"Advice for Vendors at Conventions" Topic

The new year of conventions has started already and with it I have a few unsolicited observations from my own experiences that I would like to share as advice for vendors at shows to help them maximize their sales.

An area I notice that is hugely underserved is emergency needs. You've driven several hours to get to the show only to forget you forgot some basics. A quick pop into the vendor area should fix that. But you'd be surprised at how even basic items are often not for sale at the vendor booths.

Dice-
This was a shocker for me. I was running a game at a show and realized I forgot my box with the dice. No problem, I thought. I just popped into the vendor area to find a brick of six sided dice. However, to my shock, not a single vendor had dice! Not one! Vendors. You don't need much. Just a couple of bricks of six siders, and maybe a tube or two of d10s. They don't take up much space, and it might save a GM or player a huge hassle.

Terrain-
You get to the con and realize that you forgot your trees- or hills. You pop into the vendor area, and while there are rows and rows of box starter sets and packs of minis- not a single vendor is selling pre-made trees or hills or terrain bits. Having a small section of terrain bits and scatter terrain might be a life saver to the GM who forgot theirs or just want more once they set up their table.

Adhesives and Glue-
This one blows my mind. This is the reason I now always come packing with some Loctite gel to the cons I go to. You get to the show, open your carefully packed box and realize the star miniature in your collection has shed an arm in transit. No problem, just hit it with some adhesive. Only, you forgot yours. No problem, pop down to the vendor area and grab some- only nobody has any. Adhesives take little space, and you can charge a premium at a convention by selling them. If you have some zap a gap or Loctite or even some Ailene's Tacky Glue for terrain you can make some sales.

Writing Utensils-
Pens and pencils and dry erase markers are sold everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except game conventions. Now, I usually write notes in my smart phone, but sometimes you need to put something on paper or on a dry erase board. Just have a pack of mechanical pencils and maybe dry erase markers around. You can even get them custom printed with your logo and vendor name so the buyer remembers who saved their game. Have a few pads of paper or small paper journals as well. You can get those branded as well. It sounds stupid, but you never know when someone needs to write something down and suddenly has a need for something to do it with.

These are just a few items that don't take much space but could add to your sales. You can even upcharge them a buck or two since the people who will need them usually really need them badly.

Anyone have any other recommendations for a time they arrived at a show, needed something and realized that nobody was selling it?

Boy ben there and done that, all good points :)

In the immortal words of Ubiquitous Pascal, "this is not The Way."

You know, you might have had me nodding along with your spoof if you hadn't included terrain. I say this as someone who once had to build houses the morning of a convention to get another GM out of a spot. (I was allowed typing paper, scissors, a few colored pencils and paper clips. Glue is for wimps!)

No terrain the poor gullible vendor who falls for this brings will ever be right. Buildings will be out period/area/scale and will be solid when the GM wants lift-off roofs. Hills will be sloped when the GM needs wedding cake style, and trees--in addition to scale problems--will be in full leaf when the GM fights in the Ardennes. As for dice, maybe you only use D6's and D10's and color doesn't matter, but that's not the song they're singing at the FLGS.

I'd say maybe dice, adhesives, cheap tape measures and rulers and maybe pencils and notepads--but at the GM help desk. Don't place the burden on the dealers, who don't have room for all their regular stuff in the van.

And I say (again) hold the last test game, and load the car directly from that. If you do that right, not only will you have packed everything, but the last thing in--and so the first thing out--will be your game mat, followed by terrain and then troops. Pack for a convention game--or even a game on the other side of town--in any other fashion, and the warranty lapses.

We carry hundreds of dice of all types to every show. Always makes enough to pay for gas. Lol. D6 are all a quarter and pots are all 50 cents or 3 for a dollar.
We also carry terrain . But that is hit or Miss. Many stores do terrain. Adhesive items are too expensive for me to carry.
Pens are available for free at the hotel or site so no need there.
We do carry tape measures with skulls on them for a dollar.

The issue is that miniatures dealers generally don't get wholesale prices on dry eraser markers, loctite, pens, note pads, etc. I agree that the con check-in desk can provide a limited number of these items, or raise the fee a dollar and give everyone a ruler and a pen when they check in.

The only gaming conventions I've attended where I couldn't buy dice were so small they didn't have vendors.

Adhesives, paper, and writing utensils (and also: tagboard, magnets, whiteboards, rulers, folders, and the ability to print and make copies) are all available at the local office supply store. A good subset is also available at a local hardware store. Give up a gaming slot to run out to the store, and get what you need.

One of the boxes I bring to every single convention is the "gaming detritus" box. I have two, one for naval gaming, one for land gaming. Each is a 12x12 box with a selection of generic stuff useful for the type of gaming: dice, pens, markers, magnets, superglue, tape, and all kinds of useful little gaming bits. I bring one of these boxes to every club gaming day, and sometimes both boxes go to conventions. I highly recommend building one, and bringing it everywhere. Every time you discover another thing that a game was missing, add it to the box, and it will always be with you.

Good ideas. Last year at LW, I was surprised to find so many vendors with minis, and stuff, but some of what the OP says was missing.
Also for some odd reason Badger had an entire rack set up for the convention with absolutely nothing on it.

I've already started packing my "stuff to take boxes", after printing out my packing list, (it's seven pages long).

Tgerritsen, hope to see you again at LW. I promise that I will not be "that hard to find" like I was last year. Just look for the dude dressed like a B movie pirate on Friday and Saturday, and look for the gray kepi on Thursday and Sunday…

Tape Measures

I'm speaking from 30 years of shows. I do test games, pack straight from them to the car, and have still had circumstances where things happened. The dice thing definitely happened to me at one show. It wasn't a spoof.

As for terrain- I said trees and hills and scatter terrain. The more generic the better. The more specific you go, the less useful it would be. I am not putting pressure on anyone, just pointing out areas where I have been at a show and needed something I couldn't find.

Hell, I can always pop out of the show and hit the nearest Walmart, Target or even a nearby hobby shop for some of this. The point is, at the show you are a captive audience and convenience means profit.

Tape Measures is another good suggestion. Small rulers and tape measures is a great idea.

I was at Genghis Con at the end of February, and there were several booths selling dice there. Trouble was, they tended to cater to the RPG crowd who wanted special, extra classy dice which works out to extremely expensive, like maybe $6 USD-$10 for a D6. You know, dice with lights inside, or dice that make noise, dice made of metal or fancy materials. <Sigh> They were beautiful!
But, if I needed to shell out $200 USD to get 20 dice to run my game, I'd be inclined to buy or borrow some gamer's dice instead. Just another case where it would be great to be able to buy a box of 45 little plastic dice.

Grelber