A Kickstarter by Artipia Games to try and recover from the $6000 theft at Essen

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 0]

Just as it says in the title Artipia Games attended Essen Spiel this year and while they sold a bunch of stuff a whole days takings (and the till) was stolen leaving a $6000 hole in their finances

and looking at info on the KS they were one of several companies to suffer significant losses during the event (it seems no security warnings went round after the first of these thefts either which doesn’t reflect too well on the organisers)

it’s a shame, but it’s an all too common story where a small trader goes to a show or convention and doesn’t keep a close enough eye on things (or doesn’t have enough staff/volunteers to do so) and gets ripped off in a big way, so if you plan to do so in the future please beware

and if you want to help out Artipia drop a few £ (or $ etc) in the KS

 

[limburger 21708xp 0]

bloody hell … that sucks.

At least the kickstarter is funded so there’s a bit of good.

[davehawes 7768xp 0]

It’s awful that this happened for them, though its gratifying to see they are getting their money back, in a sense.

The thing is the bigger companies shell up their booths and have security on the doors that check your bag on the way in and out. Which slows the whole thing down, and kind of kills the mood as well, to the point where it puts you off even bothering to go into some of the bigger sealed off booths that have huge queues.

It is much nicer to hang out in the more community friendly and less corporate feeling booths (like the Artipia one), and just practically speaking a lot less hassle. However, the more things like this happen, the more companies are going to push up their security or insist on more security at the event overall, which is going to make things just a little less pleasant for everyone.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6423xp 2]

This has been going on for years at Essen so it baffles me why the event has not increased security and individual companies are not taking steps to secure their takings/merch.

[wesadie1969 2729xp 0]

Yep, seems this happens at every Essen.

Not sure what the organisers are doing to combat it either.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6423xp 0]

Apparently bag searches were few and far between. Given the current world situation, with any large gathering an obvious target, you would think they would have the right security in place.

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

true but if you stole that much money you would keep wandering around the halls… get out before alarm is raised so bag searches really don’t do much anymore. They should do more preventive measures. Maybe a central Safe where businesses can deposit their money safely. I know we have mobile banks so one on premise should do the trick.

[bvandewalkerParticipant 2078xp 0]

From the sound of it, they need to do what the Sugar Plum Craft fair does in Orange County CA. Basically all the items are marked with a sales tag that identifies the vendor, every attendee gets big burlap  shopping bags at the start, they put items they want to buy in the bags, then once they are done shopping they bring the tagged items up to a main cash register area at the exit (which has full security), the vendor and prices of the items are jotted down there for records. The money is then separated at the end of the day based on the on the recorded info.

 

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

@bvandewalker I like the idea of it but the sheer size of Essen would make that a logistical nightmare. Plus there would be some costs that would have to be taken by the vendors and that would reduce earnings for small vendors greatly. I’m not saying Artipia Games did something wrong but every store I have worked at has a limit on how much cash is in the register. When that limit is reached or surpassed amount X is taken out of the register and put into a vault or safe space. But no matter how you look at it, it’s a shame that it happened in the first place.

[bvandewalkerParticipant 2078xp 0]

Actually, it should be doable, the craft fair I am talking about is good sized with a couple hundred or so small vendors, several thousand attendees and the items they sell for the most part cost about them same as tabletop stuff, unless this event is gen con Europe it shouldn’t cost that much (and even then it is probably doable), it has an entry fee right?

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

I don’t know how big GenCon is but Essen has 190.000 visitors with 1150 vendors from Industry leading to self publishing. It would be a very large effort.

[bvandewalkerParticipant 2078xp 0]

That sounds Gen Con sized (it is the biggest Tabletop Game convention in the USA), still sounds doable. How many exits does the venue have? that’s the make or break of it really.

 

[sundancer 42979xp 0]

I’d say 4 – 6. Can’t really tell because last time I was there is a long time ago.

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