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NYC National report from me coming....

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...with pictures. By mid week. I'll add the full report to this thread.

 

In the meantime I wanted to thank everyone who stopped by. I had hoped to meet more of you, but I was a little hard to find. The place was layed out a bit hap-hazard (to say the least) and I didn't have any glitzy banners in my tiny postage stamp 8'x10' space. My Valiant jacket got some attention, but not as much as I would have hoped.

 

I can say that many who bought from me were pleased, and more than a dozen conventioneers slapped their heads is disgust as they looked at my prices for books they had already purchased in grade.

 

Overall, I did very well. I believe I sold over 800 books. Market report: two words;

 

MARVEL BRONZE

 

My goodness, I should have left my DCs at home, although I did make about 5 people happy by having them...

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Is there no end to promoters greed stuffing rooms for booth fees?

 

Yeah! Screw them greedy promoters! Wait a second... foreheadslap.gif

 

The Big Apple shows have always been chaos, but if dealers didn't think they could make money at their shows they wouldn't put up with being shoved into weird spaces. Plus, NYC doesn't have many big venue spaces available, so they use what they can find and make FULL use of it.

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errr, actually I dont think anyone signed up expecting to be shoved into corners, dead ends, nooks, crannies and other areas that had zero traffic. As for NY in particular , for a city of 10 Million + people to draw the crowd they had is hard to figure

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Attendance for the National was one of the best its ever had. Carbonaro was running around afterwards trying to jack dealers on the next show's table prices.

 

Some dealers had amazing shows (Ted VanLiew, Gary Platt) others just did ok.

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Well, I have to agree that it was acceptable, but I thought attendance overall was on the light side, given the guest list and the possiblities of having a big shindig like that in NYC.

 

The dealers next to me, who came down from Canada, likely lost money or just broke even. They did pretty darn poorly, and I witnessed it. I heard from a few others that they were in the red.

 

I did really, really well and I'm not complaining at all, just giving an opinion.

 

Glad to hear Teddy VL did well. He was so busy he didn't get a chance to paw through my stuff. Every time he came over I was swamped, so he kept waiting for another chance, and just never got one.

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These dealer shouldn't have jack the prices then. I spoke with those Canadian dealers and they had alot of nice stuff I was interested in with reasonable to high prices and were very nice. I asked if they had a card ( so I could contact them afterwards when I had more money perhaps) and he just said "Oh no, we're from Canada"...

 

One of the worst examples of overpricing was this one dealer that had multiple raw copies of New Teen Titans #2 (was looking to upgrade). I asked the price and he said $60.00!?!?! Now this guides for under $10! He saw my eyes bulge out and then said it was MINT (say it slowly), and then followed to say it probably WONT slab at 9.6 or 9.4... but it's MINT (say it slowly). How many copies do you want?

 

Yeah right....

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Listen, most of the dealers I spoke to who did real well at the show did well because they were pricing raw books in the realm of sanity. Those who complained generally were out of touch with the price structuring.

 

Ted has been aggressive as of late with his pricing on raw BUT the guy is ALWAYS willing to cut a deal, so you're getting some real nice stuff at reasonable prices.

 

Joe Verenault got swamped before the show even started and made some huge sales.

 

Gary Platt sold tons of high grade raw stuff, but it was 9.2 or 9.4, and didn't ask the stars for it.

 

There are certainly some dealers out there who are pricing their raw out of the realm of reason right now, hoping that people will take the gamble. I don't mind paying above guide or guide for true 9.0 or 9.2 stuff raw. What I will NOT pay for is crazy prices on common books (i.e. the Titans #2 example) that aren't even priced in the realm of reason. This is problem with the dealer, not the show.

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I agree. When it comes to key issues, I can see certain prices at elevated levels and even finding myself looking deeper in my pockets. I was just taken aback by that dealer with that insane price for a common.

I WAS able to find a table or two that had good deals and thought the show was fine overall. It's just too bad when you have a bad apple or two to sour your stomach...

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Well, I have to agree that it was acceptable, but I thought attendance overall was on the light side, given the guest list and the possiblities of having a big shindig like that in NYC.

 

Very few "mostly comic" shows do very well, attendance-wise.

 

Wizard shows, San Diego, Megacon and Wondercon - and most of them do well because they are travelling pop culture shows.

 

And really, what guests were at the National that would appeal to a broader audience? Chewbacca, Darth Vader, et al. are at every con on the east coast. They had the usual assortment of pin-up girls. And while I AGREE that the comic guest list was fantastic, most kids collecting comics born after 1982 couldn't care less about Neal Adams, Jerry Robinson, Gene Colon, Jim Starlin, Howard Chaykin, and so on ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD. Where were the "hot" young artists that seem to garner the crowds at these other shows? This was a show that appealed to men in their 30's, 40's and 50's... who want to fill in their back issue holes and meet a couple of classic creators. How many collectors in the NYC area fall into that demographic? A few thousand? Five thousand? Ten thousand?

 

Talking with the submissions guys at CGC they said that this on-site grading experience was probably the most unique they've had because, unlike the Wizard shows which are all about the new, they had a significantly lower number of modern submissions. The majority of the considerable number of books that they had received were pre-1975. I think that's evident that this show had a lot of appeal to older collectors with the finances available to purchase high grade gold and silver. That alone would, in theory, make this a good show for most dealers selling reasonably priced silver and gold (and bronze) and thus those selling the usual overgraded, overpriced modern books (that do move at the Wizard shows) would have a slow show.

 

I wonder which dealers from Canada you were beside? There was Rick and Bruno, who were located near Mike Berkey and the other art dealers. And there were Oscar and Adamo, who were directly in front of Superworld's table. Oh yeah, and then there was Amazing George (with his endless blue boxes). All of these guys are from the Montreal area. Most of these guys just do comic shows, they don't do a lot of online sales or mail order (although they really should!).

 

The only Ontario dealers who were supposed to be there were Comic Book Addiction, but both Steve and Nick fell ill before the show and had to cancel their tables. CBA does do online and mail order sales. For a couple of reasons Peter/Paradise decided not to set up a booth this year.

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who was running the small booth, to the left as you got off the escalator with all the HG 9.2 - 9.6 JIM's???? i didn't realize there were that many out there except for Quality........... 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I didn't make the National show, Harry (buried under a pile of work, and low on comic funds), but I suspect it WAS Quality, if you saw a run of high grade JIMs. For one thing, I don't think there are very many of them out there, at least pre-100. For another, Brent had posted on his website that he was attending the National.

 

If there is another source of very high grade early superhero JIMs, I'd certainly like to know who.

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who was running the small booth, to the left as you got off the escalator with all the HG 9.2 - 9.6 JIM's???? i didn't realize there were that many out there except for Quality........... 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I didn't make the National show, Harry (buried under a pile of work, and low on comic funds), but I suspect it WAS Quality, if you saw a run of high grade JIMs. For one thing, I don't think there are very many of them out there, at least pre-100. For another, Brent had posted on his website that he was attending the National.

 

If there is another source of very high grade early superhero JIMs, I'd certainly like to know who.

 

That was Quality thumbsup2.gif

 

Brent and I had the chance to talk for a bit - very nice and GENEROUS guy,

 

DAM

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First of all i would like to thank CKB for the purchases, would of spent a lot more if some of the books i looked at were in a higher grade. There were only two dealers i purchased from i just mentioned one and the other was Neat Stuff Collectibles. I purchased a chunk of F.F. bronze in nice grade, and a few other odd ball stuff.

 

I have to agree with Kevin ( who is a very nice guy, who i met at the dinner), I thought having Adams, Carlin and Colan there did appeal to the older crowd. I just looked at a Wizard Magazine, and this show didn't have one of the top ten artists or writers, ergo no big draw.

 

Some of the people signing things were pretty lame, Jake Lloyd, Tanya Roberts, Peter Mayhew were pretty weak. As far as the dealer , i think they should have different sections for toys comics and videos, and one for comics and artists, since the two correalate too each other.

 

The CGC guys were great, it was fun to hang out with my old friend Stevie B, and make a new friend in Paul Litch, as well as some other CGC notables. Every book i got back i was happy with, and it was done in a timely fashion, worth a little more, but great to get my books back right away. The Forum dinner was nice as well, i only got to really talk to a few members extensively Ze-man and his wife, Mr Woogieman, Dam60 and Red Hook. I look forward to the next dinner in a another state, maybe Wondercon?

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I agree that they had their stuff "defensively" priced. They left the show with all their keys, I left the show with NONE (well, a few). They may just have priced themselves out of the room. I was not able to walk around and see what was going on - I just saw thay did not do well.

 

I did have someone pull out a ASM 194 in VG/F and ask me why I had $10 on it when a more beat up copy was on someone else's wall for $60. So I see what you mean. This person, a potential new collector, was so turned off he was afraid to buy anything.

 

These dealer shouldn't have jack the prices then. I spoke with those Canadian dealers and they had alot of nice stuff I was interested in with reasonable to high prices and were very nice. I asked if they had a card ( so I could contact them afterwards when I had more money perhaps) and he just said "Oh no, we're from Canada"...

 

One of the worst examples of overpricing was this one dealer that had multiple raw copies of New Teen Titans #2 (was looking to upgrade). I asked the price and he said $60.00!?!?! Now this guides for under $10! He saw my eyes bulge out and then said it was MINT (say it slowly), and then followed to say it probably WONT slab at 9.6 or 9.4... but it's MINT (say it slowly). How many copies do you want?

 

Yeah right....

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Well, I have to agree that it was acceptable, but I thought attendance overall was on the light side, given the guest list and the possiblities of having a big shindig like that in NYC.

 

Very few "mostly comic" shows do very well, attendance-wise.

 

Wizard shows, San Diego, Megacon and Wondercon - and most of them do well because they are travelling pop culture shows.

 

I hear you on that one. I was just expecting more. The only thing I have to compare it with was the Greenburg show at that Javitz I did in the early-mid 90s. The National wasn't that type of show, though. If it was, the venue could not have handled it.

 

I wonder which dealers from Canada you were beside? There was Rick and Bruno, who were located near Mike Berkey and the other art dealers. And there were Oscar and Adamo, who were directly in front of Superworld's table. Oh yeah, and then there was Amazing George (with his endless blue boxes). All of these guys are from the Montreal area. Most of these guys just do comic shows, they don't do a lot of online sales or mail order (although they really should!).

 

You nailed it. I was next to (to the right of) Rick and Bruno, and across from George. I enjoyed all of their company very much. They (Rick and Bruno, George was quite pleased) just were not happy with the show they had. I had a very limited view, since I was stuck at my booth the entire time.

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I thought as much. Both are nice guys but they can be VERY aggressive with their pricing.

 

I had a brief talk with Rick and Bruno as well on Sunday (when we gave them the information about our next show) and I could tell they weren't happy.

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