Montreal Comic Con Sept. 15-16, 2007

[joe_collector]

Wow, talk about a major coincidence. I'm in Montreal on business right now - sitting in the Sofitel on Sherbrooke.

 

Where is this in relation?

[joe_collector]

I think I found it on the map - too far to walk, but I think I can just jump on the Metro (with the rest of the slugs) and get off at Place d"Armes and should be able to find it.

 

Heading out in about 2 minutes, so if anyone want to meet up, be quick.

[joe_collector]

Okay, I waited half an hour, but I'm tres hungry and need to get going...

[joe_collector]

Just back from the show, and I gotta say these directions on the site are absolutely hilarious:

 

Take the metro (subway) to the PLACE-D'ARMES station, located under the Palais, and follow the signs.

 

, what signs? I literally had to search every nook and cranny until I saw a line of nerds at a small desk with Spider-man comics on it.

 

Pretty small show too - a bit smaller than the Ottawa shows even, with virtually no CGC books outside of the Civil War/Hot Modern Crepe. I did find a few nice books, 2 raw and one CGC, before my wife-imposed budget ran out.

 

Harley was there, and I have yet to find a person less interested in taking my money. Everyone else was friendly, showed me some titles I was interested in, but Harley just sat there filing though books while his partner sucked on noodles.

[CAP Freak]

interesting.

Do you have pics of your pick-ups?

[joe_collector]

I'm sitting in a hotel room typing on a laptop - do the math.

[CAP Freak]

The Math

You + Motel 6 = 8?

[greggy]

I'm sitting in a hotel room typing on a laptop - do the math.

Hook up your digital camera, fool

[joe_collector]

I'm sitting in a hotel room typing on a laptop - do the math.

Hook up your digital camera, fool

 

Didn't bring one, nerd.

[greggy]

I'm sitting in a hotel room typing on a laptop - do the math.

Hook up your digital camera, fool

 

Didn't bring one, nerd.

Good enough,

[Monkeyman]

I arrived at the con about 16:00 and spent some time searching around like JC. I ended up finding the place without visiting every corner of the convention hall, but signage wasn't good.

 

I headed up the first aisle (about 4 four dealers per side with 3 or 4 tables each) and said hello to my LCS owner. Got to the end of the aisle and was surprised to find Wes Hagen (gccbco on eBay and the suject of a few threads on these boards) and his father Don (dodofive) at the show. They live about 7 hours drive from Montreal and this isn't a big show. As much as Wes is gruff via e-mail, he is a great guy in person. He had a bunch of boxes of NM and better late 70s and 80s books from a store inventory he bought. They were all at $2 and elbow room was at a premium. I saw numerous guys walk away with large stacks of books.

 

The artists row was along the back of the hall. I was surprised at the number of artists. Here is the list copied from a previous post:

 

RICH BUCKLER

MARK TEXEIRA (Ghost Rider, Wolverine artist & painter)

DALE EAGLESHAM (JSA artist)

SERGE LAPOINTE (Ultimate X-Men inker)

ERIC THERIAULT (Veena creator)

YANICK PAQUETTE (Ultimate X-Men penciller)

CLEMENT SAUVE (Pantheon City artist)

WESLEY CRAIG (Texas Chainsaw Massacre artist)

JOSE HOLDER

MR. SIRKOWSKI

 

Ruben Azcona of Comic Book Art Gallery, Montreal's only OA dealer, was there and I spent time speaking with him and his wife. I also got to see the Mel Rubi Red Sonja pages which were really nice (http://comicbookartgallery.safeshopper.com/73/cat73.htm?658). Maybe I'll pick one up sometime as I like uninked pencils when they are well done.

 

I didn't speak with any of the artists, but continued my tour of the four ailses of comic dealers. Most of the dealers had the same old stock I had already seen at previous shows and I'm not a big bin diver. I stopped by Bruno's tables and said hello, looked at some wall books and then spent some time looking through his boxes. I managed to find nice NM copies of Avengers 220, 237 and 238 to fill some holes in my run. Total purchase of $9 didn't make Bruno's day, but he told me he had already sold more than he had expected for the whole weekend. Either he was doing well or he had low expectations.

 

Harley only had two tables and not a lot of stock. I looked at a few books but didn't buy anything. I recently received a copy of Strange Tales #5 from a dealer who had graded it VF+, but I think it is VF-. Harley agreed with me on the grade and then we discussed whether I should send it back or not. He thought I should keep it because it is hard to find in grade and the price, although high for a VF-, wasn't outrageous. I'm still undecided.

 

I finished up back at Wes's booth. We discussed the ST 5 and he felt I should send it back on principle. I then went through all the books he had on the floor with his more expensive stuff. Here are the scans of what I bought:

 

 

VF/NM to NM- Avengers 39

 

 

 

NM Captain Marvel 30 upgrade to my existing copy

 

 

 

NM DD 109 upgrade

 

 

 

NM+ DD 116 (beautiful book)

 

 

 

NM or better Dr. Strange upgrade (Frank Brunner )

 

 

 

Three NM GS books

 

 

 

 

Total cost = $200 for a grade total of $209 for the show. It was a fun time, but three hours was about all I needed.

 

Mike

[dcy1]

great book , nice pickup im going tomorow i hope there gona still have good book to sell

[CAP Freak]

I arrived at the con about 16:00 and spent some time searching around like JC. I ended up finding the place without visiting every corner of the convention hall, but signage wasn't good.

 

I headed up the first aisle (about 4 four dealers per side with 3 or 4 tables each) and said hello to my LCS owner. Got to the end of the aisle and was surprised to find Wes Hagen (gccbco on eBay and the suject of a few threads on these boards) and his father Don (dodofive) at the show. They live about 7 hours drive from Montreal and this isn't a big show. As much as Wes is gruff via e-mail, he is a great guy in person. He had a bunch of boxes of NM and better late 70s and 80s books from a store inventory he bought. They were all at $2 and elbow room was at a premium. I saw numerous guys walk away with large stacks of books.

 

The artists row was along the back of the hall. I was surprised at the number of artists. Here is the list copied from a previous post:

 

RICH BUCKLER

MARK TEXEIRA (Ghost Rider, Wolverine artist & painter)

DALE EAGLESHAM (JSA artist)

SERGE LAPOINTE (Ultimate X-Men inker)

ERIC THERIAULT (Veena creator)

YANICK PAQUETTE (Ultimate X-Men penciller)

CLEMENT SAUVE (Pantheon City artist)

WESLEY CRAIG (Texas Chainsaw Massacre artist)

JOSE HOLDER

MR. SIRKOWSKI

 

Ruben Azcona of Comic Book Art Gallery, Montreal's only OA dealer, was there and I spent time speaking with him and his wife. I also got to see the Mel Rubi Red Sonja pages which were really nice (http://comicbookartgallery.safeshopper.com/73/cat73.htm?658). Maybe I'll pick one up sometime as I like uninked pencils when they are well done.

 

I didn't speak with any of the artists, but continued my tour of the four ailses of comic dealers. Most of the dealers had the same old stock I had already seen at previous shows and I'm not a big bin diver. I stopped by Bruno's tables and said hello, looked at some wall books and then spent some time looking through his boxes. I managed to find nice NM copies of Avengers 220, 237 and 238 to fill some holes in my run. Total purchase of $9 didn't make Bruno's day, but he told me he had already sold more than he had expected for the whole weekend. Either he was doing well or he had low expectations.

 

Harley only had two tables and not a lot of stock. I looked at a few books but didn't buy anything. I recently received a copy of Strange Tales #5 from a dealer who had graded it VF+, but I think it is VF-. Harley agreed with me on the grade and then we discussed whether I should send it back or not. He thought I should keep it because it is hard to find in grade and the price, although high for a VF-, wasn't outrageous. I'm still undecided.

 

I finished up back at Wes's booth. We discussed the ST 5 and he felt I should send it back on principle. I then went through all the books he had on the floor with his more expensive stuff. Here are the scans of what I bought:

 

 

VF/NM to NM- Avengers 39

 

 

 

NM Captain Marvel 30 upgrade to my existing copy

 

 

 

NM DD 109 upgrade

 

 

 

NM+ DD 116 (beautiful book)

 

 

 

NM or better Dr. Strange upgrade (Frank Brunner )

 

 

 

Three NM GS books

 

 

 

 

Total cost = $200 for a grade total of $209 for the show. It was a fun time, but three hours was about all I needed.

 

Mike

NIce Pickups! I liked the AVengers and DD

[joe_collector]

IHe had a bunch of boxes of NM and better late 70s and 80s books from a store inventory he bought. They were all at $2 and elbow room was at a premium. I saw numerous guys walk away with large stacks of books.

 

Yeah, if luggage spaces wasn't at a premium, I would have bought some of those, but nothing jumped out at me in a "gotta buy another carry-on" way,

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Just back from the show, and I gotta say these directions on the site are absolutely hilarious:

 

Take the metro (subway) to the PLACE-D'ARMES station, located under the Palais, and follow the signs.

 

, what signs? I literally had to search every nook and cranny until I saw a line of nerds at a small desk with Spider-man comics on it.

 

Pretty small show too - a bit smaller than the Ottawa shows even, with virtually no CGC books outside of the Civil War/Hot Modern Crepe. I did find a few nice books, 2 raw and one CGC, before my wife-imposed budget ran out.

 

Harley was there, and I have yet to find a person less interested in taking my money. Everyone else was friendly, showed me some titles I was interested in, but Harley just sat there filing though books while his partner sucked on noodles.

WARNING: Long rant/review

 

Well, I have to stand-up for the signs in the Palais, since I worked on the Palais signage several years ago, but there were NO signs FOR the show, which is why you had problems... What they meant on the site was follow the TV SCREENS, which clearly indicated where to go (they rotate through all of the current events being held in the Palais) . Say what you mean next time Mr. website promoter *sigh*. Promotion/organization IS the biggest problem of this local event...

 

I wonder if we met... I was near the entrace with the ugliest wall display in the history of comic book shows - . It didn't help that a member of the Palais staff came up to me AS people started filing in Saturday morning and told me I could NOT lean my display against the wall. Well, my display isn't designed to be free-standing, which is why I always ask for wallspace (gee I wish the promoter could have pointed this out to me since he was supposedly informed of this well before show day...).

 

Needless to say it was a disaster for me Saturday as my girlfriend and I (my Saturday helpers had to cancel at the last moment) had to take it down and try to reassemble it in a fashion allowing it to stand without it support. We managed to do this with customers swarming through our boxes as the doors opened, However, the shelves all had to be offset, and I lost valuable display space - I did manage so tell some CGC books on display, but I could have displayed another 15-20 books using the planned display set-up.

 

Anyways, enough about that.

 

As for the size, this is the largest in years, and it was larger than the Ottawa shows in terms of comic books. The Ottawa shows have more dealers, but nearly two-thirds sell sports cards and such, not comic books.

 

As I said above, the promotion of the Montreal cons is less than desirable, especially this last one. From a dealer's point of view it was VERY frustrating. My sales(and therefore profit) were less than the previous one day show. This can be attributed to the following: Tables prices more than doubled, and there were almost twice as many dealers, but attendance was not even doubled.... Heck, some LCS did not even have flyers... Some refuse to carry them (stupid in my mind since these stores don't even sell back issues, so what's the problem in helping promote???), but some stores do the con and still don't even receive flyers for the store. That's BAD promotion if you don't even promote in the stores willing to carry flyers...

 

I could go on forever...

 

The shows have room for growth though, but I think they might crash and burn before then if a better job is not done handling these. I for one will continue doing my bit to promote them wherever I can and I hope to meet some of you at them, but I will taking fewer tables until the crowds grow and/or the prices go down.

 

Another frustrating observation.

 

So many buyers of vintage material are clueless when it comes to grading and are therefore prime suckers for the "gross mark-up & discount tactic". Several of my customers dropped by my table with vintage ASMs, THORs, JIMs, etc... they were excited to show me because of the "awesome deals" they were given by several dealers, who will remain nameless (no name dropping - bad karma). Upon viewing the books I politely asked if they paid sticker price (which were GROSSLY marked-up (ie)ASM #28 in 2.0-2.5 priced at $260CDN!!!!!! - guides for $162USD in 4.0), and they said:"No, I got 40-50% of when I bought a bunch!". I was like:"Err, um, nice books, but um, what grade do you think they are, because um, er, I have nicer copies for less..."

 

These guys got big sticker discounts but still ended up paying guide or more... It's really annoying on 2 fronts: (1) These folks are on the path to disappointment as they learn they are being ripped off and will likely drop out of the hobby, thinking everyone is unethical, (2) I could use the sales lost to these dealers when you have the same books at MUCH better prices, and these guys swing by my table AFTER they've blown their budget already...

 

I'm not saying my grading and pricing are awesome, but I aim to be a strict grader (after a clueless beginning 5 years ago) and try to price fairly. Should I switch strategies? Put inflated prices on vintage books, without any mention of grade on them, and then put up big flashy 40-50% off signs???

 

As you can see this long rant is an expression of my frustration with certain aspects of our hobby. On the bright side, I did make some money, but only half of my target sales, and I did meet some nice new people and chatted with several of my friendly regular locals, including DaveG (I think that is his screen name) from the boards. I also went out to Chinatown for supper Saturday night with 2 local dealers whom I did not know well before then and we had a blast.

 

In terms of sales it was all over the place - nothing HOT these days... I think it's post CIVIL WAR hangover. ASMs from all eras were still moving. No extremely notable sales but I did sell an ASM #300 CGC 9.4, ASM vol.2 #36 9.2 raw, several hundred dollars of 5.0-7.0 $0.10/0.12 cover DELLs to a local chap, a run of WOLVERINE mini CGC 9.4-9.6, a few other WOLVERINE CGCs from vol.1, but that's about it. I had plenty of nice, new, SILVER AGE in my bins, but as I said lots of folks dropped the bucks on the "40-50% off" bins before swinging by my table...

 

I do admit, that my grading was off when I started several years ago, which probably tarnished my rep with some locals back in the day, but those who have stuck with me are VERY happy with my current grading. Now to get the word out there -

 

I'll post some pics/videos in the upcoming days (I am exhausted....).

 

Happy collecting and reading folks!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I headed up the first aisle (about 4 four dealers per side with 3 or 4 tables each) and said hello to my LCS owner. Got to the end of the aisle and was surprised to find Wes Hagen (gccbco on eBay and the suject of a few threads on these boards) and his father Don (dodofive) at the show. They live about 7 hours drive from Montreal and this isn't a big show. As much as Wes is gruff via e-mail, he is a great guy in person. He had a bunch of boxes of NM and better late 70s and 80s books from a store inventory he bought. They were all at $2 and elbow room was at a premium. I saw numerous guys walk away with large stacks of books.

He definitely had some great deals - better selection than he had in Toronto a few weeks before. We were looking at some of his raw Bronze Age keys for CGC consideration, particularly his IRON MAN #55 which was WHITE as snow!!!! It looked like a strict 9.4 from the front until I pointed out what looked like a rip of the top of the back cover. It was a clean half inch rip running straight down from the middle/top of the back cover. Wes Hagen thought it was a print defect, but we were reluctant to drop big bucks for a ripped copy to be slabbed so we passed, but it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

I wish I had known he was related to DODOFIVE....

[Monkeyman]

Well, I have to stand-up for the signs in the Palais, since I worked on the Palais signage several years ago, but there were NO signs FOR the show, which is why you had problems... What they meant on the site was follow the TV SCREENS, which clearly indicated where to go (they rotate through all of the current events being held in the Palais) . Say what you mean next time Mr. website promoter *sigh*. Promotion/organization IS the biggest problem of this local event...

 

You are right. Once I stopped looking for signs and noticed the TVs up on ceiling I found the room fairly quickly.

 

 

As I said above, the promotion of the Montreal cons is less than desirable, especially this last one.

 

I actually received an e-mail this time around, which is more than usual.

 

 

So many buyers of vintage material are clueless when it comes to grading and are therefore prime suckers for the "gross mark-up & discount tactic". Several of my customers dropped by my table with vintage ASMs, THORs, JIMs, etc... they were excited to show me because of the "awesome deals" they were given by several dealers, who will remain nameless (no name dropping - bad karma). Upon viewing the books I politely asked if they paid sticker price (which were GROSSLY marked-up (ie)ASM #28 in 2.0-2.5 priced at $260CDN!!!!!! - guides for $162USD in 4.0), and they said:"No, I got 40-50% of when I bought a bunch!". I was like:"Err, um, nice books, but um, what grade do you think they are, because um, er, I have nicer copies for less..."

 

This is par for the course. I have never spent my entire budget at a con. After walking by walls and walls of the same stuff, all over priced, I lose my interest and often just leave (this isn't just at Montreal cons). I spent $200 this time around and only because Wes was there. At the last Montreal con I only bought one book. Even in Toronto and New York earlier this year I hardly bought anything. I now look at cons as a way of meeting people and keeping in contact with friends. More of a social thing than a buying trip.

 

Mike

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

 

This is par for the course. I have never spent my entire budget at a con. After walking by walls and walls of the same stuff, all over priced, I lose my interest and often just leave (this isn't just at Montreal cons). I spent $200 this time around and only because Wes was there. At the last Montreal con I only bought one book. Even in Toronto and New York earlier this year I hardly bought anything. I now look at cons as a way of meeting people and keeping in contact with friends. More of a social thing than a buying trip.

 

Mike

I know it's like that everyhwere. I just reached my frustration limit this week-end. I'm tired of competing with some of the "big guys" at the cons who do this mark-up/then discount thing and simply drown out the smaller fish like myself with their huge set-ups, flashy signage and slick talk.

 

Do take the time in the future to stop by the smaller booths and take a look at what they have to offer. You never know what they might have tucked away in a box behind the tables or in the bins. I for one might not have what you are looking for on any given day, but do ask in the future. At the very least I'll get to know what you like and I'll gladly contact you for 1st dibs if I ever pick-up items you might be interested in - that's how I function.

 

I'm a big yacker, and I LOVE to talk about comics so feel free to visit my booth.

 

 

[osborn_fr]

I wish I had known he was related to DODOFIVE....

 

You should have asked me.

They both *spoon* me money on eBay.

[Monkeyman]

I wish I had known he was related to DODOFIVE....

 

You should have asked me.

They both *spoon* me money on eBay.

 

Sometimes I think that there are two Weses. Wes #1, who I deal with, grades well and ships quickly. I have bought 100s of books from him without any problems (both gccbco and dodofive). There also seems to be Wes #2 who has received many complaints on these boards.

 

Mike