Hello everybody, I will be traveling to the UK to work this summer and since I mainly collect French pokémon cards I was considering attending Le Gala TCG during my travels. I was hoping somebody who has attended before could provide some insight:
I do not speak French, would I expect to encounter a large language barrier?
Do the tickets for the convention or dinner typically sell out quickly?
What was the dinner like, and did you find it worthwhile to attend?
Do you have any other advice or insight into this event?
Thanks for the replies, and it would be fun to meet with other e4 members if I make it there!
Having attended the previous galas before this one I can say the following
-Language Barrier isn’t a huge deal, of course there will be vendors who are French but English will be a predominant language
-convention tickets don’t traditionally sell out fast though the Saturday for the most recent Germany event was very close to selling out
-the dinner tickets will sell out fast. The dinner is a ton of fun but you can run into language barrier depending on who you get at a table with. It’s a fantastic time to meet new people and talk. If you know people at the dinner I would say it’s worth it.
-make sure you have cash, having euros handy can help a lot with deals. Most vendors take card but cash makes it a lot easier
Currently Kenji Watanabe is the artist attending. I haven’t heard of anyone else going
I think the biggest difference would be the scale. Based on my limited understanding, collectacon caters to all collectibles in pop culture. The Gala events are more focused on TCG. The one in Germany recently was a lot more Pokemon focused because of Arita signing, but had other TCG’s as well. The event caters to advertisement of different services for TCG grading, specially because most of the time EU prefers to use a middleman service. So various countries where the Gala is hosted, will have various local middlemen services explaining the submission process and even getting on the spot submissions possible. The dinner event which is a highlight of the Gala events is for socializing and getting to meet the who’s who in the hobby (I guess).
Le Gala ends up being more of a vacation. It’s great for building European relationships for helping and selling to our European friends. The truth is cards are much more expensive in Europe. It’s difficult to find US prices on liquid items. I bet it’s a great show to sell at albeit customs, travel, and shipping.
The dinner is a great over-the-top show with friends. Nothing like it exists elsewhere in the hobby. The dinner is also an expensive ticket. I view it as a way to support the event. There was also a nice new contact that came from the Germany dinner.
Imo if he is going to be announced it will be within the next week or so. Perhaps they were leaving it late this time to get more people buying actual Gala tickets or to cater to local collectors (as opposed to people buying tickets and flying in) instead of just purchasing for Arita.
As a Brit I love the fact that OP is visiting the UK and then says he will be attending the Gala in Paris.
I do love the interconnectedness of Europe, just a quick trip on the Eurostar and you can be in Paris.
To expand on what @gemmintpokemon said, the event itself is quite a relaxed one (which is very nice). Lots of room to talk, meet and trade.
Only slight negative is pricing as most higher-end stuff was very overpriced in Cologne - but there was a decent amount of options and some room to negotiate.
If you are not getting tickets for any artist signings, you can do the event in a morning or an afternoon and then enjoy the rest of Paris.