Bring and Buy Games Stall

The schedule

The Bring & Buy stall will be back by popular demand. We had hoped to hold it in the Gladstone room, as we did last year but apparently that room is full of hotel junk - spare tables, pool tables, etc. - so we may instead use the Chamberlain Suite, which I think is on the top floor.

Massive version of the above hotel map

Register your games for sale before you arrive

You can list the games you want to sell via our online browser-based app.

We hope the instructions on the web page are self-explanatory but here's a few more tips.

Browse: Even if you are not planning to sell any games, you can use the browse option to see what games have been listed and at what price. Please note, these prices may change or for that matter, games listed for sale might completely disappear from the listings, as sellers have the ability to edit their listings right up to the point where they bring the games along to the Bring & Buy.

Buyers: I wouldn't worry too much about this option at the moment. MidCon committee member Giles, who wrote the app, is looking to set this up as a service for cons across the gaming hobby and from a cursory glance it looks like he is planning clever things such as watchlists and alerts.

Sellers: If you want to sell games in the Bring & Buy, you will need to register; for this, you will need to provide a name, an email address and a password. Once you have registered, you will be able to list one or more games by using the Add A Listing button.

 When you click on the add listing, you will be taken to a new screen that will ask for details of the game you want to sell, namely: the name of the game (as per Boardgamegeek.com); the version (ditto); condition (check definitions by browsing the listings and apply accordingly); price (in whole pounds); notes (optional). Note, the first three fields are drop-down menu-driven while the fourth and fifth fields are free form.

Once you have completed all of the required fields, hit the "Add listing" button. If you've messed up, just hit cancel.

When you have added all of your listings you can use the Seller Control Panel to browse the listings, edit them or even delete them if you wish.

If you do not register the games you have for sale before you arrive at the con the Bring & Buy team will have a laptop or two available you can use to register your games, without holding up everybody else in the queue.

The online app mentions the ability to print out your own barcodes - we'll have a barcode scanner to make processing purchases swifter - before you arrive at the con but I have not worked out yet how to do this; I'll have a word with "the King of Spain", i.e. Gilo.

Bringing your games along to the Bring & Buy

There will be two selling sessions on Saturday (see schedule below) and before each, sellers will be able to bring their games along to the Bring & Buy room (probably the upper floor of the main bar, but check with the con's Registration desk), make themselves known to the Bring & Buy blokes and if they have not already printed off their own stickers with bar codes, they will be provided with several stickers - one per game they are selling. The tricky bit then is for the seller to attach the right sticker to the right game ...

Once you have applied the stickers, simply place the games on one of the display tables and (how can we put this politely?) naff off out of the room, promptly, no matter how tempting it is to have a gander at the games on sale (most of which will be listed online anyway).

Before the second selling session, there will be a period where sellers may adjust the prices of the games that have not been sold. This is where the new technology falls down a bit because unless Gilo has changed the procedure, this entails the seller amending the prices on the online app, then finding the game(s) where the price(s) has/have been changed, crossing out the old price and writing in the new price on the label. It's traditional for the new price to be less than the old one ...

It will also be possible in this session to add new games to the Bring & Buy (maybe you arrived at the con too late for the first session).

Let the buying commence

Once we are good and ready, we'll open the doors and let the buyers in. If you see a game you like, grab it and take it to the table where purchases are being processed. If you have octopus-like abilities, you might want to grab a handful of games before making your way over to the desk.

You can pay by debit or credit card, although we'd prefer cash (if only because we'll be paying the sellers in cash). Sadly, although you can use the online app to see how many of your games have been sold and how much you are set to receive from those sales, you will not be able to offset the amount you pay out (on purchases) with money you are due (on sales). We had an enthusiastic helper try to do this offsetting on the fly one year and when we balanced the books we were £90 or so short, so we'd rather not attempt it.

The schedule

Any questions, shout here, email hello@hummingbirduk.com or check out the Facebook group.

Please note, we will be deducting 5% (rounded up or down depending on whim) from each game sale to cover the cost of the hire of the room.