What Time To Get In Line (Exhibit Hall) Thur AM?
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Posted by fpras

Now that early admission on Thursday is a thing of the past, crowds may be even bigger. My thought is show up at 10:10am and avoid the crush. I may not get the "only 10 available" stuff, but it should still be able to get most of the shopping done before crowds get heavy.

Posted by boc_mage

I like to schedule my volunteer shift if possible for Thurs morning, i get to avoid the nerd herd/mob for dealerhall and it's the most awake i'll be at con to do my best as a GM for the game i work with. 

I'm over con exclusives and the too many scalpers who buy the hot thing just to immediate list it for sale. Most anything i want will be available online/at flgs later on and if i miss out shrug as i have a big enough shelf of shame as it is.

Enjoy the spectacle for what it is and yes i would agree it's worth doing once just to feel the choking grasp of nerd humanity.

Posted by andrewj.rager matthias9

matthias9 wrote:
andrewj.rager wrote:
I've been near the front of the mob before. Got there around 7:30AM. Maybe 10 people "ahead" of me at my gate. However, I took a wrong turn in the hall because I didn't know which way the line for a booth went, and ended up missing out that day. (HPHB - USAOPOLY)
Point is, even if you are near or at the front, things can still happen.
As most people said, just watch from above and easily walk in 5 minutes later.

There was a rush on that game?See, here is the problem.  People queue up for a couple hours, fight the crowd, pay full retail to get a game a week before other do -- and then it turns out you now own a game like SeaFall.  The only thing missing is the sound effect of a sad trombone.
Actually HPHB is a really good game in a lot of people's opinion. I'm not a fan of the IP, but love the deck building in it. My wife loves the IP, so we both have lots of fun playing it. And yes there was a lot of demand for that game when in debuted at Gen Con as I don't think it released to the public until Thanksgiving if I remember correctly.

Posted by andrewj.rager

Also at least in my own experience while we do buy games throughout the year, my wife is much more stingy on what we buy regularly than when we are at Gen Con, even though yes its more money most of the time. It is our vacation each year so we just get whatever we want. Sometimes it comes out the next week, sometimes 3-4 months later. Hard to know exactly. But no complaints from me.

Posted by ryric

I would expect with early access being gone that all the bugs that get worked out in the early hour will now be part of the normal time...it's very common for vendors' computers to crash during the first few sales, which normally got fixed before 10 but now will affect many more people. Also line management and so forth was all "test run" on the early access people and that won't be happening. I've done early access for several years and I'd estimate about half of my hour each year was spent waiting on technology problems.

Posted by andrewj.rager ryric

ryric wrote:
I would expect with early access being gone that all the bugs that get worked out in the early hour will now be part of the normal time...it's very common for vendors' computers to crash during the first few sales, which normally got fixed before 10 but now will affect many more people. Also line management and so forth was all "test run" on the early access people and that won't be happening. I've done early access for several years and I'd estimate about half of my hour each year was spent waiting on technology problems.
Yup, gonna be fun when the talk of the con Thursday morning is that everyone is having trouble purchasing because they don't have that test hour. I had multiple booths last year have problems during the early access.

Posted by maijstral2 andrewj.rager

andrewj.rager wrote:
I've been near the front of the mob before. Got there around 7:30AM. Maybe 10 people "ahead" of me at my gate. However, I took a wrong turn in the hall because I didn't know which way the line for a booth went, and ended up missing out that day. (HPHB - USAOPOLY)
Point is, even if you are near or at the front, things can still happen.
As most people said, just watch from above and easily walk in 5 minutes later.
I wanted this game as well and I don't do the rush or crowd anymore. Thurs-Sat I checked at the booth and they were sold out. Sunday I went by a couple of hours in and no line, no wait and plenty of games I asked and the lady reached behind her and passed me a copy along with the booth promos. Most of the time they sell hot games at a limited number of copies per day but Sunday is the slowest day so if you don't desperately need the game right now and are willing to take a chance wait till Sunday and give it a shot.

Posted by ryric

For rare or early release items, it really varies from item to item. I've seen 25-40 copies/day, in which case, yes, Sunday is the best answer. I've seen 100 copies total, in which case get there Thursday ASAP. I've seen tons of copies but a huge 2-3 hour line that lasts the entire con until they run out. I've seen games that people went nuts for in the hall that were also on sale with no line in the mall downtown. I've seen games that didn't come out elsewhere for 6 months. Do your research on con early releases to find out how much trouble it's going to be to get. Knowledge is power.

Heck, I've even seen a game that was at Gen Con but never anywhere else. There was a Dune RPG at the WotC booth one of the first years in Indy that never saw a release outside the con. It wasn't exactly flying off the shelves, but if I'd known it was going to be buried I would have snapped it up.

Posted by mikehilly

If you aren't in line now, you might as well skip the vendor hall.

</sarcasm>  :) 

Posted by matthias9

On the contrary.

You should definitely get in line RIGHT NOW and wait and fight the crowd so you can have a better chance to get your copy of Nonspecific High Demand Item(tm).  Otherwise, you are missing out!

Posted by jishosan matthias9

matthias9 wrote:
On the contrary.
You should definitely get in line RIGHT NOW and wait and fight the crowd so you can have a better chance to get your copy of Nonspecific High Demand Item(tm).  Otherwise, you are missing out!

Nonspecific High Demand Item is actually the name of my company's hot new Euro 4X Deck Building Worker Placement Strategy War Game. It comes with dice, meeples, and minis, but it also has a scoring pad that requires an advanced mathematics degree to calculate score. 

Posted by cmegus jishosan

jishosan wrote:
matthias9 wrote:
On the contrary.
You should definitely get in line RIGHT NOW and wait and fight the crowd so you can have a better chance to get your copy of Nonspecific High Demand Item(tm).  Otherwise, you are missing out!

Nonspecific High Demand Item is actually the name of my company's hot new Euro 4X Deck Building Worker Placement Strategy War Game. It comes with dice, meeples, and minis, but it also has a scoring pad that requires an advanced mathematics degree to calculate score. 

Sorry, Agricola has already been invented and copyrighted...

:)

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200680/agricola-revised-edition

G
 

Posted by stryyder

I didn't do the Thursday Mob.  I think it was Saturday morning in 2017 I showed up around 9:30, not too many people lined up in front of the doors, I could easily fit and wander to within 10-15 of the door.  Only went to get some prerelease copies of a couple games at a single booth (as they saved a certain amount for each morning, not just to sell out on Thursday)and I was easily there in time.

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