Gala TCG Germany and Arita
25/01/2024By 11 PM on Friday I made my way to the Hamburg bus port. Before boarding I came across a familiar face, someone I met a few times at trading events and flea markets. So we both sat down at a table isle in the lower deck of the Flixbus. After chatting for a while we both tried to get some rest. About 7 hours later we arrived at Leverkusen, grabbed a coffee and took the train to Cologne.
Arrived at the location, MOTORWORLD Cologne, a bit early but the queue was already there. My travel buddy stayed there and I went outside to meet up with my group for the day and come right back. After a few more minutes the staff asked for every one having a 10:15 spot for the Arita signing session to move to the front. There I was, second in line and maybe a tiny bit nervous.
At 10 am and after an obligatory countdown it was time. We were escorted to the queue for the signing booth where we had a quick id/mail check before getting a card with information on what package we bought and the name for signature. Which they checked about two or three times while waiting. Mitsuhiro Arita finished setting up the booth and then the time has come. I walked up to him, presented my card and got my signature. Had a little chat, thanked him and left. Still a bit shaky and unsure if I could sleeve the card already I ran into the next familiar face from Hamburg before being called back to Arita because I forget to take my signed art card that you get along the other signature.
From that point on it was time to have a look around the booths. To be fair I did not expect to find any cards at one of the vendors. After all I was not missing that many which made it even harder to find the last ones. There were some nice cards on display but as you would expect the prices were highly off from what I would pay for certain cards. I found some Heung Min Son base auto that caught my eye but 80€ for a card with multiple copies listed on eBay for about 30€ made me move on quite fast. All in all the vendors were just what you would expect. Many overpriced singles, some overpriced boxes and the obligatory overpriced mystery boxes/boosters.
Me and rest of the group decided to each buy some One Piece Displays and rip them at one of the tables at the side of the venue. The contents pulled were okay. My personal favorite pull turned out to be a fairly common card. Still pulling it at a show with friends made up for the lack of value after all.
The rest of the day consisted of wandering around the venue, checking out other people’s collection (seen way more Goldstars and Base Set Charizard that day than I expected) and having a look at the infamous Illustrator Pikachu and Kangashkan Trophy at PWCC booth.
At around 3:30 PM I decided to call it a day and head to Cologne central to take the first of many trains that day. After various nerve wrecking transfer situations due to the standard delays in almost every ride I somehow managed to come home sometime around 11 PM. 50min before my actual booked return bus ride would have started.
To wrap things up, was it worth it? Vendor wise I would say not really. The Arita signing was a very special chance, but apart from that the event was basically mainly meeting up with fellow collectors, talking about and celebrating the hobby. For that you could say 20€ ticket prices might be a bit overpriced. But I guess we are used to spending money so why complain.
All in all I will probably return next time, but with a hotel room or airbnb instead of two way travel on the same day.
At this point I would like to thank everyone around for this experience, all the interesting and funny conversations I had made this one a good one and I am looking forward to meeting you again soon.
