots near other people.  We will do what we can at the convention to try and fulfill requests, but we cannot guarantee anything.

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience regarding the sign-up process this year.  If you have specific questions or concerns, we'd be happy to hear them to either try and address them for the convention this year or, if that's not possible, to try and remedy the issue for next year.

Ben Levy
Swap Meet Second

[PacificPikachu]

I got my spot all paid for and fully registered finally, so I'm happy! Now I can finally relax a bit and just focus on preparing for the con.

[bsan89]

Hey there, sorry to be an ass, but I'd like to formally complain about how this just went down. I was sitting there refreshing the forums and events page like an idiot only to find out second hand from a friend via text message that the link was posted somewhere (FACEBOOK???) and now I am waitlisted. I didn't even stand a chance of getting in because I wasn't looking in the right places.

Sorry to hear that, I think you need to PM the OP as they seem to be in charge of swap meet. I have the worst luck being # 811 while people who has 794 get in. LOL I think the cut off was at 800.

Well maybe we'll get lucky in 1 weeks.

[LightandDarkSoul]

Unfortunately for me I was halted at step 3 :( There goes my chance of getting rid of some of my old stuff... CURSE YOU WORK!

[yoshikochan]

Thanks Ben! You guys ran a great swap meet last year ~ and despite the unexpected Step 5 snafu, I was impressed that the site didn't crash and the registration process was *otherwise* smooth. We all know you guys did your best ~ looking forward to next weekend, hurray!

[Oniko]

What address should I put on the temp permit?

[Kazuma_uzumaki]

Hey there, sorry to be an ass, but I'd like to formally complain about how this just went down. I was sitting there refreshing the forums and events page like an idiot only to find out second hand from a friend via text message that the link was posted somewhere (FACEBOOK???) and now I am waitlisted. I didn't even stand a chance of getting in because I wasn't looking in the right places.

I have been doing Swap Meet for years now, and it's basically how I finance the convention and one of the major highlights for me. The delay in posting information is forgivable since it can be out of the organizer's hands if there's other bureaucratic  crap that might be someone else's fault, but posting a public link on Facebook without updating the main website or forum community who cared enough to ask questions (SOME EVEN MONTHS IN ADVANCE) just seems downright wrong. Last year, communication from organizers was great and while signups went up waaaaaay later than they should have, it all worked out. This was not the case this year, and from what I am reading here now, it looks like being online at the right time on the right page might not even have been enough.

I am also in this situation. Going to Fanime is pricey. Swap Meet was how I made my money to support the lovely venders and Artists of Fanime.
As it is the end of May, many of us are busy college students on Finals. My particular finals are this week. To stop my self from distractions, I stopped using FB for a short while (and I don't use Twitter). Of course, I checked the Fanime Site fairly often to see if any information about Swap Meet would come up. Nothing. Every day was the same news posts. I get a text from a friend saying "Hey, aren't the swap meet reg up?" I didn't believe him because the MAIN SITE had nothing (Of course, now I see that the bottom of the site has a twitter area...) Even the Swap Meet area of the events page still says "More Info coming soon.
I signed up 2 hours after the 7pm opening aaaaaaand... waitlisted. Not everyone uses FB and Twitter religiously and relies on the main site to update accordingly.

[BunofGovt]

I was checking the forums when I could but it was getting a message from my friend on Wednesday telling me swap meet reg would be on Friday at 7pm.  Even then, on Friday I skipped the main website and went straight to this thread (about 7:20) and then I checked the last few pages to see if the link had been posted.  I saw the URL link on keitoghostie's post on page 11 (I think) and clicked it right away, and managed to get a spot for Thursday. 

I'm on Twitter and FB but I haven't been getting tweets from Fanime so I didn't bother checking that at all (my notification settings must need adjusting), and I haven't had any FB notifications from Fanime either (I guess I need to check those settings as well). 

[srossi455]

Hey there, sorry to be an ass, but I'd like to formally complain about how this just went down. I was sitting there refreshing the forums and events page like an idiot only to find out second hand from a friend via text message that the link was posted somewhere (FACEBOOK???) and now I am waitlisted. I didn't even stand a chance of getting in because I wasn't looking in the right places.

I have been doing Swap Meet for years now, and it's basically how I finance the convention and one of the major highlights for me. The delay in posting information is forgivable since it can be out of the organizer's hands if there's other bureaucratic  crap that might be someone else's fault, but posting a public link on Facebook without updating the main website or forum community who cared enough to ask questions (SOME EVEN MONTHS IN ADVANCE) just seems downright wrong. Last year, communication from organizers was great and while signups went up waaaaaay later than they should have, it all worked out. This was not the case this year, and from what I am reading here now, it looks like being online at the right time on the right page might not even have been enough.

I am also in this situation. Going to Fanime is pricey. Swap Meet was how I made my money to support the lovely venders and Artists of Fanime.
As it is the end of May, many of us are busy college students on Finals. My particular finals are this week. To stop my self from distractions, I stopped using FB for a short while (and I don't use Twitter). Of course, I checked the Fanime Site fairly often to see if any information about Swap Meet would come up. Nothing. Every day was the same news posts. I get a text from a friend saying "Hey, aren't the swap meet reg up?" I didn't believe him because the MAIN SITE had nothing (Of course, now I see that the bottom of the site has a twitter area...) Even the Swap Meet area of the events page still says "More Info coming soon.
I signed up 2 hours after the 7pm opening aaaaaaand... waitlisted. Not everyone uses FB and Twitter religiously and relies on the main site to update accordingly.

Similar situation. I got home at 7:40 and decided to check the forum to see if a reg date had been set. Instead I see posts about trouble during the reg process, so confused I check the main site and nothing. I find one forum link and it says "coming soon". I finally find another link that let's me register for an account and I'm waitlisted. Not cool. I look forward to and rely on swap meet each year, and I've been watching theis forum since April. Now I'm being punished because I don't use Facebook or Twitter, even though I've been regularly checking the main site and this forum. If you know the demand for swap meet is going to be this great, there should be a bigger space to hold it in. This may prevent me from even attending the con.

[seerakosumosu]

I got a swap meet space for both days and am willing to share with someone. Since I
am flying up I can only bring two suitcases of items and will most likely only need to
use about half the allotted space. In case you have a lot of merchandise I'm skilled at
artfully arranging things and making maximally efficient use of space.  ;)

My only caveat is that I'm trying to minimize the expenses of the con as it's costing me
a lot to fly up there, so I'm looking for someone who wants to share my space but is
willing to pay for the entire spot for both days, just like people who missed out on artist
alley are willing to do. My reason for attending the con is to sell at the swap meet and I'm
not even sure if I will do well as this is both my first time attending Fanime and my first
time paying so much for a swap meet spot at an anime con. So I thought this would be a
good idea that could benefit both parties.

Please send me an email at seerakosumosu[at]gmail[dot]com titled "Fanime 2014 Swap Meet"

[bsan89]

I got a swap meet space for both days and am willing to share with someone. Since I
am flying up I can only bring two suitcases of items and will most likely only need to
use about half the allotted space. In case you have a lot of merchandise I'm skilled at
artfully arranging things and making maximally efficient use of space.  ;)

My only caveat is that I'm trying to minimize the expenses of the con as it's costing me
a lot to fly up there, so I'm looking for someone who wants to share my space but is
willing to pay for the entire spot for both days, just like people who missed out on artist
alley are willing to do. My reason for attending the con is to sell at the swap meet and I'm
not even sure if I will do well as this is both my first time attending Fanime and my first
time paying so much for a swap meet spot at an anime con. So I thought this would be a
good idea that could benefit both parties.

Please send me an email at seerakosumosu[at]gmail[dot]com titled "Fanime 2014 Swap Meet"

Email sent :)

[LightandDarkSoul]

I got a swap meet space for both days and am willing to share with someone. Since I
am flying up I can only bring two suitcases of items and will most likely only need to
use about half the allotted space. In case you have a lot of merchandise I'm skilled at
artfully arranging things and making maximally efficient use of space.  ;)

My only caveat is that I'm trying to minimize the expenses of the con as it's costing me
a lot to fly up there, so I'm looking for someone who wants to share my space but is
willing to pay for the entire spot for both days, just like people who missed out on artist
alley are willing to do. My reason for attending the con is to sell at the swap meet and I'm
not even sure if I will do well as this is both my first time attending Fanime and my first
time paying so much for a swap meet spot at an anime con. So I thought this would be a
good idea that could benefit both parties.

Please send me an email at seerakosumosu[at]gmail[dot]com titled "Fanime 2014 Swap Meet"

I would like to share with you, but the whole "I pay for the whole spot for both days (total of $60) even though you are still there selling" seems unfair (unless I'm misinterpreting something). In artist alley, most commonly if the table is shared then both parties agree to pay only half of the table, and AA tables are more expensive than the swap meet spaces.  So it's only fair that I should pay half regardless of your money stand point. If you have enough money to fly out from where ever you are coming from, then you should be able to pay for half a spot ($30 for both days) Just saying :/

[Oniko]

I need an address still please.

Everything is so late I'm not even sure I'll be able to get my temp permit in time at this point.

[Zelyhon]

One other issue has come to our attention:

Those of you who are signed up for both Swap Meet and Artist's Alley may have noticed a bit of conflicting information from the two groups.  Swap Meet will be issuing vouchers to get your badge early on Thursday to be properly badged for selling.  Artist's Alley, meanwhile, has sent out information saying that you need to pick your badge up at Artist's Alley on Friday and that's the only way to get it.  Both of these things can't happen at the same time if you're an artist who is also selling on Friday.

If you fall into that group, here's what we're going to be doing.  We'll be making a list along with Artist's Alley of those who fit into this category.  We'll be checking registration with AA ahead of the convention.  Once we have a list, we'll be able to check in people on Thursday who are also selling at Artist's Alley if you have valid ID (which everyone is required to have anyways).

Please note that this does not apply to people selling on Friday.  If you are selling on Friday, you must have your badge to sign in for Swap Meet, even if you are also selling in Artist's Alley.


If you think you fall into this group, please send me a private message on the forum with your name and badge number so we can make sure to check you against the list.

Ben Levy
Swap Meet Second

[Yaminogame]

I got a swap meet space for both days and am willing to share with someone. Since I
am flying up I can only bring two suitcases of items and will most likely only need to
use about half the allotted space. In case you have a lot of merchandise I'm skilled at
artfully arranging things and making maximally efficient use of space.  ;)

My only caveat is that I'm trying to minimize the expenses of the con as it's costing me
a lot to fly up there, so I'm looking for someone who wants to share my space but is
willing to pay for the entire spot for both days, just like people who missed out on artist
alley are willing to do. My reason for attending the con is to sell at the swap meet and I'm
not even sure if I will do well as this is both my first time attending Fanime and my first
time paying so much for a swap meet spot at an anime con. So I thought this would be a
good idea that could benefit both parties.

Please send me an email at seerakosumosu[at]gmail[dot]com titled "Fanime 2014 Swap Meet"

I need a spot:( for Friday.

[LightandDarkSoul]

I got a swap meet space for both days and am willing to share with someone. Since I
am flying up I can only bring two suitcases of items and will most likely only need to
use about half the allotted space. In case you have a lot of merchandise I'm skilled at
artfully arranging things and making maximally efficient use of space.  ;)

My only caveat is that I'm trying to minimize the expenses of the con as it's costing me
a lot to fly up there, so I'm looking for someone who wants to share my space but is
willing to pay for the entire spot for both days, just like people who missed out on artist
alley are willing to do. My reason for attending the con is to sell at the swap meet and I'm
not even sure if I will do well as this is both my first time attending Fanime and my first
time paying so much for a swap meet spot at an anime con. So I thought this would be a
good idea that could benefit both parties.

Please send me an email at seerakosumosu[at]gmail[dot]com titled "Fanime 2014 Swap Meet"

I need a spot:( for Friday.

Yaminogame, that's the same person that emailed you

[Michi]

Is it worth it to show up early on Friday and try for a dropped spot since I'm wait listed?