SF/Anime Flea Market in Toronto

[davemerrill]

Every year the Toronto Public Library has a benefit sale for the Judith Merril (no relation) Collection, which is an amazing collection of SF donated to the library by the SF author Judith Merril.



Anyways, it's a neat little flea market, always something interesting to browse through, Shain and I will be there with some old comics and books and what-not, if you're in the area, come check it out!

It's on the last weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival, and the library is right next to the classy hotels and shopping district, so it's a great weekend for people-watching, too. I have yet to see any amazing celebrities browsing through my old Archie comics, but there's always hope.

[usamimi]

oh man, I wish I was in the area! That sounds like a lot of fun!

[greg]

There is such a flea market in Phoenix, AZ called the "AZ Comics & Collectibles Show". Unless it's changed, it is every Saturday. it went from a fairly large venue to less than half its size after a couple of months. I bought a lot of manga from there, as well as a cool "Archie vs. The Punisher" comic (no joke!). I recently saw a YouTube video by the famous Phoenix-area game collector Gamester81 covering this event, so it must still be going. I thank God for that place, because I was able to immediately liquidate my childhood G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Go Bots collections in one fell swoop one afternoon right before I moved to Japan. I took a couple of dealers out to my car, showed them my dusty collections, and they gave me a fair amount for the stuff.

[usamimi]

Man, I wish there was something like that here! There might be closer to Dallas, but it'd take me way too long to get there to justify going. :/

[davemerrill]

If I ever started another show, which I am not ever going to do, it would be some kind of flea-markety swap meet sort of event. Just people selling weird used stuff to each other. Event space and calendar space in Toronto is really limited so I don't know if something like that would ever work here, but those are definitely the kinds of events I enjoy, where you have no idea what people are going to be selling.

Dallas has, or had, something called "the Night Market"; it's a swap meet that takes place in a parking lot downtown that starts late at night and goes on until the wee hours. I never went myself but friends in Dallas have told me of it.

[_D_]

Going to a Tail Gate flea market this Saturday. Held only once per year up here. Should be lots of good stuff as there are a lot of out of towners selling their wares at that event. The people from Cash Converters up in Winnipeg have moved into this area and are selling a lot of stuff accumulated over the years. Have to check out all the old video games systems and tons of old records. I talked to the boss at the a local fall fair and he said he had 10,000 LPs to sell! Amazing how big vinyl collecting has become again. I notice some companies producing high end tube amps, turntables, etc. again as well, there is a new album vinyl shop opening in town. That's something I never thought to see again after CDs killed the market.

[yusaku]

Those Canadians sure are liberal with their scifi. You will not find a SF/Anime flea market anywhere in the USA. I have been looking for bargain anime stuff for years. It is always at least three of four months before I get a good find. Even in the Midwest people really try hard to hang on to their anime stashes. Anyone with a good eye for anime is only buying right now.


I have multiple copies on anime and anime soundtracks that I really enjoy. I am only interested in selling extra copies to people who probably will never sell what they get. Still looking for some Ghost in the Shell and Lum trades. Right now I am getting all the good anime I can get.

[usamimi]

Those Canadians sure are liberal with their scifi. You will not find a SF/Anime flea market anywhere in the USA.

Well, I don't think that's entirely true...every year at A-kon there's a swap for anime/manga/geeky stuff. This year I actually got a ton of great stuff and got rid of a lot of junk.

[_D_]

The Merrill wing probably needs the money to keep that part open to the public. I don't think their funding is enough to do so. That said, I bought a lot of great stuff from the libraries up here when they moved to new digs. Most of the books were not even stamped. Got a lot of Ace doubles, Lancer Scifi and Horror, etc. all 1st editions! People are still looking for the TVO Dr. who segments that Judy Merrill did back in the early 1980s as they were all destroyed during the purges in the 1990s. I have a couple and there are a couple more online but there were over 100 segments done. More history lost...

[davemerrill]

The Merril collection has a permanent room at the College St. branch of the library, it's pretty nice. Our crack-smoking mayor notwithstanding, I believe the Toronto Public Library is doing OK; I get the feeling that the SF/Anime Flea Market is more of a fun thing to do for the local community, rather than a desperate fund-raiser.

Yusaku, many anime conventions are holding swap-meets during the con for fans to buy, sell, or trade their old merchandise. AWA has one, Fanime has one, A-Kon's doing it, Anime North has one that is ridiculously popular. If there isn't one at your local convention, you should get right in there and make it happen.