How to Get the Most Out of the UK Games Expo Bring and Buy

Everything you need to know before you queue, buy, or sell.

The UK Games Expo Bring and Buy is billed as the largest second-hand games market at any games convention in the world. That is a significant claim and, standing inside Hall 5 on a Friday morning watching the queue snake back through the building, it feels entirely believable.

It is also one of the most confusing parts of the Expo for first-timers. The rules have changed over the years. The process for sellers was updated in 2025 and now requires more preparation than it used to. Buyers need to know things the official website does not spell out clearly, like the cash-only policy, the bag situation, and why arriving early matters so much more than it does anywhere else at the show.

I have queued for the Bring and Buy as a buyer, hauled boxes there as a seller, and watched several people make easily avoidable mistakes on both sides of the counter. This post covers everything that would have helped me the first time I went.

What Is the Bring and Buy?

The Bring and Buy (or B&B, as it gets abbreviated in every convention discussion) is a consignment sale run by UKGE volunteers. You bring games you want to sell. The Expo sells them on your behalf. Ten per cent of the sale price goes to charity. You keep ninety per cent. The seller sets the price.

As a buyer, you walk around shelves of second-hand games, pick what you want, and pay at the till. No haggling. The price on the label is the price.

It is sponsored by Travelling Man, one of the UK’s best independent hobby game retailers, and it lives in Hall 5 alongside main ticketing. If you are navigating the NEC for the first time, Hall 5 is where you go first.

IMPORTANT: The Bring and Buy is cash only.There is no card reader at the till. If you arrive without cash you will have to leave the queue, find a cash machine (the NEC has them, but they get queues too), and come back. Bring more than you think you will spend. You will almost certainly find something.

The Infamous Bag Rule

This one confuses people because it changed in 2025, and older accounts of the Expo describe it differently.

Previously, you had to leave bags outside the Bring and Buy entirely. In 2025 that rule was relaxed: you can bring a bag in, as long as it does not already contain games. The purpose is to save any debate about whether you already had that game before you went in at the tills

In practice: arrive with an empty bag or a bag containing only personal items (phone, wallet, water bottle). You are fine. Arrive with a bag full of games you want to sell and you will be asked to leave and come back through the proper seller registration process.

Check the UKGE website before you go. The bag rules have changed before and could change again. The current guidance will be on the official Bring and Buy page at ukgamesexpo.co.uk.

How to Get the Most Out of It as a Buyer

Get there early. Seriously.

The Bring and Buy opens each morning and the queue builds quickly. The best games, the most popular titles, the obvious bargains, go in the first hour. I have arrived at what I thought was a reasonable time on a Friday morning and watched someone carry away exactly the game I had been hoping to find.

If there is a specific game you want, treat it as a priority stop. Get there when the doors open, not when you have finished browsing the trade hall.

Know your prices before you go

Prices at the Bring and Buy are set by the sellers and vary enormously. Some things are genuine bargains, priced by someone who just wanted rid of a game that had sat on their shelf for three years. Others are priced at or above what you would pay on eBay or in a second-hand Facebook group.

For popular games in good condition, the Expo premium is often worth paying because you can physically inspect the box, check for missing components, and take it away immediately. For anything you are not in a hurry for and could find online, compare the price before you commit. A quick phone search takes thirty seconds.

Check the condition

This sounds obvious and it is worth saying anyway. Open the box if you can. Check the card quality, look for punched tokens, make sure the insert has not collapsed entirely. Most sellers are honest but the Bring and Buy is not a returns service. What you buy is what you get.

Games in near-mint condition at a fair price go fast. Games that look like they have been used as a frisbee occasionally linger. The middle ground, played-once-or-twice games at reasonable prices, is where the best value usually sits.

Have a loose list, not a rigid one

The best Bring and Buy experiences I have had were when I went in with a few specific games I was looking for but stayed open to things I had not planned on. The floor is unpredictable. You might find nothing on your list and stumble across a game you had half-forgotten you wanted.

The worst experiences were when I went in with a fixed budget committed to one specific game, did not find it, and came out having spent nothing despite passing several things I genuinely wanted.

Quick buyer checklist: Bring cash (the Bring and Buy is cash only) Arrive early if you have a specific game in mind Check component counts before buying Compare prices on your phone for anything over about £20 Have an empty bag or one containing only personal items

How to Get the Most Out of It as a Seller

Register online before 10am on the Friday

The process changed in 2025 and requires more pre-registration than it used to. You need to register your items on the UKGE website before 10am on the Friday of the show. Read the current instructions carefully on the official page before you go, not a blog post written before that update (including this one, if you are reading it after another rule change).

When you arrive at the Bring and Buy with your games, give your name to a volunteer. They will print labels for you to attach to each game. You then go to the booking-in desk, your games are scanned into the system, and they take them onto the shelves.

Price honestly and competitively

The minimum price per item is £5. That is worth knowing if you have a lot of small card games you want to move on.

Look at what the game sells for second-hand before you decide on a price. BGG Marketplace, eBay completed listings, and UK board game trading groups on Facebook all give you a realistic sense of what buyers are willing to pay. Games priced at full RRP second-hand tend to sit on the shelf. Games priced at roughly half RRP for good condition tend to move.

Also factor in the charity cut. You receive ninety per cent of the sale price. If you price something at £20, you collect £18. If it does not sell, you collect nothing and have to carry it home.

Maximum 204 items

There is a cap of fifteen games per seller per day (45 total over the 3 days). If you have more than twenty, you will need to make choices about what to bring. Prioritise the games most likely to sell at a price you are happy with.

Think about carrying them in

The NEC is a big venue. If you are bringing games to sell, you need to carry them from wherever you parked or arrived to Hall 5. A wheeled suitcase or a trolley is much smarter than a series of overfull tote bags. I have seen people arrive looking like they were moving house. Plan the transport before you go.

Collect your money and unsold games before you leave

When you are ready to head home, return to the Bring and Buy desk and collect any money owed to you and any games that did not sell. Do not forget this step. You will not be pleased to remember it on the drive home.

Quick seller checklist:- Register online before 10am on the Friday of the show- Read the current official instructions (the process has changed before)- Minimum price per item is £5- Maximum 15 items per seller per day- Bring a trolley or wheeled bag if you have more than a couple of boxes- Collect your money and unsold items before you leave- You keep 90% of the sale price; 10% goes to charity

When Does the Bring and Buy Open?

Opening times vary slightly year to year. Check the official UKGE schedule once it is published. As a general guide from previous years, the Bring and Buy opens each morning when the halls open and closes with the show each evening. The Friday morning opening sees the heaviest buyer traffic. Saturday stays busy. Sunday is quieter, which is either a problem (less choice) or an opportunity (shorter queues) depending on what you are looking for.

If you are selling and want your games visible as early as possible, arriving at the start of registration and getting games onto the shelves on Friday morning gives them the longest selling window.

The Charity Element

Ten per cent of every sale goes to charity. The specific charity changes year to year, so check the UKGE website for the current beneficiary. It is a meaningful amount across the volume of sales the Bring and Buy generates at an event this size, and it is one of the things that makes the format feel better than just a flea market.

If you are donating a game rather than selling it, you can set any price you like. Some sellers deliberately price things at full donation value if they just want to clear the shelf.

A Few Final Things Worth Knowing

• The Bring and Buy is in Hall 5, the same hall as main ticketing. It is one of the first places you pass when entering the show.
• Cash only. No exceptions that have been observed in recent years.
• Your bag can come in as long as it does not already contain games. An empty bag for carrying purchases is sensible.
• The queue to buy can be long on Friday morning. It moves faster than it looks.
• The queue to drop off as a seller can also be long, especially first thing on Friday. Budget time for it.
• The Shop and Drop service elsewhere in the venue lets you leave purchases so you are not carrying boxes around all day. Worth knowing about if you expect to buy several things.

Worth the Queue

The Bring and Buy is not the most glamorous part of UK Games Expo. The trade hall has better lighting and shinier boxes. But for finding specific games at a fair price, clearing out your shelf of shame, and putting money toward charity while you do it, nothing else at the show comes close.

Bring cash. Pack light. Get there early if you know what you want. And if you are selling, read the current instructions on the website before you turn up with twenty games in a suitcase and hope for the best.

Back to our UK Games Expo Tips Guide