Sunday 28 March 2010

Memorabilia Fair Bargains

I'm a regular attendee of the Memorabilia Fair at the NEC in Birmingham (the UK version) as I love checking out the myriad of stands and collections. I don't usually look for roleplaying stuff but sometimes I get lucky, like I did at the last show when I got the hardbacks Codex Arcanis and Accordlands: The Master Codex for three pounds each.

At this show I had bought Strange Frontiers by New World Games for a quid and I was looking at a boardgame stall when I noticed a stack of Games Workshop's White Dwarf issues. I'm not generally interested in the magazine but I was looking for some inspiration for a possible Rogue Trader campaign. In the stack I found a 2000 printing of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook, the Mordheim book, the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Strategy Battle Game rulebook and the Codexes for Space Marines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Daemonhunters, Imperial Guard, Assassins, Tyranids, Armageddon, Eldar and Orks. All complete, all in good nick. 'That's interesting,' I thought. 'I have WFB to WFRP conversion rules in my WFRP 1st edition book so I can use these for sourcebooks'. They were mostly in good condition and, even though they were dated from just over a decade ago they were completely usable for what I had in mind.

So, I said to the guy on the stall, 'How much for these?'

He smiled and said, 'I've been trying to shift those for ages, nobody wants them anymore. You can have them.'

'Bwah?'

'They're free.'

'Gah?'

'Just take them!'

'Bweh?'

So I grabbed them and ran like a bastard in case he had made a mistake. Good day out, that.

5 comments:

  1. Nice score!

    Mind you, that's a bwah, a gah and a bweh more than I would have given.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cool! You should have seen what other things you could have made off with.

    "How much for this...?"

    "My wife? I've been trying to shift her for ages... nobody wants her anymore. You can have her."

    "Bwah?"

    ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also got a couple of Games Workshop Annuals from 1998 and 2000, but they're pretty useless even for miniatures collectors. I usually come away from the Fair to find I've spent loads but have nothing to show for it. This time I spend nothing and had 3kg of books I can put to use in my 40K game.

    Reeeeesult!

    ReplyDelete
  4. NEC Conventions is definitely a bonus to being near Birmingham. That and a decent curry house.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rob - it's really easy to get to through Birmingham New Street. Next time one is on get up here. There's also the UK Games Expo at the beginning of June and that's just as easy.

    The curry houses in Birmingham are so-so, the Chinese food is better. We've got a curry house here in Lichfield called The Bengal and it's the best in world! THE WORLD!!!!

    ReplyDelete