an assumption

[davemerrill]

If you're reading this Livejournal I think it's safe to assume that you know about Anime Weekend Atlanta, the anime convention I helped start back in 1995 that is, this year, going to hold its 22nd consecutive gathering at the Cobb Galleria Convention Center and the Renaissance Waverly Hotel. If you do NOT know about AWA then I have failed in my task and will duly chastise myself.


What you might not know is that registration for the Super Happy Fun Sell is open and waiting for you and your reservation and your table full of pre-loved anime and manga merchandise!



So, if you've got a closet full of anime DVDs you no longer watch or manga you no longer read or games you no longer play or toys you no longer play with, why not get a SHFS table and pass 'em on to new loving homes - and put a little folding money in your pocket at the same time? Huh?

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

but...but...if I sell it, I'll just have to buy it again years from now at crazy stupid pricing!! It's all RARE and COLLECTABLE and NOBODY will have one 'mint in mint box'! NOBODY! Oh WOE, WOE I say!

There needs to be a tongue-in-cheek icon of some form or another...

Of course my main problem is, who in this current generation would give a crap about stuff I'd sell? dusty old books on Gundam, Xabungle, Dirty Pair, Votoms, Yamato, Captain Harlock, Macross, that nice 6 volume hardcover set about Ideon (so much Yas you can't even believe it).. no, nobody would want any of that. Not that I'm letting any of THAT stuff go no way! :)

And suddenly I pine for not finding a way to get that set of Xabungle hardcovers. *sob*

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know full well that there's a good subset of AWA attendees who are buying the cool old stuff. Let me put it this way; every 80s vintage thing I've ever brought to the SHFS has sold.

All things considered I'm pretty happy with the SHFS sellers, for the most part. The Anime North yard sale event is mostly overpriced newer manga and video games and figures, but the AWA sale always gets a good proportion of people genuinely cleaning house, with cool old stuff, and there are people from Georgia, TN, Florida, Alabama, and the Carolinas arriving to spend money on it. What they don't get at the SHFS they get at Mary Kinnard's table in the dealer's room, where for the third year running she'll be selling all the 80s anime stuff out of her storage unit in South Carolina.

If you were to load up a box of 80s anime stuff and drop it on a table at the SHFS, it would sell, no doubt aboot it.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Good lord, Mary's getting rid of stuff? Yeesh.

I just took a quick look at the shelves, I honestly can't think of anything I'd be willing to part with. MAYBE a couple of oddball books that were more of the "It's cheap and I can buy it" rather than "this is something I follow and collect from" variety.

OTOH, I think I COULD drag a file box of posters from the '80s anime magazines and even after my culling for "this is something I follow" items I'd have several hundreds of posters, most of them double sided, ready to go. I could probably get like $5 each I think. I guess for best effect I'd need to label all of them...

HA I keep tormenting myself. As if I can get back to AWA.

(I took a look at Google Earth around the con area. MAN that stadium is going to totally f**k the con. It's damn WALKING DISTANCE. Unless...AWA rents the stadium? Naaaaaaaa)

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I know I've said it before, but you should definitely start culling your stuff into "keep" and "sell" piles. Something sitting there in a box isn't doing anybody any good, let it put a smile on somebody's face out there!

the stadium is the giant wild card in the area. The county commissioner who brokered the deal just got voted out, because it was all done in secret, more or less, and the county had to pony up a lot of cash. It's going to absolutely MURDER traffic; the only public transit are Cobb County buses, which only connect up to Atlanta's MARTA transit at certain points. There is no rail service to the Galleria area and no plans to ever build rail service to the Galleria area, ever.

They are building a pedestrian walkway across 285 so that people can park at the Galleria/Cumberland and then walk across to the stadium. Or maybe they're building a tunnel; they haven't decided yet.

Our concern is that the Galleria/Waverly is going to decide to use the stadium as an excuse to jack up prices for everything. One of the big selling points of the Galleria/Waverly is the easy-access suburban location, the nearby restaurants and stores, the free parking; you start taking those selling points away and AWA has to think about moving somewhere else. If the Galleria is going to become a super pain to get to and attendees are going to start being charged for parking, then downtown Atlanta is going to start looking like a serious alternative for AWA.

We've been able to use a lot of the empty space in the Galleria for our events, it's space the attendees can relax in, we're able to get away with things like the SHFS because we're still below the radar. Downtown, we would not be below the radar. We would be lit up like a a Christmas tree.

Dragoncon has a parade every year through downtown; this year it's going to be on TV. That's great, I guess; I want no part of being on TV as a wacky spectacle promoting the city.

Ugh, it's a big cloud looming on the horizon.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I assume, after throwing tons of money into the stadium, they're not going to be happy having it not being used and they'll try to set up some event or another during 'away' games, like concerts.

So no luck trying to sched. AWA during a 'slack' period.

Bridge over the highway is a nightmare. Tunnel under the highway is a nightmare.

Light Rail is still the fever dream of any city planner. If there's someone who has longed to expand the system the arena is the perfect excuse, and it'll take years and of course need some new tax increases. All those hotels need to do their 'fair share' so zoop.

One thing you might see there is this stupid new 'express bus' concept. We have it here (against popular opinion, it was voted down but somehow came into being anyway), called the 'Silver Line'. It's a bus that has priority in traffic, its own lane, special new fancy shelters, it's a subway without the tracks!

Except it can't really go as fast as they claim, it really can't run the lights with impunity, the bus lane has eaten up a newly expanded street that is a clog nightmare downtown (it got better, now it's back to bad) and the worst thing, it's severely underused.

See, the plan was, all those rich young urban professionals living south of downtown (you know, where it's safe and junk) are supposed to joyfully hop the Silver Line to go work their lawyer or doctor jobs. We won't discuss the 'underclass' that is meant to ride the bus south to work at cleaning houses and all that ugly stuff. Shhh. Anyway, they're not doing it. Oh, some hipsters and yuppies ride because that makes they superior to everyone else but the 'target market' turned their nose up to it. It would have been much better if that money had been spent on more downtown parking. but THAT, they're planning to build more 'outlaying lots' where you take a shuttle bus to your office. Those lots fill up but it's mostly students. Downtown has always been short of easy, low-cost parking but it's gotten worse as parking garages have been torn down to put up new buildings that are 80% vacant.

It costs too much to ride compared to the regular bus (WHICH IS STILL RUNNING THE EXACT SAME ROUTE) and man, what a boondoggle. But they want to expand the concept.

Oh I could rant and rant. :)

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

If the support structures being built are any indication, they decided on a bridge. They started in July (rather than May as promised) from the Stadium side of 285. I doubt they will be finished by the end of September, which means construction at the Galleria during AWA.

Since I work at the Galleria office complex, that's going to screw up my commute for a lot longer than just a weekend. I remain, shall we say 'Cautiously Optimistic'...

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Yeesh.

So, I'm not sure how out of date the Google Earth pics I saw are (showing off my ignorance of all things Google) but assuming they're reasonably current, that stadium can't be finished by Sept, and even if it was I don't see how they could be functioning in time for playoffs, so the main nightmare is starting 2017, check?

bleah

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

Google Sat is very, very out of date at the moment. It's all a big mess at this point. Next time I am in the office I will take a few shots from the conference room overlooking 285 to give an idea of the scale here.

Stadium date is 2017, but the mess is going to be there through AWA this year for certain.


Back to the original topic: I have a ton of stuff to sell but no time Thurs night to do so.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

are they still doing that geek yard sale thing in Atlanta? There you go.

Thursday was selected for the SHFS because it was, you know, before the con actually started and other events weren't happening -it was still tricky for staff because of set-up, but manageable. Now it's in the middle of a bunch of events. I wonder how long before it gets kicked to Wednesday night?

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

There are a few here and there. Rikki has not done one of her "B Geeky" things in a while though. Just have to find the time (as with all things).

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

So there's more actual, official programming now on Thurs? Yikes. I mean, good for those that get there early (out-of-towners mostly I would assume) but that has to start becoming a resource nightmare because the go-fers probably can't make it til the actual weekend.

It's becoming like 'preview night' at SDCC. The SHFS was a great idea because it's low impact and seems easy to manage but other stuff...

I am SO GLAD I don't run cons anymore. Now if I could only shake the bad habit of thinking about this junk. :)

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

There are panels and videos running most of the day Thursday at AWA, from 3pm-on. Enough that you can call it a 4-day con now. I don't know if the dealers room is open on Thursday, that's a pretty big step that I don't know they want to make yet.

Contrast with Anime North, where things do not start until 5pm on Friday and by golly, they are not going to start any earlier than that. I had to just give up doing the Nominoichi at AN because of scheduling - there just isn't enough time on Friday to do this stuff, especially considering the time spent in line. And yeah, they make staffers stand in line for that event, too.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Hurm. Video rooms, OK, I'm fine with that, it'll keep people interested. Panels, that bothers me a bit because what if you want to see a specific panel/speaker and zoop, you can't show until Friday? Dealer's Room is important but hard to tell if the dealers themselves would be 'down' with a 4th day. Then again, every con is the worst con and they never make money, right? :)

In a way, having that lovely ex-mall convention center does give a TON of options that just straight up hotel function space can't allow. Frightening how nostalgic I am for that place after only one visit.

AN, man, 5 PM? How very old school. Which, as we've discussed, is the point and part of the problem. Put me in the 'appalled' box for staff having to wait in line. That's just baseline inefficient.

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

we are too sentimental to part with those subbed Rose of Versailles VHS tapes we inherited from you. for the moment, at least.

(p.s. come to my panel)

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

you want more fansub ROV tapes? I can make that happen for you!

and YES I will come to your panel

[belecrivain.livejournal.com]

awww! right now the only one scheduled is Japanese Women Who Rock. you are officially off the hook for the K-pop panel if it gets scheduled