TOPIC: Room layout change to help trading next year

Jeff,
This year was a very bad year for token trading. There were two major problems and a minor problems.

#1: There wasn't any place with sufficient light to do trading. I often used the best lit table in the front and even there I needed all 8 of my lanterns to get close to enough light. I am going to have to get more lanterns.

#2: The start of the dungeon was too far from treasure draw. For trading to work best the traders need to be visible to both the people arriving and the people getting their treasure. Last year worked pretty well when we were set up near Treasure boxes (because they were not far from the instance.)

#3: (minor problem). It would really, really, really be helpful if there 3 or 4 rectangular table set up somewhere together for trade. With the long side facing out. For example if you could widen the hallway between the coaching areas (just 4 feet would be enough) and put 3 or 4 well lit tables there. It really is better if we have all the traders close together. It creates a feeling it is a market AND it allows the players to price shop. That way if someone is charging too much, the other traders will compete.

#4: an a sign, saying something like "The Marketplace".

I agree with everything George said here.

I wasn't there to trade (except on Wednesday) but I did most of my trading outside of TD. I was in the light and people saw me sorting my pulls. I would trade what I pulled to them. I know many of the folks that were working the treasure pulls mentioned that there were traders up front.

I was one of those people. Many newbies were puzzled about gold. I suggested they check out the traders up front who could turn that gold into better item, especially the 200s and 250s.

My only disagreement with George's comments is that I don't believe that traders should be near the treasure draw area. I heard several complaints about "vultures" hanging around treasure draws, and I fear that it would be worse if those two areas were closer.

Hopefully a healthy, easily identifiable marketplace would let newbie treasure drawers know that they have options other than dealing with a shady vulture type.

I agree with Binia that traders should not be near the treasure draw area. As someone who worked the treasure boxes I did not enjoy having people who were hanging around for an excessive amount of time watching what everyone was pulling. I also do not think Jeff should put up any kind of a marketplace sign as the traders are not affiliated with TD regardless if they are players or volunteers. Traders are free agents.

George Pratt wrote: Jeff,
This year was a very bad year for token trading. There were two major problems and a minor problems.

#1: There wasn't any place with sufficient light to do trading. I often used the best lit table in the front and even there I needed all 8 of my lanterns to get close to enough light. I am going to have to get more lanterns.

#2: The start of the dungeon was too far from treasure draw. For trading to work best the traders need to be visible to both the people arriving and the people getting their treasure. Last year worked pretty well when we were set up near Treasure boxes (because they were not far from the instance.)

#3: (minor problem). It would really, really, really be helpful if there 3 or 4 rectangular table set up somewhere together for trade. With the long side facing out. For example if you could widen the hallway between the coaching areas (just 4 feet would be enough) and put 3 or 4 well lit tables there. It really is better if we have all the traders close together. It creates a feeling it is a market AND it allows the players to price shop. That way if someone is charging too much, the other traders will compete.

#4: an a sign, saying something like "The Marketplace".

I agree with others who state that trade area should *not* be near the treasure pull boxes. I also noticed some "vulture" behavior, and I wouldn't want to encourage that....

I do agree with the notion that there should be a designated "Trade Plaza" with better lighting (like LED lanterns on the walls or tables). But do *not* call this area a "marketplace", which implies sales... which is strictly verboten by GenCon policies and can get you kicked out of the con and cause all sorts of problems for the TD folks.

Kim Lindgren wrote: I agree with Binia that traders should not be near the treasure draw area. As someone who worked the treasure boxes I did not enjoy having people who were hanging around for an excessive amount of time watching what everyone was pulling. I also do not think Jeff should put up any kind of a marketplace sign as the traders are not affiliated with TD regardless if they are players or volunteers. Traders are free agents.

just curious, does it bother you if the person is just there to gather data on pulls, and not trying to buy tokens from new players?
because i admit i was around the treasure boxes for a little while thursday and friday trying to get a sense of how good each box really was. but i never tried to buy tokens off the players because that bothers me too. if anything, i would let the person know how much ive seen the token sell for and admit that i probably wouldnt want to pay that much.

I'm not really sure why people feel the need to gather data on pulls. Imagine though feeling like you had someone standing behind you constantly looking over your shoulder. To me the volunteers who are working that station and the players pulling from the boxes at that time should be the only people in the area.

I think the big question is the value of the word "Near". I would like to be in visual range of the Treasure box say 15-20 feet (so the traders can be seen by the players). But I agree that being next to the box would be bad.

Also realize next year there aren't going to be very many purple and above tokens in the treasure box, so there is going to be a lot less interest in what people pull. There have always been vultures but they should be less annoying next year.

Heck what I really want on the sign is "Token Traders area" but Jeff seemed to not like that so I was offering "Marketplace" as an alternative. The point of the sign is to gather the traders together.

As a new player, lack of a market or a bazaar setup to support trading was a big oversight in my mind. Fortunately, I think it's something easily corrected.

Another part of it being closer to the treasure pulls is to get the feel of a village. As it was, everything was kind of disjointed.

I personally like "Bazaar" or "Traders Bazaar".

Ooooh, I like Bazaar too.