Fanime con '09, preceded by small gripe about tires
So it’s been a little over a year now with the “new” car. I was sitting at a firestone getting my tires done, since the first place I went to was incompetent and incapable of doing it (even though the owner swore to me that he and his machinery would be able to do the job.) Anyways, I was waiting to get my stuff done there, and was charged 150 bucks worth of nickel & dime labor for it all, on top of the $1k for the tires. I blame my old tire shop for being unreasonable and not stocking/carrying tires that don't suck.
Well, its all settled for the time being, At least I know I can still go to my old shop and still get alignments for cheap, and I know this place at least did a proper job, seeing how it's their brand tires to begin with. Would have been nice if friggin google search would have shown this place on the map when I did a search, I could have cut out 1 step. Grr, just a little irritated. Not really mad or anything, just wish things would work out as planned. Things tend usually to do that - not work out as planned I mean
Weekend before last was fanime, My friend (who shall be reffered to simply as Dude, for ease of subject and anonimity) and I participated in the swap meet this year. We did ok I guess, even though half the profit went to weekend expenditures - my hotel room, since I refuse to stay at his place cause it’s dirty as hell, stinks, and he has his 4 year old daughter running around. I don't have a problem with her, she's adorable, but honestly she's loud (I know, what kids aren't at that age, right?) and Dude always talks about how she's sick a lot. Probably from his dirty ass house. But yeah, not staying there. Also I paid for parking there for the weekend. I'm not 100% sure on the whole parking fees we paid though, I was given a cheapo self park ticket, that's not good enough for my prima-donna ass though, valet parking for this princess, bitches. Like I said, I don't know if I got charged for it though, or if I got charged for both. Oh well, the bill wasn't on me anyways.
As for the actual swap meet, it was half good, half bad. We had originally planned on selling both Thursday and Friday, but apparently fanime con is no longer "by the fans, for the fans", it's more along the lines of "by the NEETS, for the money". Years prior, all you needed a badge for really was to get into the dealers room. If you really look at it, it was one hell of a scam - pay money to spend even more money, with peddlers that overcharge more for things you can get off online stores/ebay for cheaper. Don't even try haggling either; they look at you like you're speaking some alien language. Anyways, I digress. The swap meet - we wanted to sell Thursday, couldn't cause we didn’t have a badge, and on that day you could only get your badge that day if you pre-registered several months in advance, as the pre-reg had closed back in April or so. Apparently it was a good day too, from what we saw standing there with our boxes, the place was jam packed. So, we were left only with Friday to vend.
Thursday itself was a relatively busy day for me. Woke up 'round 8, lounged around, took my time heading up to the bay. Got to the area on 680 where those freeway shooters were causing their mayhem, and decided to call Dude. He was still in Redwood City getting his alarm installed, which he was hoping would be done within the first few hours of the day (i.e., before noonish). So, met up with him, wasted time till about 1pm. We were supposed to meet up with some other friends, as that day was one of their birthday, one I hadn't seen in literally a decade (and to be honest, wasn't exactly very fond of, but that’s ok, since he felt the same towards me.) We headed out from Redwood City to pass by Dude 's wife's work, as it has one of the last still operating krispy kreme doughnuts in the state, and my friend felt they'd make a great b-day present for the guy. Dude fucking loves krispy kreme doughnuts I guess.
On our way there (we left his car since they weren't done *READ: NOT EVEN STARTED* with his car yet) I noticed one of my blinkers went into turbo mode - that means one of your bulbs has burned out, for those who aren’t well versed in vehicular mechanics. We get to the doughnut shop, and it turns out my left front amber daytime light is toasted. I spend the rest of the day not signaling for left hand turns/lane changes. We arrive at the guy's office, and the driveway is, seriously, a 2 foot deep ditch. my car gets stuck, and we wind up blocking the 2 damn lanes of the street. I park at the bank next door eventually, no damage to the car thankfully (at least, I hope so, I haven’t noticed anything leaking or missing off that front end) So, we go hang out at his office, meet another friend (From this point on, I'm gonna refer to him as “Dick”, since that’s all he proved to be for the rest of the weekend.) there, have a burger at a place called Mojos, not bad, not great but not bad.
After that, we head back, from south San Jose to Redwood City, in 5 o’clock traffic. Thankfully we have carpool, but won’t have that luxury on the way back. We get to the shop, they explain his alarm to him, and he decides he wants to get his optima battery done now too. The guy was more than eager to offload his last optima battery in the shop - the one that was on the display, which did not look like the right one to begin with. They pull it back around into the shop, and about 20 mins later they inform him the battery wasn't gonna work - I was not surprised. So, another 20 minutes later, we're ready to go. Traffic isn't as awful as expected, but we needed to hurry - the swap meet for Thursday was opened up now and we still needed to get our boxes of stuff.
We were still not aware that we were gonna be unable to sell at this point, we were optimistic that we'd find a way, either by bribing the guy that would admit us in or buddy up with somebody in line - that latter option was out. The other monkey wrench thrown in our plan was Dick had been delegated to stand in line decided to flake and be an utter dick. Dick was asked to go stand in line for us if there was a line beginning to form. Somewhere along the line, miscommunication, he decided that he wasn't going to stand in the line if there was only a few people in line. In the end, it didn’t matter really, but we noted down what happened in our personal mental notebooks. Thankfully, another friend of ours (who we shall call Guy), a more dependable one, and one that proved to be relatively invaluable over the weekend, called and waited for us at the convention center, in line. So, we get the boxes (about 7-8 in total, too many for 1 person and 1 cart) and as we head out, it’s dusk, my lights go on - MY LEFT AMBER IS ON WOOT. No more burned out light anxieties, just gotta drive everywhere with my lights on now.
We arrive at the convention center, and Guy meets us at the cars to help move stuff in. The 3 of us get all our stuff in the swap meet area but cant sell yet, gotta go pay for a place... Looking back now, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had plopped down, opened up and started selling, nobody would have come around and said otherwise. At the sign in table, the bad news about us needing a badge is broken. We try to buddy up and bribe the NEET, but some other power-tripping idiot decides he is the law, and we essentially get told to kick rocks. All the rushing and hustle for nothing. We end up moving all the boxes to my room for the night.
The 3 of us and Dick muster at my room and decide to get a pizza. We then head downtown for drinking. I was still a bit upset over the day being a waste, and tell them that this is their chance, their only chance to get me drunk. I never drink. I hadn't drunk alcohol prior. This would be their first and only chance to do it. Its not like I was driving anyways, afterwards we'd just head back to my room, and I'd just sleep. We go to several places, I have a beer along with a few other drinks at several other places. The last bar we go to winds up getting closed early cause some idiot decided to smash a shot glass on the back of some other guy's head. Blood trails on the floor to the bathroom and out the door. Crazy. After that, we try to find somewhere else to go but its looking to be a bit too late, so we head to get some sober-up food and call it a night. We managed to leave just in time, just after we get to the car and take off, another fight breaks out in the area we had just left. Crazy night. We head back to the hotel, they take off and that’s it.
Next day (few hours later, to be precise) I wake up, decide maybe I'll go for a walk, get some breakfast. Call Dude, he wants me to head out with him, drop off his daughter and eat breakfast. Well, that was the plan. By the time his daughter is dropped off, it’s already 11:30ish - We decide on lunch instead. We meet up with Guy and head to a bbq shack. Those are almost always the best kind of bbq place, a place that doesn’t spend time on focusing on the presentation, only about the food. We also called Dick to meet us there as well, but with a little foresight and intuition, don’t wait for him to order/eat. While waiting, one of the customers who (we thought skillfully parked) managed to back out and scrape the car next to hers - thankfully not mine. she must felt bad and stupid, scraping her purdy white lexus 430 against some beater camry. anyways, Dick finally arrives, upset that we're already eating. Looks like he wanted us to buy him food too, but maybe he forgot how he didn't think of us last night prior. (Oh btw, he was SUPPOSED to come help us after we arrived at the con center with the hauling of the boxes. After we had already brought the boxes back to my room, while I was taking a shower, he arrived, with dogs in his car - yeah, he wasn't planning on helping us, not with dogs waiting in his car. That’s -2 points for him that evening)
So, after we eat, we head back to my room to start sorting/pricing our stuff for selling. We do this for a few good couple of hours. at around 2, I mention it'd be a good time now to maybe get the badge. We head down, nice long line awaits. Now, the night before, we didn't have a badge. The guy selling spots said that we'd need one to sell today, and we'd be in the secondary line, that has a limited number of spots available since we again didn’t pre-register. While waiting on the badge, I decide to head to the designated line area just to check out what we'd be standing around in. Keep in mind; it's about 2:30 in the afternoon. the swap meet wont start until about 8 in the evening. What awaits us in the area? Some lifeless asshole otaku cunt has started the fucking line. 6 hours before the shit will even open. Yes. Fuck you bitch, fuck you. So, while Dude is waiting on the badge, Guy and I head up to the room to get the boxes and begin the arduous 5 hour wait. 5 hours of absolute wasted time. We take turns sitting in the line; I walk around on my turns away, the other 2 check out the dealers’ room on their turns. Of course, Dick isn’t there waiting with us.
We decide to call him at 6 since we're getting fucking hungry, have him bring us some food. 7 rolls around. Line formed after us is pretty long but we're pretty much guaranteed our spot at the meet. 8 rolls around - still no food. We call Dick, he says, "hey, what do you guys want to drink?" MOTHERFUCKER, ANYTHING. 2 HOURS AGO WOULDA BEEN NICE TOO. Anyways, we get in at about 8:20ish. Guy and I are standing in a spot that we hope to occupy, but some little staff nerd-rager with a kendo stick starts interrogating us as to why we're standing where we were. We say "dude, calm down, we'll stand off to the side. Our guy is in line to pay for a spot. We have a lot of shit here and can't just carry it all over the place." Seriously, the NEET was getting all up on us because we were standing in the spot of some girl who probably offered to suck him off and he was trying to look cool in front of her. Eventually Dude comes and points us a space against the wall where we were, which wound up being better off for us anyways.
At this time it’s about 8:30ish, and I need to head out to the suby meet I was planning on going to all day/week long, and pick up some car wax. I wound up going to the wrong restaurant cause the street this one and the right one were at sorta sound the same. My frustration and anxiety didn’t help that there were cops all over the streets that night, the dumbass valet fucked with all my lights in the car, and I didn’t have my headset whilst talking to Guy and Dick on the phone in the car (thankfully I was at a stoplight and not rolling) with a cop coming from the other direction with his lights off (wtf m8) but I was u-turning at the signal in front of him. Yeah, fun. Anyways I wind up at the right place, it’s freaking COLD but I’m alright since I was moving a half dozen boxes around less than an hour prior and could use the cool-down time.
After killing about an hour’s worth of time longer than I should have, I head back to the swap meet. Dick is FINALLY there with the food. What did he bring? FUCKING PIZZA?! WE HAD PIZZA THE NIGHT BEFORE DIPSHIT. AND LITTLE SKEEZERS (Caesars)? CAN YOU BE MORE CHEAP YOU FUCKWIT? I HOPE YOU DIDN’T FINANCIALLY MURDER YOURSELF WITH THAT 5 DOLLAR PIZZA. Actually, he brought 2 of them, spending a whopping 10 bucks. Whoa there big spender! But yeah, basically 8 slices to be split amoungst 4 guys, 3 of which were in no mood for having cheap garbage compared to the good pizza from the night before. Oh, and a single 2-liter of (wtf) lemonade to split between us all, and NO CUPS. Whatever.
I think at this point, I should just clarify. I/we aren’t big ballers or prima-donnas or anything. I just happen to be relatively paranoid about my car and only want the best for it. Dude, Guy and I were bitching about Dick’s cheap food because we weren’t holding back our wallets and buying lots of and expensive food the day and night before. This Dick though, buys one round of cheap beers the night before, and cheaper-than-burgers pizza? Maybe, just maybe, if he weren’t holding back and contributing more to the “boy’s weekend out”, we’d be a little more receptive.
So, it’s swap meet time. Time to put on our game faces and sell, sell sell. We had spent a good few hours both in the room and in line pricing, so things were pretty much set and good to go. The only problem was my 2-3 boxes of books, which weren’t priced. I wound up just leaving them in boxes/piles, calling them them the $5 and $10 boxes/piles. Some others I pulled out for display as I knew they’d sell more quickly than others. I’m still quite amazed at how well Sailor Moon stuff sells, after so many years. What surprises me more is how the NEETS STILL ask if crap is in English only or not. Seriously, wtf man. Especially in San Jose, where Japanese manga/books are as common, if not outnumber, the American translated (and usually overpriced) crap.
As the night drags on, Sales slow from the early frenetic grab and sell to trickling bargain hunters. Even after pricing a whole box of books for 20 bucks (containing around 30 books inside) things stop moving. We take turns near the end walking around to see if there’s anything we want. Dude and Dick walk around, friend comes back with a half dozen poxes of pocky for us all to munch on. Guy and I walk around, trying to haggle a figure from some dude that wasn’t selling for 5 bucks - he didn’t go for it, not that it mattered, it was crappy anyways, I just wanted it to resell. I Did however find a copy of the Haruhi ps2 game that came with the limited Figma of her. It was “used”. Game was opened, figure was unmolested, but all I cared about was the Figma, so that’s what mattered. Funny story bout that whole exchange though. Guy and I are walking along, I see the telltale Haruhi logo from the opposite aisle. I make my way over and see that it’s the ps2 game with the Figma. This longhair basement dweller is selling it for 80 bucks, but some other NEET is haggling with the guy for 60 bucks. I decide I’m gonna overcut the guy and say 70. I grab 70 bucks from Guy, head over and ask to see it, trying to get basement-dweller’s attention. As I’m reaching to pick it up, NEET goes, “I just BOUGHT that.” Funny, since if he HAD, he would be holding it. In any case, NEET picks it up and walks away feeling proud of himself. I ask Basement Dweller how much he sold it for, he says 60, to which I say, “dude I woulda given you 70.” He then turns, and pulls another (wtf) out of a bag. I then decide to be a dick and say, “wait man, you gave it to him for 60, give me the same deal!” He sits there for a little doing that whole I dunno look and eventually holds it out. I give him his 60, he gives me my Figma with useless game. I then head back to our sales spot, slap a $100 sticker on it and continue looking around with Guy. (It didn’t sell, but I wouldn’t be upset if it had).
Rest of the evening is uneventfull. 1 AM rolls around, everybody is told to pack up. Disgruntled for not selling anywhere near as much as I wanted, I start packing everything up. Guy helps me, Dude packs up his stuff. Dick sits there and watches. Seriously man, you’re not winning any points with us here. It’s obvious I’m pissed off here, and he’s sitting there, laughing and trying to draw attention away from the fact that he’s not doing shit.
He has the nerve to ask me, “dude, (Batto), what’s wrong?”
Are you fucking kidding me? “Man, fucking help us pack this shit up. God.”
He gives off this whole flabbergasted expression/air, “damn man, calm down. You shoulda just said something.”
You can’t be serious here Dick, are you? So, after that ridiculous exchange, we’re heading up to the room. Along the way we come across some NEETS who say “DUDE SELL US A SLICE OF YOUR PIZZA!” reffering to the whole box of garbage pizza we didn’t touch, since we were both too busy to even really eat, and didn’t exactly want then and there, but would munch on as we relaxed and winded down in the room. “ok, 5 bucks, whole thing!” says Dick. Wtf man, we were gonna eat that shit. He sells it, we continue to the room.
Now, all of us are exhausted (‘cept Dick, of course) and Dude is counting it all up. Dick offers to count, Dude says no I got this, and I re-affirm it. We don’t want him to even TOUCH this stuff. While he’s busying himself in the bathroom and getting away from the tension, I motion silently to Dude and Guy the “HE NEEDS TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” motion. We talk shop for a while, leading Dick to an out for him to take off. He wants to go get something to eat or get drinks, we’re all too tired to do anything. He eventually takes his leave after my general coaxing. We split the earnings amongst Friend, Guy and I, and call it a night. Then my phone rings, Dick says “Oh, I thought I’d be a good Samaritan and let you know some dude was readying up to piss on your car.” I don’t even reply to him, hang up the phone, tell the guys what’s up, and we bolt on down. Nothing. Not even a person outside. I look to my car, no trail on the ground or anything. I do notice my interior lights are on (wtf) so I ask the concierge if I can go and properly shut down my car - in the my car, you have to (if it’s a manual) put them in reverse with the e-brake up. It even tells you to shift to reverse on the center cluster. Apparently the valet is illiterate. Also, that’s the 3rd time over the weekend that’s happened, even though I specifically told them twice of what they needed to do. In any case, car is fine, I’m heading back to the room, the other guys call it a night.
Next day is relatively uneventfull. I pick up some food with friend, get him interested and into cleaning/detailing his car, and I head home.
All-in-all, it was a decent trip. I didn’t spend as much as I had estimated (hardly any at all) and had good times with my friends.
Well, its all settled for the time being, At least I know I can still go to my old shop and still get alignments for cheap, and I know this place at least did a proper job, seeing how it's their brand tires to begin with. Would have been nice if friggin google search would have shown this place on the map when I did a search, I could have cut out 1 step. Grr, just a little irritated. Not really mad or anything, just wish things would work out as planned. Things tend usually to do that - not work out as planned I mean
Weekend before last was fanime, My friend (who shall be reffered to simply as Dude, for ease of subject and anonimity) and I participated in the swap meet this year. We did ok I guess, even though half the profit went to weekend expenditures - my hotel room, since I refuse to stay at his place cause it’s dirty as hell, stinks, and he has his 4 year old daughter running around. I don't have a problem with her, she's adorable, but honestly she's loud (I know, what kids aren't at that age, right?) and Dude always talks about how she's sick a lot. Probably from his dirty ass house. But yeah, not staying there. Also I paid for parking there for the weekend. I'm not 100% sure on the whole parking fees we paid though, I was given a cheapo self park ticket, that's not good enough for my prima-donna ass though, valet parking for this princess, bitches. Like I said, I don't know if I got charged for it though, or if I got charged for both. Oh well, the bill wasn't on me anyways.
As for the actual swap meet, it was half good, half bad. We had originally planned on selling both Thursday and Friday, but apparently fanime con is no longer "by the fans, for the fans", it's more along the lines of "by the NEETS, for the money". Years prior, all you needed a badge for really was to get into the dealers room. If you really look at it, it was one hell of a scam - pay money to spend even more money, with peddlers that overcharge more for things you can get off online stores/ebay for cheaper. Don't even try haggling either; they look at you like you're speaking some alien language. Anyways, I digress. The swap meet - we wanted to sell Thursday, couldn't cause we didn’t have a badge, and on that day you could only get your badge that day if you pre-registered several months in advance, as the pre-reg had closed back in April or so. Apparently it was a good day too, from what we saw standing there with our boxes, the place was jam packed. So, we were left only with Friday to vend.
Thursday itself was a relatively busy day for me. Woke up 'round 8, lounged around, took my time heading up to the bay. Got to the area on 680 where those freeway shooters were causing their mayhem, and decided to call Dude. He was still in Redwood City getting his alarm installed, which he was hoping would be done within the first few hours of the day (i.e., before noonish). So, met up with him, wasted time till about 1pm. We were supposed to meet up with some other friends, as that day was one of their birthday, one I hadn't seen in literally a decade (and to be honest, wasn't exactly very fond of, but that’s ok, since he felt the same towards me.) We headed out from Redwood City to pass by Dude 's wife's work, as it has one of the last still operating krispy kreme doughnuts in the state, and my friend felt they'd make a great b-day present for the guy. Dude fucking loves krispy kreme doughnuts I guess.
On our way there (we left his car since they weren't done *READ: NOT EVEN STARTED* with his car yet) I noticed one of my blinkers went into turbo mode - that means one of your bulbs has burned out, for those who aren’t well versed in vehicular mechanics. We get to the doughnut shop, and it turns out my left front amber daytime light is toasted. I spend the rest of the day not signaling for left hand turns/lane changes. We arrive at the guy's office, and the driveway is, seriously, a 2 foot deep ditch. my car gets stuck, and we wind up blocking the 2 damn lanes of the street. I park at the bank next door eventually, no damage to the car thankfully (at least, I hope so, I haven’t noticed anything leaking or missing off that front end) So, we go hang out at his office, meet another friend (From this point on, I'm gonna refer to him as “Dick”, since that’s all he proved to be for the rest of the weekend.) there, have a burger at a place called Mojos, not bad, not great but not bad.
After that, we head back, from south San Jose to Redwood City, in 5 o’clock traffic. Thankfully we have carpool, but won’t have that luxury on the way back. We get to the shop, they explain his alarm to him, and he decides he wants to get his optima battery done now too. The guy was more than eager to offload his last optima battery in the shop - the one that was on the display, which did not look like the right one to begin with. They pull it back around into the shop, and about 20 mins later they inform him the battery wasn't gonna work - I was not surprised. So, another 20 minutes later, we're ready to go. Traffic isn't as awful as expected, but we needed to hurry - the swap meet for Thursday was opened up now and we still needed to get our boxes of stuff.
We were still not aware that we were gonna be unable to sell at this point, we were optimistic that we'd find a way, either by bribing the guy that would admit us in or buddy up with somebody in line - that latter option was out. The other monkey wrench thrown in our plan was Dick had been delegated to stand in line decided to flake and be an utter dick. Dick was asked to go stand in line for us if there was a line beginning to form. Somewhere along the line, miscommunication, he decided that he wasn't going to stand in the line if there was only a few people in line. In the end, it didn’t matter really, but we noted down what happened in our personal mental notebooks. Thankfully, another friend of ours (who we shall call Guy), a more dependable one, and one that proved to be relatively invaluable over the weekend, called and waited for us at the convention center, in line. So, we get the boxes (about 7-8 in total, too many for 1 person and 1 cart) and as we head out, it’s dusk, my lights go on - MY LEFT AMBER IS ON WOOT. No more burned out light anxieties, just gotta drive everywhere with my lights on now.
We arrive at the convention center, and Guy meets us at the cars to help move stuff in. The 3 of us get all our stuff in the swap meet area but cant sell yet, gotta go pay for a place... Looking back now, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had plopped down, opened up and started selling, nobody would have come around and said otherwise. At the sign in table, the bad news about us needing a badge is broken. We try to buddy up and bribe the NEET, but some other power-tripping idiot decides he is the law, and we essentially get told to kick rocks. All the rushing and hustle for nothing. We end up moving all the boxes to my room for the night.
The 3 of us and Dick muster at my room and decide to get a pizza. We then head downtown for drinking. I was still a bit upset over the day being a waste, and tell them that this is their chance, their only chance to get me drunk. I never drink. I hadn't drunk alcohol prior. This would be their first and only chance to do it. Its not like I was driving anyways, afterwards we'd just head back to my room, and I'd just sleep. We go to several places, I have a beer along with a few other drinks at several other places. The last bar we go to winds up getting closed early cause some idiot decided to smash a shot glass on the back of some other guy's head. Blood trails on the floor to the bathroom and out the door. Crazy. After that, we try to find somewhere else to go but its looking to be a bit too late, so we head to get some sober-up food and call it a night. We managed to leave just in time, just after we get to the car and take off, another fight breaks out in the area we had just left. Crazy night. We head back to the hotel, they take off and that’s it.
Next day (few hours later, to be precise) I wake up, decide maybe I'll go for a walk, get some breakfast. Call Dude, he wants me to head out with him, drop off his daughter and eat breakfast. Well, that was the plan. By the time his daughter is dropped off, it’s already 11:30ish - We decide on lunch instead. We meet up with Guy and head to a bbq shack. Those are almost always the best kind of bbq place, a place that doesn’t spend time on focusing on the presentation, only about the food. We also called Dick to meet us there as well, but with a little foresight and intuition, don’t wait for him to order/eat. While waiting, one of the customers who (we thought skillfully parked) managed to back out and scrape the car next to hers - thankfully not mine. she must felt bad and stupid, scraping her purdy white lexus 430 against some beater camry. anyways, Dick finally arrives, upset that we're already eating. Looks like he wanted us to buy him food too, but maybe he forgot how he didn't think of us last night prior. (Oh btw, he was SUPPOSED to come help us after we arrived at the con center with the hauling of the boxes. After we had already brought the boxes back to my room, while I was taking a shower, he arrived, with dogs in his car - yeah, he wasn't planning on helping us, not with dogs waiting in his car. That’s -2 points for him that evening)
So, after we eat, we head back to my room to start sorting/pricing our stuff for selling. We do this for a few good couple of hours. at around 2, I mention it'd be a good time now to maybe get the badge. We head down, nice long line awaits. Now, the night before, we didn't have a badge. The guy selling spots said that we'd need one to sell today, and we'd be in the secondary line, that has a limited number of spots available since we again didn’t pre-register. While waiting on the badge, I decide to head to the designated line area just to check out what we'd be standing around in. Keep in mind; it's about 2:30 in the afternoon. the swap meet wont start until about 8 in the evening. What awaits us in the area? Some lifeless asshole otaku cunt has started the fucking line. 6 hours before the shit will even open. Yes. Fuck you bitch, fuck you. So, while Dude is waiting on the badge, Guy and I head up to the room to get the boxes and begin the arduous 5 hour wait. 5 hours of absolute wasted time. We take turns sitting in the line; I walk around on my turns away, the other 2 check out the dealers’ room on their turns. Of course, Dick isn’t there waiting with us.
We decide to call him at 6 since we're getting fucking hungry, have him bring us some food. 7 rolls around. Line formed after us is pretty long but we're pretty much guaranteed our spot at the meet. 8 rolls around - still no food. We call Dick, he says, "hey, what do you guys want to drink?" MOTHERFUCKER, ANYTHING. 2 HOURS AGO WOULDA BEEN NICE TOO. Anyways, we get in at about 8:20ish. Guy and I are standing in a spot that we hope to occupy, but some little staff nerd-rager with a kendo stick starts interrogating us as to why we're standing where we were. We say "dude, calm down, we'll stand off to the side. Our guy is in line to pay for a spot. We have a lot of shit here and can't just carry it all over the place." Seriously, the NEET was getting all up on us because we were standing in the spot of some girl who probably offered to suck him off and he was trying to look cool in front of her. Eventually Dude comes and points us a space against the wall where we were, which wound up being better off for us anyways.
At this time it’s about 8:30ish, and I need to head out to the suby meet I was planning on going to all day/week long, and pick up some car wax. I wound up going to the wrong restaurant cause the street this one and the right one were at sorta sound the same. My frustration and anxiety didn’t help that there were cops all over the streets that night, the dumbass valet fucked with all my lights in the car, and I didn’t have my headset whilst talking to Guy and Dick on the phone in the car (thankfully I was at a stoplight and not rolling) with a cop coming from the other direction with his lights off (wtf m8) but I was u-turning at the signal in front of him. Yeah, fun. Anyways I wind up at the right place, it’s freaking COLD but I’m alright since I was moving a half dozen boxes around less than an hour prior and could use the cool-down time.
After killing about an hour’s worth of time longer than I should have, I head back to the swap meet. Dick is FINALLY there with the food. What did he bring? FUCKING PIZZA?! WE HAD PIZZA THE NIGHT BEFORE DIPSHIT. AND LITTLE SKEEZERS (Caesars)? CAN YOU BE MORE CHEAP YOU FUCKWIT? I HOPE YOU DIDN’T FINANCIALLY MURDER YOURSELF WITH THAT 5 DOLLAR PIZZA. Actually, he brought 2 of them, spending a whopping 10 bucks. Whoa there big spender! But yeah, basically 8 slices to be split amoungst 4 guys, 3 of which were in no mood for having cheap garbage compared to the good pizza from the night before. Oh, and a single 2-liter of (wtf) lemonade to split between us all, and NO CUPS. Whatever.
I think at this point, I should just clarify. I/we aren’t big ballers or prima-donnas or anything. I just happen to be relatively paranoid about my car and only want the best for it. Dude, Guy and I were bitching about Dick’s cheap food because we weren’t holding back our wallets and buying lots of and expensive food the day and night before. This Dick though, buys one round of cheap beers the night before, and cheaper-than-burgers pizza? Maybe, just maybe, if he weren’t holding back and contributing more to the “boy’s weekend out”, we’d be a little more receptive.
So, it’s swap meet time. Time to put on our game faces and sell, sell sell. We had spent a good few hours both in the room and in line pricing, so things were pretty much set and good to go. The only problem was my 2-3 boxes of books, which weren’t priced. I wound up just leaving them in boxes/piles, calling them them the $5 and $10 boxes/piles. Some others I pulled out for display as I knew they’d sell more quickly than others. I’m still quite amazed at how well Sailor Moon stuff sells, after so many years. What surprises me more is how the NEETS STILL ask if crap is in English only or not. Seriously, wtf man. Especially in San Jose, where Japanese manga/books are as common, if not outnumber, the American translated (and usually overpriced) crap.
As the night drags on, Sales slow from the early frenetic grab and sell to trickling bargain hunters. Even after pricing a whole box of books for 20 bucks (containing around 30 books inside) things stop moving. We take turns near the end walking around to see if there’s anything we want. Dude and Dick walk around, friend comes back with a half dozen poxes of pocky for us all to munch on. Guy and I walk around, trying to haggle a figure from some dude that wasn’t selling for 5 bucks - he didn’t go for it, not that it mattered, it was crappy anyways, I just wanted it to resell. I Did however find a copy of the Haruhi ps2 game that came with the limited Figma of her. It was “used”. Game was opened, figure was unmolested, but all I cared about was the Figma, so that’s what mattered. Funny story bout that whole exchange though. Guy and I are walking along, I see the telltale Haruhi logo from the opposite aisle. I make my way over and see that it’s the ps2 game with the Figma. This longhair basement dweller is selling it for 80 bucks, but some other NEET is haggling with the guy for 60 bucks. I decide I’m gonna overcut the guy and say 70. I grab 70 bucks from Guy, head over and ask to see it, trying to get basement-dweller’s attention. As I’m reaching to pick it up, NEET goes, “I just BOUGHT that.” Funny, since if he HAD, he would be holding it. In any case, NEET picks it up and walks away feeling proud of himself. I ask Basement Dweller how much he sold it for, he says 60, to which I say, “dude I woulda given you 70.” He then turns, and pulls another (wtf) out of a bag. I then decide to be a dick and say, “wait man, you gave it to him for 60, give me the same deal!” He sits there for a little doing that whole I dunno look and eventually holds it out. I give him his 60, he gives me my Figma with useless game. I then head back to our sales spot, slap a $100 sticker on it and continue looking around with Guy. (It didn’t sell, but I wouldn’t be upset if it had).
Rest of the evening is uneventfull. 1 AM rolls around, everybody is told to pack up. Disgruntled for not selling anywhere near as much as I wanted, I start packing everything up. Guy helps me, Dude packs up his stuff. Dick sits there and watches. Seriously man, you’re not winning any points with us here. It’s obvious I’m pissed off here, and he’s sitting there, laughing and trying to draw attention away from the fact that he’s not doing shit.
He has the nerve to ask me, “dude, (Batto), what’s wrong?”
Are you fucking kidding me? “Man, fucking help us pack this shit up. God.”
He gives off this whole flabbergasted expression/air, “damn man, calm down. You shoulda just said something.”
You can’t be serious here Dick, are you? So, after that ridiculous exchange, we’re heading up to the room. Along the way we come across some NEETS who say “DUDE SELL US A SLICE OF YOUR PIZZA!” reffering to the whole box of garbage pizza we didn’t touch, since we were both too busy to even really eat, and didn’t exactly want then and there, but would munch on as we relaxed and winded down in the room. “ok, 5 bucks, whole thing!” says Dick. Wtf man, we were gonna eat that shit. He sells it, we continue to the room.
Now, all of us are exhausted (‘cept Dick, of course) and Dude is counting it all up. Dick offers to count, Dude says no I got this, and I re-affirm it. We don’t want him to even TOUCH this stuff. While he’s busying himself in the bathroom and getting away from the tension, I motion silently to Dude and Guy the “HE NEEDS TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” motion. We talk shop for a while, leading Dick to an out for him to take off. He wants to go get something to eat or get drinks, we’re all too tired to do anything. He eventually takes his leave after my general coaxing. We split the earnings amongst Friend, Guy and I, and call it a night. Then my phone rings, Dick says “Oh, I thought I’d be a good Samaritan and let you know some dude was readying up to piss on your car.” I don’t even reply to him, hang up the phone, tell the guys what’s up, and we bolt on down. Nothing. Not even a person outside. I look to my car, no trail on the ground or anything. I do notice my interior lights are on (wtf) so I ask the concierge if I can go and properly shut down my car - in the my car, you have to (if it’s a manual) put them in reverse with the e-brake up. It even tells you to shift to reverse on the center cluster. Apparently the valet is illiterate. Also, that’s the 3rd time over the weekend that’s happened, even though I specifically told them twice of what they needed to do. In any case, car is fine, I’m heading back to the room, the other guys call it a night.
Next day is relatively uneventfull. I pick up some food with friend, get him interested and into cleaning/detailing his car, and I head home.
All-in-all, it was a decent trip. I didn’t spend as much as I had estimated (hardly any at all) and had good times with my friends.