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Wizard World Philly

Started by BleekerBob,

161 posts in this topic

Larryw7

Larryw7

Posted
Posted

As I mentioned in a thread in General, I won't be able to make the dinner, and probably will have a hard time getting any time to go to the show at all. The forty five bucks I contributed can be used for booze, or can pay the way for someone who may be short of funds after blowing their money on comics. wink.gif

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namisgr

namisgr

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Con reports anyone? popcorn.gif

 

Dude, you've requested at 10:48 am a report on a con whose doors opened at 10:15 am. foreheadslap.gif

 

Briefly, with scans of some purchases to follow later: I took off from work today to attend the show - without any kids and with the relatively light crowd, Friday is my comic buying day. There were plenty of new books being shown by many of the biggest dealers, and it only took me about 4 hours to spend my weekend budget. As usual, gorgeous books were on display from Ali Blazing Baba, Harley, Joe Verenault (especially gold), Al Stoltz (especially late silver and early bronze), and Ted. Slabbed, raw, high grade, reader, every genre, every era could be had. Metro had a tiny booth stocked with practically nothing but first issues - more of an advert than an attempt to sell alot of stock, and an impressive set of eye candy indeed.

 

Being a Wizard show, comics are only part of the festivities. There were decent crowds waiting for autographs from the actors who "played" R2D2 and Boba Fett. Sadly and somewhat pathetically, fans were far more sparse for Lou Ferrigno and the guy who used to star in Beastmaster (who practically accosted me as I was walking by, just so he'd have someone to chat up with). Talk about reality TV!

 

There were a few big "news" items from the show. First, this is the last year for Wizard World Philly - next year, the show is moving to the Javitz Center in NYC. Second, the police raided the show and arrested at least one vendor dealing in bootleg DVDs. Made for some brief floor excitement, and a temporary hiding of the many "noncopyrighted" DVDs from the booths along the far wall. Finally, the word from the CGC booth is that on-site grading has been restricted to modern books because a very high proportion of the submissions at prior shows fell into this category, and they weren't making enough on the other tiers to justify the larger operation required.

 

More later. Looking forward to using Saturday for socializing with forum members, and Sunday for a comic and Mage Knight buy-fest with my son!

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RedSkull

RedSkull

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Posted

Thanks for the update. I will see everyone at the third CGC forum dinner later today. I guess this will be our last dinner in Philly so we will have to make the most of it. Steve Borock will not get away easy. I'm sure the drinks will be lined up for him.

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rob_react

rob_react

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Posted
There were a few big "news" items from the show. First, this is the last year for Wizard World Philly - next year, the show is moving to the Javitz Center in NYC.

 

that's both good and bad. It's good because I can drive down comfortably and if I feel like doing the show on the cheap I've got about a million places to stay. The bad part is that if I feel like I'm stretched thin socializing at THIS weekend (I can't remember having to interrupt so many conversations in my life to field cell phone calls) I'm absolutely screwed in NYC.

 

Second, the police raided the show and arrested at least one vendor dealing in bootleg DVDs. Made for some brief floor excitement, and a temporary hiding of the many "noncopyrighted" DVDs from the booths along the far wall.

 

I actually caught a picture of that. I'll post it later. It happened RIGHT at the end of my row on Artist's Alley. We saw the cop and one of the convention people moving with purpose right past us, so we could tell something was going on and then I ran down to see the arrest go down. The MPAA is cracking down. They arrested someone in Boston last month.

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Kevin Boyd

Kevin Boyd

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First, this is the last year for Wizard World Philly - next year, the show is moving to the Javitz Center in NYC

 

I had heard that as well, but in the program booklet for the show there's an ad for Wizard World Philadelphia 2006 at the same Pennsylvania Convention Centre on June 2-4, 2006.

 

Finally, the word from the CGC booth is that on-site grading has been restricted to modern books because a very high proportion of the submissions at prior shows fell into this category, and they weren't making enough on the other tiers to justify the larger operation required.

 

This was announced well before, so it's not quite news. Not having the other tiers makes for a slightly smaller operation, but not by much... maybe a third.

 

That being said, this has been an excellent show so far for modern submissions and at the rate that things are going, may set a record for moderns submitted for on-site grading at any show.

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namisgr

namisgr

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Thx for the info, Kevin. Being local to Philly, I hope that what we heard was only rumor, and the show will return here next year.

 

As for CGC only grading moderns on-site, that fact was announced long ago, but the rationale for it was not, to my knowledge. Surprising to me, as one who both made use of on-site grading at the standard tier, and who witnessed many others doing likewise.

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RedSkull

RedSkull

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For those that could not attend the CGC Forum Dinner all went well l, but it was a little more crowded than the previous two years. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to go to work and as time was short did not get to mingle as much. It was still good to see everyone having a good time.

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sborock

sborock

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Sorry, you could not make it frown.gif It was a BLAST!!!!!!

Please pm me your paypal address and I will send you back you money. Your offer for us(really me) to keep the money is a very nice thing, but I would rather you buy comis with your hard earned money.

 

On a side note......I don't have time to post about the forum dinner, but all I can say is it gets better at every show and we have the greatest group of gals and guys in this hobby. One of the things I am most proud of in my 5 short years at CGC is that I feel that I had a personal hand in helping bring our group together and that you fine folks are good for our hobby and by growing our little forum/convention community, we will all make this a safer, much more fun, and long lasting hobby! Thank you all, you rock! headbang.gif

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namisgr

namisgr

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The Dinner:

The forum dinner this year was my first, and it was great to place faces with so many familiar forum handles, to enjoy excellent food, and to chat incessantly about comics, purchases, artwork, creators, pedigrees, dealers, and such. My thanks go out to Steve and the folks at CGC for continuing to make these gatherings possible, and appreciation to Brian/Foolkiller for doing the legwork and making the arrangements that made it happen. Finally, I continue to learn more about the medium and the hobby from the many knowledgable members of this forum, and my enjoyment for the hobby continues to grow accordingly.

 

Amazingly, Steve remembered my face from an encounter that must have happened about 6 years ago, when I bought some books from him as he was about to embark on his new gig as head grader of the first third-party grading operation in the hobby, and was liquidating his stock. His grading certainly has tightened up since then! poke2.gif

 

Also amazingly, amidst the massive bowls of pasta, salad, clams, chicken, and pork, a number of incredible books were seen circulating around the tables. I think it was proven last night that the CGC holder is marinara-proof.

 

Perhaps the most amazing coincidence of events I have ever witnessed occurred at the dinner - I will give the main participants a chance to recount the chain of events themselves...

 

The Show:

While Friday was relatively lightly attended, the show was rockin' on Saturday and Sunday both, and the dealers I spoke with today generally were pleased with the show. New collections continue to be brought to market for the first time. Most of these are "secondary owner" collections that were put together in the '60s and '70s, some of which have remarkably complete runs. Al Stoltz, for instance, has a generally mid-grade collection running from Golden to mid-Silver period. While at Al's table, he sold the Rawhide Kid 17 from the collection (a ten cent Marvel with Kirby art and the origin story), a Western key apparently not seen very often. Al also continues to bring out a stunning late Silver-early Bronze collection - it ain't cheap, but the books are killers. Dave and Terry of Nationwide Comics also have a deep secondary owner collection with nearly complete runs of Adventure, Detective, Supes and the like from 1941 to the mid-60s (it may run even later, since not all of the books have been processed for sale yet). I was amazed to rummage through a long-box with virtually every copy of these titles from the tough late forties and early fifties period. While I didn't come across any new high grade collections of early Silver Age Marvels, I still left plenty of green with Harley, Ali Blazing Baba, Al, and Joe Verenault, and made successful trades with Ted and Bedrock.

 

I can now be burned in effigy for my earlier post stating that the show was leaving Philly for NYC next year. This rumor is apparently untrue, as by Sunday many of the dealers were already signed up for next years' show at the same PA Convention Ctr location.

 

Today my son and I focused on the gaming. I swear that WizKids has a license to print money, because they continue to churn out action figure and card games that enthrall (entrap?) kids from 5 on up. There is so much demand for the hot new Mage Knight and HeroClix figures, they have to hold raffles to award the privilege of buying them for beaucoup bucks. What a business! (Anyone want to buy a Dark Phoenix in its sealed, unopened box?)

 

More to follow.

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