T'was the Swap Meet Before Christmas...

(Image by:  OOP Games & Hobby)

A few days before Christmas I ventured up to the Angel of the Winds Arena for the 13th Boardgame & Miniature Swap Meet hosted by OOP Games & Hobby.

The venue was nice, large enough to accommodate all the vendors and easy to get to once off I-5.

Since I left 30 minutes later than I planned, I rushed off without my cameras, so I don't have any "man on the street" pictures to post.

My usual quest at these affairs is purchasing items I don't have to cut-out, paste together or paint.

For the most part I was successful in this endeavor.

One vendor, I'm afraid I didn't get his name, was selling off spare items from the several Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Kill Team Starter Set.

 For a mere $10, I obtained the rulebook...

...the supplement guides...

...the double-sided, mounted playing board...

...and the status counter sheets.

Okay, that's one item I have to punch out and trim, but there's less than 50 counters, unlike many boardgames which contain hundreds of them. Even over a thousand if you consider monster games.

I've never been good at haggling.  But when I asked another vendor about these near-future, pre-painted figurs, he said it was $25...

...But then added prices could be negotiable.

When I offered him $20, he accepted.  Upon my return I conducted  a quick Google search an extensive on-line research and found these figures sell for about $20-$33.

So I got another deal.

The most expensive item I bought turned out to be this WH40K-ish looking dice tray made by Carrie Emmerich, artist and proprietor of Omnibusy.

She also runs a Tumblr blog called Iris of Ether.  The dice tray cost me $30.  But as we concluded my purchase, some of the furniture figures on her display table caught my eye.

Specifically, these wine/beer casks:

Carrie originally wasn't planning on sell them, but offered them to me for $5 each.

Unlike previous swap meets there were a number of non-gaming vendors, specifically artists and authors.

While I spent some time chatting with these folks, along with other game vendors, I didn't spend any more of my money.

I always feel rather bad when I don't help out small/at-home business owners.  My late mom was an artist and attended art & craft shows throughout her life.  Plus I'm a wannabe writer myself.  So I know how hard it can be to make a profit at various shows, conferences and conventions.

However, I couldn't bring myself to buy anything else I was interested in, or something I have no room for, like this:

(Image found on eBay, not from the vendor I spoke with)

One vendor did have this Star_Wars_Miniatures AT-AT but I had to pass it up due to lack of shelf & storage space.

Here's a list of the game vendors, artists and authors I talked with and picked up business cards from before departing:

Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Almost Critical

Moon Dragon Games

Arcanum Miniatures

Ink Gasket

Ford 3D Printing

This has been the second swap meet I managed to attend. The last one two years ago, which I didn't even get a chance to write about. What keeps me away is my rotating work shift.

Hopefully it won't be another two years before I can attend the next one.

Happy New Year everyone!