On August 29, it was finally time: the very first StockMonster Trade Night swanla Village House in Zevenhuizen.
What started as an idea within our Discord eventually grew to an evening with about 130 attendees. And if we took one thing from this evening, it is that we absolutely want to do this again.
Let's start by building that room
For us, the day started at 3:00. Together with some Discord OGS we started building and preparing the hall. Kylian, Bonkerd and Quiver were extra early to help and also Sherwin was there from the beginning. For Sherwin it was a special evening, because he made his debut as a vendor.
Also J3duin stood for the first time as a vendor, with mainly beautiful 3D-printed accessories. Yorick and his brother were present with their store TCG Kingdom and Quiver had his place for grading, which was used well during the evening.
Around 18:00 we first ate together. Then it was time to open the doors and see what would happen.
At least the weather didn't help. It was a pretty bad day in terms of weather, but fortunately that turned out to be absolutely no reason to stay home.
The hall was filled up pretty quickly.
From Discord username to a face
Within the shortest times were binders on the table, cards were viewed, deals closed and the vendors were nice and busy.
But maybe the best part of the night was something else.
StockMonster is ultimately an online community. You will see usernames come by daily and talk to each other about Pokémon, restocks, pulls, grading, collections and everything that comes with them. During the Trade Night, all these usernames suddenly got a face.
People who had never seen each other in person met for the first time. Some even drove to Zevenhuizen together. People who knew each other only from Discord suddenly stood together above a binder to negotiate a card or a booster to open.
And there was a lot of things going on.
Children, adults, fanatical collectors, people who are just doing the hobby and people who have been collecting for years. Exactly that made the atmosphere so good. Everyone eventually came for the same hobby and that was all night to notice.
Giveaways, vendors and lots of packs
Around 9:00 it was time for the giveaways.
As if not enough was given away, decided TCG Kingdom put a dime in the bag yourself. They added a Greninja Collection Box and three Pitch Black sleeved boosters (parliament adopted the resolution).
Heroes.
After that, the evening actually went on happily. And if there was one thing that was striking: There really was a lot of ripped.
Packs and boxes were opened everywhere and a nice hit soon saw half the table. Deals continued, tenderers continued to slide over the table and also at the vendors it remained cozy busy.
The Trade Night was officially scheduled until 00:00, but that turned out to be mainly on paper for a while. After midnight there were still enough people present and no one seemed really rushed to go home.
As far as we're concerned, a pretty good sign.
Not even going home empty-handed
As an organizer during such an evening of course you are mainly concerned with making sure that everything goes a bit well, but fortunately I also got some of the Trade Night myself.
At TCG-Kingdom I finally couldn't resist and have a Mega Dream Booster Box bought to rip that same night.
It wasn't a bad decision.
Dragonite SAR.
In addition, I could also make a very nice trade for a Houndoma PSA 10 from Destined Rivals. So besides a successful evening for StockMonster I went home with two very nice acquisitions.
This is what StockMonster is all about
We had hoped for a nice turnout before, of course. But that during our first Trade Night about 130 people would come by, despite the bad weather, was really cool to see.
Yet that number is not even the most important after all.
It was mostly the people who first met. The joint rides to Zevenhuizen. The deals made at the table. Kids standing between adults watching their cards. The stacks of empty booster packs at the end of the evening. And especially a room full of people sharing the same hobby.
That was exactly why we wanted to organize this Trade Night.
An extra thank you goes to Kylian, Bonkerd and Quiver, who were extra early to help build and at the end of a long evening also helped to break down. That kind of help is really worth organizing an event.
Of course, thank you very much for Sherwin, J3duin, TCG-Kingdom, all the people who have helped, everyone who has made prices available and Village House Swanla for the location.
But mostly thanks to the 130 visitors who have taken the trouble to come to Zevenhuizen and put together the atmosphere we hoped to get in advance.
The first StockMonster Trade Night is finished.
And if it's up to us, certainly not the last one.
Become part of a huge Pokémon community? Join our Discord!
