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Going to Have a Small Comic book Show. Looking for ideas/thoughts
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147 posts in this topic

On 1/10/2022 at 5:43 PM, fastballspecial said:

What will happen with Covid is my real last concern at this point. Mall has a nice large
LED board in front of shopping mall so I start putting up our show on it in a month or two.
It coming together nicely so far definitely happy to have put in a lot of work earlier. 

Southern Indiana Comic Book Show (godaddysites.com)

Great job so far. If u have time, try to optimize your webpage so that it (width) appears properly formatted for :Rocket: cell phone searches. Not sure if u have time to set up an Instagram (IG) page for your show, as the younger generation prefers IG over Facebook (FB) pics and chat.

Your advantage regarding omicron is that the State is unlikely to lockdown malls, Wal-mart or supermarkets which hopefully means u will not have to cancel or postpone your Saturday show after so much work and time setting it up. :manhero:

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On 1/10/2022 at 8:38 PM, aardvark88 said:

Great job so far. If u have time, try to optimize your webpage so that it (width) appears properly formatted for :Rocket: cell phone searches. Not sure if u have time to set up an Instagram (IG) page for your show, as the younger generation prefers IG over Facebook (FB) pics and chat.

Your advantage regarding omicron is that the State is unlikely to lockdown malls, Wal-mart or supermarkets which hopefully means u will not have to cancel or postpone your Saturday show after so much work and time setting it up. :manhero:

I agree with the cellphone aspect. I will revisit that again in the coming weeks and see how I can 
resize it as I was just more interested in getting it up currently.

I am probably not going to put much effort into IG. I have an IG Account, but I don't use it much but
to buy. I don't think I have the time needed to promote and repeatedly promote it on IG to get the
amount of views I want.  I have found IG to much more centric in nature then I expected. I will look
again at it in a few weeks, but I've found that its more difficult to promote there then in other place
for some reason. It may be some home work for me over the next few months. Its just an area where
I need more experience there to do a better job. 
 

 

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On 1/11/2022 at 7:35 AM, spreads said:

Great job on the site!  I'm surprised you only have 8 dealers so far......where I am it seems like every other guy and his dog is a dealer....no joke, one dealer's name is Doghouse comics.  lol 

Well I have 4 more on the fence that wont commit till later for various reasons.
I have couple who emailed me and I never heard back from them.

I was hoping for 9 so I think I will make that. I wanted to fill up the first layout.
Anything after that is great. Less dealers means more money for dealers there.

Personally I don't care either way. I need to pilfer/buy from all the dealers before
the local guys get there.... 
@WeR138 :shiftyeyes:

Edited by fastballspecial
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On 1/12/2022 at 9:59 AM, fastballspecial said:

I just had a wonderful conversation with an older man who wants to set up with 
his son. He must be late 70s I think no email and no IG or Facebook so I am mailing
him the layout designs. I never considered that in this day and age.

Such a great conversation. I cant wait to see what books he has
I may call him back later tonight when I have more time just to hear him talk about comics
again it was so nice. I have had so much fun doing this it might be work, but 
this is the type of stuff you enjoy to much to call it work.

 

Nice.  Collectors and collections like that are still out there.

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For people just like this:

It's always been my advice to local show promoters that they rent racks for people who are new or will just set up ONCE at a show (as far as you know). They should sign a waiver absolving you of any responsibility of any damage to their books from said rental of the rack... but it will help them immeasurably possibly. (I'd also provide them the tip of using a large size post-it note stack and a thick sharpie for pricing.)

You would have it set up for them in their booth before their arrival.

(Just another revenue stream and you would be helping out the new people or infrequent sellers... or just people who don't have the room to drive around with racks in their cars and their comics.)

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On 1/12/2022 at 1:34 PM, sckao said:

For people just like this:

It's always been my advice to local show promoters that they rent racks for people who are new or will just set up ONCE at a show (as far as you know). They should sign a waiver absolving you of any responsibility of any damage to their books from said rental of the rack... but it will help them immeasurably possibly. (I'd also provide them the tip of using a large size post-it note stack and a thick sharpie for pricing.)

You would have it set up for them in their booth before their arrival.

(Just another revenue stream and you would be helping out the new people or infrequent sellers... or just people who don't have the room to drive around with racks in their cars and their comics.)

I have set up two times, maybe three, and I needed a wall rack both times but especially the second where I had far less runs and more keys. I would have done so much better and won't do it again without one.

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On 1/12/2022 at 12:34 PM, sckao said:

For people just like this:

It's always been my advice to local show promoters that they rent racks for people who are new or will just set up ONCE at a show (as far as you know). They should sign a waiver absolving you of any responsibility of any damage to their books from said rental of the rack... but it will help them immeasurably possibly. (I'd also provide them the tip of using a large size post-it note stack and a thick sharpie for pricing.)

You would have it set up for them in their booth before their arrival.

(Just another revenue stream and you would be helping out the new people or infrequent sellers... or just people who don't have the room to drive around with racks in their cars and their comics.)

Those are brilliant recommendations! I've been thinking of setting up at a show to cull the herd, but certainly don't want to invest in a rack for a 1-time thing.

Now to find a Houston show to setup at...

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Picked up 2 more dealers this week so my total is now 13 currently. 
Having dealers give me names so I can release floor layout early so everyone
will know which dealer is where. Facebook page is right at 100 now and growing
weekly which is nice. 

Local card show was there this past weekend and attendance was terrible. I was there
for an hour I maybe saw 4 or 5 customers and that was it. I did get to see what the 
tables look and how many they have so I am probably cutting back from one dealer spot
just in case I get a bad table or two to be safe. 

Website got me 6 or 7 emails already so it doing okay as well. At this point I need to start
focusing on my books and building another rack for the show as I haven't had one for 
several years. I think I am going to try PVC this time instead of wood will c. Talk to local
Pizza shop in mall about feeding dealers during show so they are up to date on that issue.
 

 

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Just getting caught up on the thread, this is really great! @fastballspecialI had no idea you were so (relatively) close by. I'm in Louisville. Only a 2-2.5 hour drive, so I've put the show on my calendar and plan on making it down there. In fact, Evansville is not far from our lake house at Falls of Rough, only an hour+, so I'll probably head down there Friday night, then go to your show Saturday morning and come back and crash at our place. That's the plan at least. Lots of time between now and then, but I'm looking forward to supporting this boardie venture if I can!

Looks like you've already covered the Louisville area as far as flyering and promo, but if I can do anything up here, let me know!

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On 1/19/2022 at 8:51 AM, F For Fake said:

Just getting caught up on the thread, this is really great! @fastballspecialI had no idea you were so (relatively) close by. I'm in Louisville. Only a 2-2.5 hour drive, so I've put the show on my calendar and plan on making it down there. In fact, Evansville is not far from our lake house at Falls of Rough, only an hour+, so I'll probably head down there Friday night, then go to your show Saturday morning and come back and crash at our place. That's the plan at least. Lots of time between now and then, but I'm looking forward to supporting this boardie venture if I can!

Looks like you've already covered the Louisville area as far as flyering and promo, but if I can do anything up here, let me know!

PM me your address all send you some flyers I only got to a couple of shops in Louisville. I dropped more off with dealers at the large Flea Market at the fairgrounds. There are close to a dozen shops in the Big L from memory. I tend to go Great Escape most of the time for the selection, but I think I've been to almost every shop in Louisville over the years. The closest on in New Albany has turned into a card shop with just new comics so I don't go there much anymore.

 

Edited by fastballspecial
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On 1/19/2022 at 11:49 AM, fastballspecial said:

PM me your address all send you some flyers I only got to a couple of shops in Louisville. I dropped more off with dealers at the large Flea Market at the fairgrounds. There are close to a dozen shops in the Big L from memory. I tend to go Great Escape most of the time for the selection, but I think I've been to almost every shop in Louisville over the years. The closest on in New Albany has turned into a card shop with just new comics so I don't go there much anymore.

 

Cool, I'll PM ya.

Louisville has several shops. The Great Escape is still my main place, but there's still Comic Book World (from way back), The Zone (relatively long standing shop), and newer places like Pops, Heroes, and The Destination.

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On 2/15/2022 at 6:51 PM, fastballspecial said:

At this point I am going to continue advertising as I can repeating current
methods with flyers, FB, website and local radio. I am now getting calls from people
from comics shops so I know the flyers are working.

Recommend adding a free QR code to the front of your flyers, if u have not already done so.

https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

Youngsters usually just take a pic or scan the QR on the flyer or poster (that may be posted in front of a comic shop or community bulletin board) to get the link to your webpage and update their calendar on cell phone: 'paperless office'?

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On 3/28/2022 at 12:55 PM, aardvark88 said:

Recommend adding a free QR code to the front of your flyers, if u have not already done so.

https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

Youngsters usually just take a pic or scan the QR on the flyer or poster (that may be posted in front of a comic shop or community bulletin board) to get the link to your webpage and update their calendar on cell phone: 'paperless office'?

Great idea should have thought of that earlier. I will incorporate that next time.

 

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A small show will not cause people to stay that long typically, so to extend their stay you might have raffles starting after mid-day (maybe at 1pm and 4pm which you advertise as well). You solicit some of these raffle items from your vendors or artists. (Or you make it an auction for Charity.) When you start this raffle/auction of course, you plug the vendor or artist unless they want to remain anonymous.

 

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