Tales from the trenches - Con report with pictures from my first small local Con

[1Cool]

I jumped on the chance to get into a small one day comic con in my area to see how it differs from the larger Cons like Baltimore and Heroes. I actually brought my camera with me so I got some good pics for a change.

 

Set up

Seeing as this was my first Con selling by myself I had to invest the money to build my own wall which turned out to be easier then I anticipated. After looking at several past Con photos and getting some advice from Board members I got what I needed from Home Depot and it cost about $80 in supplies. It took an afternoon to screw in the hooks and get it all set up - not to shabby since it's definitely sturdy enough to last awhile.

 

 

Venue Issues and thoughts

 

The event was at the local Fairgrounds and it appeared none of the big dealers in the area bothered to set up. Not sure it was due to lack of advertising or dislike for the promoter but there was only about smaller 10 dealers set up with a very limited selection of books. The hall was very large which made it easy to get product in and out which was of course not easy at Heroes.

 

One thing you have to do is try to expect the unexpected. I got a buddy with a truck to help at the show which turned out to be invaluable. We loaded up my car with all the high priced books and loaded up his truck with the wall and the two long boxes of $1 books since it was a nice clear morning. On the half hour drive over it started very lightly sprinkling and those two long boxes were in the bed of his truck. If it would have started pouring a bunch of those books would have gotten ruined. It all worked out but planning for the unexpected is definitely a tool I think you learn as you go.

 

 

[W16227]

Cool!

 

Did you get much action on the slabs? - at the local show I did - I was the ONLY one with slabs. I did sell a few high end ones - but I could have moved them on ebay,,,,

[1Cool]

The Con itself was very well attended and I saw a bunch of very nice cosplay but not the best group of people buying books (which I expected). Here are the pictures I took of the best cosplay during the day:

 

[1Cool]

Books I brought

 

I ran out of time since this was kind of a last minute thing so I ended up bringing 2 long boxes of $1 books and the left over short boxes from Heroes Con. I had another 4 short boxes of newer purchased books I'm processing so I left those at home since I really wanted to clear out some of the older books and they were already priced. The inventory was a little stale but I did move some of them so I'd consider it a success.

 

The wall was a experiment for me. I decided to alternate a slab row and a raw row to try to highlight most of the slabs I have right now. I put the experiment down as a failure since I have very few people look at the slabs and I did not sell a slab all day long. A couple people took business cards so we will see if they buy the books they looked at.

 

By having all the slabs on the wall I had 1 1/2 short boxes of wall books that I let people look thru if they were interested in higher end books but I think it would have gone over better with them on the wall and show the slabs on request. Live and learn.

 

 

[1Cool]

Books I sold and books I got request for

 

The booth fee was $75 so I was hoping to sell about $800 in books. I ended up selling $900 in books with a third coming from my $1 boxes which was great since most of those books I was considering donating in December if they didn't sell.

 

From my wall I sold my two copies of Start Wars 1, my Batman 181 without the centerfold, a mid grade Marvel Super Heroes 12 and a DC Comics Presents 26. The rest of the sales came from my $5 Deadpools/Harley Quinns, a large batch of recent Flash books and the assorted $10 Silver-Age book. I was definitely hoping to sell a few more hot books like the NYX and Y: Last Man 1 since they were the only copies in the room but no one looked at any book priced at over $100. Low end books were king.

 

I know its a mental thing but any book I had in the $1 bin with a old overpriced store price tag sold lightning quick. Didn't really matter what book it was - if it said it was worth $9 and I'm selling it for $1 it must be something they wanted.

 

In terms of request, I only got request for a few books. Killing Joke was definitely the prize of the show since I must have gotten 4 request for it. Got a couple request for Werewolf By Night 32 and a couple for a new comic (sunflowers or something or other). That was it. No NM 98 - no Hulk 181.

[1Cool]

Thoughts after selling at one big and 1 small con

 

Nothing earth shattering here. Heroes brought in the mega dealers and buyers who wanted to drop $600 on a BA 12 or $300 on a ASM 300 where as the smaller show was dominated by people flipping thru the $1 boxes. I could have removed my 6 short boxes of price as marked books with $1 long boxes and I'd estimate my sales would have doubled at least.

 

The amount of time and effort to set up at a mega con like Heroes was almost overwhelming where as the smaller show was convenient and a lot easier on the body. And per day I made more money at the small show then at Heroes especially when you consider cost of the larger con.

 

Buying at the smaller show as basically not worth the trip if I was not already there. I ended up buying about $130 in books from a fellow board member who also set up at the Con (sorry man always forget your board name) but the rest of the books were terrible. At Heroes you had 10 national dealers competing to bring in the goods where as the small hall brought in the $10 Spiderman 172s and $100 Alias #1s. I've been to good buying small shows before but that was definitely not it.

[1Cool]

That's it - 101 threads this year! Thanks for reading and I hope the picture of the smoking hot Wonder Woman made it all worthwhile.

[ygogolak]

What the heck, I completely missed the Wonder Woman!

I like the Joker who had the white suit with red blood splotches all over it.

[1Cool]

Cool!

 

Did you get much action on the slabs? - at the local show I did - I was the ONLY one with slabs. I did sell a few high end ones - but I could have moved them on ebay,,,,

 

Nope - I had no sales on slabs. One teenager kind of stood for a second staring and actually said "I've never see so many books graded 9.0 and higher before - like in person". Kind of the sentiment I got from most people at the Con - cool to look at but definitely not something to ask about of buy. The $1 boxes got a work out since there was a small group around them all day long.

[1Cool]

What the heck, I completely missed the Wonder Woman!

I like the Joker who had the white suit with red blood splotches all over it.

 

Sorry about forgetting your name again but its definitely not an easy one to remember. I did see the red splotches Joker but he never made it past my booth since he seemed to be hanging over at your booth a lot.

[Hulksdaddy1]

Nice report.

 

What was the age group there? Sounds like it might have been a younger audience.

[Cascaders27]

Where in OH was this convention? I totally missed anything related to it!

[BlowUpTheMoon]

I decided to alternate a slab row and a raw row to try to highlight most of the slabs I have right now. I put the experiment down as a failure since I have very few people look at the slabs and I did not sell a slab all day long.

 

Were there prices on the slabs?

[RCheli]

Over the past 10 shows (I do, for the most part, 1- and 2-day smaller cons) I've sold 3 graded books. They are nice to look at and people ask about them on occasion, but they don't regularly sell at these places.

 

You're right about the dollar books. I have anywhere between 10 and 15 boxes of the stuff, and I can usually go through about 3 long boxes of them by show's end.

 

However, I discount them (the more you buy, the cheaper they get) and often will go down to 50-cents each on the last day of the con. They are almost all pure profit.

[1Cool]

Nice report.

 

What was the age group there? Sounds like it might have been a younger audience.

 

Typical ages for a Con. I'd say 75% were guys from 35 - 55 and the rest youngsters doing cos play. But it did seem like a bunch of the guys were with their kids so maybe it was more of a family outing type of event.

[1Cool]

Where in OH was this convention? I totally missed anything related to it!

 

Beautiful Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.

[RCheli]

I also always have a pile of Disney/kids comics to give out. Dad's looking at the boxes and the kid they dragged along looks ridiculously bored. I hand them a comic or two, and the dad's happy and the kids happy.

[1Cool]

I decided to alternate a slab row and a raw row to try to highlight most of the slabs I have right now. I put the experiment down as a failure since I have very few people look at the slabs and I did not sell a slab all day long.

 

Were there prices on the slabs?

 

Ranged from $500 for the Avengers 57 to $40 for the X-Men 4 and Walking Dead 20. I'd say the average price was about $125 or so.

[1Cool]

I also always have a pile of Disney/kids comics to give out. Dad's looking at the boxes and the kid they dragged along looks ridiculously bored. I hand them a comic or two, and the dad's happy and the kids happy.

 

I typically save those for trick or treating give aways but I did give away 20 books or so to kids who stopped at the booth. One teen pulled out a pile of dimes to pay for a $1 book so I gave it to him free since he obviously wanted something to read and maybe I was making a new collector.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

I decided to alternate a slab row and a raw row to try to highlight most of the slabs I have right now. I put the experiment down as a failure since I have very few people look at the slabs and I did not sell a slab all day long.

 

Were there prices on the slabs?

 

Ranged from $500 for the Avengers 57 to $40 for the X-Men 4 and Walking Dead 20. I'd say the average price was about $125 or so.

 

I see the stickers on the raw books which I assume has prices on them.

 

I don't see price stickers on the slabs. Were there prices on the slabs?