Montreal Comicon - September 6-7

[Monkeyman]

This is your quintessential small, local con with some pretty good guests. A few dealers from Toronto and Harley Yee to boot.

 

 

Place Bonaventure

800, de la Gauchetière Street West

Montreal (Quebec) H5A 1K6

 

Saturday / Samedi- 11am / 7pm

Sunday / Dimanche - 11am / 5pm

 

Admission fee / Frais D'entree : 5$

 

 

Guests

 

CARY NORD

HERB TRIMPE

HOWARD CHAYKIN

MARK TEXEIRA - TBC

 

CAMERON STEWART

CLEMENT SAUVE

DALE EAGLESHAM

DALE HAYWARD

ERIC THERIAULT

JOSE HOLDER

J.TORRES

KARL KERLSCH

KATE BRADLEY aka RED

SERGE LAPOINTE

SIRKOWSKI

TOM FOWLER

WES CRAIG

 

 

Exhibitors

 

1 000 000 COMIX

ANGELO'S COMICS

BRUNO MAZZAFERRO

COLLECTIBLE HEROES

COMIC AGE

HARLEY YEE RARE COMICS

MARC THE COMIC HUNTER

MYTHS, LEGENDS & HEROES

PARADISE COMICS

REGGIE'S COMICS

WES HAGEN

 

[VintageComics]

Mike, Lou and I are thinking of coming down.

 

R.

 

 

[Monkeyman]

Mike, Lou and I are thinking of coming down.

 

R.

 

 

Maybe we can grab some dinner Saturday night with Wes.

 

Mike

[Monkeyman]

According to Chuck's latest newsletter he will be at the con. I'm looking forward to meeting him after reading his letters for so many years.

 

Mike

[VintageComics]

Mike, Lou and I are thinking of coming down.

 

R.

 

 

Maybe we can grab some dinner Saturday night with Wes.

 

Mike

 

This might be a no go for us...as we refuse to eat at the same table as Wes.

 

 

Seriously, this summer has just been too busy and I need a weekend off...though we are about 1.5 years past due for a visit to Montreal. I also want to make Baltimore and Mid-Ohio so too much on my plate this year. If we do, it'll be a spontaneous trip with little comic buying in mind and more having a good time on the town. We'll see.

 

Which other dealers can I expect to see besides 1 MIL comix and Bruno?

Dit. Never mind, just saw the list.

 

R.

 

[juggernaut]

I really wanted to go but I got to work this weekend.

[Monkeyman]

I spent the afternoon at the con. I'm guessing that Davidpg was there from his thread in the General Forum, but I didn't meet any Board members (not too many of us in Montreal I guess). Here are a couple of pics of the floor as I walked in:

 

Left

 

Straight Ahead

 

There was also a little to the right. Not a big show, but the biggest I have been to in Montreal. They were expecting 1,000 to 2,000 people over two afternoons. One dealer told me that he thought too many tables had been sold for the number of attendees (good for buyers).

 

I bought three books from Harley (sorry for the bad pic).

 

I'm told that Gary Dolgoff had been there earlier doing some buying, but I didn't see him. The highlight of the day was meeting Chuck after reading his newsletter for 10 years (also got to meet his wife). Both were very nice for the few minutes we talked.

 

Bruno Mazzaferro (left), a Montreal dealer, was also there. He does a lot of shows in the US and some of you probably recognize him.

 

Graham Crackers was also at the show. It's the first time I've seen them in Montreal. Bad timing on Ortiz's part.

 

Here is my LCS dealer Lee on the left. He brought mostly trades, but had some super nice mags. If anyone is interested let me know.

 

Finally, the topic of much discussion on the Borads...............Wes Hagen (dodofive & gccbco on eBay). That's him in the centre with a couple of local collectors.

 

Next up will be a few pics from Artists Alley and then a few of my purchases once I've scanned them.

 

Mike

[Monkeyman]

This year was the best selection of artists ever at a Montreal con. Actually, anything more than zero would have been the best (a little exageration, but not by a lot).

 

This shot is of one half of Artists Alley.

 

Also saw the only guy in costum at the show. I don't think that he will be winning any prizes, even if he is the only one.

 

Herbe Trimp (left) and Howard Chaykin (right)

 

Cardy Nord was also there doing sketches. Really nice guy from Calgary.

[Monkeyman]

Three books I bought from Harley:

 

 

 

[Monkeyman]

The rest of the books I purchased were from Wes. Only one DC, for my BA Giants collection:

 

[Monkeyman]

A couple for my Conan run:

 

 

[Monkeyman]

I mostly focused on books for my picture frame collection as Wes had some great, hard to find ones:

 

 

 

 

[Monkeyman]

 

 

[Monkeyman]

All in all a pretty well spent Saturday afternoon. I was very happy with my purchases and enjoyed speaking with the other attendees. The Montreal shows seem to be moving in the right direction and I hope they keep going that way. Maybe some day collectors will come in from out of town for them (not holding my breath on this one).

 

Finally, here is my favorite purchase of the day. Fills both a hole in my picture frame and BA Giant collections.

 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Mike

[HOTFLIPS]

Great report!! Thanks for sharing!!

[Jason Truong]

Kinda wish I was there. Would've had great access to the guests.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I too stopped by (Sunday). Sadly, I didn't spend a thing.... Heck, a dealer even gave me a free book!

 

I went looking for 3 books - AF #15, FF #1, and X-MEN #1 in CGC 2.5 and lower grades. The US dealers had several of all, except AF #15, and most were raw. SIDE NOTE: I refuse to purchase "expensive" raw books for all kinds of reasons so I took a look at the few CGC copies available, and I must say I was blown away by the mark-ups!!!!

 

I won't specify the who and what, but I did consider one copy in that range. What happened was interesting. I'm a GPANALYSIS.com (GPA) subscriber and I consider myself a cautious shopper so I asked the dealer if there was any wi-fi in the hall so I could view the sales history on my iPod. Sadly there was none available, and the dealer looked somewhat baffled when I explained why I wanted web access. I'm not sure if it was a case of feigning ignorance about GPANALYSIS or if he was aware of the site and felt threatened by access to such a useful tool but he seemed somewhat bothered by it.

 

Well, I passed on it due to the lack of info and took a looksee on GPA when I got home. As it turned out, the book in question was sold in Sept. for just under $1K, and voila, here it is at the show with a mark-up in excess of $600!!! Remember, we're talking about a 3.0 or lower copy of X-MEN #1/FF #1. According to GPA, I could get a copy up to 2-3 points higher grade based upon average sales.

 

I think I'll stick to Ebay/boards for buying key books. Some dealers are going to have to realize that we are moving towards an information society and more and more people will have this sort of info at their disposal, and hence refuse to meet their asking price.

 

Other than that it was dumping ground on Sunday for decent books from the last 30 years guided at $10 and less. Boxes of $1 and $0.50 Bronze/Copper were plentiful in some places, while at the other end of the spectrum the "good" books were overpriced (and often lacking a grade on the book...). And then there are certain dealers whose stock NEVER seems to turn over because they refuse to discount or get with the times... Man, why do they bother considering the cost of setting up shop for the week-end?

 

There didn't seem to be too many folks on Sunday, and it was all of the usual suspects milling around, which is fine by me, since many are friends and acquaintances. I doubt they hit the 800-1,000 range as someone said they expected. Who knows, perhaps it was a madhouse on the Saturday...

 

The event still needs more marketing/advertising. Good to see it "grow" though. It REALLY could use some out of town collector support!!! So show your love and come to MONTREAL gang!