G.A.tor

then, get in the staging line...this can sometimes take 2-4 hours just to get to the convention loading dock.... early bird does catch the worm...

arrive as early as possible, to avoid traffic the bigger cities seem to have...

wake up at the crack of dawn and head to the convention center to get in line to unload...

then, start driving... in this instance, the drive is "only" 6 hours...but until you see the hotel, it takes "forever"

sometimes I leave the room behind the drivers seat for my son (his bean bag bed and toys)....in this case, the more expensive books get loaded...

don't forget your clean undies!

this main loading can take upwards of 3 hours, depending on how energetic I feel.... then we move onto the "good stuff"

and from experience, use bungee cords to secure anything that can slide forward in transit...

probably as important as anything is the hand truck (and coke zeroes, of course!)

don't forget the tables and signs...

any floor racks, customer bags, tools, etc have to be loaded and accounted for... we tightly wrap all our metal comic holders because 6 hours of "rattling" can get nerve racking on the road...

next, and VERY important (as I learned years ago), load in your support racks!!!

after main racks are loaded.... you try to fill in the cracks and open spaces...

once you have loaded thousands of pounds of comics, you have to load your display system... we use heavy steel gridwall (set weighs 800 pounds in all)

and the tetris puzzle comes into shape... important to tightly stack so when you make those sudden stops on the interstate, you are not killed by flying debris

the loading continues....

then it is a box, by box loading task...this can take hours and hours, and if you are in florida, a lot of sweat!

Aside from the inventory prep (which someone mentioned is an on going job), you have to start with an empty vehicle..

Hello all... Have had this conversation with several folks over the years...."what all is involved" in traveling to and setting up at a con... the avg con goer doesn't see the "behind" the scenes work involved... so, we are going to provide a small pictorial of what we do... sit back, grab some popcorn, and relax! (and it is anything other than relaxing prepping for a show!)

Star Comics 9 is most probably rare. as rare as the rest...they are all pretty much tough imo...heck, star 11 wasn't even pictured in the gerber, yet 2 have fairly recently sold

I have 2 Star 8's...happy to trade one for a Star 9....

Star 11! I heard it was "rare"...but then again, aren't they all

Here most of my star run.