Itosukai

Although I didn't introduce myself, I want to thank a few of you for helping me fill in some gaps in my Wolverine runs.

It was a superior (over the past shows) expo, and I added a few new sigs to my collection as well. I was going to introduce myself but ya'll were so darned busy at the time I dropped by. 

Maybe next year I will try to get a table at the Red&White in Calgary. Sell off everything but my faves. 

Cheers!

On 3/26/2017 at 7:02 PM, aardvark88 said:

Table costs may have tripled since Expo #1 but attendance has more than tripled to offset the increase in 10' x 10' booth cost. Their economy booths 8' x 5' seem to always sell out and be renewed first. As of 14 days ago, Calgary Expo had at least 3 10' x 10' booths left in the media guest area Halls D, E. Don't know if you realize that 2.5 day Wizard World cons have booth cost that averages $1,100 US so I would say Calgary Expo is retailer/vendor friendly as they want the booths to all sell out.

Since Expo#1, held on the top floor of the BMO Centre; hasn't the available space also increased by a factor of 3, in multiple buildings? Meaning more vendors/more competition? Not sure what prices on a corner are (what Tug's always gets), but he has faced increased competition with similar items over the years. That's just the way it is, and he doesn't begrudge the Expo folks for that. With other increased costs associated with travelling to the Expo, he has a better profit/expense ratio at smaller venues like the Red and White Club.

I realize that Wizard World has been around since 1991(as Wizard World, not Chicago Con) and is trading on the stock exchange (WIZD) and attendance of 70,000 in 2009. Calgary Expo started in 2006, with a 2009 attendance of just over 10,000, and are not a traded company as of yet. They couldn't get away with $1,100 US ($1473 CAD) a booth.

At no time did I say/insinuate that the Expo is not retailer/vendor friendly, just that booth costs have tripled since Expo #1 as they have gotten "expo"nentially larger to 2016's 103,500 attendees and over 700 participants.

I shall come introduce myself this year, instead of standing in autograph lines all day. Gotta get back to visiting up and coming artists, buying their art, delving into long boxes of missing issues and perusing the retail booths.

On 3/14/2017 at 4:35 PM, Artboy99 said:

The one day Red White show was actually rather slow for sales in my opinion. I have done the Red White for 8 years now, this is the second march show ( in addition to the show in September ) and I think this is the worst Red White show I have done for sales revenue.

As mentioned Dave and I sold our Gotham City Sirens #1 variant to another dealer for $400 that we conservatively graded as a 9.6 raw ( shot at a CGC 9.8 ), but other than that it was small stuff selling. $1-$50 range stuff and our dollar books did not do as well as we hoped.

Our best sellers were golden age books, and books from a shortbox we bought at the show that buyers were interested in as I priced them sitting at the table.

If you consider travel costs, hotel costs and table costs + food, it was rather under-whelming and made us question if we should return.

Lots of potential buyers agonizing over that $2 book and putting it back in the box was my observation.

Customers talking about getting laid off from their jobs and pondering if buying that $5 dollar Conan the Barbarian is a good idea.

I am hoping the Calgary Expo is better....

A good friend and the fellow I get my comics from, Larry from TUGS in Drumheller, was saying that it's not just comic sales at the Red White Show that were hurting. He's def. done better there in the past as well. 

His shop is closing in Drumheller as the Mall where it is, being badly managed, is closing up around November or December. As such, this year will probably be his last at the Calgary Expo as well. Table costs almost tripled at the Expo since the first year.

I'll be going again of course, almost just out of habit and a few celeb sigs. Fillion will complete my Serenity cast autographs.

I too hope Calgary is on the road that weekend, though not wishing them to be eliminated. Last game I watched of theirs though was the last time Lanny won the Stanley.

Post-Lucille Steven Yuen. Just gotta ask him in person, how he felt about getting "whacked" in such a gruesome way. 

Kinda want to meet HODOR !!! as well.

I have the Collectorz app on my phone with my whole collection entered into it. Well, I entered it on my computer with the windows edition of the app, and then I can sync it to my iphone app. I enter comics I want putting them into a wanted list which I can access anytime, offline as well. Or I can search my collection to see if I already have what I'm looking at or what shape/grade it is in and what I paid for it to see if I should get the LCS or garage sale one in front of me.

Oh yes, best part, when entering an issue, if it is in their database already, it will come with a picture of the front and sometimes the back as well. You can add your own cover pic if it isn't in their database.

We'll drop by for sure !

Newish to the boards here but have been collecting for about 20 years. Had a phase where I bought lots of #1's back in the mid 90's. Nothing amounting to much of course.

My CLZ database tells me my, finally, finished count is 5967 including TPB's. Large variety of Marvel and DC, plus loads of independents.

Haven't really been collecting much in the last 10 years or so, Just getting my monthly regulars.

Series I started years ago, where I'm only missing max 20 issues, I will complete that series. ie. Any Wolverine series (so many), my Silver Surfer, Animal Man, Doom Patrol vol.2, etc.

If I have even 1 of a limited series, I MUST complete it.

As to busts/statues, LOTR ... I have so many. Though none of the Hobbit ones. The little mini helmets from LOTR and WETA, got em all. The medallions, all of em. Mini busts ... all of em. 

Only thing that has curtailed this spending is my newly adopted special needs girl. Would sell it all for her.

I'm going through the same dilemma right now. I've used Comics Price Guide.com to get an idea of what valuable issues I have. Those I will sell individually, but will try hard to sell larger lots on ebay and comicspriceguide.com

No comic stores in my area will buy large lots. I'm pretty rural.

Since the Calgary Expo started up, I have only missed one show. They have had their growing pains to be sure, but over all, it's been a pretty good show. 

Can't recall seeing CGC reps, though may not have looked that closely.

There are some good media guests so far, Nathan Fillion, Christopher Lambert, etc. The real good guests and artists come a bit later on.

The limited art books are always beautiful and I have been lucky to get every one of them so far, even for the show I missed.

The Saturday morning line up can be crazy long if you don't have a VIP pass. That's almost worth it right there. Also bypassing the line ups for autographs is a big bonus.

As for the food, they always have something new and delicious. Just need more space to sit and eat.

Me and my buddy "GrinMan" will be there again this year.