Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Calgary Comic Expo 2017 Hello all, Once again it is time for the annual thread for the Calgary Comic Expo, 2017 edition. I am going to be relying heavily on fellow attendees for pictures as I was quite under the weather for this show. Dave ( thehumantorch ) and I were going to head down to Calgary from Edmonton on Wednesday. We rented a suite room so we each had a separate area to sleep in, but at a lower cost. Lucky me, I caught a bug about the middle of the week before. I was fighting the good fight but made a critical error on Monday the week of the show: I stayed up almost the entire night. As a result, by Tuesday I was very sick. I had hoped it would get lost before I had to leave but it was not to be. On Wednesday I was shivering badly and very weak. I was no longer certain I would even attend. I drove to Dave's to drop off some things that needed to go, and he went to Calgary without me. Not only did I already feel bad due to illness but now I was feeling bad that I was not going to be there to help with setup, the sales, the crowds and the take down. My friend John ( Piper ) was going to attend the show starting Friday, so I thought if I was going to feel better I could go down with him. Friday arrived, I felt slightly better but knew I was still not well, but decided to go anyways. The drive down John and I and his son Will talked comics and I drifted in and out of reality due to being sick. The point of all of this? To let you all know in advance I did not take many pictures. Less than 20 I think which is nothing compared to the 756 I took last year!. I was just so tired, not feeling well and the booth layout this year was a lot tighter and the only entrance in and out was slightly hard to get through. Once I saw some costume that I wanted to take a picture of and by the time I made it out of the booth the person was already rather far away. I also realize in organizing what few images I have, that I didn't take any pics of the walls of any of the vendors/other booths, including our own . So, I call out to the attendees and friends, please post/ add what you can. Thanks! In addition to here, the events section has a lot of tidbits on the Calgary show found here: piper 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piper Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 4 minutes ago, Artboy99 said: Calgary Comic Expo 2017 Hello all, Once again it is time for the annual thread for the Calgary Comic Expo, 2017 edition. I am going to be relying heavily on fellow attendees for pictures as I was quite under the weather for this show. Dave ( thehumantorch ) and I were going to head down to Calgary from Edmonton on Wednesday. We rented a suite room so we each had a separate area to sleep in, but at a lower cost. Lucky me, I caught a bug about the middle of the week before. I was fighting the good fight but made a critical error on Monday the week of the show: I stayed up almost the entire night. As a result, by Tuesday I was very sick. I had hoped it would get lost before I had to leave but it was not to be. On Wednesday I was shivering badly and very weak. I was no longer certain I would even attend. I drove to Dave's to drop off some things that needed to go, and he went to Calgary without me. Not only did I already feel bad due to illness but now I was feeling bad that I was not going to be there to help with setup, the sales, the crowds and the take down. My friend John ( Piper ) was going to attend the show starting Friday, so I thought if I was going to feel better I could go down with him. Friday arrived, I felt slightly better but knew I was still not well, but decided to go anyways. The drive down John and I and his son Will talked comics and I drifted in and out of reality due to being sick. The point of all of this? To let you all know in advance I did not take many pictures. Less than 20 I think which is nothing compared to the 756 I took last year!. I was just so tired, not feeling well and the booth layout this year was a lot tighter and the only entrance in and out was slightly hard to get through. Once I saw some costume that I wanted to take a picture of and by the time I made it out of the booth the person was already rather far away. I also realize in organizing what few images I have, that I didn't take any pics of the walls of any of the vendors/other booths, including our own . So, I call out to the attendees and friends, please post/ add what you can. Thanks! In addition to here, the events section has a lot of tidbits on the Calgary show found here: Karl, I have some photos and thoughts to share. Don't worry, I have your back! Artboy99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 I arrived at noon on Friday, and Dave came out to give me my dealer pass so I could get in. Once in I walked passed many of the fellow vendors that I have come to know and they all welcomed me as they were all informed I was likely not attending. Felt great to know I was missed. Arriving at our booth I immediately noticed that our space was quite tight, not as much room as the previous year. This was because the show staff were fanatical about keeping vendors from doing the "Booth Creep (TM)". They had placed tape on the show floor to define the space you were delegated. Apparantly they had come to our booth multiple times and warned my colleagues to get our tables back within the limits ( are we THAT notorious for Booth Creep (TM) ?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 I started to help with Friday wall book display, and was talking to the guys and was told that Thursday was actually a very good day. It was wonderful to hear as we had been to Calgary to attend a one day show in March just a month ago that was rather under-whelming. Once that show was done on the drive home Dave and I felt we might want to stop attending what was once one of our favorite shows as our take home $ was rather low. A sign of the times? Alberta is currently rather hard hit with job loss, economic downturn. Would it effect the Calgary Expo? A review of the attending guest in early April suggested it could be the case. Then the greatest news ever was announced: Todd McFarlane would be attending and he wouldn't be charging for signatures. We all dug happily into our Spawn boxes. Then within a few days the second announcement: Stan Lee would be attending! This was a giant surprise as Stan had very publicly announced he would no longer do shows outside the USA. Both Stan and Todd are huge draws, especially for comic vendors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 Dave had acquired some golden age books on Thursday from a fellow comic dealer our own CGC boardie mikephoen. Dave and I have had lots of success selling golden age at the small local shows, and they were arguably our best sellers at the above mentioned Calgary show the Red White. Hearing that, and seeing the total sales Dave reported from the Thursday day 1, I decided that I could likely buy a few books so I headed out to explore the show to see what I could find for sale and visited many of the other comic dealers with my friend Piper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 My first purchases of the show were from our own booth ( a very common thing amongst our group of 4 at the Citadel Comics booth ), I picked up a set of Campbell art variants from Kimik: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 With Piper in tow I headed for Harley Yee's booth. He always has a lot to offer and this year was no different. One thing we all noticed was different this year is Harley wasn't about buying. He always buys at the Canadian shows as our lousy dollar compared to the USD makes for decent purchasing. Not this year. I spent about 30 minutes at Harley's booth and found a few books I was interested in one of which was a CGC 2.5 Action Comics 242 ( first Brainiac )but I decided to hold off buying anything for Friday from Harley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 Piper and I went to few other booths, and I stopped at an old acquaintances booth Ferd. He knows I like golden age and directed me to his selections and I picked up these 2 for a decent deal: Fantastic Thor, porcupine48 and Gatchaman 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 When I returned to my booth Joeypost had delivered all the books Dave and I had submitted to CGC. It was my first ever submission ( believe it or not ) and I was quite happy to see that of the 10 books I was certain were 9.8's 7 of them were. I had also finally decided to submit my Startling Terror Tales 11 that I purchased a few years ago from Metropolis that they advertised as a 6.5. The front of the book is fantastic, but the back has a chunk missing from the top left corner. The interior also has some leftover spaghetti stains from some previous owner. I wish these defects were disclosed when I purchased. Lesson learned. I had hoped I could get a 6.0 instead I got a 4.5. Nicest 4.5 I have seen that front presents so wonderfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) Dave could see my disappointment, and asked if I was happy. I managed to mumble a "no" from my corpse-like body ( damn flu! ) to which Dave immediately responded "want to sell it?". We came to an agreed upon price, and rather than take cash I decided to get my Hulk 181 back. Dave and I quite often will jointly own books. We will also use the "equity" in a book to take partial ownership of something your partner has purchased if they are willing. We found out over a few years that it makes selling in the booth far less complicated if we both own the books. A buyer walks up with a stack of books, it gets cumbersome if some are Dave's, some are mine and some are joint. I was the original buyer of the Hulk 181. I obtained it off Ebay several years ago from a fellow Canadian ( from Calgary!). The auction included 2x Hulk 180, the 181, and 2x Hulk 182's. I sold the Hulk 180's and the 182's for exactly what I had paid for the entire auction: so I had obtained the 181 for free! It has awesome colors and presents well due to them. I can't remember for what I gave up half ownership of the book, but rest assured I owned half of something Dave had and he now owned half of the Hulk 181. Seeing it on my own wall all the time, and being fond of it I finally re-acquired it. More to this story later... Edited May 2, 2017 by Artboy99 Gatchaman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Nice report. A free 181, some guys have all the skill! Oh, and Artboy99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) Friday was arguably the best day of the entire 4 day show for sales. After the show several of us went out to dinner to the casino that is on the grounds. It is quick to get to, and more importantly they had the hockey game on. At this point I was actually feeling a lot better. It is amazing what some comic purchases can do for a guy. It was also the birthday of the guy in the red shirt at the back who is, ahem, waving. He also owns a comic store in Edmonton. Edited May 2, 2017 by Artboy99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 Saturday Dave had done some research for a better hotel than the lousy one we stayed at the previous few years. I am thankful he did so. I slept great, and had a great complimentary breakfast. Saturday started out ok, and anticipating that it would be the busiest day I proceeded to acquire more books. Almost everything I bought came from our booth. Spending your entire day in your booth looking at the comics of your friends can be a bad thing for addicts.. I mean fans of comics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) Dave and I had acquired a large modern collection in December 2016. Between the two of us we had prepared a lot of it for sale for the 2017 shows. We had 30 shortboxes of complete sets to sell, along with other great keys. We had this one on our wall for a few shows, it garnered interest but no one had purchased it yet. I decided to make it mine I love it so. It is in fantastic condition and I will be submitting it in the near future to garner that 9.8 I know it to be. On Sunday a vendor from a few isles away that I know ( he sells video games but collects comics ) stopped by to say hello. After a bit of a discussion I learned he is trying to collect a complete Supergirl collection. Everything she has ever been in. He is currently only 3 books short, and I asked him what they were. The last one he mentioned was this Supergirl and the Legion #23 Adam Hughes cover variant but he said he had never even seen one in person before. Having literally just acquired one I took it out of my bag to show him. He couldn't believe I had it there. He had not had a great show thus far so he couldn't afford my asking. I did tell him that when the time comes I would sell it to him to help him complete his collection quest. Edited May 2, 2017 by Artboy99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 As we made sales, I continued to pick up books from our jointly owned collection: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) In the early afternoon Gene arrived. He is a young guy, around 18 years old and he collects classic cover golden age. He came to our booth first and asked what we had available. I pulled out the Startling Terror Tales 11 and he of course wanted it. At that moment it belonged to Dave, I no longer owned it. Gene and Dave have a long time dealer/buyer relationship that involves trading and partial cash and I saw the negotiations start. Once out of Dave's hands I knew the book would be forever gone. As Gene could not afford Dave's asking, I told Dave I would buy it back at that price. Gene was offering a Tomb of Terror 15 cracked from a CGC 3.5 slab, and a Crime Suspenstories 22 that was missing 2 interior wraps and was in poor shape and some unknown amount of cash. Dave really wasn't interested, and had actually wanted to keep the STT 11 but he is a very nice guy and Gene is very persistent. I felt it likely he could get the book. That said, seeing I was interested Dave decided to make me an offer: if I would let him back in on my Hulk 181 he would reverse the deal we made the day before. So, we did it. Silly but fun stuff. And since he is a board member: Gene, sorry buddy. I suppose it is for this type of stuff that we engage in that made joeypost say this: thanks to the guys at the Citadel Comics booth (4 collectors and dealers sharing a space together, who buy books from one another at the show and sell them back to each other for a profit (I'll let you figure that one out)) It definitely wasn't the first doofy deal I have been involved in. Edited May 2, 2017 by Artboy99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 After that in the middle of the afternoon I strolled over to Andy's booth (thirdgreenham) and found a Jo-Jo 8 on his wall. I have always wanted a copy of that book, and Andy had a nice presenting CGC 5.0. As I had it in my hand, Andy plopped a CGC 7.5 in my hands instead. He definitely knows his customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 My health had improved but only slightly. By the mid to late afternoon I looked like what Dave described as "the Walking Dead" I was so pale and had cold shivers. If I got cold I bundled up in my Oilers hoodie and it let the guys no to stay away or risk getting infected with the Walking Dead! But like the day before I seemed to perk up for the dinner and we had organized a good sized get together at the Keg downtown. The food was awesome as was the company. Many great tales were told and many great laughs to be had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumantorch Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Where are the pics of the babes man? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piper Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 10 minutes ago, thehumantorch said: Where are the pics of the babes man? I'll post some soon (many should be in focus ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
