Wizard World Austin -- October 2-4, 2014

[Meeklo]

I'm not going in the show but I'll stop by and get pictures with Kraven outside the Convention Center. It will be mid-day Friday if anyone is interested in getting pictures with him!

[Trev]

anybody attend today? thoughts on the show?

 

I'm going to try and go tomorrow afternoon with my 2 yr old for an hour or so, then will spend some time saturday afternoon doing the bulk of my shopping.

 

i had no choice other than to buy a 3 day pass, but looking forward to checking out artists alley and hoping to see at least some dealers.

[kaholo1256]

Can anyone help a U.K. brutha out?

 

I can't attend the show, but I'd really like a copy of the Captain America #25 Austin Comic Con Exclusive Variant Cover by Julian Totino Tedesco.

 

I will naturally recompense anyone for their time and trouble, plus shipping costs; if they can help me out. Please feel free to PM me

 

 

Gotcha covered. Raw or graded?

[SteveoSupremeo]

anybody attend today? thoughts on the show?

 

I'm going to try and go tomorrow afternoon with my 2 yr old for an hour or so, then will spend some time saturday afternoon doing the bulk of my shopping.

 

i had no choice other than to buy a 3 day pass, but looking forward to checking out artists alley and hoping to see at least some dealers.

 

 

Kinda boring/dead on Thursday.

 

Anyone wanting to go use coupon ATXBLOGS at checkout. It's good towards a single or 3 day pass.

 

 

[SteveoSupremeo]

Can anyone help a U.K. brutha out?

 

I can't attend the show, but I'd really like a copy of the Captain America #25 Austin Comic Con Exclusive Variant Cover by Julian Totino Tedesco.

 

I will naturally recompense anyone for their time and trouble, plus shipping costs; if they can help me out. Please feel free to PM me

 

 

Gotcha covered. Raw or graded?

 

I will also help with this.

[loadstone]

anybody attend today? thoughts on the show?

 

I'm going to try and go tomorrow afternoon with my 2 yr old for an hour or so, then will spend some time saturday afternoon doing the bulk of my shopping.

 

i had no choice other than to buy a 3 day pass, but looking forward to checking out artists alley and hoping to see at least some dealers.

 

I'm really sorry you had to buy a 3 day pass if you are looking to buy comics. If you are going to get autographs and photos or want to win a fake vacation to las Vegas in exchange for your personal information and 1.5 hours at a time share seminar you won't be disappointed.

 

I just finished up there. I hung out more with Michael Rooker and Neal Adams than I did buying comics. There was a total of 7, yes, 7 comic related booths and really only 5 had any kind of a selection. I spent about $56 on 4 comics and $160 on a photo op and autographs with michael rooker. The hall was dead otherwise. Easy to move around, plenty of unused space so I hope tomorrow has more dealers because if I didn't know better it looked more like a prop and timeshare convention. There wer 3 booths dedicated to timeshares!

 

Another bit of advice, go to the ATM BEFORE you enter the convention and pull out all you think you will need and then add $100 on top. All the autograph and photo ops are cash only and the bank of conveniently located ATMs only allow you to withdraw $100 max at a time and the transaction fee is $4.99 each. That's 5%+ each time you need to pull out money! One of the comic dealers doesn't have a square swipe but will accept a PayPal if you can do that on your phone.

 

Another bit of advice. Avoid the FREE MOVIE TICKETS booth, they are just a ploy to get your info, so put fake info, and then they hand you a scratch and win card which are probably all winners because the fine print in the back clearly states the prize redemption requires mandatory attendance to a timeshare seminar. So naturally I won and tossed it.

 

Im not too upset as I got my tix for free (won the capstone drawing) and didn't even know the show was this weekend. I was in town for work and heard it on the radio. I have to leave for home tomorrow. Wish I could give someone the rest of my 3 day pass but its a wrist band they force you to wear for all 3 days. It's void if you take it off. I'll post pix tonight. I'm off to 6th st to booze it up and blow the money I couldn't spend at the con.

[SteveoSupremeo]

I can confirm the lack of vendors.

 

Anyone know where the best place to park is at?

[loadstone]

k, here are the photos as promised. Sort of a con report. I'll let the pics speak for themselves:

 

ok maybe some titles:

 

Comic Dealer #1

 

Comic Dealer #2

 

Comic Dealer #3

 

Comic Dealer #4

 

Neal at Capstone Comics

 

Cosplayers

 

 

 

 

Timeshare booth #1

 

Timeshare booth #2

 

Timeshare booth #3 in the distance

 

You know its a slow day at a con when the concessions are empty

 

Artist Alley taking up half the floor

 

That's it folks!

 

 

[Monster's Lair Comics]

wow, looks empty........ Hopefully for the dealers sake, it gets busier Friday and Saturday.

[mysterio]

What time of day did you take the photos? It looks like a slow day at the concessions and every place else too.

[Trev]

I can confirm the lack of vendors.

 

Anyone know where the best place to park is at?

 

There's a garage at 4th and Red River that is really convenient and is usually my first choice.

 

Another good garage is on Brazos I think between 3rd and 4th. That garage allows in and out privileges. Both are a very easy walk to the Convention Center and relatively near the part of the center that Wizard usually occupies.

[Trev]

anybody attend today? thoughts on the show?

 

I'm going to try and go tomorrow afternoon with my 2 yr old for an hour or so, then will spend some time saturday afternoon doing the bulk of my shopping.

 

i had no choice other than to buy a 3 day pass, but looking forward to checking out artists alley and hoping to see at least some dealers.

 

I'm really sorry you had to buy a 3 day pass if you are looking to buy comics. If you are going to get autographs and photos or want to win a fake vacation to las Vegas in exchange for your personal information and 1.5 hours at a time share seminar you won't be disappointed.

 

I just finished up there. I hung out more with Michael Rooker and Neal Adams than I did buying comics. There was a total of 7, yes, 7 comic related booths and really only 5 had any kind of a selection. I spent about $56 on 4 comics and $160 on a photo op and autographs with michael rooker. The hall was dead otherwise. Easy to move around, plenty of unused space so I hope tomorrow has more dealers because if I didn't know better it looked more like a prop and timeshare convention. There wer 3 booths dedicated to timeshares!

 

Another bit of advice, go to the ATM BEFORE you enter the convention and pull out all you think you will need and then add $100 on top. All the autograph and photo ops are cash only and the bank of conveniently located ATMs only allow you to withdraw $100 max at a time and the transaction fee is $4.99 each. That's 5%+ each time you need to pull out money! One of the comic dealers doesn't have a square swipe but will accept a PayPal if you can do that on your phone.

 

Another bit of advice. Avoid the FREE MOVIE TICKETS booth, they are just a ploy to get your info, so put fake info, and then they hand you a scratch and win card which are probably all winners because the fine print in the back clearly states the prize redemption requires mandatory attendance to a timeshare seminar. So naturally I won and tossed it.

 

Im not too upset as I got my tix for free (won the capstone drawing) and didn't even know the show was this weekend. I was in town for work and heard it on the radio. I have to leave for home tomorrow. Wish I could give someone the rest of my 3 day pass but its a wrist band they force you to wear for all 3 days. It's void if you take it off. I'll post pix tonight. I'm off to 6th st to booze it up and blow the money I couldn't spend at the con.

 

Sounds worse than some of the smaller local shows and particularly Capital City Con. These tix cost me about 50% of what 4 day plus preview cost me at SDCC -- something tells it won't deliver 50% of that con.

 

I've been thinking about the thurs-sat thing and i can only guess that they got a great deal on the center due to ACL and that Wizard moving to thurs-sat meant that they could offer their "media" guests an extra day of hotel and tell them they could attend ACL in the evenings and on Sunday and basically get a free trip -- or tell them they could attend ACL for the cost of 1 night hotel even. Then they might attract more guests or better draws. If they tried that it seems to have backfired. I will test that theory in discussions with some of the guests.

[SteveoSupremeo]

Coupon code ATXBLOGS is no longer valid

[RCheli]

Wow...

 

Either the five comic dealers will do great because there is no competition, or they'll tank because nobody is going to go.

 

Starting a show on Thursday was ridiculous. If you can't get the convention center on Sunday, then just make it a two day show.

[loadstone]

What time of day did you take the photos? It looks like a slow day at the concessions and every place else too.

 

It was later in the day. I think I took most of those between 7 and 8pm. It closed at 8pm and I got there at 5:30pm and there were less people when I got there. More of the cosplayers showed up as I was leaving at 8:15pm. They left the hall open about a half hour beyond the closing time as people were still getting there at 7:30. The ticket booths were empty so it was a good day to pick up your tix and hit all the dealers.

 

today you can knock out all your photo ops and autographs. I'm sure today it'll be much busier than yesterday and I'm hoping for everyone else's sake that wants to shop for comics today that all the other dealers that had planned for a Friday-Sunday show will show up today and tomorrow.

 

The cuties from CGC are there but no onsite grading.

 

The ticket booth clerk said they'll open the booths starting at noon if you want to go early to pick up your tix. Doors open at 2pm for non-VIP. The Con exclusive is only available to guests with VIP tix which start at $200 and go up. Those passes also come with a photo op and/or autograph with an assigned celebrity.

 

Good luck to everyone going this weekend. It's a beautiful day outside but I've got to spend the rest of it on a plane.

[mysterio]

Wow...

 

Either the five comic dealers will do great because there is no competition, or they'll tank because nobody is going to go.

 

Starting a show on Thursday was ridiculous. If you can't get the convention center on Sunday, then just make it a two day show.

 

Yeah, this is really unfortunate for the dealers who shelled out to be there. The Dealer #2 in the photos is Black Cat Comics (Boyd) and he always has great stuff. I didn't recognize any of the others, but at least two of those looked like they were stocking predominantly new stuff. I'm not sad I didn't make the trip down for that, and it makes me question a commitment for next year's Austin show if this is what it has become, since that is also currently scheduled as a Thursday-Saturday. It has been one of my favorite shows of the year the past 3-4 years.

[ShawnDeath]

Wizard Worlds.......eventually the comic dealers will be replaced by Stock Tip services and life insurance booths!

[SteveoSupremeo]

I was thinking about going today; but all this overfilled $20 parking is mess. The construction only makes matters worse.

[SteveoSupremeo]

Having the event at the Austin Convention Center is overkill

[Meeklo]

They are all expensive because of ACL. If I lived downtown still, I'd let you borrow one of my spots I had.

 

Try the parking under I-35 at 6th and 7th. It may be a walk, but it will be cheap.

 

Also try parking near the capitol building and walking or bus to the convention center.