Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Once when I was a kid I went to a yardsale where someones Mom was actually selling off a lot of their minis and RPG stuff.... It was so SWEET! Now here I am sharing a similar thing with y'all (if you live in Ontario, that is) ;P

What: A Miniatures Yardsale - for real - minis, scenery, everything from bits to full armies and terrain. Hosted by a big group of gamers.

When: SUNDAY  August 26th Noon - 3:30

Where: Trenton Ontario - Military Family Resource Center.

Here is the cool thing - instead of totally draining our supportive local gamestores of buisness - all profit on things sold by those involved will be passed out in the form of gift certificates to the local Game Stores - so everyone wins!

I hope that this set up will not only draw many great Dakkaites out to this sale but that it is the type of thing more of you can bring to your own local gaming scene. Instead of  just cashing out on ebay - do something that supports and stimulates your local Gaming economy and brick/mortar stores!

If anyone wants more details just shoot me a mail!

I don't believe ebay friend-to-friend transactions take away from stores. Only
so much money can trade online before someone buckles down and pays a
store to buy new models to put into circulation. Also, people selling old stuff
means some people are raising funds to pay for new stuff.

Still, cool idea.

Nice idea. Its always nice to get a close look at second hand stuff before buying.

Although I'm a little underawed by the "local gamestore as charity" idea. Stores are businesses. Good businesses do well, bad ones don't. I don't see why someone who earns a living out of us on a commercial basis also deserves our charity. If they were a not-for-profit entity then maybe, otherwise its caveat vendor as far as I'm concerned.

But still. Maybe its an across-the-pond difference as I'm from the UK.

The main difference, I think, between the UK and North america is that there are far fewer GW stores, and the FLGS is one of the few places where you can physically game. The reason a lot of us view our local stores as charities is because we get a lot of benefits from them free of cost (place to play, tournaments, leauges, etc.)

It's weird, I know, but nobody has been able to figure out how to correctly charge folks for using open gaming tables without both looking bad and diminishing newer interest in the games.

That's probably because there is no good way to charge for game space, its a bad idea.

The majority of guys who play in the game space are usually customers at the shop ( or at least in my 13+ years of shop experience) Their business at the shop helps pay for the "non-retail" space. The thing I have seen at a some store w/game space is they don't use it to make more business. The don't properly run events that encourage new purchases as well as create an environment that makes new players want to join the fun or get the old players to branch out or try something new. If you play once or twice a week at a local shop odds are you will but more units or start different army's to keep things fun and beat that one guy who whoops up on ya all the time, than if you play at home with a few buddy once a month or so. It just works that way.

Now if the store has several events a month running, one of them is probably gonna catch your eye and make you want to get ready for that event, if that means picking up a few new paints or a whole new unit. All that is generated from the open game space. That's how the game space pays for its self. Asking gamers to pay go table space is like asking drivers to pay for every road they drive on or charging you a rental fee on a shopping cart at the food mart. Think about it, the food mart has big baskets so you can put more stuff in them and spend more money, the city takes care of the roads in the productive parts of the city (for the most part, there's always an exception) where the most revenue is gained buy providing the best means of getting to work or shopping.

It all adds up to money in the end, its just how you get there that makes it worth or not worth the guys time. If I go to a shop and they want to charge me to play there, I don't go back plain and simple. If they don't have the drive or right folks in place to make those tables work for them instead of pimping them out, then I will find a place that does.

As for the topic of the yard sales, well as long as they are once a year or so they are not going to do any damage to the local shops. Hell they may even spur some extra business from the guy who got a deal on an army but now only need two units to finish it off, 2 units he would not have bought other wise because he could not afford the whole army. Sure there will be the guys who will get it all but that how it goes. Its a nice deal that the guys are doing this with the shops ( make you wonder who's idea it was a guys, or a shops?) everybody wins as odds are most of the money made would go to new figs and such anyway.

Our local stores have been great in providing us with local games nights, prize support for tournaments, advertising for our club and just generally being supportive of us and all our wacky wishes and ideas. It seems daft to me to create an atmosphere where supporting the stores that support us is not the way to go - We can see it clearly in the next closest town with a store that carries GW - where the local clubs do not support their local stores and strangely enough they keep going under or just scraping by, they do not flourish the way our does, the community is without a heart or rallying point and quite frankly it sucks there. Our local guy is a friend, buisnessman, supporter and the center of our community. It just makes sense that we not only have a sale to get rid of some of our old stuff but that we make sure it doesnt get frittered away on coffee or such and instead goes back into supporting our hobby and local game community.
But hey thats just my $0.02 Cdn

(Oh and it was my independant idea - the club loved it and we approached the shop owner after that - he of course approved)

The local shop hereabouts hosts two silent auctions every year. I have no
clue how it actually works or what participants or the store get out of it, but
it does what your event does (encourage people to both swap and support).

Actually, it's not a local shop. But that changes nothing!

I actually just helped a Museum run a silent auction. I'm sure there are differances between Profit Organizations and Non-Profit organizations doing it, but basic premise is this.

They take the items, and lay them out all around the place, so that people can come in an see them. Then there is a form placed next to that item. If you want it, you write a bid down for it. Someone else can then come by and put a higher bid down for the item if they want it, so on and so forth. In the end, the highest bidder gets the item after they pony up the dough.

Now with the Non-Profits, the organization went around and collected "donations" from anyone who would offer anything up. Such as, the local Indian Reservation donating 50lbs worth of fresh white fish (which is a really hot item in NW Michigan), or half price Salmon Fishing Charters on Lake Michigan.

As for a Profit org. I could imagine them auctioning off surplus stock, or whatever. Their pretty cool deals, and you have the ability to save some good money on things.

I run auctions at my shops a couple of times a year. Whatever the items go for, the ex-owner gets that much in store credit. It's a sort of 3 cornered deal. One person clears out stuff he doesn't want, and gets new stuff. Someone else gets the old stuff cheap. Store gets cash, gives out merchandise, so essentially sells a lot of GW that day.

Usually the stuff brought in fills a 4' x 32' space and it takes me 5 hours to auction it all off. Then I hit the bar, hard, and don't talk for a day or two.

Shameless plug: Next one is August 5th, come dump your stuff, and buy other peoples bitz.

Posted By djones520 on 07/26/2007 8:25 PM
Such as, the local Indian Reservation donating 50lbs worth of fresh white fish (which is a really hot item in NW Michigan)

Oh man... I love great lakes whitefish.  300 years ago, it was so easy to catch people got sick of it, but now the stocks are down to the point where it's almost a luxury food.  That and Smelt are two of the things I miss about northern Michigan.

I am sorry to report that this event has been postponed due to a venue conflict. I will repost when we sort out a new date.