Fan Expo Boston - My Full Report 1 1

[Artboy99]

On 8/12/2022 at 7:21 PM, n2wdw said:

Thanks for your report.  For me, the pandemic taught me that I could find anything I needed on the internet, and at better prices.  I'm not sure I'll ever go to a comic con again.  Too many lines, too much crowds, and I can surf from my fav chair with NFL (or whatever) on the TV.  I wonder if others feel this way?

I feel the same although I would prefer to buy books in hand but I just can't (unless the book is offered by colleagues in my own vendor booth).

The problem I face at local shows here in Alberta Canada is I rarely find anything that interests me and if I do it is priced sky high. 

Example: There was a vendor at the Calgary Expo that had a copy of Man of Mars #1 on his wall. I looked at it and felt the book was at best a 2.0. His price was very high and when I asked if he could do better his best price was as high as gpa for a cgc 5.0 plus shipping charges plus import/custom costs, so it pushes me to look and purchase online. 

And another vendor had a cgc 8.0 copy of X-men 12 which interested me but it was more than double gpa. Again I asked what his best price would be and he said a price that was still more than 30% higher than gpa so again I am pushed to looking online.

[Ares]

On 8/12/2022 at 7:28 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

I wonder will it only be boxed toys or will they grade loose figures like Vintage Star wars

[Artboy99]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:10 AM, Robot Man said:

Please, don’t give them any more ideas. I’m getting to the age where I might not get my submissions back before I die…

agreed. I am at 17 months on some books submitted and every time I see some new expansion idea or some signature series event I grit my teeth.

[Robot Man]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:44 AM, Artboy99 said:

I feel the same although I would prefer to buy books in hand but I just can't (unless the book is offered by colleagues in my own vendor booth).

The problem I face at local shows here in Alberta Canada is I rarely find anything that interests me and if I do it is priced sky high. 

Example: There was a vendor at the Calgary Expo that had a copy of Man of Mars #1 on his wall. I looked at it and felt the book was at best a 2.0. His price was very high and when I asked if he could do better his best price was as high as gpa for a cgc 5.0 plus shipping charges plus import/custom costs, so it pushes me to look and purchase online. 

And another vendor had a cgc 8.0 copy of X-men 12 which interested me but it was more than double gpa. Again I asked what his best price would be and he said a price that was still more than 30% higher than gpa so again I am pushed to looking online.

Everybody had heard of and seen the insane prices in the past 2 years. “Promise collection” a perfect example. Nobody wants to leave a nickle on the table. They also figure they will very soon have seller’s regret. Nobody can really predict so they punch it up to compensate.

Everybody is flipping now do the competition for quality material is very tight.

Online prices can be better sometimes but not always. Especially if you collect stuff like GA.

Buy what you like at the price you want to pay. If not, hold your money for when a good opportunity arises. My buying has slowed down to a dribble…

[kimik]

On 8/12/2022 at 5:28 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

 

You know it would be coming sooner or later.

In mid July I set up at a local pop up collectibles market. My daughter has bunch of Funkos from a few years back when she was collecting them. My wife and I want her to get rid of them as we see better uses for the storage space, so she priced some out for me to take to the show. There was zero interest in them on the Saturday, and halfway through Sunday a couple came by with their 3 year old daughter. The husband grabbed a few of them, then asked me if I know anything about Funkos. I said no, and that they were my daughters. He hesitated for a second debating whether to buy them, and then he said he was a collector and that my daughter had a number of $50 - $300 funkos on the table priced at $10-$15 apiece. We had a good chat about the hobby, and I thanked him for not taking advantage of an unknowing seller. Now I can send them in for grading instead. 

[ExNihilo]

On 8/13/2022 at 3:43 AM, Ryan. said:

There's no doubt that, should this show continue on this path, it's entirely possible there will be no comics dealers there at all in a few years. The number of celebrity guests has gone way up, which I have zero interest in. There were plenty of comic creators there but, between extremely limited signing windows, ticketing systems and charging hundreds of dollars for head sketches, my interest in roaming artist alley has basically died as well. 

My primary motivator for going to this particular show these days is for the handful of old school dealers that still show up and shooting the chit with people I know.

Oh, and hanging with the two dorks I go with every year.

This is rather worrying.  I've been thinking of going to Fan Expo SF for the full 3 days but if there are hardly any vendors, what's the point of a full 3 days?  sounds like the shopping part can be done in one and the rest of the time is spent paying celebs and creators for autographs.

[Robot Man]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:58 AM, kimik said:

 

You know it would be coming sooner or later.

In mid July I set up at a local pop up collectibles market. My daughter has bunch of Funkos from a few years back when she was collecting them. My wife and I want her to get rid of them as we see better uses for the storage space, so she priced some out for me to take to the show. There was zero interest in them on the Saturday, and halfway through Sunday a couple came by with their 3 year old daughter. The husband grabbed a few of them, then asked me if I know anything about Funkos. I said no, and that they were my daughters. He hesitated for a second debating whether to buy them, and then he said he was a collector and that my daughter had a number of $50 - $300 funkos on the table priced at $10-$15 apiece. We had a good chat about the hobby, and I thanked him for not taking advantage of an unknowing seller. Now I can send them in for grading instead. 

He probably scooped up the $800-$1,000 ones first then his conscience kicked in…

Probably not, but just my jaded years of dealing in collectibles kicking in here…

[kimik]

On 8/13/2022 at 10:41 AM, Robot Man said:

He probably scooped up the $800-$1,000 ones first then his conscience kicked in…

Probably not, but just my jaded years of dealing in collectibles kicking in here…

I was pleasantly surprised. He did not take any of the valuable ones and told me which few to leave on the table as they were only $10-$15 funkos. So much for my daughter spending the week looking up which versions she has and how much they sell for.........

[Robot Man]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:04 AM, ExNihilo said:

This is rather worrying.  I've been thinking of going to Fan Expo SF for the full 3 days but if there are hardly any vendors, what's the point of a full 3 days?  sounds like the shopping part can be done in one and the rest of the time is spent paying celebs and creators for autographs.

Exactly. Might want to take a good look at the vendor list first. If posted. I think a lot of promoters wait until the last minute to do this hoping for presale tickets. They know a lot of people will stay away if they go to buy old comics and there are no dealers there. The Torpedo show in LA is a perfect example.

As far as celebs and creators go, how many do you REALLY want to meet anyway? Especially given the extra cost to do so.

You might find, if you are diligent, you can do it in one day.

Thanksgiving and Easter are traditionally terrible weekends for a show. People are hesitant to travel to them. Usually a lot less of the folks you go there for. 

[Robot Man]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:50 AM, kimik said:

I was pleasantly surprised. He did not take any of the valuable ones and told me which few to leave on the table as they were only $10-$15 funkos. So much for my daughter spending the week looking up which versions she has and how much they sell for.........

Was just being a jaded old fart. My daughter collects Hot Wheels. I often look for her while at the grocery store and Target. Generally, a VERY cut throat bunch. Competition is fierce for them.

I have met a few guys that I run into regularly that are very cool. They give or flip cars at cost to other collectors. Nobody gives up their sources or secrets but are very giving collectors. 

[AndyFish]

On 8/13/2022 at 11:09 AM, Dick Pontoon said:

I don’t usually spend much time in Artist Alley, but with so much time on my hands due to the lack of dealers, I strolled though and discovered Japanese artist Hirsohi Kanatari. I was unaware of his work, but as a big kaiju eiga fan I picked up an Ultraman Sketch comic of his, on which he drew a portrait of Pigmon for me on the inner cover. (And licensed by Tsuburaya Productions! Along with his prints.) He also had a Bandai Shin Ultraman figure I bought to add to my son’s collection, and an Ultraman Mephilas face cloth for the heck of it. He was very gracious and a pleasure to meet.

And that's bout it! I used to write rather lengthy show reports but gave up a few years ago. I may resurrect a few of those to illustrate what the show used to be like.

 

 

THIS!  My favorite part of these shows, after the vintage comics, is to discover an artist whose work I really like.  You can't do that on the internet without knowing who to search for.  Digging through boxes of Golden Age books with lesser titles I may have never heard of or seen is another plus-- can't do that online.   I'm biased because I don't ever have to wait in a line, which would probably change my attitude quite a bit, but for me actually being at a show beats couch surfing any day, no matter how comfortable my chair is.

[NewWorldOrder]

On 8/13/2022 at 8:10 AM, Robot Man said:

Please, don’t give them any more ideas. I’m getting to the age where I might not get my submissions back before I die…

CGC's are pretty much back to normal besides economies.  Getting my moderns back in less than 2 months again.

[NewWorldOrder]

I really miss the old Wizard World shows!  You know where I could attend the show to also get my home/car insurance quotes in between the 2 comic book dealers at the show.

This was my favorite moment at the Geico booth where my friend got to meet his hero!  Man he was soooooo excited to meet him, he is such a big fan of the Super Geico comic book character!

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by NewWorldOrder

[ExNihilo]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:56 AM, Robot Man said:

Exactly. Might want to take a good look at the vendor list first. If posted. I think a lot of promoters wait until the last minute to do this hoping for presale tickets. They know a lot of people will stay away if they go to buy old comics and there are no dealers there. The Torpedo show in LA is a perfect example.

As far as celebs and creators go, how many do you REALLY want to meet anyway? Especially given the extra cost to do so.

You might find, if you are diligent, you can do it in one day.

Thanksgiving and Easter are traditionally terrible weekends for a show. People are hesitant to travel to them. Usually a lot less of the folks you go there for. 

Yeah, the Thanksgiving this concerns me just because I would expect creators would want to stay home with their families.  Jim Lee's gonna be there and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair are there as well.  Some of the celebs seems cool, but I don't know how that works or how much extra all that stuff typically costs.  But seeing some of these videos from Boston really makes me wonder how busy some of these cons are.  From the sounds of it, it almost seems like there are just as many vendors at something like Berkeley Comic Show and that's a much more focused, cheaper to attend one day event.

[Robot Man]

On 8/13/2022 at 3:44 PM, ExNihilo said:

Yeah, the Thanksgiving this concerns me just because I would expect creators would want to stay home with their families.  Jim Lee's gonna be there and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair are there as well.  Some of the celebs seems cool, but I don't know how that works or how much extra all that stuff typically costs.  But seeing some of these videos from Boston really makes me wonder how busy some of these cons are.  From the sounds of it, it almost seems like there are just as many vendors at something like Berkeley Comic Show and that's a much more focused, cheaper to attend one day event.

Probably more and better dealers than the average big “Comic Con”. Shows like this one and Terry O’s January one day show are pretty much strictly vintage comic buying and selling. Depends on why you go to shows. 

[SOTIcollector]

It’s great to read about the show.  I thought I’d add my show report as well. 

I realize that I come across a bit as a you-kids-get-off-my-lawn old geezer, so if your tolerance for that is low you may prefer to scroll past this.

When trying to get to the show, there were traffic signs guiding me to “BCC” or some such alphabet soup (I think there may have been four initials on the sign, but the initials were meaningless to me at the time).  I had never been before and wasn’t aware that the show had previously been “Boston Comic Con.” I just followed my phone’s directions to the convention center, and it got me there just fine.  The traffic signs were completely useless to anybody who was trying to find something which, in every bit of its marketing and every pixel of its website, is referred to as “Fan Expo.”

The ticket purchase and registration experience seems to have been created by somebody who thought the airlines and cable companies just do too darned good a job at customer service.  First there was the online ticket purchase the day before the show.  After you’ve entered your information, you are presented with a page that tells you, and of course I’m paraphrasing here, “we’ll sell your information to our business partners (anybody who pays us) whether you like it or not.”   If you don’t agree to this stipulation, then you can’t buy tickets.  Is that even legal?  I thought they had to give you the ability to opt out of that, but I could certainly be mistaken. 

After agreeing to that, they then force you to take a survey.  How old are you?  How much money do you make?  What’s your gender?  What are you interested in?  What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?  And so on.  Again, they don’t give the ability to opt out.  I did what I typically do with a survey that won’t allow me to opt out or select “none of the above.”  I gave intentionally incorrect answers just to mess with their data.

At the show, I went to the booth for pre-paid ticket sales, where they scanned my ticket and handed me a badge.  You might think that’s when I could go into the show, but you’d be wrong.  After receiving a badge, I was directed to a holding pen of approximately half a million people taking the next step:  activating the badge that had been given out at the ticket booth.  To activate the badge, I had to open my phone, navigate to a URL or scan a QR code, and then enter the 14-character alphanumeric code that was on my badge.  After this hurdle, you might think I’d be able to go into the show.  And you’d be wrong.  Next, I was forced to answer a series of questions.  I had to answer, for a second time, all of the same questions that I had been forced to answer the previous day.  After that, my badge was finally activated and I was allowed into the show.

I had read the show’s website carefully.  It was billed as a show with celebrities and creators from all sorts of fandom.  I could meet people who create comics, or anime, or TV shows or movies related to all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi and pop culture.  Oh, and there would be some retailers there as well.  I expected retailers selling Punko Flops and t-shirts and posters and toys and cosplay stuff.  That’s what I expected, and that’s what I got. 

The website made no mention of vintage comic dealers, so I expected the comics would be largely modern stuff from a small handful of dealers who had comics.  I was pleasantly surprised to find perhaps a dozen comic dealers, and maybe half a dozen who actually had some golden age books.  I even found a GA book that would have fit nicely in my collection, but opted not to buy it from the rude seller who had just finished insulting a different customer.  

I was attending the show because my daughter was trying out a new costume she created for an obscure (to me) non-comics character.  People recognized her and complimented her and she had a great time.  I had a great time seeing her have a great time.  If I were into cosplay, I probably would have loved the show enough to put up with that registration process again next year.

There were plenty of comic creators at the show.  There were lines a mile long for the super popular ones (e.g. Frank Miller), which came as no surprise to me.  If I were into getting modern books signed, there’s a good chance I would have been really happy with the number of creators who were there.

The Black Flag booth was quiet.  They had a large four-booths-combined-into-one island, but did nothing active to make use of the enormous booth.  The tables on three sides had nothing on them but Dum Dums, those micro-lollipops that are super cheap in big bags and that your kids throw away every Halloween.  There were a couple seated people huddled over on one side of the booth, staring at their phones and dillgently ignoring everybody who walked by.  Presumably if I had wanted to buy one of the non-acetate books they had on a small display, one of them might have acknowledged my presence.

I loved seeing these at the show (photo borrowed from elsewhere).

I’d love to hear others’ impressions of the show.

[Dick Pontoon]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:45 AM, SOTIcollector said:

 I even found a GA book that would have fit nicely in my collection, but opted not to buy it from the rude seller who had just finished insulting a different customer.  

Is it possible to share who that seller was?

[Cat]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:28 AM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

I want to mock this so badly, but it feels just a tad hypocritical to mock them if you actually own any amount of Funko Pops. 

And unfortunately I do. 

 

And so do you lot, liars! 

[Cat]

On 8/14/2022 at 12:04 AM, Ken Aldred said:

Sure I remember a large booth at the LSCC London conventions that sold imported American sweets, sorry, candy.

Physical stores selling American food goods are not that rare here in Australia, and it's easy to find stores online that import American lollies and soft drinks. I don't know why they import your regular Coke, though. Ours is so much nicer with cane sugar. I'll tell you what though, kudos on the salt-water taffee. That stuff is soooo good. 

On 8/14/2022 at 6:05 AM, NewWorldOrder said:

I really miss the old Wizard World shows!  You know where I could attend the show to also get my home/car insurance quotes in between the 2 comic book dealers at the show.

This was my favorite moment at the Geico booth where my friend got to meet his hero!  Man he was soooooo excited to meet him, he is such a big fan of the Super Geico comic book character!

 

Geico Gecko at the back is NOT happy. 

'Dude, wtf?' 

[SOTIcollector]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:58 AM, Dick Pontoon said:

Is it possible to share who that seller was?

Good question.

I didn’t catch his name. With the show floor plan I could probably figure it out, but I’d rather not shame him in a public forum.  If he had been intentionally ripping people off, selling them something that was not what he claimed it to be (like, say, a heavily damaged bootleg book erroneously called an “exclusive”), I would have no problem warning the public about him. Instead, maybe he was just having a bad day and it came out in a way that I found to be rude.  So I’ll decline to provide more info on him.