Is there any news yet as to whether or not the auction will be going on this year? We need to cull our collection.

It will be back as in 2022, yes.

If you haven't been to the auction since 2019 there have been a few tweaks. 

Auction items need to be approved 1st (they were trying to limit the TOVA section and things that just historically don't sell) and there was a cutoff date to submit auction items several weeks before the usual Sunday before Gencon cutoff time.  After that, only store items could be submitted up until that Sunday before.

Also, the consignment store bumped to $75 limit.

I assume there might be a few more tweaks this year, but details usually don't come up until late May/early June when they turn on submissions at the site.

to piggy back off this so as to not create a separate topic.

Last year the auction was looking for volunteers and with all the Shenanigans that recently happened with WotC and some GenCon drama the company I work for will be sitting out this year. So I will have a lot of extra free time, does anyone know if they usually post on the auction website for volunteers or is it a separate thing?

Don't recall if they specifically post.  I know they they are looking for people so, I would say reach out to Katie Fountaine at [email protected] 

That is probably still the proper address, though Katie is taking a year off running the Auction so you will likely be speaking to one of the other two people in charge.

And speaking solely as a longish-time volunteer I am fairly certain we have never gotten close to having "too many volunteers" so the more the merrier!

I'm planning on putting some DVDs into the Auction Store. What's the policy on R-rated shows?

Generally a good rule of thumb is, if you can find it in the vendor hall you can sell it in the consignment store.  No weapons (other than I think padded SCA/LARP stuff), porn or mildewed stuff.

Same Process for pre-approvals as last year?

I really wish they would expand the space for the auction store and auction. It's such a giant mess and almost impossible to browse without waiting hours and then getting crammed in. It's also run in an extremely disorganized way, with incredibly short hours for dropping off items on Wed and picking them up on Sunday. It would be great to see a real company come in and do this properly with proper staff, good software, and ample space.

Last year I had to wait 40 minutes to get a sign to bid, but then there was no place to sit down or stand. Then I went to the auction store line, waiting 2 hours and then they cut off the line, even while the auctions were going. 

1.  Space : I believe they are tied to the space that Gencon gives them.   There is a desire to get more space, but it is what it is. I almost get the feeling that GC views the auction as a necessary evil.   They are under constraints from GC for a number of things.

2.  Drop off hours.   Once again, I believe this is tied to what GC allows for Wednesday.  You can drop off at any time though Thu-Sat.

3.  No place to stand/sit and the cut off comment, that sounds like  you were there late Saturday when TOVA is going on.  That is by far the most popular segment and draws people in and packs the place.   Otherwise there usually is enough space for other slots.    Saturday they draw a line for stoppage to get in the store because they need to get ready for the charity event and also start pulling things together for a Sunday pickup.     The lines to get in the store in 2022 have been the longest I've seen.  I assume part of that was no auction in 3 years so, people were really wanting to get in.

4.  I really don't know what you mean by a 'real company'.   Gencon auction is run purely with volunteer hours that do the best they can do because they enjoy it.   You bring a 'real company' in (whatever that is) you are probably looking at 1,000 man hours of coverage and expensive (not counting whatever they spend outside the convention hours working with GC, setting up the DB, storing equipment, etc) and they sure will be charging more to sell things and I doubt they will have the depth of knowledge for Gencon auctions/items/history and it would probably turn into a sterile environment.   Bottom line, GC auction/consignment exists because of volunteers.

They know the limitations and they are constantly trying to improve the process over the years.   Some items are just simply out of their hands.
 

I totally agree about space.  The auction really needs to grow a little.  A lot of the problems with crowding in the auction store simply come down to space.  Problem is, their location right across from the dealer hall is prime real estate, and lots of game companies would like to be there.  So getting another room from Gencon for expansion is going to be tough and/or costly.

"Real" auction companies charge the seller a lot more than the GC auction does.  And they charge "buyer's premiums" to boot, so the winning bidder pays more than they bid, and the seller gets a lot less.  That doesn't sound like an improvement to me.
 

You can actually drop off items until Saturday morning as long as you pre-register them, though yes obviously doing it Wednesday before any selling has begun makes the most sense.  If you are putting something in the live auction and it is not a family board game, you would basically be safe to do it through about 11 Thursday morning, since we always start with a multi-hour section just to quickly get through the hundreds of family board games we always get, and everything else is still being sorted.

I think KevinRG and TDB both said things nicely about having a different company take over (well they made good points about the stuff I just talked about, too; you know what I mean).  A real auction company would have professional auctioneers, and you would be shocked how much of an expense just that would add (seemingly to the effect of another 10% off the top of any profit from sales), that is of course assuming a standard auction company would even be willing to work under the weird Gen-Con conditions for what I assume is a fairly small event in terms of overall money changing hands. Not that I am an expert on how much an "average" auction brings in.

You should definitely come check out the Auction in its slower periods though; I like auctioneering on Thursday and Friday afternoons in addition to my usual T.O.V.A./Charity sections because there will be like one or two people at most sitting in each row and the pace is usually very relaxed in comparison to the standing-room-only sections you are talking about.  I can envision, if we did ever get more space, slowly condensing the Consignment Store section over the course of Saturday to make room for more chairs for the big events in the evening?  Literally just making this up as I go along but it could be helpful.  I am definitely disappointed to hear it took 40 minutes to get a bidder card, though; I know we were down a computer or two last year, so hopefully whatever that was will not be repeated.

After attending the auction for many years I finally volunteered last year and it was a very busy but enjoyable time. So much so, I hope to do the same thing this year.

For size, If they could get room 134 also, that would be huge.   Probably areas to move to, but like you mentioned, that is prime real estate.  You move to someplace like Lucas Oil, year one will probably have reduced traffic.

I will be replacing Katie this year as the point of contact for most things regarding the auction in 2023 and any questions regarding volunteers.

With that said, we have nothing to share currently on anything regarding the auction this year other than the following:

1. Yes - the same pre-approval process will be used again this year
2. Drop Off hours and other policies from previous years will still be in place at this time.
3. Keep an eye on the https://livegameauctions.com/ website for any further updates

Jerry

Did anyone get email receipts from purchases at the charity auction last year? I would normally have them, but I don't see them for 2022. I think the credit card transactions came across as "SQ* THE PARTNERSHIP" and are marked as gift/donation on the transaction, but there's always been an email in past years.

Jerry