Thank you and suggestions about my booth wanted

y-bot

Hello! My name is Toby and I shared a booth with Video Game Collector magazine at PAX '08.




I think I managed to stay out of most of the pictures myself but you may have seen my g/f in the Princess Peach costume. I want to thank everyone who came by my booth. I had a blast! I only wish I had more to time to go to the concerts and other things after the exhibition hall closed. Our hotel was near the airport and the parking garage was a problem so we left pretty early each day. So to the people who saw my booth do you have any suggestions on what I could have done better? I only had a week to get ready so if I had more time I could have made it a little more professional looking. If I'm able to do this show again next year would you rather have cheap prices and a shabby looking display or a nicer looking display and slightly higher prices? Thanks for any suggestions you have.

toby

Ferquin

Probably more organization, signs saying what category this is and whatnot. No offense, but it all seemed like a jumbled mess of nicknacks. Maybe better presentation in general. I realize you had limited time, but some signage and clearer arrangement would have helped.

You had a lot of cool stuff, stuff I actually still have and are still in working order.

BTW, I was the guy that drew the Peach sketch. You have an awesome girlfriend. She really is like Peach, both in looks and personality. I was really struck by her "Peachiness".

PikaPuff

the booth itself was good, reminded me of pink godzilla in 06. Yeah, signs would have been helpful for you. Didn't really know if stuff was for sale or what.

skarsol

That picture of your gf is a bit creepy. :P

Atlus Parker

Did I get the only picture of you?

I liked your booth and found it interesting but honestly I felt I could get most of the items on eBay and would rather drop bank on con items I couldn't get elsewhere. As much as I revel in the presence of classic games it really did feel like a garage sale. I'd love to see a prominent display of rare oddities next year. Did you have anything to do with the classic video game magazine they were shilling near your booth? Can't say I liked that at all.

VThornheart

Oh, I wish I had seen this booth! I was running around doing other stuff and I think I missed it... though I think I did run into Peach somewhere around the expo hall if I'm not mistaken. I have to admit that I've always been a bit skeptical of eBay (I could just be paranoid ), so I'd have rather gotten the kinds of materials you sell from a booth like yours.

Out of curiosity, were those N64s in the screenshot still sealed and new, or were they used?

Randomfool

I thought the booth was really cool but a bit unorganized. When I first came to the booth most of the game tubs were stacked on top of each other. I think you were in the process of reordering them or something. Also you might want to be a bit more vigilant about what's going on at the booth. I could have easily grabbed a few games, slipped them into my bag and walked away without anyone noticing. I'd like to think most people at PAX wouldn't do that but you never know.

I ended up buying Rad Racer from you only to find my Nintendo's rf adapter is a flakey.

If you're back again next year I'll definitely stop by again.

leaf

I liked the booth for every reason everyone else didn't. I'm never impressed by several thousand dollar displays, when those resources could be put into something more worthwhile. Plus I like the charm of that street vendor style. Whether that's cheaper prices, more stock, what have you. I browsed through a few times, only reason I didn't get anything was I never had a 64, and there weren't any snes games I was looking for.

In hindsight there were some sticker packs or something I should have looked more at

y-bot

Thank you for the comments they are much appreciated. I only had a week to get ready and I wasn't sure how much room I would have. I usually have stuff for sale under the table but I thought that would cause too much of a mess this time. I would like to have a sign made and to have things organized a little better for sure.

@Ferquin- I really like your Princess Peach sketch.

@Atlus Parker- Yeah I don't think I got caught in too many pics and I'm pretty okay with that. Not sure when you saw my booth but I had a lot more stuff on Friday. Nothing too rare besides the things in my glass display case. One thing I really need is a different display case for my better items. They were kind of all piled on top of each other. I definitely had a few things you would not easily find on Ebay. A Sinistar Atari 2600 prototype, a ColorVision console & games, Epoch Cassette Vision & games, a super early version of the NES w/R.O.B. complete in box and some others. Did you see my stuff on wired.com?

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/multimedia/2008/09/gallery_pax_ten_things?slide=1&slideView=11

I am not affiliated with Video Game Collector magazine. The publisher of that magazine is the one who got the booth and asked me to share it with him through a mutual friend. I may share a booth with him again or work something else out. I'm a staff member of NWCGE who run the retro freeplay room at PAX.

@VThornheart- the N64s were just boxed not sealed.

@Randomfool - thanks for the heads up, there were so many people at my booth sometimes I didn't know what to do. Send my a PM with your mailing address and I'll hook you up with a working NES RF switch

@leaf- glad you liked my booth. I also prefer flea market style but I realize I need to class it up a bit for a show like this. I had a few good SNES games like Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country and Mario Kart but they all sold right away on Friday.

y-bot

GertBeef

I think my favourite thing at your booth, and you can see it in the first photo there, is the 20 year old pacman candy.

Also, i'm enjoying the mario head ball thing i bought from your booth for $1 more than i probably should.

Haikufrenzy

Actually one thing to think about is if the retro room is bigger next year to move the booth into there. Because when it's out on the exhibition hall like that it was easy for a smaller booth to get lost in the mix. Especially like in your case where you had a pretty lackluster location. However if you put it into the retro console room, there you have a lot of attention from people who are already in a retro kind of mind frame. Hance you can bring them into the stuff your selling much easier.

Personally I liked what you had at the booth a lot. I had no idea so many old video games became board games.

Ferquin

^
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This is probably a good idea. I can't remember how many times I got lost trying to find your booth again. Perhaps this is more a problem on who decides what booths stays where. Still though, you were kind of in a weird spot. I would've expected you to be near, like, Pink Godzilla, who also sells retro game stuff.

Blade Fusion

As a suggestion for getting accommodations within close proximity to the Convention Centre, I have a great solution, Craigslist. Back in February I found a "temporary apartment" which I rented for 10 days while in Seattle. It cost me a total of $497. That was a bargain for sure. Especially since it was in Capitol Hill which is about a 5 minute drive to the Convention Centre. He had driveway parking too. Check out Craigslist for all sorts of deals and whatnot.

Brian4120

^^^^^
Smart! Hopefully we won't have to deal with a hotel/apt next year. One of my friends said he is planning to move up into that area. FREE PLACE TO CRASH HUZZAH

Its really a shame that I ended up missing this booth completely I'll defiantly look for you next year!