Star Wars Vintage Collectors Day @ All The Cool Stuff

[Lee77]

Had a great day today. It was nice to meet such a sound bunch of people. Big thanks to Dave for organising this. Funniest part had to be Grants stories of how he acquired a lot of his store displays. Absolutely epic, and don't worry mate, my lips are sealed :wink:
Thanks again to everyone I met. Top day out!

 

[Grant_C]

Well that was awesome.

Great to meet everyone, old friends and new. I have hardly had a verbal conversation about star wars collecting in the 18 years I have been in and out of the hobbie. I can't tell you how emancipating it is to drink beer and discuss clipper, PBP, palitoy, trilogo vader saber tips for an hour.

What a blast- will have to do it again.

Special thanks to Chris and iain for making in awesome.

Jez- your the man. What a great guy to make it all happen and look after us all. I don't care that all you want is a farm boy and you don't mind paying for it, we all have our flaws :lol: not to mention cakes, lifts, pubs, bacon, dogs, collection, on and on....

Cheers everyone. Freakin brilliant! :mrgreen:

 

[jedi_masters]

Well that was a fantastic weekend.

Firstly a huge thanks to David Tree for putting this all together. Looked forward to it for so long and was worth the wait. Looking forward to the next one already.

Jez, a huge thanks for letting us kip at your house for the night and for driving us down there. You are a gentleman and your hospitality was floorless!! Like Grant said I have never talked so much about Star Wars in my life. Was a great night last night just drinking beer and talking Star Wars until 1.30am!!

Grant, Iain, was great to meet you guys and put faces to names at last seeing as I have done quite a few deals with both of you over the last few months. You were both great company at Jez's, made my first meet up very enjoyable as it can be a bit nerveracking meeting up for the first time.

Lastly, it was awesome to meet up with so many forum members at one place. You are all top blokes and great guys to talk to and socialise with. I can honestly say I have totally enjoyed my first forum meet up, I am still buzzing from the whole weekend!!

Got some fantastic figures as well which I will post in the LA thread tomorrow and some pics of the weekend.

I love this forum!!!!!!!!!

 

[Grant_C]

Yeah- big up for the forum, without it this wouldn't have happened. :wink:

 

[itfciain]

Just got in after 3 and half hours driving through fecking heavy rain. Still can't dampen the day though. It was fantastic - great to meet up with all the guys that went and as Chris says, put faces to names.

Jez is an absolute star - and the cake was amazing. Him, Grant & Chris were great company and it was great to have a 24 hour star wars session. Also big up to Junior JuniorChubb - the most enthusiastic person there !

Great idea and well organised - happy to come down again Dave wheneever you can set it up

 

[JuniorChubb]

What a great day!

Good to meet everyone one, but still can't remember who is who exactly! I was speaking to some people I did'nt realise where SWFUKers and other who I thought where but in reality where not. Great to get a group picture at the end, it needs to be tagged though so I know 100% know who's who!!!

Iain, great stall mate, Junior Junior could have spent all day just going through your stock and asking how much everything was. He also snapped up the only decently priced loose Jawa (I still need one) we could find on the day and sung 'I got the Jawa' most of the way home.

Jez, thank to your Missus for the cake, C10 NM mate :lol:

Thanks to Dave for setting everything up and putting on some enlightening presentations.

I was worn out and spent out at the end... Looking forward to the next one though

Looks like a few people had trouble getting home, the motorway was a bitch in the rain, took me over 3 1/2 hours getting back to East London. Also did anyone get stuck behind the Triathlon cyclists on the way there?

 

[jedi_masters]

Yea we did Chris, slowed us down a little! The rain was horendous, i aquaplained on the country roads a few times, bit scary!! Was good to see Junior Junior's passion in the flesh so to speak, he's a fantastic kid, you looked knackered by the end of it though. I'll do a little tag on the photos when I get in for you.

 

[JuniorChubb]

Yea we did Chris, slowed us down a little! The rain was horendous, i aquaplained on the country roads a few times, bit scary!! Was good to see Junior Junior's passion in the flesh so to speak, he's a fantastic kid, you looked knackered by the end of it though. I'll do a little tag on the photos when I get in for you.

The ride home was wet and wild!! Thats without going into the Cows and Horses on the road :lol:

Looking forward to recapping who's who.

 

[mr_palitoy]

Well it's Monday now, and my hangover from Saturday night has finally lifted!



Jason

 

[David Tree]

I'm aching and need sleep.

It was amazing and very humbling to all who came with all the crappy weather. I hope everyone enjoyed it and got something out of it in one way or another.

Massive thanks to all SW-FUKer's here and BIG shout out to Jez and his wife Julie for the cake, very unexpected and touching.

As a retailer, all too often I see the frustrations of the collectors living the online existence without really interacting with others face to face, which was what it was like for me pre-ebay days. Genuinely there was probably more vintage there over 7/8 stalls than the whole of Memorabilia these days. So events like these give people to take their time on items, not know what's going to be there etc etc.

I'm happy to carry on with them, if folk enjoyed it, but at the same time welcome all and any feedback too, good or bad (bear in mind the budget was shoestring and the income generated from the show was minimal too).

I was thinking of this sort of event could be 3 - 4 times a year possibly?

Dave

 

[Grant_C]

David,

I thought it was great. All positives from me.

One thing i would add and this is no way a criticism: I would have some sandwitches or rolls or burgers on the site. I was kind of hungry and didn't want to leave the site and miss something, even for 2 minutes. It could also help cover some costs and add to the budget.

I thought the arist was outstanding. Its a great idea to have a guest. Do you have access to any Star Wars guests?

Podcast was a great idea.

Palitoy talk was great.

Showcase 'Never make again' was great.

What about a competition. A raffle for a £1 each that would cover the price of a collectable?

I thought the whole thing was fantastic though. I have been to much bigger conventions/fares that have not been half as much fun.

I will definately come to the next, and am already looking forward to it.

Cheers,

Grant

 

[lee gray]

Raffle is a good idea.
The cake was a nice touch and luckily it looked like everyone got a piece.
A great kebab place just around the corner too which was good value. Bacon and sausage rolls could be a nice touch being cooked where the tuck shop was. Great crowd, always good meeting up as best part about these events and eventually working out who was who, and I did enjoy the palitoy presentation.

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

Looks like you guys had a real blast! 8)

I am sorry if my previous post appeared rude too guys

Hey Dave How about holding the event 4 times a year

twice in the north and twice in the south :? . I am just thinking off the top of my head here is this even feasible? :?

 

[Lee77]

It was a great day Dave. The presentation was really good, as was the atmosphere and the people.
The food thing was the only downer. At one point Lee Grays Vlix was looking tempting!!, I was that hungry. I didn't want to leave incase I missed something. Apart from that, which is a minor thing, thank you and I can't wait for the next one.

Lee

 

[Dublinjeff]

Don't know how, but I'm only reading through this thread now..... :shock: that sounded like a brilliant day. Really wish there was something like that over here in Ireland. The last SW expo here wasn't half of what this seemed to be. Got to thinking now that I will travel to the next one when its organised... :lol: well if allowed........

 

[Jez]

Top day David, thanks a million.
Really interesting and really great fun.
Putting faces to names (or usernames) was handy as well.
A great set up and fantastic opportunity to wheel and deal.

Thanks also to the kind comments lads.
Hosting the three of you was my absolute pleasure.
I'll happily do the same next time

 

[sith-smith]

I had a great day. Always like going down to Fordingbridge as it is my family's home town, even better to get meet a load of people I've only ever chatted to online.

Was great day Dave. Well done mate.

 

[Starzone]

I have a few criticisms that I'd like to see addressed.

Firstly the venue ..it was too far from my house

Second the weather was poor, please make sure when booking next time you pick a day that will not be raining.

Third after just coming back from Celebration I was expecting to see a Slave Leia costume pageant, and while I did see one lady that looked like she had been tied up for a few years this was just not good enough.

Finally the poor quality of products on the stalls, I walked round for a good few hours and didn't see one Star Wars Bend-em .... Although in hindsight I guess I could have missed them and they got quickly snapped up before I got there!


Thanks
Darren

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

:lol:

 

[David Tree]

You're all dead on with food being available, it was one of the things that did not work out last minute.

I had asked the baker if they wanted run of the kitchen for tea, coffee, food in return for a fee towards costs, but last minute pulled out as think they didn't know what to expect and be left with stock on what would be the only day off for the week for them, however am sure next time something can be worked out, possibly like a pre-ordered lunch bag or something that they make in advance?

The raffle is a great idea, but if a certain number of tickets are not sold, it might not cover the cost of the prize?

Holding it further north I have no problems with, except someone else would have to organise, find venue, work logistics etc, whilst here is something I can manage with work. There's a reason it's called Farthest From

Guests are possible, but costs rocket with covering travel, food, accommodation and sometimes appearance fees. We're spoilt here in the UK for guests, but it is also a little over saturated with the same faces at each show. I'd like to see if a different kind of guest is possible? Maybe related, but not in the movie sense?

Another snag which didn't work out was Skype, which opens up a lot of possibility, there are a few ideas suggested with a few folk Stateside, which could make for a very interesting element, but equally Joe could be online to talk trilogy for example
Heaters were also down, which given the crap weather didn't help and I was not too happy with all the crap at the end of the hall looking like a bonfire pile too, but all in all these can and will hopefully be fixed for the next one

I'd love to see more on the discussion front, open panels, talks etc and totally happy or others to do this and get involved if they have an idea?
Common ground is always good for everyone to participate - like 'how did you get into collecting?', but individuals talking about the pockets of unique research and learning is fascinating to me too, say for example comics?

Hopefully folk are enriched from it, more enthused and open to new areas of collecting, there's so much stuff out there that is a challenge and usually cheaper than the toys too

Besides, some people have 4 out the 12 cards now, the OCD completist part of you will make you come back for the others

More suggestions/ ideas folk, someone said more of Jez's cake?


Dave