CANCON 2018... The Good, the Odd and the Wanker

So I'm back from CANCON, having survived another annual pilgrimage to our nation's capital. As usual there's plenty to report and discuss, so here we go with the obligatory wrap-up post...

We managed a reduced Aussie Bloggers Meet-up this year with just the three of us fronting up. Barks from Wargaming with Barks was up to his neck in the Bloodbowl comp but still had time to have a yarn and get this pic, so thanks for that mate. Alan (Kaptain Kobold) from The Stronghold Rebuilt was also in attendance in a rather fetching frock, making my "official" treasured CANCON camo cargoes look a lot less impressive than might have otherwise been the case!

Kaptain Kobold, Millsy and Barks living the dream in 2018

In the evening we headed to the Duck's Nuts pub for the traditional dinner and cleansing bevvies. Much hilarity, opinionated and entertaining conversation later and we'd all enjoyed what has become the single best bit of the trip IMHO.

Second hand loot...

The second hand stall was a bit rubbish this year for the most part, despite being in a much better location and with a decent amount of space between tables. It seems I wasn't the only one to notice that a far bit of the stuff on show was still marked up with MOAB 2017 stickers where it clearly hadn't sold for various reasons.

Having said that, I did manage to luck out big time and pick up a couple of items to add to the ever growing Warhammer collection. First up a bag of plastic Empire wizards, a bargain at $20 for the lot.

The piece of resistance however, is THIS...

HELL. YES.

$110 for three box sets of Warhammer scenario packs from the mid 80s. Blood on the Streets and Terror of the Lichemaster are both in MINT condition with not an item missing, nor even creased, let alone cut out or otherwise used. Blood Bath at Orc's Drift is in close to the same condition with a few card buildings missing but otherwise intact and unsullied. My Oldhammer nerdometer is still riding high off the scale at 11. I'm pinching myself and will be for some time to come I suspect! Over time I'll photocopy the buildings and assemble them just for fun, adding some detail and 3D elements to personalise them along the way.

New loot...

Not much in this department to be honest, partly because the trade stands were pretty ordinary (more on that below). I did manage to score a 15mm Russian AT gun I've been after for Flames of War for ages but just never got round to. When I tried to buy one direct on special order they sent me an Italian AA gun instead. Random, but thankfully sorted at last.

Woohoo! At last! It's the little things after all

A mate also picked up the following for me at a local bookstore closing down sale and which I was able to collect when we caught up. Very much looking forward to giving this some time over the next few weeks...

Trade stalls...

Not sure what the traders were thinking this year?!? Many had big holes in their catalogue of core or popular stuff and the consequence is I came home with a fair bit of cash unspent. Their loss unfortunately! The board game guys in particular need to lift their game. Several of us got the sense they were treating CANCON as an opportunity to try and shift stuff they couldn't sell by any other means but not much else. Prices were close to and often higher than RRP. Weird.

And finally, the Wanker...

I sometimes wonder at how selfish and disconnected some people are. I was at the second hand stall and a chap next to me picked up someone else's item for sale (a fragile assembled plastic kit). Having checked it out he decided he had no interest in it and threw it back onto the table (from a considerable height) without a thought about damage or how he would feel if it was his stuff. I was so gobsmacked that he was gone before I had an opportunity to say anything. So if you're reading this by some amazing chance... YOU SIR ARE A WANKER. Go and have a long hard look at yourself in the mirror for your own sake if nobody else's. Anyway, rant over.

So that's it till next year. Time for a nap on the couch and then a bit of a play with the loot :-)

Cheers,

Millsy