Prime 2015 Pin Trading Event Sunday Night

sirmrej

Roll call! Who was in the overflow pin room with me at the Westin for three hours...

Ajaxon

I came down on Sunday just for the trading event and missed out on the main queue by about 10 minutes, and ended up going back home. Did you eventually get in to the trading event from the overflow room?

MetricalSky

Not me. Like Ajaxon, I got to the Westin just a few minutes after the line was capped, and I left to spend the evening with friends.

Being capped out of the staff trading event this year is forcing me to re-evaluate how much I want to be collecting these pins, considering the amount of money and PAX time that's required to acquire them.

mightyh0bbes

2 hours 15 minutes of "It looks good, you guys should be able to get in." I understand the games are a way to make it fun but the turnover gets KILLED! Can we just go back to quick trading and move along?

mightyh0bbes

Also, yes I would have/should have been there early since it's the most important part of my PAX but I had responsibilities until 6:30 and ran to the Westin right after.

Ajaxon

mightyh0bbes wrote: »

2 hours 15 minutes of "It looks good, you guys should be able to get in." I understand the games are a way to make it fun but the turnover gets KILLED! Can we just go back to quick trading and move along?

I especially agree with this. I was using it as a way to get one of each bust pins and move along. I would have been in and out in 5 minutes.

sirmrej

I got there at 6:00 and it was already capped. Had been for some time.

The overflow line did not get in. PA brought staff pins over for people at 8:50 but that was it.

DarthJer

As much as the games for everyone slowed everything down this year, I would say the bigger problem was that people would go through the tables and then loop back through the trading area to do it again. I think last year's strategy of "Groups get 15 mins and then get told politely to GTFO." worked better for the masses.

TheAggroCraig

Looking at the line I got in and out. I made one loop through and went on my way. Obtained a few more castle guys, dropped a few uncommons, etc.

PAX_Skeletor

This is the second PAX running where these sorts of problems cropped up. Who did manage to get into the event, and how early did you begin queuing? I ask as someone who wants to attend his first staff trading event at PAX Aus!

fishfishmonkeyhat

Last years AUS trading didn't seem half as bad as they have it at Prime.

The line actually started behind me while I was waiting in the trading area because I assumed that was where it was going to be. A few hardcores hung around after the line cleared to trade on the tables there. I don't think they capped the line at any point (?).

Hopefully it's not that popular over here for a few years at least.. >_>

JKwon

I got in line at 445, and thr line was probably 30 people at that point

evanephrine

I got into the trading event, about halfway through the line before it capped. Heres why I thought it was so slow and so few people got to go through and trade. At East and South the trading area was set up as separate tables spaced out with a pair of PA staff at each doing their thing. There was standard 1-to-1 trading and games going on, and it was alright. People got to mosey between tables freely and then (mostly) left to trade with community people.

At Prime there was a single line. All the tables were set up in an 'L' shape and it was like a conveyor belt going down the line. If people wanted to stop and trade or play games or chat to the staff it held up the entire rest of the line, especially people who were just there to 1-to-1 for staff pins. When they realized they were running out of time and only half the line had gone through they let in a smaller group of us (Thanks MerchMistriss!) to freely move between the tables like we've done in the past. That helped us get through quicker but by then the line had already been established.

Some people want to get in, trade, and get out, and that's rad, they're more interested in the pins. Some people want to chat and mingle and play games with the PA staff, and you know what that's rad too because that's the entire point of the pin trading! None of this would mean anything without the sense of community between us all as well as the staff. They conveyor belt pin trading line is a good way to trade pins quickly, but not socialize well.

Hopefully in the future we can go back to the more spread out method and anyone can get into the pin trading throughout the whole event, even if they just show up for the last 10 minutes. As long as it's easy to cycle through the staff tables and folks who are done are being convinced to move out, that end goal is not too far off.

Beker

We will certainly be discussing this event internally, i'm sure next time I see @merchmistress we will have a good long chat about it. The games are fun, and the staff have a good time playing them with you. As the same time we know people want to complete their staff set. Also throw into the mix that Pin trading is getting quite popular, and more and more people are trading every PAX. For now staff pins are going to be harder to acquire, I don't think that is a terrible thing. We certainly will be watching it and try to make sure they are no where near the hardest to acquire pins. If they are harder to acquire you all can trade for a couple of them and know you will be able to use them as decent trade material to others. The intention was always that you can only get these from the individual staff as the source, so setting an enforcer next to merch with all the staff pins doing trades all day will likely not happen. But maybe we can get better about advertising when we are in the pin trading area.

Thanks for the feedback, we are listening.

thx42

Beker wrote: »

We will certainly be discussing this event internally, i'm sure next time I see @merchmistress we will have a good long chat about it. The games are fun, and the staff have a good time playing them with you. As the same time we know people want to complete their staff set. Also throw into the mix that Pin trading is getting quite popular, and more and more people are trading every PAX. For now staff pins are going to be harder to acquire, I don't think that is a terrible thing. We certainly will be watching it and try to make sure they are no where near the hardest to acquire pins. If they are harder to acquire you all can trade for a couple of them and know you will be able to use them as decent trade material to others. The intention was always that you can only get these from the individual staff as the source, so setting an enforcer next to merch with all the staff pins doing trades all day will likely not happen. But maybe we can get better about advertising when we are in the pin trading area.

Thanks for the feedback, we are listening.

It seems like the amount of physical space that was given to the pin trading event was quite a bit smaller than the previous trading events I had been to (Prime 14, East 14, South). Was there a reason for this, or just some kind of scheduling constraint? If there were a little more room around each table, that would give more people the ability to look at what was on each table.

Ajaxon

Beker wrote: »

But maybe we can get better about advertising when we are in the pin trading area.

Perhaps this can be accomplished with a new PAX Twitter account? PAX_Pins or the like?

BrushwoodMutt

thx42 wrote: »

Beker wrote: »

We will certainly be discussing this event internally, i'm sure next time I see @merchmistress we will have a good long chat about it. The games are fun, and the staff have a good time playing them with you. As the same time we know people want to complete their staff set. Also throw into the mix that Pin trading is getting quite popular, and more and more people are trading every PAX. For now staff pins are going to be harder to acquire, I don't think that is a terrible thing. We certainly will be watching it and try to make sure they are no where near the hardest to acquire pins. If they are harder to acquire you all can trade for a couple of them and know you will be able to use them as decent trade material to others. The intention was always that you can only get these from the individual staff as the source, so setting an enforcer next to merch with all the staff pins doing trades all day will likely not happen. But maybe we can get better about advertising when we are in the pin trading area.

Thanks for the feedback, we are listening.

It seems like the amount of physical space that was given to the pin trading event was quite a bit smaller than the previous trading events I had been to (Prime 14, East 14, South). Was there a reason for this, or just some kind of scheduling constraint? If there were a little more room around each table, that would give more people the ability to look at what was on each table.

That seemed to be because unfortunately the schedule worked out that the trade event occurred close in time with the Markiplier autograph session and that in and of itself seemed to eat half, if not more, of the space just for his fans.

Pruncible

I was in the overflow room for the full three hours, having showed up right at 6:00. Honestly, I had a blast hanging out with other dedicated traders and made several trades while hanging out. Getting to get a full set of staff heads was still pretty sweet for me, even though I had hoped to chat with some of the staff. In the future, I'll just make sure to loop through the staff trading table a few times a day.

Staff trading sounds super fun, and I'd love to get in once. But I had ten 2+ hour lines I stood in during this weekend. I'm going to have to cut out some of the lines at my next PAX so I spend more time doing things and less standing uncomfortably.

D0rkAngl

This was my first time trying to do the trading event so I just didn't know what to expect as far as lines go. I got there right before it started and of course the line was long since capped. Had an awesome time in the lobby trading/talking/mingling though, so it wasn't a waste, just no staff pins to be had.

Spokane_SnowMan

PAX_Skeletor wrote: »

Who did manage to get into the event, and how early did you begin queuing? I ask as someone who wants to attend his first staff trading event at PAX Aus!

Arrived at about 5:40 and was 3/4s of the way back in the main line. It capped just a few minutes later.

The sheer number of pinny traders I met the following day who didn't get in tells me that next years pin trade is going to require an even earlier arrival, however, hopefully they will change their process and get more people in next year.

Hingo

@PAX_Skeletor I arrived a little after 5pm, and I was #33 in line. Qumaden and I were talking and we didn't really recognize anyone in front of us. Either there is a large contingent of hardcore traders that aren't on the forums, or the Panel is getting word out that you need to show up early. My general feeling on panels is if you really want to go, show up 2 hours early at a minimum.

Keroan

I was in the overflow room too, but it was fun. I'm a little bummed I didn't get to talk to staff, but there were plenty of chances at the staff booth by the merch area (BLESS YOU FOR THAT).

My boyfriend had an interesting idea. For the Squeenix signing, he got a ticket that told him what number in line he was and at what time to show up. Half the line was to show up at like 1pm or something and the other half was to show up at 2pm. That way, they could get through people without all the fuss of line standing forever and still had the room to interact with people.


I know a lot of people say "do a fastpass system!!" and the Club PA people obviously booed that idea. I'm not sure I'm a super fan of that either, since it just rewards the people who would have been first in line anyway. However, the Squeenix line worked so well, I wonder what it would be like.

Qumaden

I was fortunate enough to be up in the first couple of groups to go in. My plan was to just go in, grab a replacement staff set and get out(maybe show off my tattoo a bit). I went in and everything was going quickly until I got to @PA Jamie table. She actually engaged me in conversation, and it reminded me of PAX past when pin trading was such a small thing that it was like our own personal meet and greet with the staff. I got lost in conversation, could have been five minutes, could have been five hours, but being star struck will do that to you. Once I snapped back out of my trance, I did everything I could to get in and get out. Sorry to all those who couldn't make it in

BrushwoodMutt

I will admit, I was there at 4:50 so when they started letting people in I was right there at 5. And I was also slow in doing the trades because I was before @Qumaden and he left before me. I get the feeling for me and others it was our first time doing this and interacting with staff members that we tried to chat a bit. It also didn't help I had to go and loop back because some people went through the different staffers at different paces so while some areas were clogged others were clear and I had to run around to make sure I got everyone. Though I got a staff bust from all but Coffman, I'm not sure I was able to get two trades from every staffer.

Sammy.Sam

We must have been next to one another in line. Tippy & I got there early enough (4:40 ish) to be put in the earlier 'holding room' and had to wait while they got the Markiplier line under control, before they let us wait in the real line for the pin trading. I think being in the cramped space caused a lot of the problems, since there was less room for people to stand by the tables. That resulted in a lot of looping back, trying to find an opening.

I like talking to the staff and playing some games, though they can get unwieldy. I thought Khoo had the right idea that you could play a game once, then just do a straight trade for a 2nd pin. I understand the need to get more people through the line, but I think some of that can be resolved by a better layout, versus trying to make people rush through like an assembly line. Last time we had this discussion, I think Pedro addressed how to optimize the layout for better throughput.

corinnetags

We showed up at 6:30 and found that there was already a substantial line in the "overflow" room. We stuck around for Club PA. Did several trades for stuff I wanted, got to show off my pins, meet other pin traders, and was able to supply a couple brand new traders with pins they really wanted. All in all, not a bad time in line, but was sad that we didn't get to do staff trading especially since I saw a lot fewer at Prime than I normally do at East.

PedroAsani

Beker wrote: »

We will certainly be discussing this event internally, i'm sure next time I see @merchmistress we will have a good long chat about it. The games are fun, and the staff have a good time playing them with you. As the same time we know people want to complete their staff set. Also throw into the mix that Pin trading is getting quite popular, and more and more people are trading every PAX. For now staff pins are going to be harder to acquire, I don't think that is a terrible thing. We certainly will be watching it and try to make sure they are no where near the hardest to acquire pins. If they are harder to acquire you all can trade for a couple of them and know you will be able to use them as decent trade material to others. The intention was always that you can only get these from the individual staff as the source, so setting an enforcer next to merch with all the staff pins doing trades all day will likely not happen. But maybe we can get better about advertising when we are in the pin trading area.

Thanks for the feedback, we are listening.

I'm going to be discussing this on the podcast, as I talked with the Enforcers running it about numbers. Every PAX has done it differently, and I know which ones felt from an attendee point like they worked the best. It would be interesting to know which the Staff felt was the best run one.

gacbmmml

If Pax_Lines had warned us that the line was filling up... I would have quit my Magic Draft immediately and walked over. But there wasn't any word, AT ALL... so yes, I was one of the folks who spent 3 hours in the overflow room.

Qumaden

gacbmmml wrote: »

If Pax_Lines had warned us that the line was filling up... I would have quit my Magic Draft immediately and walked over. But there wasn't any word, AT ALL... so yes, I was one of the folks who spent 3 hours in the overflow room.

Well, it went from about thirty people to full in about fifteen minutes.

Beker

gacbmmml wrote: »

If Pax_Lines had warned us that the line was filling up... I would have quit my Magic Draft immediately and walked over. But there wasn't any word, AT ALL... so yes, I was one of the folks who spent 3 hours in the overflow room.

PAX lines has to have some infrastructure to work. Enforcers watching things, sending updates to the person doing the tweets etc. That is all in place for panels, but wasn't something we had set up for this event. I don't think any of us realized we would need it, and like others have said, by the time we did, it was capped. I had planned to have the tables in a nice U shape, reversed from previous so that the staff were inside the U and the larger surface area faced you all. But we just did not have the space for it here. Space at PAX is a constant struggle and there will always be give and take.