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Amazing Oklahoma City Comicon -- TBA, Spring 2017

Started by mysterio,

28 posts in this topic

Shark

Shark

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Posted

So far, this show has been a MAJOR disappointment. Yesterday (Friday) was slow as expected. Today, there were lots of people in attendance but sales for every vendor I talked to (including ourselves) have been very poor. Many dealers I fear are taking a bath on this con. I place a lot of the blame on poor planning and lack of advertising on the show coordinators.

 

There are a TON of comic books here but very few are being sold. One vendor from Los Angeles already started a 50% off sale on his whole booth and he did that early this afternoon. THAT is how bad sales have been. :cry:

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Shark

Shark

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This show sounds like it was an incredibly epic failure.

 

It got even worse today. :facepalm:

 

I got to the convention center around 8:30 AM (the show started today at 10:00 AM). I went to pull into the underground parking garage (the same entrance and lot I used yesterday) and was immediately told I couldn't park there today. Why? There was an Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game this afternoon so that parking garage was reserved for people attending that game. The people attending the comic con, just above this parking garage, were out of luck. :facepalm:

 

So I back up (uphill mind you) and go back to the hotel parking garage across the street on the north side of the convention center. I park and walk back to the same entry door we had used on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Of course, it's locked. :/

 

So I walk around to the north side of the convention center and have to go in through the main entrance (mind you I'm still gimpy from a broken left ankle from August).

 

The overall crowd both today and yesterday was actually pretty good considering the lack of adverising for the comic con. But nobody was buying - from ANY vendor - except for the booth that was selling mystery boxes that looked like the question mark blocks from the Mario Brothers game. They told me on my way out tonight they sold 400 of those mystery boxes at $35 a pop. That's $14,000 worth of sales. My sales for the entire weekend was $400-500. My half of our booth (Tiger's Comics and I) was $380. So I barely covered the booth fee. Add in fuel costs, parking fees and meals and I probably lost a little money. :(

 

I worked on grading books for 2 solid weeks. I did my research and had a long box full of comics that the attending artists and writers had direct involvement in (Greg Capullo, Rob Liefeld, Peter David, Marat Mychaels, Rick Hoberg, Tony Harris and more). I had a short box full of Star Wars comics from both Marvel and Dark Horse because of the upcoming movie. I usually have an abundance of Marvel and DC comics but this time had boxes from a number of different publishers. I had a LOT of key and "hot" books both on the wall rack and in my boxes. I ran a 30% off sale all day today. NOTHING worked. :(

 

The show organizers seem committed to coming back again next year but their planning needs to improve substantially. On top of the Thunder basketball game today, both OU (Oklahoma) and OSU (Oklahoma State) had home football games last night. Throw in the holidays approaching and this event probably couldn't have occurred on a worse weekend.

 

It was the first time for this group in Oklahoma City so hopefully they will learn from their mistakes. And hopefully, all of the vendors will give honest feedback to the show organizers about what did and didn't work. Even though I live only 15 miles away from this venue, I will have to think long and hard before committing to coming back next year as a vendor.

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mysterio

mysterio

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why would anyone host a show in Oklahoma?

 

OKC is actually a pretty good comic town, with several good shops. The Wizard show up the road in Tulsa has been well-received. I would have expected this show to do really well. It sounds like an utter lack of planning and advertising just did this show in.

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RCheli

RCheli

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Mystery boxes may be the way to go!

 

There was a guy with Mystery Boxes at the show in Milwaukee this past weekend. He brought in about 100. It looks like he left with about 98.

 

 

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Shark

Shark

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why would anyone host a show in Oklahoma?

 

OKC is actually a pretty good comic town, with several good shops. The Wizard show up the road in Tulsa has been well-received. I would have expected this show to do really well. It sounds like an utter lack of planning and advertising just did this show in.

 

And the general economy had been booming over the last several years until the price of oil started to drop drastically. Many energy firms in Oklahoma have had extensive layoffs because of this.

 

Many people I talked to who attended the show found out about it at the last minute. They were finding out about the show through other people they know. That speaks volumes about the lack of advertising. I heard nothing about it on the radio and my wife said she finally heard something on one of the local television stations - but that was Saturday night after the show was 2/3 over. meh

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Shark

Shark

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Mystery boxes may be the way to go!

 

There was a guy with Mystery Boxes at the show in Milwaukee this past weekend. He brought in about 100. It looks like he left with about 98.

 

 

Another local comic seller was setup just across from us and he had a bunch of $10 mystery boxes with comics in them. In some of them came a slip of paper that stated you had won a bigger dollar book - Swamp Thing #37 for example. He also sold very few of these. But they were in regular small cardboard boxes. I guess they have to be in pretty question mark boxes before they sell. :/

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Shark

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Anyone hear if they're planning a 2016 edition?

 

Yeah. They came on the loud speaker at closing time Sunday and said "See you next year at the Amazing Oklahoma City Comic Con". I had heard they were coming back next year prior to that announcement also. Apparently, the show organizers were happy enough with the way it turned out for them.

 

I'm going to contact the organizers and find out what the attendance actually was. Someone posted expected attendance of 15-20,000 ahead of time and I then asked one of the show organizers on Thursday just before the show started. She was hoping for 10-12,000.

 

The trick for them now is to get vendors to return. Some said no way they're coming back and many others (like me) are on the fence whether to return as a vendor or not. They may have to reduce booth fees to get vendors to come back.

 

If you're a comic buyer, hopefully there will be a lot of comics next year like there was this year. There were many great deals and a ton of comics to choose from.

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mysterio

mysterio

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Anyone hear if they're planning a 2016 edition?

 

Yeah. They came on the loud speaker at closing time Sunday and said "See you next year at the Amazing Oklahoma City Comic Con". I had heard they were coming back next year prior to that announcement also. Apparently, the show organizers were happy enough with the way it turned out for them.

 

I'm going to contact the organizers and find out what the attendance actually was. Someone posted expected attendance of 15-20,000 ahead of time and I then asked one of the show organizers on Thursday just before the show started. She was hoping for 10-12,000.

 

The trick for them now is to get vendors to return. Some said no way they're coming back and many others (like me) are on the fence whether to return as a vendor or not. They may have to reduce booth fees to get vendors to come back.

 

If you're a comic buyer, hopefully there will be a lot of comics next year like there was this year. There were many great deals and a ton of comics to choose from.

 

Yeah, as a buyer I would be interested. Just having an excuse to make a buying trip to OKC was nearly enough to get me there, but the weekend turned out to be lousy. Having the show the weekend prior to the biggest travel week of the year doesn't help attendance...

 

My brother was one of the vendors (Monster's Lair), and he was not particularly happy with a lot of the execution of the show. But if the promoters can figure out what they're doing and actually promote the show it could be a good thing for the region. Their first two moves need to be better dates and a much stronger effort to advertise, and reducing booth fees would help too. I guess we will see how they do.

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Shark

Shark

Posted
Posted
Anyone hear if they're planning a 2016 edition?

 

Yeah. They came on the loud speaker at closing time Sunday and said "See you next year at the Amazing Oklahoma City Comic Con". I had heard they were coming back next year prior to that announcement also. Apparently, the show organizers were happy enough with the way it turned out for them.

 

I'm going to contact the organizers and find out what the attendance actually was. Someone posted expected attendance of 15-20,000 ahead of time and I then asked one of the show organizers on Thursday just before the show started. She was hoping for 10-12,000.

 

The trick for them now is to get vendors to return. Some said no way they're coming back and many others (like me) are on the fence whether to return as a vendor or not. They may have to reduce booth fees to get vendors to come back.

 

If you're a comic buyer, hopefully there will be a lot of comics next year like there was this year. There were many great deals and a ton of comics to choose from.

 

Yeah, as a buyer I would be interested. Just having an excuse to make a buying trip to OKC was nearly enough to get me there, but the weekend turned out to be lousy. Having the show the weekend prior to the biggest travel week of the year doesn't help attendance...

 

My brother was one of the vendors (Monster's Lair), and he was not particularly happy with a lot of the execution of the show. But if the promoters can figure out what they're doing and actually promote the show it could be a good thing for the region. Their first two moves need to be better dates and a much stronger effort to advertise, and reducing booth fees would help too. I guess we will see how they do.

 

Is your brother jaster-mereel here on the boards? He introduced himself to me at my booth on Sunday. Also got to meet c-mack (Chris) here on the boards as well.

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Anyone hear if they're planning a 2016 edition?

 

Yeah. They came on the loud speaker at closing time Sunday and said "See you next year at the Amazing Oklahoma City Comic Con". I had heard they were coming back next year prior to that announcement also. Apparently, the show organizers were happy enough with the way it turned out for them.

 

I'm going to contact the organizers and find out what the attendance actually was. Someone posted expected attendance of 15-20,000 ahead of time and I then asked one of the show organizers on Thursday just before the show started. She was hoping for 10-12,000.

 

The trick for them now is to get vendors to return. Some said no way they're coming back and many others (like me) are on the fence whether to return as a vendor or not. They may have to reduce booth fees to get vendors to come back.

 

If you're a comic buyer, hopefully there will be a lot of comics next year like there was this year. There were many great deals and a ton of comics to choose from.

 

Yeah, as a buyer I would be interested. Just having an excuse to make a buying trip to OKC was nearly enough to get me there, but the weekend turned out to be lousy. Having the show the weekend prior to the biggest travel week of the year doesn't help attendance...

 

My brother was one of the vendors (Monster's Lair), and he was not particularly happy with a lot of the execution of the show. But if the promoters can figure out what they're doing and actually promote the show it could be a good thing for the region. Their first two moves need to be better dates and a much stronger effort to advertise, and reducing booth fees would help too. I guess we will see how they do.

 

Is your brother jaster-mareel here on the boards? He introduced himself to me at my booth on Sunday. Also got to meet c-mack (Chris) here on the boards as well.

 

He is. We've seen you in Irving and at the North Texas shows.

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