Wizard Nashville Report and a little commentary

[Dale Roberts]

Hey everyone. Lots of interest in all of the shows this weekend. While most people I'm sure were at Baltimore, or from reports I have heard at Salt Lake City, there was also a little Wizard Show in Music City.

 

Thursday load is was extremely easy as it is at most Wizard shows these days. They generally allow you to pull in as close as possible to your booth and this show was the same. Music City Center is a very nice modern facility with good lighting and easy in and out.

 

 

Show started at 3 PM on Friday and the turn out on Friday was okay, which is pretty typical for these regional cons, but the people were there and spending some money. Among other things, I sold a beater AF #15, Amazing Spider-man #86 in high grade, a nice Tales to Astonish #36 and an X-Men #13. Lots of cheaper stuff too.

 

Here are some pics of my booth, sorry for the fuzziness on some of the pics.

 

 

Saturday was busy. Good solid crowd. Not huge like Megacon or Chicago, just quite a bit of people. I would guess there is probably somewhere around 15K people on Saturday, in a relatively small hall. Money was flowing pretty freely, though mostly on cheaper stuff. Among the stuff I sold on Saturday, JIM #85, Tales of the Teen Titans #44 CGC 9.6, JIM #33 (very tough issue, 1st Ditko Atlas book), Flash #110, Amazing Spider-man #194, DC Comics Presents #26, Ms Marvel #1, Exciting Comics #33 (Schomburg Japanese War cover), Daredevil #16, Amazing Spider-man #300, Ghost Rider #1 - 10 (70s in high grade), Dzzler #1 9.8, X-Men #266, ASM #121, New Mutants #98 CGC 9.4, New Mutants #98 CGC 9.6, X-Men #101 CGC 9.2, X-Men #94 9.0, Giant Size X-men #1 CGC 9.0, Shock Suspenstories #1 VG, and quite a bit of lower priced stuff. Also made a trade for some nice original art. Go figure.

 

Here are some pics of some of the other dealers and also of the crowds...I didn't bother to take pictures of the sword guys or the vinyl pop stuff. There was also a guy that had a big bunch of vintage star wars stuff that I tried to take pictures of, but some of the pics didn't come out.

 

 

Sunday was pretty slow as far as crowd. Not even many people buying cheap stuff, but in all fairness, the Titans game started at noon on Sunday against division rival Indianapolis Colts, and the stadium is like 5 blocks away. Parking was a mess on Sunday and some of the exit ramps were non navigable from what I heard. If this show was in April, it would have been much better. Hard to compete with SEC football on Saturday, and big music festival featuring Willie Nelson, Weezer, and who knows who else, 2 Taylor Swift concerts (Fri and Sat) right next door in the arena adjacent to the convention center and the Titans game on Saturday.

 

 

That being said, I did sell a few good books including a high grade Avengers #3, Vault of Horror #32, Tales from the Crypt #44, DC Comics Presents #26, 47, Star Wars #1, Daredevil #168, and Star Wars #42. Also sold all my cheaper stuff in a bulk deal right at the end of the show.

 

I didn't spend a ton at the show, but picked up almost a short box of quality material, and I really wasn't trying to buy.

 

 

All in all, a very positive show experience, though I suspect some of the guys who rely more on the crowd size probably didn't do great. If Wizard could produce 3 days like Saturday, instead of 1 good day and 1 mediocre day and 1 slow day, I would think it would be a very good show.

 

I will echo what I have heard many people say. They need to lower booth prices to attract more dealers. They need to lower admission prices to attract more customers. There were basically no huge celebrities (no Shatner, Duchovny, etc) at this show and it seemed to allow more money for spending in the hall. Honestly the only VIP badges I saw were for the chick who plays Iris West on the Flash TV show.

 

I have to imagine they often lose money with the big guarantees for Shatner, etc, so why not get more comic creators and forget that stuff? Even if they were to give tables to 10 good artists, it would cost them practically nothing, and potentially give a huge boost to the show.

 

Cheaper booths equals more dealers.

Cheaper admission equals more fans/customers on the floor.

More dealers equals more fans excited to come to the con.

Happy fans who can find what they want, translates to good word of mouth and more people coming to the show.

Good word of mouth translates into many more people coming in the doors.

 

The opposite is true as well.

 

High booth prices means less dealers.

High admission prices means less fans/customers.

When potential attendees see less dealers, they are less likely to come to the show.

When dealers come to the show once and there is not a big crowd, they are unlikely to come back.

When those attendees don't come back, even the dealers in attendance the first time are less likely to come back.

 

I have been told by Peter that Wizard is working on this. I hope so. Its a good thing to have options for shows. You just can't have a cookie cutter show that works everywhere. You can't charge the same for booths/attendance in Nashville, Columbus and Pittsburgh as you do in Chicago. It just doesn't work.

I for one and hoping they figure it all out.

[Chris_Skeleton]

I went last year to see Manu Bennett, Michale Rooker, and Jon Bernthal as well as being my first con. Had a blast there and costume contest was fun as well.

 

This year, however, nobody that interested me and I couldn't afford to take off work this year and spend $50 to get in to pretty much only shop.

 

Saved that money to go to Lexington Comic Expo in March to see the 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctors.

[Doktor]

Nice write-up. Seems that Wizards issues with their one-size-fits-all strategy continues with other small/mid-size shows (or rather, every city not named Chicago, Philly & other huge cities)

[1Cool]

I went last year to see Manu Bennett, Michale Rooker, and Jon Bernthal as well as being my first con. Had a blast there and costume contest was fun as well.

 

This year, however, nobody that interested me and I couldn't afford to take off work this year and spend $50 to get in to pretty much only shop.

 

Saved that money to go to Lexington Comic Expo in March to see the 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctors.

 

Great write up and I also learned I may want to go to the Lexington Comic Con in March!

[Dale Roberts]

Nice write-up. Seems that Wizards issues with their one-size-fits-all strategy continues with other small/mid-size shows (or rather, every city not named Chicago, Philly & other huge cities)

 

 

Yeah but as I said, I and a few other guys I talked to did well. I just think there is a ton more potential. Would be nice if it would be a show you couldn't stay away from.

[youmechooz]

Glad nashville was good. I had a good show last year. Its a show i wanted to go to but couldn't.

[Sqeggs]

Interesting report. Thanks for posting it.

 

Sounds as if Wizard did a poor job of scheduling the show, since it was up against other big comic shows and some big local events.

[Dale Roberts]

Interesting report. Thanks for posting it.

 

Sounds as if Wizard did a poor job of scheduling the show, since it was up against other big comic shows and some big local events.

 

Lots of times, they are booking these shows over a year in advance. And quite obviously, they are not the only people renting these facilities, so there is competition for dates.

 

Still, I think they could do much better with just a little tweak here and there.

 

Why they schedule northern shows in the winter befuddles me. Why they schedule southern shows during college football and college basketball season befuddles me. I agree about staying off the traditional dates of big shows. Better and more artists and creators. Try to get a balance of dealers with good books, cheap books, and other stuff. Cater to specific cities. Lots they could do to make things better.

[mysterio]

2016 show will be the first weekend in November. Better date for a southern show, and may better miss football and other shows...

[Azkaban]

Thanks for the report Dale now call me about that X-men 94