Calgary Expo 2016 con report

[Artboy99]

Greetings all!

 

It has been 2 years since I did the con report for the Calgary Expo. Thanks to the pestering , I mean requests of many fellow board members that attend the show I have returned.

 

There is a lot of other posts and pictures that are already in the thread in the Events section located here:

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=9141120&nt=34&fpart=1

 

This thread is from my own perspective.

 

I am friends with thehumantorch ( Dave ), Kimik ( Ryan ), and 500club ( Brian ) and we have been doing shows together now for...8 years? Wow how time flies.

 

 

[porcupine48]

[Artboy99]

Preparation

 

The preparation for the show was time consuming. Dave and I discussed many things to try to do. For this year I decided to liquidate my modern collection from the year 2005-present.

 

We have great success selling runs in sets, so my plan was to build as many sets as I could, but as I went through my long boxes I was discovering I was missing a staggering amount of books.

 

My local comic shop was failing me terribly, but it was not in my knowledge. I have been picking up my comic file for years religiously on new comic Wednesday, and when I got home I just put them into a box. Each week I did the same, tossed my new books into a box.

 

11 years worth of books was a nightmare to process, especially since my books were completely disorganized. TIP to everyone that collects comics; don't ever do what I did .

 

Anyways, as I was going through my books I was noticing I was missing many, many books. I thought maybe I was missing a long but I was not.

It seemed like the LCS added books to my file on a whim. Some runs I had them all, others I had a lot missing. An Example: The Mighty Thor from 2012, I only had 4 of the 25 long run.

 

This discovery had a big effect on me, I went to the LCS and closed my file. My logic said if I am not getting what I am ordering why bother to have it? It hurt a lot as I have been a loyal customer for over 20 years. I was hoping the owner would do something to "make it right" but all he did was call me to say if I ever wanted to come and just hang out, I am very welcome as he loves talking comics with me.

 

I took what I had left and built as many sets as I could, the rest went into our discounted stock.

Dave and I had previously discussed making long boxes of discounted stock that would include anything we wanted to offer for sale but wasn't of value to put on the table flat or on the walls. Basically better than dollar book stock so we came up with a $2 book section that would also include other books priced as marked.

 

Dave also came up with an idea to create our own dividers for the sections. We were hoping they would attract attention to the various sections. I applied some of my talents and came up with some cool divider designs by using my archaic ( but still functional ) Corel Draw program and grabbed artwork and title lettering from the internet. The result looked great and I was proud of the designs. It was fun to do.

 

 

[Artboy99]

We had a lot that we wanted to bring to the show. At first we were going to rent a truck to haul it all but a friend of mine named Mike who owns and operates Whyte Knight Collectibles and Mars and Venus Alternative Clothing here in Edmonton offered some space on his truck. I have been friends with Mike for over 25 years and we took him up on the truck space and we met with him on Monday April 25th a couple of days before the show to give him most of our long boxes.

 

The rest we loaded into Dave's Honda on Wednesday and we headed to Calgary, some 300 miles south.

 

This was my view of Dave as we drove down:

 

Wall racking, boxes, tools, etc were in the back:

[Fan Boy]

Preparation

 

The preparation for the show was time consuming. Dave and I discussed many things to try to do. For this year I decided to liquidate my modern collection from the year 2005-present.

 

We have great success selling runs in sets, so my plan was to build as many sets as I could, but as I went through my long boxes I was discovering I was missing a staggering amount of books.

 

My local comic shop was failing me terribly, but it was not in my knowledge. I have been picking up my comic file for years religiously on new comic Wednesday, and when I got home I just put them into a box. Each week I did the same, tossed my new books into a box.

 

11 years worth of books was a nightmare to process, especially since my books were completely disorganized. TIP to everyone that collects comics; don't ever do what I did .

 

Anyways, as I was going through my books I was noticing I was missing many, many books. I thought maybe I was missing a long but I was not.

It seemed like the LCS added books to my file on a whim. Some runs I had them all, others I had a lot missing. An Example: The Mighty Thor from 2012, I only had 4 of the 25 long run.

 

This discovery had a big effect on me, I went to the LCS and closed my file. My logic said if I am not getting what I am ordering why bother to have it? It hurt a lot as I have been a loyal customer for over 20 years. I was hoping the owner would do something to "make it right" but all he did was call me to say if I ever wanted to come and just hang out, I am very welcome as he loves talking comics with me.

 

I took what I had left and built as many sets as I could, the rest went into our discounted stock.

Dave and I had previously discussed making long boxes of discounted stock that would include anything we wanted to offer for sale but wasn't of value to put on the table flat or on the walls. Basically better than dollar book stock so we came up with a $2 book section that would also include other books priced as marked.

 

Dave also came up with an idea to create our own dividers for the sections. We were hoping they would attract attention to the various sections. I applied some of my talents and came up with some cool divider designs by using my archaic ( but still functional ) Corel Draw program and grabbed artwork and title lettering from the internet. The result looked great and I was proud of the designs. It was fun to do.

 

 

Looks great! I would love to have these divider labels for my boxes. Maybe you should sell a set of labels or single labels?

[Artboy99]

We got to the venue at around 2 pm and discovered Brian had arrived before us. Brian informed us that the event organizers had chalked the floor in their efforts to control the booth "creep" that pretty much everyone does. We always try to expand the booth slightly so you can fit as much as possible to display.

 

Here is our booth as it was for the Thursday afternoon opening:

 

 

 

and Brian and Ryan's side:

 

 

You will note that Brian / Ryan have lots of books flat on the table on display where Dave and I have nothing but boxes. Times have changed, and while people do still box dive for bargains there are less and less of them every year in my opinion.

The $2 boxes did ok, but our booth was right near a major traffic artery and Dave and I changed things up the next day and we moved the $2 boxes under the tables so we could have lots of flat table space to put out lots of $10-$20 books to catch the eyes of the passers by.

 

It was a tough decision for the both of us, Dave put in a lot of work organizing those boxes. I put price dots on 3 longs of books and made those lovely dividers and now all that work was on the floor under our tables.

In the end I think it was a good decision: the boxes under the tables still did sell books and the flat on the table and on display books sold whereas I feel they likely wouldn't have if they were in boxes.

 

Always a learning experience doing these shows!

 

 

[Artboy99]

Andy's booth is right beside ours ( thirdgreenham ). He has these wonderful rubber mats on his floor that save his feet from the pain of walking/ standing on solid concrete for 10 hours a day so I love hanging out there.

 

[piper]

[Artboy99]

Andy has lots of great books to offer. Many caught my eye, including his Hulk #1 CGC 5.0

[Artboy99]

More of Andy's walls:

 

 

 

Andy was putting up these SOLD signs after he sold a book, he had a theory that if a customer sees the sold signs it tells them his books are to be bought!

 

These beauties caught my eye. I have a raw 3.5 copy but I have always wanted to upgrade. On Friday a kid I deal with all the time named Gene ( photo later ) bought the 3.5. Considering he is only 17 he has excellent taste in books!

 

I decided to buy the Tomb of Terror 15 cgc 7.0 on Saturday evening:

 

I couldn't be happier Andy, thanks!

 

[Artboy99]

A big thank you goes out to board member Gyro, who helped us with setup. Especially the center island walls which were double the height from the previous year ( we are always coming up with new ways to display! ).

We offered to have him come to dinner with us but he had to work very early the next day.

 

After setup Wednesday the 4 of us went to Wild Buffalo Wings for dinner.

I love wings and was considering getting "HOT" but Brian advised me to get "Medium" and I am glad he did, they were still hot but absolutely delicious!

 

 

[Artboy99]

Thursday the show opened at 4pm and went to 9pm ( ugh! ) so we had plenty of time to complete the setup. Once the show opened the boadies started to flock to our booth.

 

Joeypost arrived

 

Greggy ( you are awake in this one)

 

 

 

 

[joeypost]

A big thank you goes out to board member Gyro, who helped us with setup. Especially the center island walls which were double the height from the previous year ( we are always coming up with new ways to display! ).

We offered to have him come to dinner with us but he had to work very early the next day.

 

After setup Wednesday the 4 of us went to Wild Buffalo Wings for dinner.

I love wings and was considering getting "HOT" but Brian advised me to get "Medium" and I am glad he did, they were still hot but absolutely delicious!

 

 

 

I got the "extra hot" and was sorry a few days later. I think Ty was unfortunate enough to get the one wing I had leftover. I can still picture him hyperventilating at the end of the table.

[jsilverjanet]

I'm amazed at the patience Joey has

 

 

[Artboy99]

Fantastic Thor, and 3 from Saskatchewan including Skinny_White_Boy, Beaumont, and inanimateobject

 

[piper]

More of Andy's walls:

 

 

 

Andy was putting up these SOLD signs after he sold a book, he had a theory that if a customer sees the sold signs it tells them his books are to be bought!

 

 

 

These beauties caught my eye. I have a raw 3.5 copy but I have always wanted to upgrade. On Friday a kid I deal with all the time named Gene ( photo later ) bought the 3.5. Considering he is only 17 he has excellent taste in books!

 

 

 

I decided to buy the Tomb of Terror 15 cgc 7.0 on Saturday evening:

 

I couldn't be happier Andy, thanks!

 

 

I snoozed and lost on the TOT 15 3.5.

 

I waffled on the price, decided to sleep on it and voila, someone else swoops in for the kill.

[Artboy99]

Some of the other booths/ walls:

 

Jigglypig, Chad who has lots of books

[Artboy99]

Canadian Comics.

 

 

 

 

[Artboy99]

I am not sure who this dealer is. He has been at every Calgary Expo I have attended, he never talks to me at all when I approach his booth so I have never talked to him either.

My opinion is you need to engage the people who come to your booth: be friendly.

 

 

 

[Artboy99]

My friend Mike of Whyte Knight / Mars and Venus.

I met Mike in the early 1990's and in 1993 he and I started playing a card game called Magic the Gathering.

I fondly remember the first time we played the game. He handed me an alpha starter deck and he opened one for himself and he told me to build a deck. We were reading the rule book and we built decks with 20 land, 20 spells and 20 creatures. Many cards we didn't understand how to use so we made a pile of them on the side that included a Black Lotus, several moxes. Fun times.

 

 

Mike does have comics, but he brings lots of retail sales items and most of his booth is filled with those types of items. He has a corner of his booth dedicated to comics with some longs and a wall display. The Marvel Mystery at the top right is a Canadian.