If I had the money, I'd have bought Domesday #2. It actually went for less than I expected to hear -- I was guessing $20k.

Frank, do you have access to an Excel-type spreadsheet of the auction sales, similar to what I've been able to get a hold of for past years?  Or would you know who might have such a thing?

Foul

I tell you I'm REALLY getting jealous of all the goodies people are listing...

Brette:)

Kaskoid wrote:I would like to thank all of you for your gracious hospitality and a marvelous dinner.
To those to whom I was unable to speak, my apologies. Of the seats available when I arrived, I made a bad choice (back wall) that severely limited my mobility; I wanted to able to see everyone. I owe you all a free bitd tale of some sort.
We had some fun at the auction; airborne snackcakes tend to perk up the level of attention paid. At 3 AM Sun., Frank and I were pretty well fried. When you look at the number of items sold in the time the "main show" auctions run in the evenings, we really move some goods. It was just that there we sooo many for the charity auction because it was for Gary; what could we do? I certainly could give nothing less than my best in memory of and on behalf of my old friend. (But I did see someone mention their suspicion that some dealers may have "dumped" into the auction. Maybe that can be addressed in some way. Kaplow Games gave us bunches of their dice games; left to my decision, they would have been auctioned in sets, e.g., one each of each title in a set. That would have condensed that agonnizingly long segment.)
Again, my thanks for your hospitality; you guys make GC just a bit more fun all by yourselves. And I really, really enjoyed my time with "Billfer". hehehe

It must be mentioned, you have to once in your life see Frank and Tim do a rares auction.  Professional, and they both have the ability to wring the last dollar from the auctions. It was no coincidence that the few items of mine either got their hands on went for more than I had thought they would. If I had my way I'd just have Frank and Tim auction all my stuff!!!  

Also I mentioned this last year, Frank and Tim are very approachable and enjoy dealing with and mingling with fans and old schoolers.  I would second what Tim said about the auction and as a matter of fact I am going to write a long missive to T&T and Jon Huston (who knows if he will read it though) with some suggestions and cutting down the charity auction without losing any money in the process. I heard the auction raised $16 grand which I believe is over six thousand more than last year so it's really good they get that money, but auctions that end at 3 am are not good for the buyers, the sellers, or the auction staff itself.  One possibility was as Tim said to auction the items in lots; another suggestion was to have an auction store where the more common charity auctions could sit all week and be purchased, thus cutting down on what has to be auctioned off on Saturday night.   Regardless, something needs to be done!

The "airborne snackcakes" Tim mentions are twinkies; when the high bidders both drop out at the same time, and are given the option of reinstating their last bid, and they sit there doing nothing, Tim threatens to throw a twinkie (or sometimes does toss one) at the offenders as a slap against their manhood.....and it usually works!  Nice schtick.

Thanks again to Tim for attending the Acaeum dinner a second year in a row; I really hope this will become an annual event at Gencon.

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:Also shout out to Bracton who I talked to for awhile Saturday night and is a great guy not the least because he bought a copy of R4 I had put in the auction for $300...thanks man!  Hope you don't find the cigarette burn...

Mike, you're just lucky it was an R-4.  Once I had R-1, R-2 and R-3, I couldn't really stop and not get the set, could I?

Cigarette burn?  I suppose that's still better than mold.    

For what it's worth,

I was crazy enough to stay for the 3am ending of the auction on Saturday. And although it was very late, I have no regrets that it ran that late because of the charity auction (OMG - The huge dice sold for $1,500.00... where would you put it in your house...). That copy of PoTVQ was beautiful.  

Furthermore, I'm happy, even if some people felt that some of the dealers dumped their stuff in the auction at the last minute. It was for a good cause. I like the idea of putting items in lots to save time though (although you may not get the best top dollar by grouping items into lots ???)

What puzzles me, is that you have a very large variety of items in a charity auction, with such a very large variety of collectors, is there a better way to get top dollar for them. A better promotion of the auction perhaps...?

This Gen Con was my weirdest ever. It was either my 20th or 21st Gen Con, I lost count years ago, however, it was the first Gen Con where I dedicated myself to simply running games, rather than playing in games or working in the exhibit hall.

And that made all the difference. Unfortunately, it did not FEEL like a Gen Con to me.

I ran three three-hour Wilderlands of High Adventure Castles & Crusades sessions each day, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from 9 am to 7 pm, with only an hour lunch break each day. I was thus in the Hyatt almost the entire show; on Friday and Saturday I skipped my lunch to get to the exhibit hall for an hour each day. Then on Sunday I was in the hall from 9 am to 3 pm, which meant I had about one minute per company to peruse the booths!

I never made it to the auction, or to the board game hall, or miniatures hall, or any other events. And I was so exhausted from running games all day long that I was mentally in no mood to even play at night, so evenings were spent in other forms of relaxation.

Thursday night I hung out at BeerCon briefly, then spent the rest of the night hjanging out with my best friend, who happens to live in Indy. Same for Friday night, though we ended up having dinner with Chainmail Girl, going briefly to a party, and then went to see Dark Knight.

Saturday was an early night for me, as I wanted to be fresh and awake for my limited time in the hall. I ended up going to a seminar presented by Joe Goodman and then crashed early. I was supposed to drive all the way home on Sunday, but ended up being so tired I stayed in Rockford, halfway home.

Of Acaeum folks, I only got to see TacoJohn; we ended up having breakfast together most days at the Embassy Suites.

I do not yet know how sales went for my 2008 Wilderlands Jam Gen Con Special; everything went back with the Trolls, and they are going to tally sales on that later this week.

It was also the second-lightest Gen Con haul ever for me (my first Gen Con exhibit hall was so overwhelming I froze up and only bought a handful of computer pre-generated character stat sheets). I ended up with copies of the Goodman 1E specials, Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: City of the Gods by Harley Stroh, Kobold Quarterly #6, GameNight by Jonny Nexus, Tales of the Chi-Town Burbs, Castle Zagyg 2: The Upper Works, StarSIEGE, Jim Ward's Towers of Adventure, and Crusader #11. That's all...

I do have lots of good memories of gaming; almost every game I ran was full, and everyone had a blast. But still, for me, it does not feel like I went to Gen Con. It feels more like some other convention...

So next year, I'll be running only two sessions, one on Thursday, the other Friday, each four hours long. The rest of the time will be dedicated to the hall and other events. Lesson learned, I guess...

Hi,

we got stung for $150 over the luggage allowance on the trip from Indy to New York (on Continental). Good old BA didn't bat an eyelid tho

I'm blaming the CCGs the Missus bought (but that may not be ENTIRELY true).

Got loads of stuff, including cheapo Fazzle at the auction.
Got Nomad Gods for $65 (I think), which was nice, as one sold on Ebay last week for $300. Also Sorceres Apprentice 17 for $3.

Defintely think the Charity stuff went on too long. Was just like a conveyor belt after a while, with a lot of stuff going for only a few dollars.

Cheers,
Malc

badmike wrote:Thanks again to Tim for attending the Acaeum dinner a second year in a row; I really hope this will become an annual event at Gencon.

Thanks are all mine. You know what they say about me; "If you feed him, he will come."

jamesmishler wrote:...first Gen Con where I dedicated myself to simply running games, rather than playing in games or working in the exhibit hall.
And that made all the difference. Unfortunately, it did not FEEL like a Gen Con to me.

Yeah, I know what you mean. In '74 and '75, I just attended on my own, had a ball and played in whatever took my fancy--mostly miniatures games. In '76, '77, '78, '79, and '80, I was either running it or working like a dog manning the TSR or DRAGON  booth or running games. When I just went to one again, it didn't feel the same. Then came 2006, my first after 23 years, and it didn't feel like anything familiar whatsoever.
This year, tho', I did my stage gig, and ran two mini-adventures in Tower of Gygax. That began to feel like the old days. I definitely recommend a blend of the two; Lords know, killing off a dozen or two strangers in demeaning, horrifyingly grisly ways can be mildly amusing, but so are the rest of the parts that make up whatever your ideal con' experience can be.

Kingofpain89 wrote:Pretty much anyone that was still there at the end of the Saturday night auction was crazy....me included. Both Netrodent and Bracton fell asleep momentarily in their chairs and several other people were nodding off every so often.

Don't think that was not noted by Frank and I. Good thing for both of them that they were snoozing just out of effective Twinky range...

yaya wrote:Indeed, I think they need to break the Charity Auction into two sections (if they get that many donations again) and run it Friday and Saturday. I really think the length hurt the prices later on. People just wanted to get on to the collectibles by that point.

No argument from me; they are looking at it seriously. But think of this; are we likely to see that much stuff again? It was for Gary, after all. And this; we steal time from wherever we split it to as well.
Question: I see that you are using the Wham charicature. Is this a temporary hommage thing? Just curious, as I'm the one that scolded the guy on DF for using the Capt. Playdoh avatar into abandoning it.