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San Francisco Comic Con - September 2-4, 2016! Zeck, Jusko, Portacio!

Started by KingOfRulers,

169 posts in this topic

atomised

atomised

Posted
Posted

I had a good time and like others here, wish there more dealers/books. I got some nice really raw GA books from A-1 comics but found some of the other dealers had some pretty steep prices for material I've seen much cheaper online. Saw a AA26, Astonishing 4, GL 3 all out there for frankly about 2x what I would expect to pay for those books. I love the whole idea of socializing and handling the books but some of what I saw seemed simply quite a bit over what the books command in online auctions these days. Maybe it's just not sustainable in person going forward with costs of travel, booths, etc.. Was also surprised by how many books are still being sold raw, particularly SA keys.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Posted

Went today and it was fun. Weird thing happened. Got the elevator going down to the con and this guy was also there - just we two. Seeing he had a lanyard I asked him how the con was. we chatted a few seconds and I asked if he was on "the boards". He said he was and that we was Tupenny. I revealed myself as Pov. First time we actually had met. Tupenny said he though when we first talked I was kind of like a normal person until I asked about the boards, then he knew something was up. He was a true and great gentleman and introduced me to KingofRulers, whom I have PMd a bit but also never met.

 

All in all it was a fine time. Got me a nice Fox GGA book to round things out.

 

FamCrimes1_zpsw9nfpemu.jpg

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thehumantorch

thehumantorch

Posted
Posted
Went today and it was fun. Weird thing happened. Got the elevator going down to the con and this guy was also there - just we two. Seeing he had a lanyard I asked him how the con was. we chatted a few seconds and I asked if he was on "the boards". He said he was and that we was Tupenny. I revealed myself as Pov. First time we actually had met. Tupenny said he though when we first talked I was kind of like a normal person until I asked about the boards, then he knew something was up. He was a true and great gentleman and introduced me to KingofRulers, whom I have PMd a bit but also never met.

 

All in all it was a fine time. Got me a nice Fox GGA book to round things out.

 

FamCrimes1_zpsw9nfpemu.jpg

\

 

killer book

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Bunky Brian

Bunky Brian

Posted
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Just got back from the show,

 

all and all, I'd rate it as a solid 7.5/8.0 (shrug)

 

Easy to load in, fast set up, and breakdown,

Friday started well with a long time retired collector coming in and spending 5K on two books,

 

than Saturday calls me to say his wife did not approve the buys he made, can I come back and get a refund, sure no problem, but not a good way to start Saturday,

than the "family and children" day of Saturday goes off in full blast, leaving freebies, and movie poster kray everywhere, but picked up late in the day,

 

Sunday of couple of big book sales to some serious big pocket collectors, so a great way to end the con,

 

I'll be back next year, I heard will go from Saturday through Labor Day

 

Bri

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chrisco37

chrisco37

Posted
Posted
Went today and it was fun. Weird thing happened. Got the elevator going down to the con and this guy was also there - just we two. Seeing he had a lanyard I asked him how the con was. we chatted a few seconds and I asked if he was on "the boards". He said he was and that we was Tupenny. I revealed myself as Pov. First time we actually had met. Tupenny said he though when we first talked I was kind of like a normal person until I asked about the boards, then he knew something was up. He was a true and great gentleman and introduced me to KingofRulers, whom I have PMd a bit but also never met.

 

All in all it was a fine time. Got me a nice Fox GGA book to round things out.

 

FamCrimes1_zpsw9nfpemu.jpg

 

Sweet book, Pov! Really nice! :cloud9:

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woowoo

woowoo

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I forgot to look at your 15k and 20k Tec 31s :roflmao::takeit::jokealert: Great to see good comic people with the passion you two have. Bob Thank you for pointing out Brian. I never would have new who he was looking thru $1 boxes talking like he did :facepalm: Thank you for your time (thumbs u

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Bunky Brian

Bunky Brian

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I forgot to look at your 15k and 20k Tec 31s :roflmao::takeit::jokealert: Great to see good comic people with the passion you two have. Bob Thank you for pointing out Brian. I never would have new who he was looking thru $1 boxes talking like he did :facepalm: Thank you for your time (thumbs u

 

HAHA, yeah, he's just another guy talking about "his Tec 27"

lol

Bunky Bob

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KingOfRulers

KingOfRulers

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What a show! Here's my lengthy review!

 

We met our attendance goal of 15,000 attendees. 15,225 tickets were sold online, plus a smaller amount sold onsite. About 3,000 kids (12 and under) who enjoy free admission were also in attendance, pushing the total attendance to roughly 19,000.

 

The convention went very smooth. We predicted severe logistical problems, none of which happened. I thought that vendor load-in/load-out was going to be a major problem because of the very small size of the loading dock. But to my pleasant surprise, it went just fine. I also thought that the box office was not going to be large enough to process attendees quickly on Saturday. But pleasantly surprised yet again, they were up to the task! :)

 

All of our guest creators without exception shared incredibly positive reviews and sales. Joe Jusko said that it was probably his best show ever. He did so well, that I heard him say to an attendee that he is "sketched out" for the weekend. Trina Robbins sold all of her inventory on Saturday and had to go home to bring more on Sunday. Every guest creator was busy throughout the entire weekend.

 

I did not talk to every exhibitor, but all of them I talked to shared varying levels of positive reviews.

 

All of this talk about "not enough comic dealers", high admission cost, and a bad choice in date and/or venue selection, simply don't understand how this business works.

 

San Francisco (and perhaps California as a whole) is not a business friendly destination. In fact, it's quite unfriendly to business. But we're there to put on a great show, so no matter the obstacle, we'll do our best to overcome it. There was a selection of great comic dealers carrying quality books. I thought that the selection of mid-high level inventory was quite good. It was the low-dollar/high inventory, bargain bins that were mostly absent (probably because it's not cost effective to bring them in). Labor laws which offer government backed labor monopolies to labor unions are the reason for this. Even though we gave our booth space away for almost nothing, lots of dealers simply didn't want to pay the labor union drayage fees in order to participate. Oppressive labor laws drove many comic dealers away, unfortunately. Hopefully, after hearing the success of SFCC #1, they'll participate in 2017.

 

Thank goodness our admission is what it is. We make nothing from booth sales. San Francisco is an extremely expensive city to do business, so we really needed every penny from admission.

 

With regard to the "date selection". I wouldn't call it a "selection". It was, choose that date or don't have the convention. In the hospitality and convention business, dates like that are called "need dates". There are several conventions on that weekend around the country because it's one of the few dates that nobody else wants. Consumer events (such as comic conventions) are usually the least desired events for convention centers because they take up a very large footprint, and relatively small amount of hotel room sales in return (when compared to boring "professional" expos). Tourism boards rule the decision making for convention centers in most big cities, and hotel rooms sales are the #1 variable being looked at. For SF, it was the only date available to us, so we had no choice but to take it (or not have the convention at all).

 

We will return in 2017! Usually, first-time events are tough to get through. That's what I was expecting. However, this weekend was actually a lot of fun! We've got such an experienced staff now, that has obviously benefited from braving the gauntlet in our early days. We're looking forward to returning next year! :banana:

 

Thanks to everyone that made it possible and took the risk to setup this year! Thank you all so much! Thanks to all of the attendees that took the chance on attending a first-time convention! The people of SF are awesome! :grin:

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Bunky Brian

Bunky Brian

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Posted
What a show! Here's my lengthy review!

 

We met our attendance goal of 15,000 attendees. 15,225 tickets were sold online, plus a smaller amount sold onsite. About 3,000 kids (12 and under) who enjoy free admission were also in attendance, pushing the total attendance to roughly 19,000.

 

The convention went very smooth. We predicted severe logistical problems, none of which happened. I thought that vendor load-in/load-out was going to be a major problem because of the very small size of the loading dock. But to my pleasant surprise, it went just fine. I also thought that the box office was not going to be large enough to process attendees quickly on Saturday. But pleasantly surprised yet again, they were up to the task! :)

 

All of our guest creators without exception shared incredibly positive reviews and sales. Joe Jusko said that it was probably his best show ever. He did so well, that I heard him say to an attendee that he is "sketched out" for the weekend. Trina Robbins sold all of her inventory on Saturday and had to go home to bring more on Sunday. Every guest creator was busy throughout the entire weekend.

 

I did not talk to every exhibitor, but all of them I talked to shared varying levels of positive reviews.

 

All of this talk about "not enough comic dealers", high admission cost, and a bad choice in date and/or venue selection, simply don't understand how this business works.

 

San Francisco (and perhaps California as a whole) is not a business friendly destination. In fact, it's quite unfriendly to business. But we're there to put on a great show, so no matter the obstacle, we'll do our best to overcome it. There was a selection of great comic dealers carrying quality books. I thought that the selection of mid-high level inventory was quite good. It was the low-dollar/high inventory, bargain bins that were mostly absent (probably because it's not cost effective to bring them in). Labor laws which offer government backed labor monopolies to labor unions are the reason for this. Even though we gave our booth space away for almost nothing, lots of dealers simply didn't want to pay the labor union drayage fees in order to participate. Oppressive labor laws drove many comic dealers away, unfortunately. Hopefully, after hearing the success of SFCC #1, they'll participate in 2017.

 

Thank goodness our admission is what it is. We make nothing from booth sales. San Francisco is an extremely expensive city to do business, so we really needed every penny from admission.

 

With regard to the "date selection". I wouldn't call it a "selection". It was, choose that date or don't have the convention. In the hospitality and convention business, dates like that are called "need dates". There are several conventions on that weekend around the country because it's one of the few dates that nobody else wants. Consumer events (such as comic conventions) are usually the least desired events for convention centers because they take up a very large footprint, and relatively small amount of hotel room sales in return (when compared to boring "professional" expos). Tourism boards rule the decision making for convention centers in most big cities, and hotel rooms sales are the #1 variable being looked at. For SF, it was the only date available to us, so we had no choice but to take it (or not have the convention at all).

 

We will return in 2017! Usually, first-time events are tough to get through. That's what I was expecting. However, this weekend was actually a lot of fun! We've got such an experienced staff now, that has obviously benefited from braving the gauntlet in our early days. We're looking forward to returning next year! :banana:

 

Thanks to everyone that made it possible and took the risk to setup this year! Thank you all so much! Thanks to all of the attendees that took the chance on attending a first-time convention! The people of SF are awesome! :grin:

 

(thumbs u I for one, thought your staff, was very friendly and accomadating.

Even Tupenny was nice to me doh!

 

I was surprised how easy the load in and out was, especially considering the small area to do so, not sure if I want to chance next year with two booths, and more stock, will wait and see,

Bri

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woowoo

woowoo

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I was surprised how easy the load in and out was, especially considering the small area to do so, not sure if I want to chance next year with two booths, and more stock, will wait and see,

Bri

 

 

Yes more stock less talk :blahblah: I would think if you brought Bob you be ok. (worship) Great to have seen the Bunkys i give it a CGC 9.0 till i get a great deal.

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