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Hey guys,

So the Chicago GW stores had the Bizarre Baazar this weekend, and it was my first time going. I made some trades/purchases as well as some observations:

First off, the Bizarre Bazaar is a weekend set at the local GW stores for gamers and collectors to come trade with each other at the store. It nice, as you can get discounts OOP stuff, painted stuff, etc, and you get to see what you're buying looks like, instead of being surprised as sometimes is the case with Ebay.

I had to trade my AOBR orks that have been sitting in a nice, floral box for several months, and managed to trade them for a nicely painted Leman Russ, a fairly nice deal. The guy I traded it to is running a couple tables at Chicago Games day, so it should be neat to meet his group up there.

I bought for $15 around 25 Imperial Guardsmen, mostly lasguns, but 4-5 GL, 2 flamers, sergeants, a commisar, and a company commander. Not a bad deal from what I've seen online.

Finally, for my Tau playing cousin, I purchased a squad of 12 FW for $15. Not that great a deal, but he needs to beef up his Tau force and this was pretty instant gratification.

As for set-up etc here is what a noticed:

I first went to a GW store that opened up in Palatine, Illinois a few weeks ago, and there was only one other guy looking to trade/sell stuff. Everyone else was demos or painting.

I then went to the Chicago Battle Bunker, where there were several tables set aside for the Bazaar with areas taped off for individual traders. In addition, they had store-sponsored games for WHF, 40k, and LoTR throughout the day, getting more people by. Pretty good setup, friendly staff (at both locations). One thing I was not particularly enthused about was the fact that you have to purchase things from others by giving them GW gift cards. I completely understand the rational of keeping money in the store, but that is a bit extreme. For example, I had to purchase 2 $15 gift cards and use those as payment for the stuff I bought from the two other traders. Despite this rule, it would have been fairly easy to break it, considering no was watching the transaction, and I only found out about it after I asked if there was an ATM nearby (D'oh!).
I had a pretty good experience overall though, and managed to get a nice solid core started for my new IG army.

Anyone else had interesting/fun/awful/exciting stories from the Bizarre Bazaar or similar events?

Not bad!

In other news, I grabbed a Furioso for $10 and 5 DE Slaves for $5. Yay!
____

And a Balrog for $15! W00t!

We don't have these here (bizarre bazaars).

We do have bring/buy tables at certain of our tourneys, though, where many bargains can be found.

A furioso dread (complete Unpainted and still in box)+ 4 other heavy weapon arms for $20.

Bag of IG bits containing:
2nd ed metal sentinel with pretorian driver and two assault cannons (1 as a spare).
4 IG metal autocannon carriages+gunners.
20 sets cadian vox pack+helmet, grenade launcher, flamer+arms, 20 cadians (complete - in bits).
5 steel legion figures (inc 1 mortar loader).
8 Attilan rough rider torsos.
for $20

All prices in AUD, so even less in "real money".

I picked up 14 blisters of sealed old school Seeker's of Slaanesh for $40.

14 well painted Plaguebearers for $20.

and finally a built Land Raider(lascannon sponons) with a converted Multi-Melta gunner and sgt Chronos mounted and on foot, a internet exclusive Tech Marine, and a nicely customized Master of the Forge with conversion beamer on a Adeptus mechanicus converted out bike for $50.

So I spent $110 and hauled in more than $360 worth of stuff!

Why haven't I gone to one of these before? hahaha

So, when will the Mid-west get anything like this?

Chicago is 8hrs away! Though for those kind of deals, maybe I'll drive.

I really wish there was a Battle Bunker near Boston I knew of. I love finding OOP and broken models for cheap.
Historicon usually has some good stuff in it's flea market though. Got a Rogue Trader era Dreadnought for 8 bucks last summer, among other things.

I got 12 metal dark angel guys with robes for 30 dollars and as a bonus he gave me the rare Christmas marine.

Chicago:

I brought a case of unpainted marines:
1 assault squad
1 unit of bikes (6 bikes + chaplain)
1 captain (painted) + plastic command squad
1 Tac squad (rocket, flamer, traditional-like) & old version rhino
5 old metal scout snipers.
2 dreads

A guy came in with a bunch of old armourcast models to trade. I swapped my marines for a classic stompa (2 gun version), and a gobsmasha.

The painted captain ended up making the rounds, as he was part of several further trades. Not sure where he ended up though.

I also "traded" a box of the old metal daemonettes (the sexy ones, not the ones with crabs) for a dreadnought without an arm (he's going to be terrain), a bonesinger, a tomb king chariot (being cut up and used for a deamon chariot conversion), and an epidemius (unassembled, no base).

So, all in all, I'd say that was a successful day. I was really happy to score the old ork stuff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

unclehomefries wrote:
I then went to the Chicago Battle Bunker, where there were several tables set aside for the Bazaar with areas taped off for individual traders. ... One thing I was not particularly enthused about was the fact that you have to purchase things from others by giving them GW gift cards. I completely understand the rational of keeping money in the store, but that is a bit extreme. For example, I had to purchase 2 $15 gift cards and use those as payment for the stuff I bought from the two other traders. Despite this rule, it would have been fairly easy to break it, considering no was watching the transaction, and I only found out about it after I asked if there was an ATM nearby.

I also thought that the gift card thing was slightly odd, until someone explained it to me. What I was told was that it's actually illegal for someone to sell something in a retail store, without the sales tax being charged. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but that was the explanation I heard for why they forced the gift card thing this year. I want to believe it, because apart from being told about it when I entered the bazaar, they were not enforcing it at all. If this was a money-making ploy for the store, I think they'd have had an overseer watching for cash transactions, and they didn't. I saw (and maybe took part) in cash transactions and no one seemed to care. So, this seems to me like they were paying lip-service to some local/state law rather than they wanted to force people to buy gift cards.

I overslept and missed the BB. I have a huge Brettonian army I was going to sell, as well as a ton of Phoenix GUard, a couple Leman Russ tanks, an unopened Blood Bowl set, my crappy drop pods....

Ah well....

sigh. me too. there is always next year

One day, we'll get something like a Bizare Bazaar her ein the UK. One day.

As things stand, the only option we have is to browse car boot sales in the hope of turning something up.

unclehomefries wrote:
I then went to the Chicago Battle Bunker, where there were several tables set aside for the Bazaar with areas taped off for individual traders. ... One thing I was not particularly enthused about was the fact that you have to purchase things from others by giving them GW gift cards. I completely understand the rational of keeping money in the store, but that is a bit extreme. For example, I had to purchase 2 $15 gift cards and use those as payment for the stuff I bought from the two other traders. Despite this rule, it would have been fairly easy to break it, considering no was watching the transaction, and I only found out about it after I asked if there was an ATM nearby.

I also thought that the gift card thing was slightly odd, until someone explained it to me. What I was told was that it's actually illegal for someone to sell something in a retail store, without the sales tax being charged. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but that was the explanation I heard for why they forced the gift card thing this year. I want to believe it, because apart from being told about it when I entered the bazaar, they were not enforcing it at all. If this was a money-making ploy for the store, I think they'd have had an overseer watching for cash transactions, and they didn't. I saw (and maybe took part) in cash transactions and no one seemed to care. So, this seems to me like they were paying lip-service to some local/state law rather than they wanted to force people to buy gift cards.

What about the Baltimore one? Looks like most of these stories are from Chicago (with a notable shout-out from Australia )

I couldn't make it but it sounds like a great way to make deals. If I need something in particular I'll definitely stop by next time (I just about rounded out all my needs through the Swap Shop already)

I got a lot of fair trades and traded off Tau (which I'll not be playing for some time) for new in the box Chaos vehicles (Defiler, Land Raider, Predator, Vindicator) and also got a box of Ork Bikers, Ork Nobs, and a Valkyrie for my trouble for some old terrain and some Sentinels, a Hellhound and a Chimera.

The things I thought would fly off the table (Leman Russ and Demolishers, Catachans, Steel Legion) ended up coming home with me.

RiTides Nids wrote:What about the Baltimore one? Looks like most of these stories are from Chicago (with a notable shout-out from Australia )

I couldn't make it but it sounds like a great way to make deals. If I need something in particular I'll definitely stop by next time (I just about rounded out all my needs through the Swap Shop already)

They announced at a tournament a month or 2 ago the Baltimore Bunker would have its BB in June sometime.

got amazing deals for some great guys at the dallas bazaar


3k point lizardmen army. 100 dollars

4.5k high elf army 115 dollars (both unassembled)

2k point chaos BFG fleet, 60 dollars.

30 khorne bezerkers, asembled in awesome poses using extensive green stuff/cutting.

nurgle FW rhino, also with awesome modeling, all assembled but unpainted. 60 dollars.

and some beautiful city terrain, 4 large buildings, and a really cool large statue center piece all painted and well converted with sandbags, statues, etc. and a battle map. 80 dollars.


I honestly will have trouble buying normally from the store for a while. especially after the price increase



Automatically Appended Next Post:
O and my bud won the ogre kindoms battle force, it was a great event!

I was going to swing by my GW as I think they were doing it as well. But my neighborhood was full of firetrucks putting out my neighbor's house, so I wasn't going anywhere.

My best finds at Bizarre Bazaar at the Battle Bunker in Maryland:
- Drop Pod $15, Juggernauts complete except for round bases for $10 each.
- Baneblade $40
- Daemonettes (plastic) new in box $10
- Traded Eldrad I bought for $2 for a Necron Tomb Spider.
- Space Marine Scout Bike, new in box $7
- Forge World Thousand Sons Dreadnought and Rhino Doors, $30 total
- Last year's Games Day Space Marine model, bought for $15, it sells on eBay for about $30-$40.

Some items I wished I'd seen and bought before others did so:
- Eldar Bonesinger $5 (easily fetches $20-$25 or more on auction)
- Sicarius (original limited promotional version) $10 (easily fetches two to four times that at auction)
- 4 Eldar Wraithguard for $10. I ended up trading for them with the friend who found them, but still wish I'd just bought them and still had the other stuff to sell.

I've been to every flea market at GW since they started holding these events a few short years ago. The first couple years I displayed items at Bizarre Bazaar selling was a lot easier and generated more money, which is to say that people were glad to get a decent discount on current items without expecting the seller to practically give them away. Collectibles used to sell well also and at fair prices comparable to auction. The past few Bizarre Bazaar events have had a very different tone. Collectibles don't sell unless they are at bargain prices rather than collectible ones and regular product often won't sell unless it's nearly free. But, the economy is a lot worse during the past few flea markets than it was during previous such events and the number of employees at the HQ offices at the Battle Bunker is a lot smaller than it used to be and the employees were some of the best customers for collectibles.

So, while I still enjoyed the latest Bizarre Bazaar, got some great bargains and made a few good trades or sales, overall I'm finding these events, at least for the time being, are good mostly just for trading and bargain hunting unless you just want a quick dollar and are selling all your items cheap to do so. If you want a more fair amount for what you are selling, it's better to auction it on an online auction site where more customers will see it and you're more likely to get a fair price for it.

I was able to find three primered bikes on the cheap from a kid that was getting out of Marines. That's what I like about these Bazaars, the ability to find good deals on figures you need. Last time I was able to pick up Marneaus and a full set of Index Astartes books.

As to the Cash vs Gift Card thing, likes others have stated the GW staff wasn't watching so closely that cash couldn't be used. Even when I did pay the kid for the models, he went right up to the counter and put the cash right on his gift card.

Got 2 NIB Necron Immortals and a Pariah for $12.

One thing I wish I had noticed was a guy selling shoebox of "figures" for 20 bucks. Turns out there were at least 10 Rogue Trader-era Chaos Renegades in there amidst a whole sea of other things. Sad Panda.

10x IG tanks for 50% off.

all unpainted and decently built.


what a deal.

WHY DID I MISS THIS!

could have gotten such a deal there........