Flea Market

How does it work?

The concept behind the Flea Market is simple: you bring your items to the counter and Ropecon’s staff sells them for you. Flea Market is located in the Vendor Hall and shares its opening hours with those of the Vendor Hall. Items can be brought directly to the counter where our staff will take them off your hands. Be prepared for crowds when the Flea Market opens on Friday.

The Kirppu system

This year, there is a major overhaul in how the Flea Market operates. Ropecon’s Flea Market will be using the Kirppu system, which utilises price tags with barcodes printed at home. Sellers, aka attendees who want to bring items to be sold at the Flea Market, must have an account at Kompassi (https://kompassi.eu/) in order to use the Kirppu system. Kirppu will open about a month before Ropecon. 

By introducing the Kirppu system we are aiming to make the Flea Market easier to operate both for sellers as well as for our staff. 

All items to be sold must be registered within the Kirppu system by 23:59 on 19th of July the latest. After that point items can no longer be registered for sale and prices cannot be changed, so take care while registering your items. You can register items and change prices until the deadline by accessing the “Tavaralista” (Item List) page. Barcodes and price tags can be printed out even after the deadline as long as they were generates before it. Please note that item registration might be closed before the deadline if the total number of items exceeds our maximum limitations. Please register your items as soon as possible!  

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Price tags and the item list

Since Ropecon staff is going to be selling your items for you, please adhere to following instructions: 

There is limited space available at the Flea Market, so each seller can have max 15 items for sale at any given time.

• An item to be sold is, for example, a box of cards that are sold as one unit. 
• A single piece of clothing or a special card sold on its own counts as one item. 
• You can register as many items as you want within the Kirppu system, and if you have more than 15 items to be sold they should all be registered beforehand. Even though you can only have 15 items for sale at a time, after your previous items have been sold, you can bring more items to the Flea Market.

If there is very little space left, Flea Market staff has the right to refuse taking in large items. Please use your own discretion at home when choosing which items to bring to the Flea Market.

Sellers must attach price tags to their items themselves before the convention. Price tags with barcodes can be printed out from the “Tavaralista” (Item List) page of the Kirppu system, either for single items or for bundles. A single item in this case refers to one item that has one price tag attached to it, such as a book, a deck of cards or a bag of miniature figurines. 

• Label each item an unique and accurate manner, so that Flea Market staff can easily identify your item in case the price tag comes off. 
• Do not use the same barcode for multiple items: create a unique one for each item. 
• Attach the price tag securely so that it will stay on even when the item is being handled and inspected at the Flea Market. If the price tag is lost and the item cannot be unequivocally identified, it is removed from sale. 
• Barcodes must be printed big enough and in good quality so that they can be scanned with all barcode readers. 
• If you are selling bundles of multiple books, miniature figurines or other items, attach these items together in a secure way so that none of them gets lost. 

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Labeling your items

You can improve the chances of your items selling and make Flea Market staff’s job easier by labeling your items accurately. At times, price tags can come off for one reason or another, but it might be possible to reattach a found price tag to the item if labeled properly. In some cases it might even be possible to sell an item without any price tag if it has been labeled with such accuracy that it can be unequivocally identified through the Kirppu system. If there is no price tag attached and the item cannot be identified through the system, it will be removed from sale. 

• Remember that your item should be identifiable not only among your other items, but among items sold by others as well. Labeling your items simply as “stuffed animal” or “dress” does not provide much information to the staff when there are probably dozens of other similar items being sold at the Flea Market. 
• Use the names of series and/or characters and other descriptive words when possible. For example, “Pikachu figurine” is already a lot better than just “Pokémon figurine”, and “a sitting down Pikachu figurine” is even better.
• If you have multiple similar items for sale, try to distinguish them from each other in some way, for example by character names or colours. “Sasuke keychain” and “Sakura keychain” are a lot better way to label items than “Naruto keychain 1” and “Naruto keychain 2”. Only use numbers if your items are actually identical. 

By providing accurate information about items our staff is able to keep track of your sales accurately and make sure that sales are attributed to correct sellers. Seller’s identity is always checked while bringing in items and collecting the money. Remember to bring along an ID with a picture, such as passport, health insurance card with a picture (e.g. Kela card), or student ID!

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Tagging your items

General instructions

• Price tags with barcodes must be clearly marked and easily found on the item. Barcodes will be scanned both when bringing items in and collecting items from the Flea Market as well as at the register. Please attach price tags in a way that makes scanning barcodes as quick and easy as possible. Always attach the barcodes on the outside of the cover on books, manga, CDs and other items that can be opened.  
• Make sure that price tags are printed out properly. Do not use washed out, grainy, striped or otherwise incorrectly printed barcodes.
• Use only black ink and white paper when printing out price tags. Some barcode readers cannot always read barcodes printed in or on colour. 
• Use enough tape. Barcodes on miniature figurines and other small items can easily come off when people inspect them at the Flea Market. If possible, use enough tape at least both long edges of the price tag to prevent it from coming off.
• Use good quality tape, not decorative tape or washi tape. 

Price tag sizes

Price tags can be printed in two sizes (6 cm and 9 cm). Sometimes barcodes might print out too small, in which case some barcode readers will not be able to read them. 

It can be difficult to attach price tags on items without any packaging or flat surfaces, or on items such as stuffed animals and figurines. Here are some tips:

• Do not attach price tags on round surfaces, for example around the leg of a stuffed animal or around a rolled up poster. It makes the barcodes unreadable. 
• If there are no flat surfaces on the item, you can attach the price tag on the surface of a clear plastic bag containing the item or on a string.
• The best way to attach price tags on clothes is by using a safety pin or a string ran through the care label. Do not use regular pins! 
• If the price tag is hanging freely from the item, use contact paper or cardboard backing to make it stronger, since plain paper is easily ripped. 
• If you use string, use plenty of it. Using regular sewing thread is not recommended, since it can be easily snapped and knots can be unraveled. 
• Do not tape price tags directly on clothing or stuffed animals: they won’t stick! 
• Items in containers, such as wigs in plastic bags or items in boxes, should come with a picture of the item along with the price tag to prevent them being constantly opened at the Flea Market.