Golden State Comicon in Oakland Report

[sckao]

 

Interesting con report from a dealer perspective... Our booth was right around the corner from yours on the other side of Harley's booth.

 

Two 8' x 10' spaces came out to be $500 actually, so a corner booth might actually be better in the future.

 

I think that as a group, with all the high grade stuff that people were selling (especially Scott), we did well over 10x for our table space cost actually.

 

Even at the small regional cons like Sacramento, doing 10x per table isn't out of the ordinary since tables are like $45 each.

 

Gotta admit that the turnout was a little disappointing. Even the people who came turned out to be mostly regulars that you see at all the other local cons. Not too much new blood at all... and a startling lack of kids in general.

 

-Shin

[HouseofComics.Com]

Two 8' x 10' spaces came out to be $500 actually, so a corner booth might actually be better in the future.

 

I think that as a group, with all the high grade stuff that people were selling (especially Scott), we did well over 10x for our table space cost actually.

 

Yeah, I'm sure you did. It's hard to buy those nice books at a good wholesale rate of course so the economics are quite different selling high-value books. They are also very hard to replace.

 

One advantage of your set-up was that you could fit a passel of forum-members behind the table. Man, you guys had loads of room. We were pretty tight if we had two people behind the table.

 

Even at the small regional cons like Sacramento, doing 10x per table isn't out of the ordinary since tables are like $45 each.

 

Gotta admit that the turnout was a little disappointing. Even the people who came turned out to be mostly regulars that you see at all the other local cons. Not too much new blood at all... and a startling lack of kids in general.

 

That's true, I can do 10x at Supercon or Sacramento too.

 

The lack of kids was really remarkable considering one supposed promotion of the event was giving out thousands of tickets to boy scouts and girl scouts. I actually spent a good bit of time the night before making up a dollar box of kids comics--not that I thought I'd sell more than $30 from it but I wanted all the kids to be happy. I think I saw five kids at our table over the whole weekend. At least we did have mobs of kids at Wondercon going nuts over the $1 Archie digests at our booth.

 

Cheers,

Marc

[jbud73]

Hey Marc, thanks for the walk down memory lane that was pretty cool. I have to agree that the Oakland Con was very interesting like I said in my little report, I went there to sell - but ended up buying waaaaaaaaaay more because of the lack of competition on the floor from the buying perspective. This was especially true in terms of the ratio of inventory that you spoke of.

 

With respect to Shin's booth - I definitely think that allowing a few of the Bay area forum guys to set up their books on one Wombat made for a pretty awesome display for Shin and attracted (what little traffic there was in the room) to his booth. That includes other dealers who bought stuff off of him.

 

Personally I had a great time at the Con, but I was glad I wasn't a dealer and sweating it out trying to make out with the Table fees etc. I mean I doubt a few $$$ is going to cause Mr. Graham to lose any sleep and I guess he made the best of the show by buying late Saturday and getting out of Dodge on Sunday.

[Red Hook]

[HouseofComics.Com]

 

Pop another batch, I'm hankering to write another post or two later today.

[Red Hook]

[batman_fan]

I heard that sales were in general pretty low so it is not easy to say what this show will be like going forward. Definitely questionable which dealer will come back and what new ones will show up. Anyone else heard something similiar? I hope they can keep it going and growing!

[PovertyRow]

Marc, is good to read from the dealer/setup/biz perspective. Please carry on with your impressions of simply being a seller at the show. Who knows? Maybe the show folk will be reading!

[CW]

When I signed up for next year on the last day of the show I was told that there were expected to be a lot more industry guests at the next one plus the tables would be larger including pipe and drape set up (like Wonder-Con). I think the show has the potential to be great it just needs numbers. I had a blast this year with the small numbers and being able to cruise the room away from my booth.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Well, no one can deny that the Bay Area is a stronghold of forum activity. This was a second-rate show and yet I do believe this thread is going to make it to six pages. I know I have two posts left to make though I'll only get to one tonight.

 

By the way, the Harley Yee catalog has finally been put to bed--what an experience. The next one is going to be a lot better but in a few ways this one is pretty nice. Anyway, if you want one just go to harleyyeecomics.com and use the form to request one.

 

Marc

[HouseofComics.Com]

Aftermath:

 

Well, I feel enough time has passed that I'm getting a little more perspective on the show. I still think it was a pretty bad deal--underpromoted and oversold. Yet why am I signed up for next year?

 

Part of it is just human optimism. One feels that next year attendance will be better (there are some good reasons to believe that) or else that one will happen upon a better product mix or something like that. We're growing so fast it's hard to even guess where our stock will be by next year. Plus, knowing we don't have to do another show until February's Wondercon helps quite a bit. In fact, the bad parts of the show are already blurring in memory but all the fun of seeing everyone and meeting new people is still vivid.

 

Okay, it also helps that Harley got to choose his space for next year before anyone else but A-1. So of course he picked right in front with two corner booths, but when Sunday's sales turned out to be so bad he realized he wants to keep his same setup. So next year HOC will be right in front with the corner booth next to Harley. At the very least I should be able to turn it into some kind of marketing bonanza for HOC.

 

Or at worst, if a year from now we are so much in mail-order mode that we can't even see setting up at shows (or this show in particular) it should be no problem reselling our prime space! Seriously, that was actually how I talked myself into it.

 

However, I have good reasons to believe that next year will turn out to be like I had hoped this year would be.

 

The number one reason is that they are listening. A lot of the planning and promotion has been turned over to Scott Armstrong. I met him at this show and he is a stand-up guy. For this past show he was brought in only around Feb. 1st! If he and the rest of them have a year to promote it, it should be much, much better. There's no need to hope he's reading this thread--we have a very direct line of communication to him and I, along with other dealers, will be using it. That was one of the things that struck me about this show. The dealer community was really united in brainstorming about solutions to how we can make an Oakland show work for everyone. The number one idea from Harley (and undoubtedly others) was that an ad in the Wondercon program would pay for itself in terms of bringing paid admissions to the door. But there's a whole raft of free or low-budget promotion that also wasn't done. So I am very pleased with Scott and I think they are going to really give next year a good effort. Hopefully they will pull it off so that we can have an annual event that becomes an institution.

 

In no particular order here are some other positives:

 

Next year they are doing a Batman tv show 40th anniversary theme. I think that's a great idea and should be good for media coverage and more. Steve Wyatt was very excited about it. In fact, at Wondercon when he said, "next year will be much better" I should have gotten worried about this year!

 

As Chris said, the guest section will be much bigger. But the dealer section will only be 15% bigger. Considering that attendance should probably double or maybe even triple, that sounds like a nice ratio.

 

It's very hard to say what the dealer competition will be like next year. I think all the local stalwarts from Sacramento to Bakersfield will probably give it another try. It's what they do. They setup at every show, it's just part of their business. Will other national dealers give it a try? Will anyone come up from LA, like Terry's Comics? It would be hard to believe that we'd see Graham Cracker again. Robert Beerbohm is from here but driving from Nebraska for this coudln't have been that pleasant. On the other hand, Steve is pretty connected so it's possible we really will see an even better selection of books at next year's show. But if you double attendance and you oly have 15-20% more competition (and even that would be debateable after this year's poor show) it is already improving for the better.

 

It's funny--one of the reasons why you saw people like Harley and Jamie Graham and Beerbohm and Redbeard at the show was that it "fit the schedule." Ie, it wasn't conflicting with anything else. But one of the reasons why Steve Wyatt was able to fit it into the schedule is because he's at all those big shows too. Which means that the two weeks before the show he's not going insane trying to pull off this ambitious new Oakland show like you would expect. Instead, he's driving to Detroit for the Motor City show and the week before his show he's driving back from Detroit.

 

So yeah--as of now I'm going to be back next year. I like Steve, I'm impressed with Scott, and one way or another I'll make it work for us. We all want this show to succeed, that's the bottom line.

 

Marc

[Red Hook]

Is it Friday already? These weeks seem to go by so fast now....

 

Here's how breakdown went after the Con... break down the booth. Load the contents of the booth into our vehicles with help from Jim and Scott via some 6-7 trips up the elevators to level 4 of the parking garage. Head home stopping by the storage unit place to drop off all the boxes and wombats. (Promptly lose track of the Green River box in the process which is a common and probably disturbing practice to some of you....)

 

Forget all about comics except for the occasional board recaps. (And also realize that I've spent more time on the boards this week than I have in the last six months.)

 

Realize that in order to send Redhook a list, I have to determine what was sold, what was sent to CGC for grading and hasn't come back yet, and possibly upgrade the pricing to 2005 pricing since JeffreyKli graded according to 2004 pricing. (Unless, of course, I sell to Redhook at 2004 pricing...) This last paragraph seems particularly daunting since my storage unit closes at 7pm and I can't get there in time tonight to root through the boxes for the Green River box.

 

Jeff did a great job of grading too.. although, of course, supergraders FFB, Jimm94, and Jbud73 had differing opinions on some of them.

 

So, yeah.. it might take a while.

 

[Jeffreykli]

Is it Friday already? These weeks seem to go by so fast now....

 

Here's how breakdown went after the Con... break down the booth. Load the contents of the booth into our vehicles with help from Jim and Scott via some 6-7 trips up the elevators to level 4 of the parking garage. Head home stopping by the storage unit place to drop off all the boxes and wombats. (Promptly lose track of the Green River box in the process which is a common and probably disturbing practice to some of you....)

 

Forget all about comics except for the occasional board recaps. (And also realize that I've spent more time on the boards this week than I have in the last six months.)

 

Realize that in order to send Redhook a list, I have to determine what was sold, what was sent to CGC for grading and hasn't come back yet, and possibly upgrade the pricing to 2005 pricing since JeffreyKli graded according to 2004 pricing. (Unless, of course, I sell to Redhook at 2004 pricing...) This last paragraph seems particularly daunting since my storage unit closes at 7pm and I can't get there in time tonight to root through the boxes for the Green River box.

 

Jeff did a great job of grading too.. although, of course, supergraders FFB, Jimm94, and Jbud73 had differing opinions on some of them.

 

So, yeah.. it might take a while.

 

 

I have the old list, although I don't know what was submitted or what was sold...I can delete the prices, or just double them since I undergrade, right?

[Red Hook]

Sounds good to me! Would be much appreciated.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Wow, this thread won't die!

 

Going back to what I said about the Bay Area being a "power center" for the CGC forums, I wonder if the locals could keep a Bay Area saloon thread going forever?

 

Anyway, here's my very belated "people" post.

 

You guys are really having fun with the hobby! I am impressed and jealous. It's a lot more fun to hang out, get sketches, make a few deals, sell a few books, than what I went through. At lunch with Harley, the day before, we were talking about the state of the hobby. While it is a concern that circulation of new books is low and that you don't see any children at these shows, I argued that things like these boards really make up for a lot of that. Why? Because people can A) find similar folks and B) learn a ton about the hobby from all the info and scans shared here. If you're having a good time with people you like and keep getting exposed to all sorts of fascinating aspects of the hobby, it creates a lot more interest per fan. At least IMO.

 

As an example, I told Harley how people born in the 1970s who grew up reading comics in the 1980s have purchased their first golden age books just from getting exposed to them on these boards. I think that's a powerful example of how the connectivity and information-richness of these boards will keep the hobby really strong for decades to come.

 

That doesn't just apply to the hardcore fans btw. It also applies to the woman who used to love Katy Keene as a child in the 1950s who one night googles Katy Keene comics and finds a bunch of articles and also plenty of comics available to buy online. Just today we had a woman buy a vintage paper doll set from us that is straight from the Bill Woggon personal files. She's psyched! And all thanks to the internet.

 

 

Thanks to FFB, POV, JBUD, JIMM, and CW for buying from us!

 

GarthGantu--thanks for taking the time to say hello. I know you were there very (VERY) briefly. We should get together sometime.

 

FFB--fun to hear about your dealings with William (the big guy). We'll never forget the two times Will came over to our place in 2003. It was great to see mini-yee having so much fun over all three days!

 

CW--I can't believe what good taste you have in comics at your age! Beth was so impressed with the CGC Spirit you had--the #1 book in the room to her.

 

POV--Wow, it's wonderful to see someone with so much knowledge enjoy new enthusiasms in the hobby! Dollar books, Wonder Woman horror, bronze bondage--sweet. Just wait until you discover Chip'N'Dale and Dinky Duck!

 

Paperheart--Hey, say hi next time!

 

Batman Fan--ditto! We'd have a lot ot talk about considering my prime GA interest is Batman. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

Favorite new customer(s)--the brother team on Sunday who both bought some DC SA. I always have a soft spot for brothers who both collect. Probably because I think it would've been great to have a brother who was into comics as much as me!

 

Best pause, non-dramatic division--We have some Panelography cd-roms as part of a HOC promotion. It's a cd magazine that primarily concentrates on DC war artists like Kubert and Glanzman and Estrada. I bring some to shows to give to DC war collectors. Anyway, late on Sunday a guy asks me for early Haunted Tank appearances. I don't have any with me but of course have a bunch back in Berkeley so I tell him I'll call him and he can come see them. I then say, hey, I have something for you and hand him the Glanzman cd. He looks at it like it's an alien egg or something. Just beyond his ken. "Don't have a computer?" I ask. About three seconds later he answers and says he doesn't but his friend does. He then proceeds to write down his email address. Puzzled, I said I thought you don't have a computer? "I have a web tv."

 

Epitome of this wacky show: Every time I do a Steve Wyatt show an elderly gentleman comes up and asks for Usagi Yojimbo. Every time! So last fall at Super-Con I said, hey, my buddy has a bunch. Get his phone number and you can get-together or he can mail them to you. He took my friend's number and I thought it was taken care of. Certainly this guy is desperate to find these things because he comes to show after show asking for them.

 

And he didn't call. So as this show approached I told my friend to bring his Usagi Yojimbos. This time we were going to be prepared! Sunday morning, the show is absolutely dead. Wait who's that--it's the elderly man hobbling over with his cane. Before he can say anything I say, "Usagi Yojimbo?" He absolutely lights up! Yes, indeed. He puts his cane on the table and gets to work looking at the 30 issues we brought. From which he purchases... one comic for $2.50.

 

Yes, that kind of show.

 

Marc

 

P.S.--Again, you guys are the best! Great seeing you all.

[sckao]

 

 

Hey.. Sorry about that. I just got back from San Diego actually. They were having a conference down there at the Convention center for Human Resources Managers and my company had a booth there. We have another conference in 4 days at the same San Diego Convention Center as well and I'll personally be back down there for Comic-Con next month.

 

When I got back, there was a CGC box on my chair:

 

Amazing Spider-man #53 Green River White pages 7.5 (disappointing but there's a slight color breaking crease in the lower right corner..but it's a really nice copy)

 

Amazing Spider-man #56 Green River white pages 9.2

 

Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 Green River white pages 7.0

 

Marvel Tales #2 white pages 9.2

 

I don't know what Jeffrey graded these before, but they seemed to be the nicest candidates for grading.

[Red Hook]

I'd love scans for the database if you get around to making any......or cgc numbers at the least.......I don't know how you plan on selling them, but if you come up with prices, please pm me. Thanks for the update!

 

Red

[CW]

HOC,

 

Thanks for the kind words I'm glad you and Beth enjoyed the Spirit books. I liked the series so much when I first saw it that I had to have them. Maybe Beth will find a nice low grade copy of issue #22 (the one she liked at my booth) in SD. The mid to high grade copies are pretty hard to come by these days.

Thanks again,

Chris

Fantastic Comics

[Jeffreykli]

 

Hey.. Sorry about that. I just got back from San Diego actually. They were having a conference down there at the Convention center for Human Resources Managers and my company had a booth there. We have another conference in 4 days at the same San Diego Convention Center as well and I'll personally be back down there for Comic-Con next month.

 

When I got back, there was a CGC box on my chair:

 

Amazing Spider-man #53 Green River White pages 7.5 (disappointing but there's a slight color breaking crease in the lower right corner..but it's a really nice copy)

 

Amazing Spider-man #56 Green River white pages 9.2

 

Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 Green River white pages 7.0

 

Marvel Tales #2 white pages 9.2

 

I don't know what Jeffrey graded these before, but they seemed to be the nicest candidates for grading.

 

Aack! I graded those books as follows:

 

ASM #53: 9.2 (I must have missed the crease!)

ASM #56: 9.4

ASM Annual #1: 8.0 (I admit it, I have a tough time with squarebounds)

Marvel Tales #2: 9.2 (Finally, I got one right.)

 

Shin, are those the only ones you got graded? Red Hook has taken the bait and is interested in more Green Rivers. I tell ya, these pedigrees are like crack!

[jbud73]

 

Hey.. Sorry about that. I just got back from San Diego actually. They were having a conference down there at the Convention center for Human Resources Managers and my company had a booth there. We have another conference in 4 days at the same San Diego Convention Center as well and I'll personally be back down there for Comic-Con next month.

 

When I got back, there was a CGC box on my chair:

 

Amazing Spider-man #53 Green River White pages 7.5 (disappointing but there's a slight color breaking crease in the lower right corner..but it's a really nice copy)

 

Amazing Spider-man #56 Green River white pages 9.2

 

Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 Green River white pages 7.0

 

Marvel Tales #2 white pages 9.2

 

I don't know what Jeffrey graded these before, but they seemed to be the nicest candidates for grading.

 

Aack! I graded those books as follows:

 

ASM #53: 9.2 (I must have missed the crease!)

ASM #56: 9.4

ASM Annual #1: 8.0 (I admit it, I have a tough time with squarebounds)

Marvel Tales #2: 9.2 (Finally, I got one right.)

 

Shin, are those the only ones you got graded? Red Hook has taken the bait and is interested in more Green Rivers. I tell ya, these pedigrees are like crack!

 

Ya and I'm addicted so whats your point