JiveTurkeyMoFo

Might be my last Chicago show. The buying was sub-par, as most of the small and regional dealers didnt show up...guess tbere is a limit to how much you can charge for a booth, and apparently, $1,500 is it. I did a lot of spending, but none of it "wowed" me, and instead of wall books, it was mostly box diving. Lots of work + minimal return + sub-par selection = Not worth the expense and hassle. Good to see all the regulars....might have to switch my plans to C2E2 next year since everyone I spoke to raved about that show in comparison.

Flying out in about 18 hours. This show is always the highlight of the convention season for me...looking forward to seeing all the usual suspects.

Best wishes that your family emergency resolved favorably for all involved. Sorry to hear about the show. I received similar feedback from one of my toy dealer buddies about Friday...hopefully, his weekend ended up being better overall.

Any reports from dealers or other attendees on how the show went for them?

Just wanted to say it was a pretty productive show for me, even though I was there less than the full day today. Found a good amount of stuff to buy, thanks especially to Earl Shaw and a few others. Good assortment of both comics and toys in the room, overall, very good depth of offerings for the vintage fan. Crowds were very manageable today....tomorrow will probably be insane...good luck to those of you going.

Hey Steve! Look time, no hear. I'll be wandering about the convention floor pretty early and depending on how much there is to look through, might be available for lunch in Channelside or something.

What? No bump for this great show? Whose going?

Rubish!

Joe and I drove back yesterday evening; we got into the Orlando/Lake Mary area to drop Joe off at 8:30 and I got in around 10:30 pm. The 8 hour drive from Lake Mary isn't too bad, and it's always easier when you have company. As for buying, I was a little disappointed with Heroes last year (not enough "fresh" books, not enough "small" dealers, and too much buying competition, etc.), and the first day and a half of this year's show was going in much the same vein. Until, that is, I went back to Earl Shaw's booth and feasted on some of his bin books in the back. At the discount I was getting, they were too hard to pass up, and I ended up pulling a long box worth of wall books and some just-graded slabs at a great price. Had a chance to start going through that long box, and the few gems I've closely inspected have not disappointed. Just goes to show, there are still deals to be had on Saturday if you look around and inquire with the right vendors. Overall, very pleased with how this show turned out and already looking forward to next year.

Hotel Room: Check Driving Co-hort: Check Cash and Checkbook: Check Restaurant.com Coupons for local fare: Check Just have to enter some bids on the Jon Berk stuff this week, otherwise it's off to Heroes early on Thursday. Too bad I'm not staying until Sunday, as per the usual, but I think I can get everything done in 1.5 days of hard-nosed looking.

Making the 8 hour drive from Orlando with Mr. Joey Sack. I expect his vehicle will suffer the consequences of two middle aged men on a high protein diet.

Thank you...been curious about the Vendor list....looks pretty good.

Agreed. I'll be set-up with a bunch of toys, and actively buying comics. Definitely worth the drive from anywhere in Florida.

Hey Dan. The only notable books so far were the Avengers 55 9.6 and Hero for Hire # 1 9.0/White...thought I did okay on both.

I've won a handful of books, including two nice keys at decent prices. Certainly seems like a lot of strong bids out there. It is tax season, so perhaps a few of those crazy bids are fueled by "Bonus Bucks".

When we thought up the basic parameters for EliteCon, it came from years of talking to dealers (large, medium, and small) about the changing landscape of comic conventions. The one common thread we found is this: when conventions transition from being one day hotel shows to 3-4 day media events, one of the things immediately sacrificed is the comic book dealer and his place at the show. Because once it becomes a general admission environment, the complexion of the vendors changes. In comes the cosplay costume sellers, the anime sellers, the DVD sellers, the t-shirt sellers, the knick-knack peddlers, the local universities promoting their graphic arts or software design programs, etc. Many old school dealers have told me they've lost their spot at these shows because they refused to pay for their tables 6-9 months in advance, and because the pool of vendors has widened so much, they find themselves on waiting lists 30-50 vendors deep because their competition for the same space is all-to-happy to pay up in advance to secure a booth. It's become a first-come, first-served business, even if that means a quality comic dealer who has been supporting the show for years is now on the outside looking in. I can't entirely blame the promoters for this...they have huge costs involved, and securing that vendor table money well ahead of time is necessary to cover other costs (like media guests, etc.), but the result is that what used to be a comic show has a lot fewer comic dealers in it. Heck, I remember a time when comic dealers paid the promoter for their tables the day of the show, sometime after the show itself was over. Kiss those days goodbye. We've been playing around with what we want the show to be next year, and might float some ideas by you guys since many of you are our target audience.

Thank you. Next year's design is already being worked on by Top Men.

Good god I hate this new format....ended up quoting myself.

It's clear that you've decided to take issue with anything and everything done by our show, so this response is not for you, since your mind was made up long ago and you clearly have a bone to pick. However, for everyone else reading this, no, we did not make a killing at this show. Renting out conference space in a four star hotel during peak season in Florida is not cheap. 5,000 sq ft for 8 hours, with 70 tables rented from the facility (@ $15/table), plus the mandatory 23% service fee (tacked onto the room and table rental), plus the 7% Florida Sales tax (on top of the room & table rental, AND 23% service fee) was a hefty number to swallow. Neither our dealer booths, nor our admission was cheap, because, frankly, none of our costs were cheap. Its one of the reasons you don't see more smaller shows in the 3rd most populous state in the country, because quality space just isn't available at a low cost in a major metropolitan area and promoters have to front that money weeks, if not months, before the show begins. As for the $50 admission, that included the ability to bring up to two boxes of material to vend in the Swap meet area. For one of the attendees that did over $1k in sales plus made some significant trades, an extra $25 over the Silver badge was clearly worthwhile to use that space to his advantage. I know the gentleman next to me did $300+ in sales, and he started two hours into the show....so was it worth the extra $25? Yeah, to him it probably was as well. Since our show is focused on buying and trading of quality collectibles, we wanted to give our attendees the option of doing a little wheeling and dealing themselves. But make no mistake, like any promoter, we are in the business of renting and sub-letting space. So, yes, if you bring in boxes and use our rented tables, it was going to cost you extra. Again, no one who actually took advantage of that option complained. Lastly, we are gathering feedback from our vendors and attendees this week and into next to find which areas we need to tweak. We are also exploring moving to a different venue, so that we can lower costs for all involved, vendors and attendees alike. Neither my business partner or myself have any delusions of making money, we just want this show to be self-sustaining and serve those collectors who find what it has to offer compelling.

Actually, at some point early on I got on the PA system and thanked everyone for cosplaying as serious comic/toy/whatever collectors...that their outfits all looked fantastic. It got a chuckle from the room.

Yeah, we didn't have any of those. In fact, we turned away over two dozen vendors who inquired with us over the last year about booth space. We tried to hand-select those vendors that our attendees wanted, i.e, heavy into vintage comics, original art, toys & action figures, Retired Legos, etc. We turned away the stained-glass makers, the t-shirt vendors, the button vendors, all the folks, who while I'm sure sell quality merchandise, are also at those larger conventions often at the expense of a comic dealer who is sitting on the waiting list trying to get in the door.

My business partner and I attended a small toy and comic show in Orlando the week of the Pro Bowl. This was a show that had been at the same location going on 2-3 years now, however, due to the Pro Bowl and tourists being in town, or just due to the fact there hadn't been a small con in town since the previous fall, there was a huge attendance. Now, for the promoter selling tickets, this is a good thing. For many of the vendors, this is a good thing. For those of us casually walking the aisles, it isn't a good thing. If it takes you 4-5 minutes just to cross 120 feet of aisle space because its so packed, it's not a good thing...in fact, it becomes quite annoying. It is also in this type of atmosphere where things disappear off of racks and out of boxes. Now, we had committed ourselves to our course of action long before this particular show, but it reaffirmed to us that we had an obligation to our attendees and vendors to try and screen out the most casual of fans as much as possible to keep things manageable. For us, it wasn't about putting as many butts in the door as we could, but making sure those that came were there primarily to buy, sell, and trade with one another all and other reasons were secondary or tertiary to our sole reason for being. As for creating a "problem that didn't exist", not at all. We got tons of exposure, made a name for ourselves, gained lots of like-minded fans who wanted to know if we'd be coming to their city next, and overall, had a successful first show. Thanks for your concern, but we're all good.

There was no demand. It wasn't until we had threats by people to protest our policy and disrupt our event, which in turn, being at a public establishment, would've caused a disruption for others as well that we had to draw a line. We also made certain that not a single one of our ticket holders had an issue with the policy, and lo and behold, not a single one did. No refunds were requested, because everyone knew what the event was about, except, of course, those that had no intention of attending anyway but wanted to climb up on their cross anyway. What was funny was that we had collectors who cosplayed who were perfectly fine with the policy...they understood the distinction that many people seemingly could, or would, not.

Not according to them. In fact, we were accused of being racist toward cosplayers. If you can imagine such a thing. Also, and I just learned this when reading some of the commentary..the word "Con" is derived from Cosplay. Yes, someone actually wrote that, and worse, believed it. Yeah, I bet that guy spends heavily on vintage material at every show.

A large percentage of what? Casual Fans?