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PSA: I tried to organize a local comic swap meet and it turned into a weird scalper convention
Set it up at the community center last Saturday, thinking it'd be chill. Charged $5 a table. Out of 15 sellers, like 12 were just guys with stacks of polybagged #1s from the 90s trying to sell them for crazy prices. One guy quoted me $80 for a 'near mint' Spawn #1, which is wild. My friend who just wanted to trade some old X-Men issues left after 20 minutes. Learned that if you don't have super strict rules about what counts as a 'fan swap' and not a storefront, it gets taken over fast. Anyone know how to actually run a good, non-scalper event? Do you need to vet people beforehand?
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kevinr235mo ago
Sounds like you just described every comic shop I've ever been in. Maybe the problem is calling it a swap meet when it's really just a sale.
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foster.patricia4mo ago
Ngl, you're missing the point a little bit. The difference between a swap meet and a sale is that a swap meet is supposed to be about trading between collectors, not one guy sitting there with a price gun hoping to flip stuff for cash. I've been to enough flea markets and comic shows to know that when you charge table fees, people are going to show up to sell, not swap. Calling it a swap meet sets an expectation that it's mostly trades, and when it's not, people get let down. If they had just called it a comic sale or a mini convention, nobody would have batted an eye. Your friend didn't leave because he wanted pure invite only events, he left because the name didn't match what actually happened.
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susan2955mo ago
That "weird scalper convention" sounds like a normal comic event to me. The guy with the Spawn #1 for $80 is just trying his luck, same as anyone at a flea market. You set up tables for five bucks, you get what you get. If your friend left because people were selling instead of trading, maybe a swap meet wasn't the right call. Those are basically mini comic shops. You want a pure trade event, you have to make it invite only and that's a ton of work.
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