r/gencon • u/spaceiswaytoobig • 21d ago
These haul posts!
They’re making me feel self conscious! Am I broke? Do I not like board games as much as I used to? I literally ended up with two games from the consignment hall and one game from the vendor hall. The vendor hall just didn’t grab me this year like years past.
All in jest! I’m glad everyone found such cool stuff! I was just so out of the loop this year and the vendor hall was overwhelming to explore!
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u/SubtleMatter 21d ago
You’ve got it backwards OP. The purpose of the haul posts is to make you feel thrifty, prudent, and fully-in-control of your game purchasing even if you contemplated throwing away your clothing or buying a third suitcase to get your exhibit hall purchases back.
“Sure, none of this fits in my house,” you tell yourself on Monday after the con. “But look at that guy who filled a panel van to get it all home!”
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u/Minute_Slice4979 21d ago
Dont let the Haul photos make you feel bad. Trust me on this on,I used too that at Gencon and now I have bins of games that will never get played and I cant sell at anything close to even half of what I paid for them
Its far better to have 10 great games, with expansions and upgraded components Than 40 good games that never get played
When I buy a new game, I always remember that I will stop playing one of my older games that i like to play. I only have so many hours in a week to get to play boardgame so I have to pick carefully
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u/Karadek99 21d ago
I buy a lot less at Gen Con than I used to for a variety of reasons.
Running out of room at home. I have over 300 games, and at this point, I’m gonna have to get rid of stuff to buy more stuff.
I’m not worried about lining up to buy early release anymore. Nearly everything I once waited for in line never really hit the table until after the general release, and I could have been doing other stuff than waiting in line for hours.
I mainly just scope out the stuff and make notes. If I am going to buy a game, I’ll get it from my FLGS at home to support local business. They’re gonna sell it to me at the same price they offer it at Gen Con.
If I buy a lot of games, I have to carry them around all day. Been there, done that. Don’t wanna do it again. I’ve never had a downtown hotel that I could just drop things off to over the course of the day.
Therefore, most of what I buy is small, stuff I can’t get my FLGS to get, limited edition, or auction stuff.
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u/TheInitiativeInn 21d ago
OP, it's your living situation- i.e. your space is way too big for just two games.
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u/spaceiswaytoobig 21d ago
Haha in all honesty it’s probably the opposite. My house is tiny and I already own 200+ games. Ive been getting more conservative with my game purchases lately!
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u/Bitter_Dragonfly_651 21d ago
Am I broke?
I already own 200+ games.
You're not broke. Lol. It's good that you're more careful with purchases! It's so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of 'maybe I'll love this game even more than the 10 others I already own!' and just keep buying more and more games.
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u/acidix 21d ago
I havent gone in a few years but I stopped hauling anything other than con exclusives. Its so easy to get caught up in the hype. Sit down to play a demo, it seems amazing, you buy it, then it sits on your shelf forever because honestly it was just OK, but you were excited to be at gen con and the employee giving the demo was really good.
Everything I can buy I can get from my LGS or online. I'd rather browse and play more games than buy a stack of board games.
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u/quesoandcats 21d ago
In addition to what others have said, remember that for many people GenCon is their big vacation of the year, so they have more to spend than folks for whom GenCon is just one of several yearly trips.
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u/acespades 21d ago
Well now I’m curious about the 3 games you did pick up! I never made it to the consignment hall this year and I feel like I missed out.
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u/spaceiswaytoobig 21d ago
Who Goes There 2nd edition and Skulk Hollow from the consignment hall and Compile Main 3 from the vendor hall!
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u/echrisindy 21d ago
If I had those kinds of hauls for every year I've been to Gen Con (~36 times), I wouldn't be able to fit it all in my house! It's not a competition. :)
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u/moxifloxacin 21d ago
I had a big haul this year, but I worked as a deputy for the Convention. As part of that, you get swag bags. This year, that was three of the big vinyl bags filled with games, books, pins, and and other stuff. I also was a VIG (yes I know that's not free and cost me money) but I also got a swag bag from them, so I had an overly large haul and many of those games will end up in the consignment store next year if they're not my cup of tea.
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u/AnxiousReaderGuy 21d ago
I bought only five games and I was there the entire time. Some people have very bad financial spending problems.
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u/Administrative-Day42 20d ago
There are like 70,000 people attending gencon. The huge hauls are definitely a minority. I just like seeing what different people found interesting or maybe there is a picture of a game I might check out later.
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u/thegoodsyo 21d ago
Nah. It is ok to not buy things in excess. Try to not compare yourself to other people. I know I used to always see the people I worked with buying all kinds of new things but then they’d later complain about being thousands of dollars in credit card debt. I’m not saying that’s the case for all of these people but sometimes it is ok to go and enjoy things and not spend a bunch of money on an excessive amount of games that you probably won’t get around to.
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u/Wateristea 21d ago
You know your style/gaming than others. Don’t let other hauls get to you. In preparation for Gencon i gave away boardgames that was not going to get played to make room. Consider buy nothing or for kids game some after school program to donate to.
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u/jacewalkerofplanes 21d ago
I bought a lot less this year than in years past. Combination of factors: less deals in the dealer hall, tighter budget, the fact that I don't have a ton of shelf space at home anymore...
The best haul you bring back from GenCon is the memories. And badge ribbons. Those are pretty sweet.
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u/Frade2122 21d ago
You’re likely only going to see those posts from people who bought a lot since most people aren’t going to post about a haul of like 3 things. So it just looks like everyone bought a ton of stuff because that’s all you’re seeing.
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u/ObviouslySteve 21d ago
Haha you’re all good. I’ve been going for 10+ years and I have so many games I’ve bought, many of which I’ve never even played! And my friends buy even more than me and have even more unplayed games on their shelf.
So last year I made a decision which may sound like heresy to some: I no longer buy games. Unless something REALLY catches my eye I’d rather save my money for food, drinks and generic tickets. I still walk the hall and I’ll buy art/other merch but I’m simply past the point of buying big expensive games that look super fun to me but I know I’ll get my friends to play once at most.
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u/AStoutBreakfast 21d ago
I feel like as the years have gone on I’ve started to pick up smaller games and sometimes fewer games. Part of that is just getting dialed in on what will actually get to the table and also knowing I have a lot on my shelf of shame.
I will say GenCon is my one big purchasing time of the year though. I’ll generally pick up a game every couple months but will tend to splurge at GenCon.
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u/Connallthemac 21d ago
I spent about twenty minutes in the dealer hall and $0. The only thing I spent money on during the Con was food and drink.
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u/Handguns4Hearts 21d ago
Don't feel bad I didn't buy nearly as much as I did last year. I think I spent about $250 this year in the hall and $80 of that was on a playmat, which I didn't realize was gonna be that much.
I got introduced to the consignment shop this year by a friend and I think from now on I'll be doing a lot of shopping there.
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u/spaceiswaytoobig 21d ago
Get there early! It gets picked through pretty quickly! And then it’s mostly stuff you’ve never heard of lol but that’s doesn’t mean bad necessarily!
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u/Bjorn_Blackmane 21d ago
I just think there's no way in hell that person will play all those game in probably 5 years.
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u/Seventhson77 21d ago
I’ve gotten more selective. My group doesn’t board game like we used to. Doesn’t mean I didn’t spend money
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u/Vote_for_Knife_Party 21d ago
Personally, I've noticed my purchases tapering off a bit over the years. The thrill of being able to see a new, shiny thing and acquire it that day was fun to indulge, but there's only so many times a person needs to buy an entire grocery bag of mixed dice (I was trying to fill a gumball machine), and my friend group has enough TTRPG/board/card games in the mix that one needs to question the real odds of any new addition receiving heavy play.
Total haul this year was 2 books, 2 card games, 2 boxed game sets, this year's Crystal Caste dice set and a smattering of pins and other small bits, about half of which was either won in a tournament or a giveaway. One of the box sets has already been handed off to a friend (the company has been running the same giveaway for a couple of years), one of the card games has already been mislaid, and one of the books is an RPG set in the world of a podcast I've not listened through yet, so who knows if/when I'm going to read it, let alone play it. But I've already gotten one playthrough of the remaining card game, and am hopeful that the remaining book will see some action in the upcoming year. Overall, I'm happy with it (though I find myself wanting a second CC set so I can play one and display the other).
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u/HoneyCatDoodle 20d ago
Do you just have better impulse control than me? Probably.
Though this year I went over board. I realized I needed 2 player medium strategy low vision friendly games and my closet doesn't have a lot of those in it, so I got a lot of games to fill my needs.
To explain "need", I spend over 20 hours a month at the infusion center. Luckily they give me a private room and allow someone to be with me. But I need something to do during all those hours so board/card games. I've also recently developed severe cataracts though so I can't see half the games I had to play. So I did actually feel like I needed games.
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u/Cahalith180 19d ago edited 19d ago
74,000 people attended GenCon and brought $83.5 million to local businesses. That averages to each person spending $1,128. Now I for sure did not spend that much money, nor did the two with me, which means another person would have had to spent over $3k to keep the numbers true. Don't worry about feeling broke, there are just a lot of people with significantly more disposable income than other people.
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u/spaceiswaytoobig 19d ago
Those are some crazy numbers! I don’t think anyone in our group of 6 spent over $300 bucks
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u/SchemeOld5043 17d ago
Usually the people who are buying a ton have room for the games or they sell large amounts of games to help fund what they buy at the con and free up space.
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u/kouzmicvertex 21d ago
I save up all year to allow myself the freedom to buy whatever I want at GenCon. I have to do this because I have no self control when I get there. I definitely bought more games than I wanted, and some games I didn’t really want but felt pressured into buying because I wanted to make the person demoing said game happy. That’s a personal problem. It’s hard to say no to a salesman that shares my interests, and everyone there is a board gamer
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u/EphemeralDonuts 21d ago
It's not just you! I also purchased three smaller games and nothing else. Did my research a few days before and wrote down a list of five games I'd like to get. Of those, two were already sold out.
My free time is limited, and I'm at the point where I know exactly the kinds of games that will be a hit in this home. No sense in wasting money on stuff that will just sit on the shelf and gather dust from lack of interest.
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u/ShowMeYourHappyTrail 21d ago
Hubby and I cut waaaaaay diwn swveral years ago because we're too competitive to play against each other often and don't have others to play with either.
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u/fishcrabby 20d ago
I will only buy upgrades to components of games I already have and enjoy (Terraforming mars for example). Just not enough time to keep learning and playing new games.
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u/Breezy_bear333 15d ago
it's all about circumstances. I live in Anchorage Alaska and don't have a gaming store unless you count b&n. Gamenerdz won't ship. Miniature Market wants shipping $70 for the new Captain Chair. My "haul" is 95% of my entire board game purchases for the year and 2\3 of that is from the consignment store. I'll also bring as many games down to sell to make room.
Trust me I miss the days of pursuing cheap board games and local trades.
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u/ShadowDancerBrony 15d ago
I'm literally assembling more shelving in the basement to store the games we bought this year. Do not ask me to pan up from my Haul shot!
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u/NefariousnessOk1996 21d ago
Nah, you are not broke.
How many of your 200+ games you own have seen the table 3 or more times?
It's good to be selective and still cherish your existing collection. I gave myself a budget and stuck with it. I still ended up with 3 games. None of them have hit the table (minus solo run throughs so I know the game before I teach it) yet just due to everyone being busy.