Wall-Crawler

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I just finished watching it. My wife and I both really enjoyed it. I think, next to Daredevil it is my next favourite series. I mean, just about any TV show (or movie) is going to have weak episodes/plot holes you can drive a truck through, etc but as a whole it was very good. I liked the interplay between Frank and Micro (some of the family stuff dragged on a wee bit). I liked how Frank was not just a pure killing robot...Guy suffers but sometimes seems to find "peace" in the heat of battle. He has honour (I particularly liked the bit where he talked about how much he hated bombs). Who knows, Season 2 could start with him saying "#$%# this" and walk out and start taking out pedophiles or something.

I have no idea but I would like to know as well...

I did not know there was a second one...I assumed there likely would be though. Another nice little book there!

I am the opposite of pushy salesman, I let people look without bothering them, so long as they are gentle with the books . Most of the ones that do, don't "hide" their phone and either tell me they see it on ebay or literally show me on their own phone the price they are seeing it for on eBay or whatever. And yep, I have buyers do this for "common books"...I guess the penny saved is a penny earned...

I am a small fish, "weekend warrior" local con seller. I like to think I price fairly. However, even for these very small shows, I have noticed probably 40% of buyers checking out ebay and other site prices on their phones, both keys and common books (sigh). I find if the offer is too low, I also state the reason the winning bid is low is because those buyers also take into account the shipping cost, as would they, if they bought it off ebay. My "schtick" is that I state, with me, their is no shipping cost, no wait time and you have the book in hand immediately. In the end, I am willing to deal and usually am able to come to a mutually agreeable price.

Found this little gem at a used bookstore. All text with several Bernie Wrightson illustrations. How could I pass it by?

I have not seen the Venom one but I have seen them. They are more expensive than you basic short box though I know that. My only issue with using those for a show besides cost, is that I would want to fill the box with what the actual box art is...But that is just me...I will be sticking with just making a nice label for the front. Now, if they came out with nice Spidey ones for my personal collection...

Those are freaking awesome.

Thank you for the compliment! I started to tape the two corners of all the bags, I hate it when you have a 'triangle' sticking up, so now whenever I bag and board, I tape both corners. All the books in my boxes are pretty much the same bag, either Comic Care and Ultra Pro. For the dividers, I just buy those "post it" tabs and write on them very neatly with a sharpie and then use clear packing tape to affix to a backing board and voila, inexpensive divider. I am transitioning all "higher end" books to Mylites with Full Backs. I want to make 'signs' for all the individual title runs at the back of the box, like say a Spidey face or Batman symbol, to help draw the eye in. With regards to your banner, I had a concern when I went to the Sudbury show how to hang my banner...I just bought a some cheap white plastic shower curtain rings and those worked great for looping through grommet to hang it from the top of the back booth wall as they had some 'give' so you could adjust the size a wee bit. As always, great set up!!! I always dig how you guys organize your booth.

Yessir!

Nothing "major" but I picked this up for a fair price, I don't necessarily count annuals as part of the run, but it was in nice shape, I didn't have it so, I bought a little something to help tide me over I have also been wanting an Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 for awhile now, but wasn't able to find one for a price I wanted to pay, until now so I picked one up, still in shrink wrap too So, nothing "major" but just enough to scratch the itch that I had been having to pick up something Spidey related. No current "big" purchases underway for ASM proper. Still saving or keeping eye open for "right book at right time". Current personal Top Five remain the same...AF #15, ASM #1, ASM #3, ASM #9 and still not clear on what should round up Top 5...Suggestions?

What kind of show was it? People just set up in hallways of arena?

I just went with a traditional style this time too.

Gateway Summary Show did not get off to a good start. Woke up to a fair bit of wet yucky snow. Had to shovel my driveway. Grrr. Snow made a mess of everything. Still don't have snow tires on (go on tomorrow). Last year it was a bright and sunny, but crisp day with no snow whatsoever. Where it was being held (local university cafeteria), you had to drive down this one lane road to get to the unloading area that had not been plowed or sanded yet. Showed up and they had ONE table for me. I kept my cool, walked to the organizer and they very quickly fixed it. Actual unloading sucked as it was wet and slippery but I got it done. Weather definitely impacted the show in terms of attendance but I suspect other factors played a role as well. I have no idea on final numbers. Other typical things apply, cosplayers have no or shallow pockets. All the card gaming kids stuck to their area and never ventured out. Still some "organizational inefficiencies" with this show that need to be worked out. Gateway Sales Summary Most popular: Sets took top spot again. Second was the bargain books $2 each or 3 for $5. I had a whack of DC 3-D covers that I had acquired in the summer and priced those nicely and they moved pretty good. I really need to beef up my bargain selection. Single most popular title: X-Men and related titles...After that, single issues are all over the place. Weirdest comic book ask: Soloman Kane Non-comic sales: Marvel Legends Action Figure and Power Record (Justice League) Sale most happiest about: Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 - #30 set. It's gone!!! See, it is not always the most expensive book... Single largest sales: $200, $115 and $90. Smallest was $2. I also had my first "Square Reader" sale! Funniest (non) sale: A young kid buys 3 for $5. Comes back an hour later asking for a refund. I asked him is something wrong with the books, says no, just he only has $5 and saw something he wants more. I thought about using this as a teachable moment about honouring your commitments but didn't think it would be appropriate and of course, took the cheapies back and refunded his cash and he was like "THANK YOU" and promptly ran off to buy his treasure. I didn't break any records, but sold enough to make it a decent day. I sold a lot of "small stuff" which is what I like about these shows. Overall, a satisfactory experience with a decent level of profit. I will go back but the organizers have more work to do.

Darn it! I keep most of my stock and supplies at another location. I just realized I forgot my banner. No time to grab it for tomorrows show.

I recently gave a friend similar advice, some guy wanted to trade him a bunch of commons and semi-keys for a Saga #1 CGC 9.8. To me, that kind of trade is not "worth it", for similar reasons that Torch laid out. It did not help that the guy with the commons "over valued" what he had. One of the things that makes me is when you share a book and some guy says "trade" and offers a bunch of drek for a key or graded books that make you wonder why they decided to get them graded in the first place.

That is still very much an option. I was thinking about it and as 98% of my sales were to regulars who pretty much just come to see me, I could probably set up in my own location advertise myself (most of them follow me on FB) and do nearly as well. I have not yet contacted the other organizer with my answer. Told him I would need a few days to think about it.

Sorry, but no way am I moving south to the "Big Smoke".

To your first point, I agree 1000% with everything you said. I had been thinking that for a long time as well. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of "profits" were going towards the cause. I do also know, that vendor fees covered the cost of the hall. Again, this is why I want to find out what the financials were. A donation is a nice idea, but we need to build this show first. Email is a good idea. Again, I think I am being considered to help do the promotion, etc. Again, I need to find out what I am in this "partnership". I really don't know how well the caterer did...I can't imagine all that great. Her chili is very good but I think it is mostly vendors who buy? Another show I did invited a charity to host a bbq outside...I also thought that was a good idea to get some community good will w/o having to spend $$$ and it works for both. These are great ideas and I have a lot of others but I don't want to get too invested until I find out my role and how much "say" the other organizer actually wants me to have. Depending on the answer, I may just do the October one "as is" and maybe consider other alternatives.

I just found this article about my local "FanEx"coming up this Sunday... http://www.nugget.ca/2017/11/09/klingon-assault-group-invading-gateway-fanex-sunday Sigh...

The other thing is, I don't know if they actually "pocketed" anything, profit wise...I have no idea how much revenue was allocated to advertising, etc. but I do know most of the proceeds from ticket sales, they used to contribute to one of the organizers "political action"..It was kind of a contentious issue actually, it even made the NY Times! The current organizer did say he would want to make a donation to "something local and historical" moving forward. While I am fine with that, to me, you need to reinvest properly in the show...I'll be interested to see what the financials were and what we can agree to moving forward. I need to see how much was brought in and where it all went. For sure though, I think a bigger portion needs to be reinvested back into the show. I'm leaning towards YES (at least to get the October 2018 show going) with some caveats. I do have other ideas from big to small but I would appreciate any ideas and suggestions.

Thank you for the compliment! Turns out for sure the April 2018 show is done. The other organizer said he is willing to try it one more time for next October though. Part of that though depends if I am willing to take on an organizer role. They like my product and ideas. I said I would need some time to think about it as I am not sure I will be able to dedicate the time to it. I work full time, active buyer/seller and I do enjoy my out door activities. I do wonder though about how much "say" I may or may not end up ultimately having as well. Apparently, the other vendor said that he would still deal with the dealers but looking for someone to do advertising, promotion, recruitment. I asked about "re-branding" and that would also be on the table but kind of need to know if I am interested or not. I don't want this little show to "die". For me, it is a good little show. I am leaning towards "trying out" to be an organizer for the next one to see if we can improve things. I do have to make a decision soon though. What say thee? Give it a go and throw my hat in the organizer ring? Run away and do something else? Any advice either way? ...I also found out only about 250 people came through the doors last show (I knew attendance was way down)...Even with that low attendance, I still did very, very well thanks to my regulars...

I just received some interesting information...The small local show that kind of got me started, might be folding. Following the conclusion of the last show, one of the organizers talked to me about my thoughts on the show. My main points focused on changing the venue (it is old/dated and out of the way), institute some "vendor standards" (several vendors tables just looked like they dropped their on the table), consider maybe making it once a year instead of twice a year and better signage/more advertising, particularly via social media. There were others, but those were the main ones. The other organizer could not be there so I gave him an assessment of how I thought the show went a few days later. This week I did some research on other possible venue locations. I shared what I found. Shortly thereafter, one of the organizers said the other would be talking to me. Today, I received a text stating the planned April 2018 show is kaput and they are not sure if there will be any other shows at all. So, tomorrow, I will find out more. For all the faults this show had, I still did well and I thought it could only be improved upon. Needless to say, I am interested to learn what exactly has occurred but I am not sure if I want to be the one to pick up the pieces either. I know what a PIA it could be to organize a show and quite frankly, I don't have the time. I still have the one local "FanEx" show in November and two others in the city an hour and a half away that have been very successful for me. If this show is dead, I have already started thinking of what I could maybe do on my own. Stay tuned...

Personally, I'm glad Bendis is moving on...Call it familiarity or whatever, but I lost interest in Bendis Marvel work a long, long time ago.