Foolkiller San Diego Con Report

[Foolkiller]

If I really wanted to sum it up, I'd just say, bats--t crazy.

 

I'll do a full blown report later, but honestly, it's crazy, just crazy. There's lots of cool stuff to see (but you need to wait in massive lines, and then most likely you can just read about it on someone's twitter, facebook or other internet thing later).

 

Coolest thing I heard about in a panel was that because Wallowitz from Big Bang is going into space, they gave away a trip into space to one of the attendees. 10 people asked questions, those were given bags, and one of the bags had a golden ticket, that person went to space. THAT's a giveaway.

 

The Hasbro and Lego exclusives were nuts. Line up early in the morning to get a ticket to line up again early, to get the right to buy a bunch of exclusives that may be there. At the end of Friday though, they just gave you a ticket and there was no line. The only downside was, 4 or 5 of the exclusives were sold out. The X-Force Marvel Legends, My Little Pony, a GI Joe variant figure, the Bruticus Transformer and something else were sold out. I bought everything else (including the Hellcarrier) but Hotflips really wanted them so I just them have mine. I did keep some of the toys and they gave me one of their X-Force Marvel Legends, which was cool.

 

As for the comics... no new crazy books. No great deals to be had. There were, however, an insane number of high quality books. Bunky had tons of great books. Jamie Graham brought an insane number of keys. Terry O'Neil had some amazing books. Bob Storms brought a great selection. Filter81 (Adam) had one of the best displays. Gator had some nice books too. Metro had unbelievable books. So did Verzyl -- but... most were priced aggressive and I don't blame them as a lot of high dollar books sold. Ritter had a great display and it's always one of my favorites. He and Matt do a tremendous job.

 

I will do more in depth on the market side, here's what I bought:

 

AF 15 CGC 5.5 (Filter 81)

Cap Comics 29 CGC 8.0 (Bunky)

FF 12 CGC 9.0 (Bob Storms)

Daredevil 1 CGC 9.0 (Ritter)

Mystery in Space 75 CGC 9.4 (all MIS from Ritter)

Mystery in Space 66 CGC 9.6

Mystery in Space 73 CGC 9.2

Mystery in Space 78 CGC 9.4

Detective Comics 140 CGC 5.0 (great deal from collector Chris Swartz)

 

FF 18 (raw Brian Peets)

Random raw from several other dealers, but nothing note worthy.

[thirdgreenham]

I wouldn't mind going into space.

[oakman29]

[excelsior1986]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

[Waylander]

 

 

+1

 

[Bookery]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

 

Nothing new here. Jackie Gleason used to offer lunar voyages as early as the 1950s.

 

 

[revat]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

 

Nothing new here. Jackie Gleason used to offer lunar voyages as early as the 1950s.

 

 

But those trips were exclusively for people named Alice.

[tth2]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

 

Nothing new here. Jackie Gleason used to offer lunar voyages as early as the 1950s.

 

 

But those trips were exclusively for people named Alice.

 

Can you imagine if a modern TV show featured a husband regularly threatening to hit his wife?

[Trev]

If I really wanted to sum it up, I'd just say, bats--t crazy.

 

I'll do a full blown report later, but honestly, it's crazy, just crazy. There's lots of cool stuff to see (but you need to wait in massive lines, and then most likely you can just read about it on someone's twitter, facebook or other internet thing later).

 

 

As for the comics... no new crazy books. No great deals to be had. There were, however, an insane number of high quality books. Bunky had tons of great books. Jamie Graham brought an insane number of keys. Terry O'Neil had some amazing books. Bob Storms brought a great selection. Filter81 (Adam) had one of the best displays. Gator had some nice books too. Metro had unbelievable books. So did Verzyl -- but... most were priced aggressive and I don't blame them as a lot of high dollar books sold. Ritter had a great display and it's always one of my favorites. He and Matt do a tremendous job.

 

I will do more in depth on the market side, here's what I bought:

 

.

 

This was the most interesting thing to me in the dealer area. If I were to use the Vegas analogy sdcc more and more is geared toward high rollers and penny slot players. There isn't much for guys who like the $5-10 tables.

 

What I mean is that, as a mid-grade silver collector there was very little in the way of deals. Most guys are focused on bigger sales and visiting with other dealers. That's ok I guess but it pushes a guy like me who might only spend a couple thousand dollars for the show into auctions rather than buying directly from a dealer.

 

I didn't do any real buying until Sunday even though I spent time in the dealer area every day.

 

I did buy some nice books from Ted at Superworld, who was great to deal with and fun to talk to, but it was disappointing how few good deals were out there.

 

SDCC is becoming the con of art, creators, sdcc variants, and panels for me. Very little in comics and I think that is sad. Comics used to the biggest draw for me.

[Dr. Balls]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

 

Nothing new here. Jackie Gleason used to offer lunar voyages as early as the 1950s.

 

 

But those trips were exclusively for people named Alice.

 

Can you imagine if a modern TV show featured a husband regularly threatening to hit his wife?

 

Yeah, modern day shows would be more like:

 

"One of these days... Pow! We're going to family counseling and I'm really going to let them know what my deep, dark, innermost personality conflicts with you are and boy, we're going to get them resolved in a mature, respectful manner!"

 

[sckao]

 

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

[Bookery]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

That's pretty much why I quit doing shows a few years back. I sell every last significant book I get in right from my store. Sure, I sell them a good bit cheaper than I could get for them at shows, but without all of that show expense I still come out ahead, as far as I'm concerned. It also keeps lots of traffic coming through the shop, where I can display tens of thousands of more items than I could at a show. Of course, a lot of my sales are to dealers who DO set up at shows... so I'm always hoping the shows do very well for them, so that they'll come back and re-stock!

 

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

How much do dealers look at doing big shows like San Diego as a way of expanding their customer base?

[revat]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

How much do dealers look at doing big shows like San Diego as a way of expanding their customer base?

 

Good question! and/or expanding their supply base. (and other networks).

[adamstrange]

Wow, A trip into space? That would be better than hitting the mega millions.

 

Nothing new here. Jackie Gleason used to offer lunar voyages as early as the 1950s.

 

 

But those trips were exclusively for people named Alice.

 

Can you imagine if a modern TV show featured a husband regularly threatening to hit his wife?

 

Yes. It's "Law and Order"

[Primetime]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

How much do dealers look at doing big shows like San Diego as a way of expanding their customer base?

Most east coast dealers like Bob Storms have that business approach. They may not break even (*gulp*) or make a tad over costs of the trip, but meeting new customers in person would bring return business to them in the future via mail order/internet

[MisterX]

That's pretty much why I quit doing shows a few years back. I sell every last significant book I get in right from my store. Sure, I sell them a good bit cheaper than I could get for them at shows, but without all of that show expense I still come out ahead, as far as I'm concerned. It also keeps lots of traffic coming through the shop, where I can display tens of thousands of more items than I could at a show. Of course, a lot of my sales are to dealers who DO set up at shows... so I'm always hoping the shows do very well for them, so that they'll come back and re-stock!

 

But...but...Pulpfest is practically in your backyard, right?

[Anfield Fox]

I'll do a full blown report later

 

[VintageComics]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

The costs are staggering. SD was the one show that I genuinely believed I would never even see when I was growing up.

 

I had a 10x10 booth and with flights, hotels, racks, showcases, booth, etc we were in excess of $10,000-$15,000 in costs and that does not include acquiring all year for the show or selling a single book.

 

It's actually disheartening.

 

San Diego Comic Con is ironically squeezing out the comics.

 

Dealers are slowly and quietly either dropping out or downsizing every year. I spoke to a major dealer who has had a long time, large presence at SD with an entire aisle of booths (I think it was 4 or 5). They are dropping a booth. Last year Terry dropped a booth. Unfortunately, the crowds, the costs, the distance all work against someone selling comics unless you are bringing "A game" inventory.

 

If I was a big money buyer with a limited amount of time, I'd just want to rush in the door buy what I am looking for in the SA/GA pavilion and rush out the door. The rest of the room is just a hassle for a comic collector who is just looking for comics.

 

Having said that it is a mind blowing experience. It's like nothing media related that you will ever see again. It's a vacation full of comic related themes, it's a week long party, it's a vibrant driver for the city economy...it's as fun as fun can be.

 

Just ask the frigging Belgian.

 

Unfortunately, I can see the writing on the wall and there is going to need to be another big comic show to take over what San Diego used to be.

 

New York seems to be filling that gap for both sellers and buyers.

 

WW Chicago is a viable alternative as well - fun as heck and more books than you can ever see in a week.

 

So to me the bottom line is if you want something for the bucket list that is a good time, SD is the place to go. It's a week to be cherished for the rest of your life.

 

Guys like Bob Storms and Harley will continue to do well at SD because the continue to bring inventory that runs the gamut and knock your socks off. I'm amazed at the efforts that some of these guys put in for the show. It's definitely worthy of a

 

Us little guys will continue to be like little kids, walking by a store window with a little bit of pocket change....dreaming of what we might be able to afford.

 

Tup? Let's go check out Europe and see how they handle us.

 

[Anfield Fox]

The average cost to do Comic-Con is probably at least $4-5,000 from a dealer perspective. This is for just ONE tiny 10x10 booth ($2500 or $1700 if you reserved it a year in advance for 2012.) Not many dealers can make it on one booth as there simply isn't enough room.

 

So for a barebones dealer, $1,700 for a booth or $2,500 if they're last minute.

Six day hotel stay $1,200 at $200/day. ( Tuesday - Monday morning checkout generally... Sunday night if you are extremely organized and can check out on time).

Truck rental for a week plus mileage or freight charges? (Could be over $1000.)

Six days parking for your truck - $100

Food/drinks for a week ($300-500.00)

Paid or volunteer Help (You can't run a booth alone.)

Misc. Expenses.

 

So how much do you think an average dealer makes on a 10x10 booth? I've heard from $5k to 10k in GROSS SALES per booth generally.

 

If you start Comic-Con with $5000 in sunk costs, you'd need to sell a lot of comics to make up the difference. (Assuming you're even getting a markup of 100% on your comic stock... which is probably extreme.) So you'd need to sell $10,000 in comics just to break even.

 

Average a Markup of 50% and you'd need to sell over $15,000 to break even.

 

That's pretty hard to do even at Comic-Con without amazing rack books.

 

 

 

 

The costs are staggering. SD was the one show that I genuinely believed I would never even see when I was growing up.

 

I had a 10x10 booth and with flights, hotels, racks, showcases, booth, etc we were in excess of $10,000-$15,000 in costs and that does not include acquiring all year for the show or selling a single book.

 

It's actually disheartening.

 

San Diego Comic Con is ironically squeezing out the comics.

 

Dealers are slowly and quietly either dropping out or downsizing every year. I spoke to a major dealer who has had a long time, large presence at SD with an entire aisle of booths (I think it was 4 or 5). They are dropping a booth. Last year Terry dropped a booth. Unfortunately, the crowds, the costs, the distance all work against someone selling comics unless you are bringing "A game" inventory.

 

If I was a big money buyer with a limited amount of time, I'd just want to rush in the door buy what I am looking for in the SA/GA pavilion and rush out the door. The rest of the room is just a hassle for a comic collector who is just looking for comics.

 

Having said that it is a mind blowing experience. It's like nothing media related that you will ever see again. It's a vacation full of comic related themes, it's a week long party, it's a vibrant driver for the city economy...it's as fun as fun can be.

 

Just ask the frigging Belgian.

 

Unfortunately, I can see the writing on the wall and there is going to need to be another big comic show to take over what San Diego used to be.

 

New York seems to be filling that gap for both sellers and buyers.

 

WW Chicago is a viable alternative as well - fun as heck and more books than you can ever see in a week.

 

So to me the bottom line is if you want something for the bucket list that is a good time, SD is the place to go. It's a week to be cherished for the rest of your life.

 

Guys like Bob Storms and Harley will continue to do well at SD because the continue to bring inventory that runs the gamut and knock your socks off. I'm amazed at the efforts that some of these guys put in for the show. It's definitely worthy of a

 

Us little guys will continue to be like little kids, walking by a store window with a little bit of pocket change....dreaming of what we might be able to afford.

 

Tup? Let's go check out Europe and see how they handle us.

 

 

Did you have a good time? Where is the con report?

 

Saw a picture of you at a dinner looking dashingly handsome