Author Topic: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?  (Read 20424 times)

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Offline JonLeung

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Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« on: March 02, 2015, 10:57:02 am »
Does anyone here live in Ontario?

Interested in the Waterloo Video Game Swap?
http://www.vgcc.ca/

Earlier I won two passes to the Waterloo Video Game Swap, which takes place in Waterloo, Ontario, at the end of March.  You can see me win them here, when I did some Nintendo trivia at Nintendo Quest's Kickstarter wrap-up party chat:
http://youtu.be/NghA1wCvgi0?t=3h5m27s
http://youtu.be/NghA1wCvgi0?t=3h6m2s

I won't be able to use the passes (doesn't help that I live in Alberta) so if anyone is interested, let me know, and I can get them transferred over to you.

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2015, 02:04:49 pm »
I just happen to live in Kitchener, the very next city over from Waterloo. I had seen you mention this before in a different thread, but I didn't really take an interest in it at first, mainly because it's highly doubtful that there will be anything there in Japanese (日本語しか頭にないね、俺!). But you never know what you may find there, right? So I can put one of those passes to use. It certainly beats letting them go to waste.

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2015, 09:05:24 am »
Awesome!  FlyingArmor, do you want just one?  I have two, and no one else has expressed interest, so maybe you could bring a friend?

From what I understand, there aren't physical tickets, at least not before the event, they just already have me on a list and expect me to be coming.  So you'd have to remind me of your full real name (sorry if I ever knew it and forgot) and I'll pass it to Rob McCallum who can get the pass(es) transferred to your name.  (EDIT: Duh, I remember your name now.  Let me know if you want one or two.)

I imagine it would be possible, even likely, that they would have Japanese games.  Whenever there's the Comic & Entertainment Expo in Edmonton or Calgary, I often see game vendors having a few Japanese video games, or sometimes unofficial releases, for example I've seen games like Clock Tower (J) on a Super NES cartridge, presumably with a translation patch.  As the Waterloo Video Game Swap is specifically about video games, I'd actually be surprised if there weren't any treasures there, moreso if it's a pretty big event.  Might want to check on the details...as it's called a video game swap, I assume you'd be expected to bring some games to trade.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2015, 12:09:03 pm by JonLeung »

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2015, 01:16:31 pm »
I'm pretty sure transactions won't be restricted to just trades. I checked out one of their videos from the last swap and they mentioned having over 100 vendors in attendance, so I think it's safe to assume that I can simply buy things outright. Besides, I don't really have anything I'd wish to part with anyway, not at the moment at least, heheh.

By the way, this event is massive! Much bigger than my first impression (judging from the photos in their gallery) lead me to think.

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2015, 11:03:41 am »
Well, if you find anything awesome, especially if you do buy it, let us know!  I would love it if my NES-related trivia prowess amounts to something good for someone!

Okay, FlyingArmor gets one pass, so if anyone else is interested, the second one is still available!

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2015, 12:15:58 pm »
Okay, I got word back from Rob McCallum (director of Nintendo Quest) who spoke with a guy there.  He has confirmed that the pass has been transferred to your name.  So you just have to show up, and you'll be on the VIP list, no waiting!

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2015, 07:43:09 pm »
Thanks for taking care of that, Jon! Yay, no waiting! ^__^

Sure, if I find anything interesting, I'll be sure to do a show-and-tell of sorts.

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2015, 07:13:12 am »
I finally got a response on the other one when posting on the Waterloo Game Swap's Facebook page.  She offered to pay for it but I insisted that she take it for free as originally stated.  (It's not like it's normally sold for a ton anyway.)  I am also making a point, because I was getting a little insulted that I was even going to the trouble of personally messaging a few people on the Facebook page that were clearly interested in VIP passes, but apparently not in mine.  It's like people don't believe there's a such thing as a free lunch.  Well, screw them, it's their loss.  Hope she gets something good there!

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2015, 07:58:19 am »
Hey FlyingArmor, did you manage to find anything worth sharing about?  I think we (or at least I) would be interested if you did!  Just curious...

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2015, 08:26:16 pm »
In the end, I didn't end up going. I did step out the door with the intent to go, but I somehow misread the bus schedule in my area. On Sunday, the bus only comes once every hour, so if I leave at the wrong time, I end up having to wait for about 40 minutes (since I usually leave the house 10 minutes prior to the bus arriving at the bus stop). and that is what happened. If it wasn't so cold that day, I probably would've waited the extra time for it to come back around.

So I don't have anything to report, unfortunately. And you went to the trouble of getting the pass put into my name so I feel kinda bad for not going. :(

But I do thank you for letting me know this event exists, so I will probably plan on going to the next one (which I think will take place in September). I think I might even consider getting a table and sell my video game related artwork there, if that sort of thing would be allowed.

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2015, 10:33:59 am »
Ah well, not a huge loss.  The VIP passes turned out to only be like $10 at the regular price (it's not like $375 for the VIP passes to the Edmonton/Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expos here), and in any case it was free for me (other than the effort of staying up all night doing NES trivia, which wasn't the worst thing in the world to do, really), but I'm still hoping for another good game swap story so if you do go to the next one, I am sure I will be keenly interested.  :)

I heard back from the mother of the lady who took the other VIP pass that I managed to give away (though it sounds like they both went).  They said there were a lot of vendors, but that there weren't as many PlayStation (1) games as expected, though she did find a rare WonderSwan game, which is kind of cool.  That's something I wouldn't be expecting, but now that I think about it, where else would you expect to see a WonderSwan game at all?  So at least something good came out of this.

There really needs to be something like a game swap somewhere closer, like here in Edmonton.  As part of the "Nintendo Quest" screening I am organizing here in October (another huge topic altogether, but anyway), I might call upon used game shops in the city to be sponsors and have merchandise tables set up in the lobby, if the Garneau theatre allows it (they didn't object to it when I mentioned it was a possibility).  If anything, the event might draw a bunch of gamers together, so something might come of that, after all, a game swap doesn't sound like rocket science to organize...

Offline JonLeung

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #11 on: May 27, 2016, 04:13:57 pm »
Just randomly remembered this and looked it up and found that the next one is this weekend.  Did you go to the one in September, FlyingArmor?  Or are you going to the one this weekend?

I guess I'm still a little disappointed that after doing well on the trivia to win two prizes, only for them to be tickets to an event I live too far away from, and given to other people, but that 1) the one who goes and promises me pictures never sends me any, and is a stranger so that it would be weird to ask, and 2) the other one misses the bus and doesn't go.  Talk about anti-climactic.

Maybe it sounds like I'm guilting you to go.  :P  But come on, why not?

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: Waterloo Video Game Swap - anyone here live in Ontario?
« Reply #12 on: May 28, 2016, 06:14:47 am »
If it were next weekend, I would definitely have gone to see what was all there, but at the moment I'm in Toronto attending Anime North and won't be returning back home until Sunday night, well after the swap has ended. So this time I got a better excuse to not go! ;)

By the way, I posted some photos of the stuff I got in the flea market last night at AN on my tumblr. There were plenty of video games for sale at there as well. I think I mainly saw stuff for PS2 and newer. I did catch a glimpse of a Japanese FF6 cartridge on one table, but since I already got that game complete with box and manual, I paid it no more attention, lol.