"Vapnartak comments and pictures" Topic

Folks,

A few of my comments on 'yesterdays' show link

I've not got many games pictures as I was there mainly to shop and have a look at the competitions.

Andrew

That car park was bloody disgraceful for such a major league venue! The show was okay though. Not as many big name traders (but that seems common now at the northern shows). Bought some Foundry flesh paints, couple of Gallipoli packs from Gripping Beast and some Hasslefree stuff for my mate (late christmas present). Not a big spend really.

Thanks Andrew for the pics and write up!
Clif

Car parking crap. Old glory rude as usual (somethings never change!).
I was heartened to see/hear an enormous amount of cash changing hands (I helped out here too)

AND lots more kids than I have seen at a con in a long time – which is very positive for the hobby)

Don't bother about the car parking. Go by train. (Taxi a fiver from the station)

A good day out and a good spend.

We went by train and walked in, it only takes 25 minutes. Spend quite a bit, could have spent more though. Some excellent battles going on and it seemed very full.

Great show and my favourite nowadays.

Craig

Had a very good day – spent less than I planned – a couple of hundred at PP and UTB, a bit elsewhere.

At Lunchtime the place was so busy I felt like i was supermarket-shopping on a Saturday.

Pat

"Don't bother about the car parking. Go by train. (Taxi a fiver from the station)"

Or three quid for an all-day bus pass.

Oddly, all the games I most liked (Back of Beyond, Pentland Rebellion and the WW1 game on the 1st floor)had boats in them.

My two sons and I enjoyed Vapnartak, but were disappointed with the chaos that was the bring-n-buy. Six people working on the bnb, yet only 1 person booking items in – took my sons 45 mins to get their surplus GW stuff onto the tables. Completely ridiculous!

Got quite a few bargains on the bnb – some guy was selling loads of POTC card sets very cheaply and I grabbed quite a few of them. My sons got everything on their lists, as did I.

Also bought a new wargames magazine at the UTB stand – quite an interesting read. wargamesrecon.co.uk

Look forward to next year's show, but the organisers need to improve the bnb.

I rather enjoyed it – agreed that the B&B was rather a scrum, but that was the only notable minus for me. The games were a nice-looking collection, and like others I took the train and walked down from the station, so parking a non-issue. (I was especially pleased to discover that East Midlands now do an occasional direct service, which meant Sheffield to York took only 45 minutes, a rare example of rail travel working like it should….)

Shopping-wise I ended up spending more than intended (or wise; it's going to be a lean month….) but as well as almost everything on my list, a few bits caught my eye, so I ended up with a moderately large 15mm Russian village by the end of the day. (K&K and Timecast; the Timecast ones will have to form a hamlet elsewhere on the table, as they're on the small side with K&K really rather large. Quality-wise K&K very nice, Timecast even better, but the larger footprint and variety of the K&K range makes them just what I need.)

Dom.

Andrew,
The ACW game was organised by Stuart Castle and a friend whose name I can't remember at present.

Show was mostly ok.
Carparking full by time we got there. So parked on grass, watching people get stuck. Think the racecourse will not be happy at the state it was left in.

I also noted, two vandalised cars with front and rear windows smashed out, on the access road to the carpark. Not very inspriring.

Traders were ok. Reasonable spread of periods, ranges etc. Cannot rave about anything trader wise really, nore was it dire.

Demo games, were a good mix and some lovely tables. I applaud those who put the effort in there. Thanks.

The bring and buy. Not a good experience. Dissorganised. I gave up trying to get my items on there having stood for 40 minutes. Those running it had run out of forms before I even got there too. And did not seperate those with no forms, and those of us with pre filled out forms, so we all had to wait as there was only one person doing the signing in, despite four or six others on the tables and one guy stood by the queue. So that was the biggest let down of the show for me.

The evident lack of personal hygene of some attendees and rugby style scrum in front of the table, also meant it was not pleasent at times even trying buy things that 'did' made it to the tables.

So for me the show was ok, but nothing special. Will I go again next year? No, not unless there was something I was really really keen to get and knew for certain would be there and could not wait. So in all likleyhood. It was my first and last time to the york show.

It was busy mind and I saw lots of people buying. So I am sure others, more local and into differing periods etc will have different opinions I am sure.

My show was somewhat ruined by the thieving bastard who stole my two Flames of War boxes (US Paratroopers box & M12-155mm SPG's)from Dave Thomas' trade stand – £60+ down the drain!
Dave Thomas actually caught one little scrote stealing blister packs he managed to recover the stock but the bastard legged it before Dave had a chance to report him to the organisers.
Several other traders had stuff stolen – including a whole box of painted FOW T-34's from one of the figure traders.

The bring & buy was a joke & I thought Colours was bad.

Other than that the show was pretty busy ……

Thats shocking. I hadn't realised it was that bad.

That is bad. I was there but saw none of it – I had a good show and got home safe with everything. The show was very busy and people stayed later than usual.

I think shows should stop B&Bs these days (ebay) as they always invite trouble and bad feeling.

As for the thefts, anyone caught should be paraded through the venue so that regular show attendees and traders can clock their faces for the future. If they turn up again they can be kicked out with their entrance fee refunded. I believe that refusal of entry is still allowable under British law (except, and rightly, on the grounds of race, sex, etc.)

For me it's a good show, second only to Triples in the North. No show ever has all the traders I'd like but there's enough of a mix here to satisfy.

Although it's an established venue it's not the best particularly in terms of some of the spaces and security. The Dave Thomas corner is particularly vulnerable but could he have arranged his stock more securely. All those racks of figures facing away from/round the corner from his till.

Thanks for pics – tried hard to get there but shifts at work conspired against me –

shocked to hear of the thefts, I have always felt that cons were one of the last bastions of absolute honesty, where you couod leave your wallet on a table and go back and it would still be there ……. perhaps this very relaxed sentiment is what makes us particularly vulnerable to theives in these places, who must think we are easy targets.

Maybe it is a hardcore of 1 or 2 people who are thieving for e-bay type sales. Would love to see them identified.

I think that we wargamers and traders are a trusting bunch. That perhaps makes us an easy target for scroats?

As a York club member I'd like to say thanks for coming and for your comments both good and bad. I'll try to address a few of the negative ones.

Parking; York is a very old city, nearly 2,000 years old and though the Romans built straight roads the Saxons, Vikings, Normans and later inhabitants weren't as traffic minded. As those of us who were born and live here will tell you it isn't a city where car travel is easy, not helped by the council's ridiculously high charges in car parks. They are often, IMO rightly, accused of being "anti motorist". Frankly, in York for the size of venue the Knavesmire is the best you are going to get. It's a tourist city and they just aren't going to build ugly multi stories left, right and centre.

The B and B. Not an aspect of the organisation I get involved with but I'm pretty sure it is run by another wargame club on our behalf in return for a fee. I'll look into that. The issue seems to the rugby scrum. Yes point taken, I was there and I didn't bother fighting my way through it either. Again it will be looked into.

Theft; well I wasn't aware of this until now. Whilst York Wargames Society cannot reasonably be held responsible for the criminal acts of others, be assured it is something we take very seriously. I have no doubt that at our upcoming AGM we will be giving this matter a great deal of attention in an effort to make sure the risks of theft in the future are minimal. Sadly I don't think that the risk can be completely eliminated, I wish it could.

Vandalised cars up the road? Sadly it happens in all towns and cities, I noticed them too. I don't want to belittle the point but I don't see how that's anything to do with us, we can't be responsible for traffic crime in the City of York on a Saturday night, anymore than Sheffield club can be responsible for car crime in Sheffield on the Friday before Triples.

Regards
Alan

we can't be responsible for traffic crime in the City of York on a Saturday night, anymore than Sheffield club can be responsible for car crime in Sheffield on the Friday before Triples.

Very true, they wouldn't have time to do it all.

Enjoyed the show :-)

Found the map quite weird (tad pressing need, trying to locate a loo and wondering which way was up…)

Traders were good, games looked nice, my dice rolled amazing in the one game I played…forgot to buy the rules though! dohhh…

Bring & Buy was crowded, booking in could have used more people most of my stuff either got stuck under the tables or used as makeshift desks for forms by the guys on the stand… happily I sold some of it to a tradedr afterwards…

Venue catering was excellent!

I've tried the train/bus combo – the walk uo is suprisingly long :-) did think about taking my bike this year (the bike route from the station swings by the racecourse) but got a lift in with my mate… got there early so was able to sit and watch someone's transit van spin its wheels in the field..

but a good show and will be going again… it did look very busy, no idea what it was like as a trader,,, but nice swhow, and better here than at the atmospheric venue in the town centre…

Absolutely agreed on the last point – Merchant Adventurers' Hall was a lovely venue, but the show out-grew it many years ago….

"Venue catering was excellent!"

And pricey! I was at York last year, so I knew to bring packed lunches and drinks for me and my sons – I wanted to spend my money on wargaming stuff, not over-priced food!

The Bring and Buy at Vapnartak is run by Humberside Wargames Society. Years ago, I had a hand in running the B&B at Vapnartak, and OMG, it's a VERY hard and thankless task to run a B&B. So please spare a thought for the Humberside guys – I'm only glad they are willing to do this. I would imagine they would welcome feedback and any suggestions for improvement.

The parking is the same as that used for the Horse Race Meeetings at York Racecourse (who own the venue). Of course, the races are run in summer and it's usually drier then. Unfortunately, the unusually bad weather this winter has had a detrimental effect on the field.

Theft unfortunately is a problem at any event like this – I've been involved in the past with organising many public events, including some previous Vapnartaks, and it's petty much universal. While its ultimately up to the stallholders to watch their own stalls of course, we would all like to be able to do something about it. If anyone out there has any good suggestions to help fight this problem, I'm sure everybody would like to hear them. I think I can speak for all of YWS (as well as other clubs running other shows) in saying we would like to fix this problem if there is a way to do it. I really sympathise with the Traders and others who lose things.

Whether the food at the venue is overpriced or not is a matter of opinion of course. True it ain't cheap, but in life you get what you pay for, and I personally think it's damn good.

Thanks to everyone who organised Vapnartak, and to all who came to make it a great show.

I'd like to thank the helpers who made unloading and loading fast and painless on Saturday and Sunday.

I left the sat nav in the Black Hat/Fighting 15s van, parked on the street outside, and it was still there to get us home.

From my point of view that weekend, the only crime that the good people of Yorkshire have to answer for is John Smith's Cask Ale. They should hang their heads in shame…

As a Yorkshireman I can think of only one excuse for John Smith's smooth…..at least you don't go home smelling of beer!

As a trader we had a good day but the thefts are very worrying especially as the thefts mentioned were FOW and our mainline is FOW!

We may have made a profit but that could easily disappear if we have a couple of thefts, we will have to consider our security arrangements carefully.

At the moment we like to have an open stall where people can browse but we may have to go back to serving behind a counter or even stop going to shows, I'm not putting all that hard work in just for some thief to steal all my profit!

The other thing that concerned me was the crazy discounts that people were asking for, I have never seen anything like it at any other shows including previous Vapnartak's!

One guy wanted to give me £15.00 GBP for a £25.00 GBP book.

Another asked how much discount I would give him on a 'large' FOW order, large turned out to be £39.00 GBP and he wanted to pay £30.00!

I also had some GW stuff with me that I had discounted by 20% to get rid of it and at least three people wanted even more discount!

I knew that Yorkshiremen were tight but it was really starting to bug me.

Roland
Stafford Games

Enjoyed the show as always.

Parking managed to get a parking space on the road outside the main building next to the car park field which im glad i diod after seeing and hearing the problems of the field.

Show was busy, great displays and games as usual, would like to see my club put on a game but i doubt they would get off the arses to sort it out isnt that what a comittee is for?

Bring and Buy very busy didnt/couldnt get close enough to have a good look, did think some of the prioces were high on some stuff thou guess thats the likes of Ebay for you.

Goose666 agree with you about personal hygene near the B&B some people do hum abit….in the style of apocalypse now "I love the smell of nerds in the morning" lol.

Was at Dave Thomas's stall when someone mentioned that they thought they saw someone put something into their pocket.

Military fair at Stoneleigh last weekend one stall had a deactivated Thompson machine gun nicked!!!!

Spent what within my budget and got what i came for books, rules and figures.

All in all an excellent show, guest you cant make all the people happy all the time thou.

Theft seems to becoming a problem i did not notice anything at York but had paint sets nicked at fiasco last year. some traders had stuff nicked at warfare. personally I'll break their jaws before handing them over to the police no witnesses of course.

when will the wargames clubs realise bring and buy is crap i see complaints from claymore warfare salute triples york the only way forward is the flea market style where punters sell their own stuff no need to queue. 2 foot tables £2.00 GBP an hour ,manned by one club person. Who wants to babysit a pile of broken warhammer junk most stuff does not sell, but they will not turn up and sell crap themselves which has the impact of increasing quality of things sold.

apart from my rant I like the york show friendly bunch good venue nothing anyone can do about car vandals. Must be a real er though.

I'll be back next year

Also bought a new wargames magazine at the UTB stand – quite an interesting read. wargamesrecon.co.uk

Just had a look at the site. Apart from telling me that the edition is a "collectors item" it doesn't exactly do a great job of telling me what's in it!!

when will the wargames clubs realise bring and buy is crap i see complaints from claymore warfare salute triples york the only way forward is the flea market style where punters sell their own stuff no need to queue.

We did a survey of visitors to Claymore last year.

Visitors prefer B&B to fleamarket by a very large margin.

we do the warboot table-top sales at maws and they have been very popular with those selling and those who are punters.Main things they like are
the items are displayed well,
more secure for those selling,
questions can be asked,
you can haggle with the seller,
items are cheaper as there is no percentage added on top,
more control to the seller,
less chance of theft or misplacing of items.
less paperwork for the organisors,
less manpower needed by the organisors.
It is a new concept to those used to B&Bs but we have found that buyers and sellers find the table top sale idea is preferable.
regards
paul

Derek H – I went to Claymore, I wasn't surveyed, I'd have said that the flea market or similar was a better idea if I had been.

Not experienced a flea market but it sounds like a far better idea than a b&b.

must admit, flea market gets my vote… you lay out your stuff and you're there to talk to/ ask questions & make deals… rather than stuff being left in boxes and stuck under other stuff

I like the idea of a flea market approach as B&B's are usually such a scrum to get to and a marathon to try and get things booked in!.

hussarbob1746.webs.com

If the venue has space then why not have a bit of both?