Wizard World Philadelphia, June 1-4, 2017 1 1

[mysterio]

On 4/17/2017 at 10:55 PM, Lonzilla said:

I got confirmation today via facebook msgr from CGC that they will not be doing onsite in Philly this year, didn't say why.

It's such a crappy show that CGC onsite really is the only reason to buy a 4 day pass.

Well, looks like I'm only going one day to buy sketches from James O'Barr, Ben Templesmith, Arthur Adams and Michael Golden.

Seriously, CGC not doing onsite just saved  me over $1000. Thanx guys!

WW Chicago lost onsite too. Apparently CGC signed an exclusivity deal that left Wizard out in the cold.

[wombat]

Not regretting my decision to ditch this one. 

[Dave Dean]

I dropped off books to be pressed and graded.

 

Also got a nice Neil Adams signed print of Harley Quinn, so it was worth the trip.

 

 

[somewhereintexas]

CGC crew at the show.

 

[Lonzilla]

I live 15 minutes away from the convention center and didn't go. $65 for a one day ticket plus $25-30 parking just to walk in there. Why bother

[comicjack]

18 hours ago, Lonzilla said:

I live 15 minutes away from the convention center and didn't go. $65 for a one day ticket plus $25-30 parking just to walk in there. Why bother

You saved money 

[blazingbob]

This is my last Wizard Philly show.  Sales were terrible.  Next year the show dates compete with Motor City and I assure you I won't be setting up at Wizard Philly over Detroit.  Nothing to buy,  very few customers to sell to.  I've thrown in the towel on Wizard shows.  Their attendance may be up but frankly they are not comic book collectors.  Customers walk into a entertainment stage and companies pitching insurance,  Cars, cell phone companies using blow up tents/diesel truck mobile outlets, Headphones/speakers with pushy salesman, blood donations,  banking, home improvements, and aisles of complete garbage.   If you were a marketing major you could observe the cringing and diverting of traffic to avoid the hordes of salesman pitching you their product.  I thought I was in a Mall with a maze of Perfume sales people trying to spray me as I walked by.   I was at the Sunday meeting and dealers across multiple merchandise categories were complaining about lower sales.  Bad cover bands are not "entertainment value".  If you are a comic dealer and think that you will fill the "void" of other dealers leaving think again.   I have really tried and defended Wizard management in their constant direction changes but I'm not sure the comic dealer is who they want in their retailer mix.  I had an awesome wall display,  I basically sat and twiddled my thumbs most of the time.  They are now basically a Music/Autograph festival and should be marketed as such.  

The bigger problem that I see is the idea that people are paying premium prices to basically shop.  Ok,  the band is free but the vendors are charging for their merchandise,  so are the actors,  etc.  If you want to create "entertainment value" how about lowering the ticket prices?    I've said this about Carbo shows.  You cannot charge San Diego ticket prices if you don't provide a venue or experience that reflects the cost of the ticket.  Parking costs are not the promoters fault,  the high cost of a one day ticket is.   Promoters,  you want a quick view of how the exhibitors did at your show.  Check how many signed up for next year and the payments leading up to the show.  Believe me I know a lot of dealers looking for Wizard show alternatives.  Granted there is alway the guy who doesn't want to pay upfront but the shows I want to do have down payments and in some cases full payment a year in advance.  When is the last time you saw a dealer run to pay a Wizard show in advance?  

Every customer going through the turnstile has expectations of what they just paid for.  Comic collectors expect comic dealers,  original art collectors,  toy collectors,  dollar book etc all have "expectations".  Retailers expect customers to have money to buy merchandise.  If most of the customers money is sucked up by the promoter I'm not exactly sure why retailers want to set up at the shows.   

I would be very surprised if there are any Vintage Comic dealers at next year's Philly show.  

Now some of you are going to say that I'm a Wine and cheese type of dealer.  Ok,  yes I am but when I pay for Wine and cheese booth prices I don't expect Kool aid and Cheese Whiz.      

Edited June 6, 2017 by blazingbob

[wombat]

Looks like I made a good choice. 

[blazingbob]

33 minutes ago, wombat said:

Looks like I made a good choice. 

So what show are you going to?  Seems that for the collector and dealer to both get to the right shows we need to know where everybody is going.  

[wombat]

Just now, blazingbob said:

So what show are you going to?  Seems that for the collector and dealer to both get to the right shows we need to know where everybody is going.  

Baltimore. Plus a lot of smaller shows. There is one in Philly (by the airport) that I like and another one they do in Cherry Hill, NJ. Between the two there seem to be 4-6 a year. 

[blazingbob]

Are you referring to Derek's show?

[wombat]

13 minutes ago, blazingbob said:

Are you referring to Derek's show?

I believe so. The one is Philly is at the Clarion Hotel. The one in Cherry Hill is at the Day's Inn. I think that one is run by the owner of Frankenstein Comics (I think his name is Bill). Although I could be wrong about that. 

[blazingbob]

Here is the wake up call to Promoters out there.

The exhibitor as well as the promoter better be careful of the current convention model.  If dealers price their merchandise to the moon what they do is keep the serious buyers away.  And once a buyer gets an "Impression" of a show or exhibitors they think everybody prices their books to the moon.  Which then drives the collector to the internet where they may or may not get the books cheaper.  Which is one of the major problems of the convention model.  Not only do the promoters have to be conscious of the pricing of the show,  table costs but the exhibitors can price themselves out of business if collectors feel they get better deals on the internet.

One of these days promoters,  CGC and even the other grading company may actually embrace a industry forum where promoters, sellers and customers actually meet and discuss what they would like to see happen in the marketplace.  Until then I will spew words into the internet void. 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by blazingbob

[Kevin76]

I personally stay away from large conventions simply because between the cost of admission (I'm not paying $40 to look at action figures) Cost of parking, gas, I've already spent $200 before I even stepped foot inside and It's way overcrowded, I get dizzy with all the people walking by me cause that's all I see, is people, It's hard to get at the dealer's table with all the clowns who have their notebooks spread out all over the boxes while they wear their backpacks, I see that I usually just skip that dealer or come back when it's more accessible.  

I think promoters want to try and cast as big of net as possible when doing a convention cause not everyone who goes, collects comics so they can get the admission attendance up, so they'll make more money and tell dealers "Hey! Our attendance last year was 125K! That'll be $5000 a table please!"  

I love the small local shows, I have a monthly ones 10 mins from my house I go to all the time. Talking to dealers at these small shows it's more about making small sales, people go for the cheap books. For a $35 table they can walk out with 1-2K in their pockets for doing a 5 hour one day show. Show is all 95% comics. 

Slabs are for the internet.  

If dealers are struggling with Wizard shows, then just don't do them anymore, seems like they are becoming more of a liability than an asset. 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Kevin76

[chrisco37]

Such a shame to hear this (over the years).   When I got back into collecting, WW Philly was a great show.   Always looked forward to it.  

[1Cool]

19 hours ago, blazingbob said:

This is my last Wizard Philly show.  Sales were terrible.  Next year the show dates compete with Motor City and I assure you I won't be setting up at Wizard Philly over Detroit.  Nothing to buy,  very few customers to sell to.  I've thrown in the towel on Wizard shows.  Their attendance may be up but frankly they are not comic book collectors.  Customers walk into a entertainment stage and companies pitching insurance,  Cars, cell phone companies using blow up tents/diesel truck mobile outlets, Headphones/speakers with pushy salesman, blood donations,  banking, home improvements, and aisles of complete garbage.   If you were a marketing major you could observe the cringing and diverting of traffic to avoid the hordes of salesman pitching you their product.  I thought I was in a Mall with a maze of Perfume sales people trying to spray me as I walked by.   I was at the Sunday meeting and dealers across multiple merchandise categories were complaining about lower sales.  Bad cover bands are not "entertainment value".  If you are a comic dealer and think that you will fill the "void" of other dealers leaving think again.   I have really tried and defended Wizard management in their constant direction changes but I'm not sure the comic dealer is who they want in their retailer mix.  I had an awesome wall display,  I basically sat and twiddled my thumbs most of the time.  They are now basically a Music/Autograph festival and should be marketed as such.  

The bigger problem that I see is the idea that people are paying premium prices to basically shop.  Ok,  the band is free but the vendors are charging for their merchandise,  so are the actors,  etc.  If you want to create "entertainment value" how about lowering the ticket prices?    I've said this about Carbo shows.  You cannot charge San Diego ticket prices if you don't provide a venue or experience that reflects the cost of the ticket.  Parking costs are not the promoters fault,  the high cost of a one day ticket is.   Promoters,  you want a quick view of how the exhibitors did at your show.  Check how many signed up for next year and the payments leading up to the show.  Believe me I know a lot of dealers looking for Wizard show alternatives.  Granted there is alway the guy who doesn't want to pay upfront but the shows I want to do have down payments and in some cases full payment a year in advance.  When is the last time you saw a dealer run to pay a Wizard show in advance?  

Every customer going through the turnstile has expectations of what they just paid for.  Comic collectors expect comic dealers,  original art collectors,  toy collectors,  dollar book etc all have "expectations".  Retailers expect customers to have money to buy merchandise.  If most of the customers money is sucked up by the promoter I'm not exactly sure why retailers want to set up at the shows.   

I would be very surprised if there are any Vintage Comic dealers at next year's Philly show.  

Now some of you are going to say that I'm a Wine and cheese type of dealer.  Ok,  yes I am but when I pay for Wine and cheese booth prices I don't expect Kool aid and Cheese Whiz.      

Thanks for the Con report from the dealers stand point.  I'd think Philly would draw from a much more upscale clientele then way up in Novi Michigan but that show turned out to be great.  Ticket prices were pretty high and booth fees were in line with a Wizard show (from what I heard) so why do you see Motor City being dealer successful where as a show like Philly is losing comic dealers in droves? 

[1Cool]

10 hours ago, blazingbob said:

So what show are you going to?  Seems that for the collector and dealer to both get to the right shows we need to know where everybody is going.  

There was a small one day con last Sunday in a Holiday Inn which pulled in 30-40 local dealers with low booth prices (think it was $80 a 6' table) and the dealers all did great.  One Facebook friend said he sold more wall books and higher priced books in 6 hours then at several large three day cons.  It was $5 to get in the door so people had tons of cash left over to actually buy books - novel idea.

[chrisco37]

Only big show I go to anymore is B'more.   Once I heard Philly started to suck, I took it off the list.  Heroes is a little further than I want to drive for a con or else I'd try and make it back there.  It's pretty close to what Marc does with B'more although I've thought the selection in B'more better for what I collect (although there are some guys with "good" stuff at Heroes too). 

[classicaaron]

this was the first year in about 15 years I didn't attend WW Philly.  Two years ago I swore I would never go back but last year I had that itch and still attended.  I figured things couldn't get worse, they had to improve, man was I wrong.  it was the biggest waste of my time and money.  This year I stuck to my guns and refused to attend even though my buddy bugged me to go with him.

Like others said, why pay gas, parking, and $70 admission when I can go to a local show and spend $5 to get in and have nothing but comic dealers instead of advertisers and not have to deal with insane lines and people in the way.  The philly show by the airport is $4 and has fantastic dealers there.  I get some great books at some great prices.  and the first $100 I spend there which will get me 100 readers or 5 really solid books and they are essentially free if I attended wizard world and factored in admission.  glad I didn't go and cant see myself ever really going back unless they have an actor I just can refuse.  but in that case it does no good for dealers as ill just see the actor and leave.

paying money to shop when I need the money to shop in the first place just doesn't make sense to me.  paying money to be bombarded by companies shoving flyers in my face makes even less sense so I don't see the appeal on why anyone goes anymore.  I wish I had a video of the first philly show I went to to compare it, it wouldn't even be considered the same show.

Edited June 6, 2017 by classicaaron

[Foolkiller]

I missed Wizard Philly for the first time since it's inception, and I get in generally for free, but it simply wasn't worth my time.  I love Philly as a city and visited there the weekend before but couldn't justify taking the time to go in and not see anything.

Bob's comments on the serious buyers should get everyone's attention.  I love the small local shows that just have comic dealers there.  Maybe some artists.  But the feel is right and the deals are good.  

I make an effort to do John Paul's shows in Jersey and the local Maryland shows, and while occasionally there's a complete bust, most of the time there's some great stuff in the room at a good price.