Swap Meet Report

The 24th Great Auckland Hobby and Model Swap Meet lived up to its name and reputation earlier today, opening its doors at midday to a flood of keen collectors. This annual swap meet is run by the Auckland Central Model Railway Club, but was populated by a diverse array of merchandise, ranging from, of course, train and model railway paraphernailia, to vintage and modern collectible model/die-cast cars, and to, most importantly, a healthy selection of interesting sci-fi and Star Wars items. There were a couple of stalls dedicated entirely (or predominantly) to our favourite movie series, and included amongst their offerings were some fairly hard-to-find new and vintage items. Further, hidden amongst the more miscellaneous of stands were a few unique Star Wars treasures. I personally wish I had gone along with better funding, as there were some seriously tempting boxed vintage Star Wars vehicles that I had to pass on for the moment…

The customers were similarly varied, both in hobby-of-choice, and in age/generation. Sometimes it was hard to guess whether it was children who had dragged their parents along, or vice-versa. Many came along to satisfy a particular interest, but the quality and amount of interesting flotsam and jetsam surely had many shopping outside of their specialty. There was plenty of classic collectibles there that, although not related to Star Wars, invoked a bit of personal nostalgia.

In the future, it will be good to see this continue to be a useful venue for buying and selling Star Wars goods. I suspect that it will also be worth keeping an eye on this website, as there are significant rumblings that at least one region will be having a SWNZ sci-fi and Star Wars specific swap meet before the end of the year.