JohnGaunt wrote:This is a line that only Al can say . . .  

you said it bro

last minute thing. totally unfit, un-prepared and not ready at all, but ah what the hell, you only live once and these opportunities dont come around very often eh?

i leave on 30th July, race start on 2nd August and runs for week, its 215km i think from memory, across the Mongolian stretch of the Gobi Desert. i leave to come back home on 11th August, but will be stuck in Beijing Airport 13 hours waiting for my connecting flight to Frankfurt....sheesh man that totally sucks...

but hey...will be a fantastic experience and i cant wait (despite the fact that i am rather nervous about it all).

and i imagine the mongolians sell a quality Bacon Cheeseburger too

Al

Kingofpain89 wrote:
How about "I ran 215 km through the Gobi desert and all I got was this stupid t-shirt....and the swine flu."  

or that and then ".... and the damn bacon cheeseburgers sucked"

Hello All,

Well now that we are back from Origins, and have had a chance to recover, here's what we can add:

The attendance was certainly sparse compared to Gencon.  I would expect, as Franks mentioned, that Gencon will be down as well this year.

The auction was pretty bad, unless you were into war and/or board games, miniatures, or anything other than d&d.  There were a few items but they were mainly 2nd+ edition.

The exhibit hall was better.  We picked up a ton of Goodman Games product from T&T and another place I think was called "The Last Square" which had 42 for $100.00.  T&T had better pricing, especially on Saturday when the reduce their prices.  So, if you were looking for GG there were plenty to be found.  They were selling like hotcakes!

Crazy Egors was there and had a good selection as usual, if you were willing to pay for it.

One glaring issue, if you were there looking for vintage items, there was virtually nothing.  A lots of boardgames, some of them were pretty decent though.

I did make one nice find.  Picked up a nice condition Wee Warrior's Dragonlord for a great price.  I actually thought that I already had it but discovered I didn't upon returning home.  Also got a couple of Strategic Reviews.  Rabbit picked up a 6th print OCE and a bunch of Dragon and Dungeon Mags. T&T was selling the limited 4th edition "Tomb of the Blind God" which we picked up.  There were also a bunch of Hackmaster modules for dirt cheap.

We also participated in the miniature painting which was similar to what they had at Gencon last year.  Free miniature and paints combined with a nice, relaxing break.  

Overall, it was a decent convention despite the fact that attendance was sparse and the vendor and auction offerings were not too great either.  We might go again next year, if things pick up.  But, we will shoot for Gencon next year for sure!

Anyone have questions, feel free to ask.

I'm hesitant to say because there will probably be a massive exodus to Origins every year to find sweet deals... I paid $30.00 for it!

That and some of the other deals we got definitely made the trip worthwhile.

It's much harder to find deals at Gencon, unless you arrive when the doors first open.  Too many Acaeum hawks swoop in and get the best prizes!

Yep, back from Origins and my family vacation (to Myrtle Beach) on which I left right after getting back from the con - so now after about 1900 miles of driving in the past 10 days I can finally take the time to review my purchases.  Unfortunately, it's back to work tomorrow.  As dbartman mentioned, I did pick up a very nice 6th print OCE, as well as some early Dungeon and Dragon mags I didn't have copies of yet.  A few additional Goodman Games items and a couple HackMaster modules, as well as very fine copies of WG4 and UK2 completed my purchases.  Although not as awe inspiring as Gen Con, it was still a very nice convention.  

With dbartman out of action for Gen Con and my son not interested in going back this year, I'm going to be hard pressed to decide to go it alone.  Particularly since now that I've moved the trip to Indy would be about 6 hours compared to the 3 hours it took the past two years at my old house.  Although I'm not going to completely rule it out as of yet, it does look doubtful.