I'll be the first one to say that I felt the overall experience was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than at Origins.
As a disclaimer, I live in Ohio, about 3 hours from Columbus. I'm not saying this because I didn't like the distance. That is honestly irrelevent to me. I didn't do the driving.
My issues come from the fact that downtown St Louis had nothing to do. Food was extremely difficult to get. The Holiday Inn were rude in regards to people playing cards anywhere, or just generally having fun. I honestly missed the whole convention atmosphere. This year, you had the option of Nationals, the Prof Cup, the big side event, and league play and pick up tournaments. There were SO many more options at Origions every year, the convention center was open 24/7, there were TONS of food options, the vender hall was fantastic, and you could play in other random events around the convention. I had a blast at this years event, because of the people. The event itself I felt didn't come close to living up to the standards set by previous years. I also REALLY didn't like Gathering Ground's presence at the event. They were rude when dealing with customers and many times, didn't offer close to the deals that they were advertising prior to the event. On the boards they advertised that they care about their PR, but they certainly didn't act like it at the venue in the least. I was trying to talk to the guy and sell some cards and the packs from the Professor Cup I'd won, and a kid asked me how much I wanted for the packs in front of him, and I told him I'm not going to sell him packs,a nd that at the very least, don't try to sell or buy cards right in front of the official venue. I was going out of the way to try and be as professional and nice as possible, MAINLY as a means to get better deals on my cards, but I was actively trying to present myself well regardless. My collection, totaled up using the average price from those listed on the Pokegyms price guide ( medium, not high ) came out to about 2000 dollars. Their offer? 145 dollars. I decided to go and sell individual cards instead, and the guy ( the bald one ) got flustered, angry, and said never mind, I don't want to buy anything. I don't know if their intent was to only buy cards if they could offer absurd rip off prices, even in terms of retail store buying prices or not, but even if thats the case, they didn't have to be so extremely rude when dealing with customers. I don't like the fact that they insult the intelligence of the players at the store. Its not unreasonable to expect to get at least 1/3rd the value of a card, but when they offer you 6 bucks for a Luxray lvl X, the most in demand card at the event, thats just a slap in the face. Toss in the fact that I saw them offer a buck fifty to someone for a booster back, to have them say no thanks, that they can get 2 dollars for them later, they threatened to get them kicked out of the event. So someone isn't allowed to sell a card to another player at the event that they are friends with? If I needed a Claydol, and my friend said he'd give me one for 10 bucks, am I supposed to be afraid some vendors going to than kick me out of the event? Whats next, they don't want us trading because that person who needs the card could have bought it from them? I HIGHLY suggest either a change of vendor at any future Nationals, or open selling. I'd rather buy from StrikeZone, or Troll and Toad, or Cardhaus, or even ShuffleandCut than from Gathering Ground after this weekends experiences.
None the less, from PUI's perspective, I don't think they are going to go back to Origins due to price issues,a nd they don't want to deal with the complications of working with the convention. I don't blame them, as most of the other gaming companies have grown fed up with it too. I do think that it'll be very difficult to match the overall experience offered by Origins though.
I do have one suggestion though. In the future, try not to schedule Nationals the same weekend as Origins, and Worlds the same weekend as Gen Con. There are players who'd love to attend both. I'm sure it wouldn't ruin the scheduling of events to shift it off by one weekend. I know other players who'd greatly appreciate this as well.
I also REALLY didn't like Gathering Ground's presence at the event. They were rude when dealing with customers and many times, didn't offer close to the deals that they were advertising prior to the event. On the boards they advertised that they care about their PR, but they certainly didn't act like it at the venue in the least. I was trying to talk to the guy and sell some cards and the packs from the Professor Cup I'd won, and a kid asked me how much I wanted for the packs in front of him, and I told him I'm not going to sell him packs,a nd that at the very least, don't try to sell or buy cards right in front of the official venue. I was going out of the way to try and be as professional and nice as possible, MAINLY as a means to get better deals on my cards, but I was actively trying to present myself well regardless. My collection, totaled up using the average price from those listed on the Pokegyms price guide ( medium, not high ) came out to about 2000 dollars. Their offer? 145 dollars. I decided to go and sell individual cards instead, and the guy ( the bald one ) got flustered, angry, and said never mind, I don't want to buy anything. I don't know if their intent was to only buy cards if they could offer absurd rip off prices, even in terms of retail store buying prices or not, but even if thats the case, they didn't have to be so extremely rude when dealing with customers. I don't like the fact that they insult the intelligence of the players at the store. Its not unreasonable to expect to get at least 1/3rd the value of a card, but when they offer you 6 bucks for a Luxray lvl X, the most in demand card at the event, thats just a slap in the face. Toss in the fact that I saw them offer a buck fifty to someone for a booster back, to have them say no thanks, that they can get 2 dollars for them later, they threatened to get them kicked out of the event. So someone isn't allowed to sell a card to another player at the event that they are friends with? If I needed a Claydol, and my friend said he'd give me one for 10 bucks, am I supposed to be afraid some vendors going to than kick me out of the event? Whats next, they don't want us trading because that person who needs the card could have bought it from them? I HIGHLY suggest either a change of vendor at any future Nationals, or open selling. I'd rather buy from StrikeZone, or Troll and Toad, or Cardhaus, or even ShuffleandCut than from Gathering Ground after this weekends experiences.
This was my first Nats, and I was disappointed. St. Louis was a complete ghost town and everything was closed on saturday when we went looking for food. Well, except Hooters and a chinese place. We had to opt for the chinese since we had a 10 year old with us. I don't mind if Nats moves around, I just hope it isn't in St. Louis anymore.
I'll be the first one to say that I felt the overall experience was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than at Origins.
As a disclaimer, I live in Ohio, about 3 hours from Columbus. I'm not saying this because I didn't like the distance. That is honestly irrelevent to me. I didn't do the driving.
My issues come from the fact that downtown St Louis had nothing to do. Food was extremely difficult to get. The Holiday Inn were rude in regards to people playing cards anywhere, or just generally having fun. I honestly missed the whole convention atmosphere. This year, you had the option of Nationals, the Prof Cup, the big side event, and league play and pick up tournaments. There were SO many more options at Origions every year, the convention center was open 24/7, there were TONS of food options, the vender hall was fantastic, and you could play in other random events around the convention. I had a blast at this years event, because of the people. The event itself I felt didn't come close to living up to the standards set by previous years. I also REALLY didn't like Gathering Ground's presence at the event. They were rude when dealing with customers and many times, didn't offer close to the deals that they were advertising prior to the event. On the boards they advertised that they care about their PR, but they certainly didn't act like it at the venue in the least. I was trying to talk to the guy and sell some cards and the packs from the Professor Cup I'd won, and a kid asked me how much I wanted for the packs in front of him, and I told him I'm not going to sell him packs,a nd that at the very least, don't try to sell or buy cards right in front of the official venue. I was going out of the way to try and be as professional and nice as possible, MAINLY as a means to get better deals on my cards, but I was actively trying to present myself well regardless. My collection, totaled up using the average price from those listed on the Pokegyms price guide ( medium, not high ) came out to about 2000 dollars. Their offer? 145 dollars. I decided to go and sell individual cards instead, and the guy ( the bald one ) got flustered, angry, and said never mind, I don't want to buy anything. I don't know if their intent was to only buy cards if they could offer absurd rip off prices, even in terms of retail store buying prices or not, but even if thats the case, they didn't have to be so extremely rude when dealing with customers. I don't like the fact that they insult the intelligence of the players at the store. Its not unreasonable to expect to get at least 1/3rd the value of a card, but when they offer you 6 bucks for a Luxray lvl X, the most in demand card at the event, thats just a slap in the face. Toss in the fact that I saw them offer a buck fifty to someone for a booster back, to have them say no thanks, that they can get 2 dollars for them later, they threatened to get them kicked out of the event. So someone isn't allowed to sell a card to another player at the event that they are friends with? If I needed a Claydol, and my friend said he'd give me one for 10 bucks, am I supposed to be afraid some vendors going to than kick me out of the event? Whats next, they don't want us trading because that person who needs the card could have bought it from them? I HIGHLY suggest either a change of vendor at any future Nationals, or open selling. I'd rather buy from StrikeZone, or Troll and Toad, or Cardhaus, or even ShuffleandCut than from Gathering Ground after this weekends experiences.
None the less, from PUI's perspective, I don't think they are going to go back to Origins due to price issues,a nd they don't want to deal with the complications of working with the convention. I don't blame them, as most of the other gaming companies have grown fed up with it too. I do think that it'll be very difficult to match the overall experience offered by Origins though.
I do have one suggestion though. In the future, try not to schedule Nationals the same weekend as Origins, and Worlds the same weekend as Gen Con. There are players who'd love to attend both. I'm sure it wouldn't ruin the scheduling of events to shift it off by one weekend. I know other players who'd greatly appreciate this as well.
I do have one suggestion though. In the future, try not to schedule Nationals the same weekend as Origins, and Worlds the same weekend as Gen Con. There are players who'd love to attend both. I'm sure it wouldn't ruin the scheduling of events to shift it off by one weekend. I know other players who'd greatly appreciate this as well.
As for jason and the gathering ground, my biggest fears were realized. $10. for the croak and $10 for the guide?? Also, imo due to lack of competition, their buy prices were a joke for the most part ( see luxray x for example).And who sells packs of 50 sleeves at a Pokemon event?!?! With no competition he was the only game in town and they showed it with their prices on key game cards.
As for jason and the gathering ground, my biggest fears were realized. $10. for the croak and $10 for the guide?? Also, imo due to lack of competition, their buy prices were a joke for the most part ( see luxray x for example).And who sells packs of 50 sleeves at a Pokemon event?!?! With no competition he was the only game in town and they showed it with their prices on key game cards.
I haven't been to any previous nationals to compare it to but I did enjoy it in St. Louis. I completely agree with what you said about the vendor. That bald guy was beyond rude and he seemed to be the only one of them that knew anything. After multiple times saying they would buy anything they looked through two of my binders and said they didn't want anything except for 4 cards and then they offered me less than half of what those cards sell for. I also got less money for my bulk stuff then advertised and I didn't want to buy any singles because I can get them online cheaper at troll and toad and I only have to pay a dollar in shipping. I also lold when somebody asked them if they had booster boxes and the guy goes ya we have all of them and she then asks for a Legends Awakened box to which he says they didn't have any lol.