"Purchasing at Wargames Shows" Topic

5% at the very most. I always buy something at conventions but so far, haven't been able to go to very many.

95% at Conventions. The percentage used to be smaller, but the local game stores have very little metal figure selection to sell anymore.

I'd struggle to put a percentage on it, but certainly over half as I tend to do pre-orders for stuff and pick it up at shows (as well as taking a roll of cash to limit my spending).

Probably as much as 90% most years (including browse online then collect at shows: I'm usually very busy at shows with little time to shop but I do like to look first) …

Virtually all my other wargame shopping* is online and purchasing stuff I have seen at shows but was too busy to buy at the time …

Phil
*excludes paints and brushes which I usually get from a local art shop …

Maybe 5% to 10%. I can get anything I need at my FLGS or over the internet.

I think I'm at about 10%, maybe plus or minus 5% each year.

It comes down what comes first like a chicken and an egg issue. Before the internet the conventions and games stores were where you went for 100%. Now with the decline of stores and lack of vendors attending or introducing new things 90% is via the internet.

Overall, I'd say 10% of my annual purchases happen at a convention (I typically go to all three HMGS 'cons), That percentage has been steadily declining – it was much higher when I direct got into the hobby in 2008.

I will say there is a disproportionally higher amount of stuff I don't ever use coming from con purchases vs the internet. Perhaps I get more acute shiny-itous at cons rather than the internet which tend to be more considered purchases.

One last point is that I see a continual decline of "new" product at HMGS dealer halls and find I spend less and less time in the dealer area. Maybe kickstarter and other net-based distribution points are siphoning off a lot of the new product. I just find the dealer hall boring from a merchandise view and more of a social are to meet friends.

I've been in the hobby since 1962. I'm 67 and I measure my painted and unpainted lead in pounds and cubic feet not numbers.

I have my likes and dislikes, which range from uncontrollable psychotic mania (18th Century and pre 2000 bc ancient) to sustained interest (Between Wars to Mid WWII, and Civil War and Renaissance). Other periods interest me about as much as root canals, like anything after 1943, Colonial, Dark Ages (the thin skin clad line has no allure for me). I have multiple armies in each of my interest period- the average of 6, and they aren't a few figures, they amount to over 500 each.

Further I'm an excellent converter and model maker, so I made my own Sailing ships. All thirty of them, one foot long. I make lots of conversions. AND!!!! I do almost exclusively Imagi-Nations so I don't have to wait for someone to come out with the Fusileer Grenadier Riflemen of the 443rd Mess kit Repair Battalion of the Old,Young, Middle, Over, under, around, and through Guard. Here, look at these Swedish line infantry- they'll do.

And I play with about a dozen guys who are just like me.

I know EVERY dealer in the dealer hall, and I know EVERY miniature they have. I've memorized their catalogs.

So why do I even have to go down there. As I said before, almost NO ONE makes anything new, and I'm NOT going to do the same thing I have in 28mm in another scale.

I don't buy rules, I write my own. They turn out MUCH better than the +100/+100 horrors (over 100 pages and over $100 USD rule books which are just pewter porn) people put out with their dozens of card decks. Whenever I see these things my mind just goes "pure crap" and moves on.

So the dealer area is going to see a breeze through where I'll buy about a $1,000 USD of stuff from three vendors who will ship it to me. Then I go to the flea-market where the REAL treasures are to be found! Stuff you can't get any more, lines that you have to find fill outs to, games you didn't take care of as a kid and are now trying to re-acquire.

That's the point

Let me reach over here and pull out my "Lil and Fred" and page through it ,

Here we go, first color plate, page 9 France, The King's Hosuehold Bodyguard. no one makes figures of those. Bot a bajillion people making figures of Frenchies in the French and Indian Wars, lots of French infantry but any of those really ornate guys… Nope. How about the Swiss hundreds.. in those strange semi-Renaissance uniform… nope! Old Glory can make those bags of fat figures looking every which way, scowling spitting with their heads all askew and out of step but something classy like the Swiss Guard.. Nope.

Kettle drummers, and field drummers ahores, trumpeters, how bout a full mounted band… nope. How about a full band for the infantry-- buzz off.

Let's skip ahead to the Brits. Page 99, figure 3, anyone ever make any figures in that pose which is like-- the standard one from the manual of arms or in that pose where they are at carry arms, standing like palisades in a fence with the right foot forward a bit at the slow march-- nope, hit the road otto! We got em in advancing, high porte, charging, thrusting, guarding, carrying, jazz dancing, but at attention standing still-- NAAH… no need for that. We can make them looking to the side, picking their nose, pirouetting and doing the pas-de-deux, but in a pose that might ACTUALLY be realistic-- nope.

Page 125, figures 6,7 and 10. I'd pay big bucks to get a few hundred of those!

Lets move on to the Prussians, Page 133 figure 7. Does anyone make a real figure of a Giant grenadier? Nope! A few say they do, but they are no bigger than a normal man, and they usually are a Fredrickean one, not one from Freddie's father.

While we're there, lets ask how many makers have figures to do a three rank firing line? Kneeling ready to fire, standing firing, and a third rank loading ? The Willies figures have them. Anyone else- you know suff that would be historically accurate??? Go scratch.

Vol II page 13. Figure 4, Regiment Bourbon Bourbon Busset en manteaux. That means with the cavalry cloak on. Would be nice to have a regiment or three this way in case it rains…

Page 47 figures 10 and 11, English officers, one taking a pinch of snuff and the other mincing along with swagger stick in parade dress. Would love to have these .

Moving on to the continental gentlemen page 71 figure 7, Prussian dragoon in the fusilier cap. Anyone make these?
Page 115 the Galician Guard Lancers and the Noble Guards?

Let's move on to the Wild Wild East. Page 131 figures 6 and 7 the Preobrashinski and Ismailovski guards from 1742 in those plumed grenadier mitres or those Bat Wing helmeted Chevalier guards from the War of the Polish Succession? Or the Swedes in those 1788 plumed and feathered top hats.

One can find even more in the other periods.

Not much interesting in the dealer area because there's not much new in the dealer area.

I'm from Canada. When I buy from American vendors, I buy almost exclusively at the conventions I go to. That way I drive my purchases back across the border myself. I tell the Border Guards I was at a toy soldier convention and bought X dollars of toy soldiers. Usually then and there they lose interest in me and let me go.

Try to get paint local if I can but figures 95% at shows and 50% of my books as well.
Mid 1970s when I last brought figures from a shop .

Almost 100%… I just plan ahead to pick up items for my army in advance. Once in a blue moon I will find something at a yard sale/ flea market/ Goodwill but this is very, very rare. Until the local Wal-Mart starts stocking Wargaming items I will keep shopping the cons…

Zero. No cons in my area.

It depends: if it's miniatures, 70+% at the cons, because I like to eyeball them.
As to rules, I am about 50-50%, but the oooh-shiny phenomenon may push that to 60%.
I am more of a kitbashing scratchbuilder, so the flea markets at the convention and in Real Life World are more likely to sophon off my pennies.

As my purchasing has transitioned from "buying cool stuff" to buying the things I need to fill out my wargame armies, I am finding my purchasing at cons has dropped off. One of my friends is into painting individual figures and vignettes and his experience is the opposite.

I do about 60% of my purchasing at shows. I usually go with a list of wants and see what gets filled. Some things just won't be there but I'm more than happy to spend freely at a show. And if my daughter is with me that's more I can buy because she can carry some.

Suspect 40 to 60 percent. This year I'm tracking my spending on the hobby, so we'll see. Also, I sense that the more conventions attended, the more of my hobby purchases are made from there. I like to see and handle the product, and a convention gives me a good target for saving to purchase. I typically have an idea of what I'm looking to buy, yet often find something unforseen, and a flea market will often see me parting with some of my cash. And I'm more likely to buy in a store than on-line as well.

For the year 30 to 50% of my hobby purchases are done at Recruits and ReaperCon.

70%

Even as of 5 years ago, show purchases accounted for 50-90% of my yearly wargaming/modeling purchases.

Nowadays its barely eeking out 20%. I'd like to say the new FLGS stole all of it, but it's been Amazon for rulebooks and direct sales/promotions for minis. Even my scenery/paint needs have largely been sated by two local model train shows.

You can buy things at cons??

Seriously, almost 0%. I almost never buy anything or even visit the dealer halls. Unless there is something specific I want to pick up (and don't want to pay the postage) I would rather order online.

The shopping is the reason I attend shows….so 90% probably as I attend a fair few

0% as I buy everything via the online sites. I tend to have more flexibility and choices. Most vendors only take a small amount to the shows and fall short of what I need. Not their fault as they can't carry their entire stock but it does limit choices.

I just like to go and see if theres any surprises and bargains, I buy loads online, im wanting FoW stuff from vapnartak this weekend cos its certainly quicker and easier than buying from them selves