Today I went to my first swap meet of any kind. This “media event” was held in the community room at the Yahoo! Center in Santa Monica. Hadn’t been there before, but there was no adventure in my travelling to that part of the city. The Yahoo! Center also has a small public park next to the community room – a little unexpected green area in a commercial district.
When I arrived, the Event Coordinator Stephanie and another swapper, Elissa, were waiting outside the Community Room for someone to come with the key to unlock the door. In the meantime, Elissa explained that since she travels a lot, she has developed such a good relationship with her postal carrier that she has his cell number in case she forgets to give sufficient official notice online for a change of address. Gee, I have no idea who my postal deliverer is, but even if I did know, it probably wouldn’t stop the junk mail from entering my mailbox :)
The Community room was finally unlocked and the three of us unfolded several long tables and set them up along two walls in the space. Then Stephanie said we should lay out the items we brought this afternoon. For my first swap, I only brought ten items and they were: five books – Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, The Red Badge Of Courage And Selected Stories by Stephan Crane, and Wild Animus by Rich Shapero; four DVDs – “Madea Goes To Jail”, “Star Trek Insurrection”, “Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me”, and “Weeds: Season Four”; and one magazine – Black + White Photography Issue 106 Christmas 2009.
About a dozen people had signed up to participate in the swap, but only three more people showed up – Rimas, Reena, and Chanda. The procedure for the swap was for everyone to look over the items the other people had brought, write your name on posit notes and place them on items you wanted. If an item you were interested in already had someone’s name on it, you could add your name and depending on how many items of that particular medium the people on the list had at the end of the swap, would determine who would get it. As there were so few of us, the whole process went very quickly.
I ended up with seven items, plus some jewel cases that Rimas brought that were up for grabs. My new acquisitions were three CDs – Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits 1970, Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits 1972, and Dear 23 by The Posies; two books – Kiln People by David Brin and Cathedral Of Vampires by Mary Ann Mitchell; and two DVDs – “Forces of Nature” and “We Don’t Live Here Anymore”. Stephanie said that any of the remaining items that we brought could be taken back by us or she would donate them to the public library. The only items of mine that were chosen were three DVDs – Chanda took “Madea Goes to Jail” and “Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me” and Reena took “Weeds: Season Four”. So I let Stephanie donate my left over items, except for Jonathan Livingston Seagull and “Star Trek Insurrection” which came back with me.
A good first swapping experience – calm and enjoyable. I would definitely do this again. It turned out that Elissa lives in the same general area of the world that I do, so we took the bus to our destination, but I got off first as Elissa lives a few stops after mine. Picked up some food and arrived home in time to watch Sunday Night Baseball. Unfortunately a fact for another blog is that the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees, 7 to 2. Now that’s a score I would have loved to swap!
Images:
Left: Front cover of my personal copy of “Forces of Nature”
Center: Front cover of my personal copy of Kiln People
When I arrived, the Event Coordinator Stephanie and another swapper, Elissa, were waiting outside the Community Room for someone to come with the key to unlock the door. In the meantime, Elissa explained that since she travels a lot, she has developed such a good relationship with her postal carrier that she has his cell number in case she forgets to give sufficient official notice online for a change of address. Gee, I have no idea who my postal deliverer is, but even if I did know, it probably wouldn’t stop the junk mail from entering my mailbox :)
The Community room was finally unlocked and the three of us unfolded several long tables and set them up along two walls in the space. Then Stephanie said we should lay out the items we brought this afternoon. For my first swap, I only brought ten items and they were: five books – Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, The Red Badge Of Courage And Selected Stories by Stephan Crane, and Wild Animus by Rich Shapero; four DVDs – “Madea Goes To Jail”, “Star Trek Insurrection”, “Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me”, and “Weeds: Season Four”; and one magazine – Black + White Photography Issue 106 Christmas 2009.
About a dozen people had signed up to participate in the swap, but only three more people showed up – Rimas, Reena, and Chanda. The procedure for the swap was for everyone to look over the items the other people had brought, write your name on posit notes and place them on items you wanted. If an item you were interested in already had someone’s name on it, you could add your name and depending on how many items of that particular medium the people on the list had at the end of the swap, would determine who would get it. As there were so few of us, the whole process went very quickly.
I ended up with seven items, plus some jewel cases that Rimas brought that were up for grabs. My new acquisitions were three CDs – Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits 1970, Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits 1972, and Dear 23 by The Posies; two books – Kiln People by David Brin and Cathedral Of Vampires by Mary Ann Mitchell; and two DVDs – “Forces of Nature” and “We Don’t Live Here Anymore”. Stephanie said that any of the remaining items that we brought could be taken back by us or she would donate them to the public library. The only items of mine that were chosen were three DVDs – Chanda took “Madea Goes to Jail” and “Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me” and Reena took “Weeds: Season Four”. So I let Stephanie donate my left over items, except for Jonathan Livingston Seagull and “Star Trek Insurrection” which came back with me.
A good first swapping experience – calm and enjoyable. I would definitely do this again. It turned out that Elissa lives in the same general area of the world that I do, so we took the bus to our destination, but I got off first as Elissa lives a few stops after mine. Picked up some food and arrived home in time to watch Sunday Night Baseball. Unfortunately a fact for another blog is that the Boston Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees, 7 to 2. Now that’s a score I would have loved to swap!
Images:
Left: Front cover of my personal copy of “Forces of Nature”
Center: Front cover of my personal copy of Kiln People
Right: Front cover of my personal copy of Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits 1972
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