anime pawn shop

[naruka]

I have a good idea for Boston you guys should have a pawn shop instead or along with the swap meet so that people can bring in old anime and get money for it so that they can buy more anime in the dealer's room because with a swap meet it's hard to get things in order and other things people might only want to give away in a set and it's hard to find the dvd that your missing

[hikura]

Well the swap meet is almost the similiar thing.But you can get rare stuff if look hard enough.Plus if you contact someone who is trading material that they have that you want they would be more then gladly hold that material for you.Lot of people did that this past year.
As for the pawn shop it could work but who would do the buying of the material?

[ShadowWolf]

This would be an interesting idea, though, my only thought is how it's going to be presented.

I could probably see this in the Dealer's room, but I'm not sure how else it would fit in.

[Faceman]

I'm not sure if you were at the Swap Meet last year, but from what I saw of things, it was pretty successful. A number of us walked out with nothing we brought in, and others got stuff they've been looking for (or weren't looking for).

Bringing money into the equation crosses the line into the Dealer's zone, and with that is a lot more problems than just buying stuff with money. I don't think using money in the Swap Meet was outright banned, but it was heavily discouraged.

As well as what other said: You need to find someone first who's interested in buying the items. The basis of pawn shops isn't to buy something, but rather to give a loan. The item the person hold over is used as collateral. The person can then pay the pawn broker back with interest, and if they don't the broker sells the items to recoup some of the lost money. A whole summary of it is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_shop# ... cess_works

But it seems that you may be talking more about people who just want to sell stuff they don't want anymore, but don't see anything they want to trade it for. In that case it'd probably be better to post on Craigslist or Ebay.

And you also have to consider, if you're going to have someone giving up money for used items, why wouldn't they rather just spend the money on something new? And if there's a pawn broker of some official AB capacity, what would they do with the items they have left?

[Mizu]

Exactly. Who is going to be doing the buying of these goods? Where is the money going to come from? Also, I'm pretty sure that the second trading any goods for money is involved, it falls into the category of exhibits. This would involve complications with AB's contract with the Hynes, and would have to be a lot more structured. It would also probably cost us more money. However, this would be for our Executive Director of Exhibits to answer to absolute certainty.
The swap meet was really successful, and it will hopefully keep growing better. If you're worried about completing full sets of things, the nature of a swap meet may not be for you, but if you give it a try you could end up with unexpected excellent things.

[Faceman]

Complete agree. Case in point, I ended up walking out with half of the Love Hina manga series, though I had no intention of getting it. But it is a good series, and I was able to trade for the volumes from people who had decided to part with their copies. I went to the dealers room and with all the great discounts was able to get the other half of the series easily.

The nature of the swap meet is "One otaku's trash is another otaku's treasure." Usually that'll mean an odd manga volume or DVD (or VHS, lots of VHS). If that's not what you're looking for, the the dealer's room will be a better fit for you. Though, if you have something you're looking to get rid of and don't have any particulars about what you want to get for it, the swap meet is the perfect place too, as you can find at treasure you weren't even looking for in exchange. (Or just give it away to someone who really wants it. That's more rewarding than trading sometimes.)

[naruka]

well actually that is what i meant having something like that in the dealers room and being able to buy used anime from there it would be sort of like a swap meet except you give away anime for money then someone can come along and buy what some else sold there that way you give away stuff you don't want for money instead of giving something you don't want for something that someone else didn't want

[Faceman]

[quote=naruka]well actually that is what i meant having something like that in the dealers room and being able to buy used anime from there it would be sort of like a swap meet except you give away anime for money then someone can come along and buy what some else sold there that way you give away stuff you don't want for money instead of giving something you don't want for something that someone else didn't want[/quote]

Well, first of all, punctuation is your friend. Learn to use it and it'll make people more more likely to respond, as they don't have to strain to read what you're saying.

So, your whole argument is that you want people to pay money for something instead of trading. While I can understand what you're saying, I'm still not following the logic.

As far as I've experienced, Anime (and related products) generally have a low resale value (aside from rare one-of-a-king items). Nevermind that DVDs (one of the main items in swap meets) don't have the best shelf life, especially considering they're usually individual DVDs and have to complete with overall cheaper and space-saving boxsets and thinpacks.

As such, if you were looking to sell your DVDs, I wouldn't expect you to be able to get more than $5-10 for a single DVD. In which case, you wouldn't be able to buy a new one for that much. Nevermind that if you're collecting a series (and it's not a situation where you're missing the odd disc) most would rather spend $40 on a new box set /thinpack than $5-10 per used disc for a 6-8 disc series. If I'm going to spend money, I'd might as well get the best I can for it.

Not to mention, the whole use of money extends the "trading what I don't want for what he doesn't want" system. When you're buying something, you're saying "I want this more than I want the $$ it costs." and vice-versa with selling. The same principal applies to trading directly, except you also skip the uncomfortable zone where you have to barter nickels and dimes. Most people in the swap meet are happy enough with a trade if they feel the items are close enough in value.

But either way, having an organized and Convention-sponsored event dealing with buying and selling items by actual attendees gets into a whole other realm, which has already been covered in previous posts.

It sounds like you may either need the cash and wish to part with your old items. Or you have little cash and no items to trade, and would like to purchase used items. Either way, Craigslist or Ebay may be a better choice for you. However, as I said, the use of money wasn't outright banned last year (though discouraged). So you could try using it at the swap meet (organizers allowing).

[basharoftheages]

"Trading for these bits of green paper with dead presidents on them."

[nagash]

Which sounds like your not trading, but are instead selling, which is precisely what the dealer's room is for.
It's not fair that one room doesn't pay for the tables while the other room does. Also, there are issues when it comes to the contract with the convention center or hotel, and also with city hall (sales tax issue).