Australian Collector Fairs & Conventions calendar

[Megatran]

Does Melbourne have fairs at regular occurrence like interstate Parra & Nexus fairs?

[griffin]

I think the Sandown fair is at least annual. It'd be nice to have a regular Melbourne (and Brisbane) collector fair for us to plug for regular meets, as the Sydney and Perth ones generate a growing number of people.

[Paulbot]

Sandown is about three times a year, but for such a broad/large collectors fair (like triple the size of the Sydney one) it has little in the way of (not KO) TFs, that it's not really been worth going.

Next one at Sandown is Sunday 2nd March 9am - 3pm
http://eventsvic.com.au/page3.htm



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[griffin]

Perhaps look at what the Perth fans do and organise it like a meet? Spend the day together as a group with tables, trading and talking for as long or as little as you want. Even if you don't have much to sell, you'd only need to sell enough to cover as much or as little of the table fee you need to make the day worth it as a meet.
Or if you have two or three people here who intend to sell stuff, it can be a meet area for others to hang out (who are trusted enough to be around other people's property).
The regular meetings at the Parra and Nexus fairs draws in a growing number of people from here, because of the regularity of the fan-meet, like an annual convention.

Unfortunately Sandown doesn't appear to be within walking distance of any shopping centers (like Nexus & Parra fairs do) to meet up later as a group if you looked at doing the Parra Fair concept (arrive early as a group of non-sellers and fall back to a food court until midday-ish).
The good thing though, is it is next to a train station, so depending on how reliable the trains are to there, it makes for a convenient location.

[griffin]

Updated listing, and reversed the order of upcoming events, so that you can read from the top of the list... to make more sense.

I've also started putting in times of the Fairs & Conventions, to help make up minds of those working odd hours, or those who don't like early starts.... etc.

[Lint]

Perhaps look at what the Perth fans do and organise it like a meet? Spend the day together as a group with tables, trading and talking for as long or as little as you want. Even if you don't have much to sell, you'd only need to sell enough to cover as much or as little of the table fee you need to make the day worth it as a meet.
Or if you have two or three people here who intend to sell stuff, it can be a meet area for others to hang out (who are trusted enough to be around other people's property).
The regular meetings at the Parra and Nexus fairs draws in a growing number of people from here, because of the regularity of the fan-meet, like an annual convention.

Unfortunately Sandown doesn't appear to be within walking distance of any shopping centers (like Nexus & Parra fairs do) to meet up later as a group if you looked at doing the Parra Fair concept (arrive early as a group of non-sellers and fall back to a food court until midday-ish).
The good thing though, is it is next to a train station, so depending on how reliable the trains are to there, it makes for a convenient location.

Comparing Sandown with Nexus....

Problems with Sandown as a regular meet location:
1. It's got barely any transformers, it's like Nexus on a bad day: every time
2. It's a pain in the arse to get to by public transport if you're not seriously local. I'd say a 2 hour journey for most, at minimum.
3. It's expensiver. Fees for sandown tables/stalls are $70 each, requires a Zone 2 ticket to get to and charges $5 for entry. I'd say most sellers are doing a charity by even showing up and vendors almost have to have horrendous markups to recover cost which makes the event even less attractive.
4. It's not that close to anything else.

This is all without saying that the biggest problem with Melbourne Ozformers is that they are all antisocial bastards: a dull, expensive day out that you have to get up early for can be a hard ask.

What Melbourne needs is an event with a toys/collectables focus that will attract families, fans and bargain hunters alike. This can be done by getting a more accessible venue with lower costs to attract one-off sellers looking to clear out old stuff as well as vendors with the latest stuff.

[griffin]

Yeah... it's a shame that it is a bit out of the way, and, it doesn't have a huge amount of Transformers compare to Nexus, but not much more than the Parra fair (which has a bigger turn out of TFs fans). But there are still a lot of collectables there (at least, when I was there last March).
Shame about the table cost, but if it is $70 for a whole stall, that could be split up by 4 or 5 people, making it more affordable. Maybe...

If the location wasn't so far out... if a group of toy dealers/fans start showing up at each fair as a regular meet, it might generate other toy dealers and collectors to start showing up as well. Like, there are quite a few people there selling trading cards, so something similar probably happened with them.

Yeah, maybe something else more convenient and cheaper will show up somewhere.

[nexusnixx]

Bossbot, the next nexus fair is 26 April

[griffin]

A long time between updates (sorry, already half way through the year)... the 2017 major conventions and collectors fairs have been added to the first post.

Date - - - Name - - - Location - - - Links

2017
JUN 16-18 - Supanova (Sydney) - site
JUN 23-25 - Supanova (Perth) - site
JUL 1-2 - Oz ComicCon (Melbourne) - site
JUL 8 - Nexus Fair (Perth) - site
AUG - APCS Penrith Toy and Hobby Fair (cancelled)
SEP 23-24 - Oz ComicCon (Brisbane) - site
SEP 30-OCT 1 - Oz ComicCon (Sydney) - site
OCT 7 - Nexus Fair (Perth) - site
OCT 7-8 - EB Games Expo (Gold Coast) - site
OCT ? - APCS Canberra Toy & Hobby Fair (Kaleen?) - site
NOV 4-5 - Madman Anime Festival (Melbourne) - site
NOV 5 - APCS Brisbane Toy and Hobby Fair (Windsor) - site
NOV 10-12 - Supanova (Brisbane) - site
NOV 17-19 - Supanova (Adelaide) - site

---------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - PAST EVENTS - - - - -

2017
JUN 10-11 - APCS Perth Toy and Hobby Fair (Kensington) - site
JUN 10-11 - Madman Anime Festival (Brisbane) - site
MAY 7 - APCS Brisbane Toy and Hobby Fair (Windsor) - site
APR 15 - Nexus Fair (Perth) - site
APR 28-30 - Supanova (Melbourne) - site
APR 21-23 - Supanova (Gold Coast) - site
APR 1-2 - Oz ComicCon (Adelaide) - site
APR 2 - APCS Canberra Toy & Hobby Fair (Kaleen) - site
MAR 26 - APCS Melbourne Toy & Hobby Fair (Preston) - site
MAR 25-26 - Oz ComicCon (Perth) - site
JAN - (No Nexus Fair)

[Galvatran]

Here is the link.

2018 Fair Dates & Times
Sunday 4th March - 9.00am to 5.00pm
Monday 5th March - 9.00am to 5.00pm
Tuesday 6th March - 9.00am to 5.00pm
Wednesday 7th March - 9.00am to 3.00pm

Location: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre located at 2 Clarendon Street, Southbank.

This event is strictly for trade only. Those eligible for admission include retailers, wholesalers, buying groups, etc. Registrants must present business identification.

No one under the age of 13, including infants, will be admitted under any circumstance. Babies under the age of 1 year will be permitted if in a pram or suitable carry harness.