NYCC 2022 - October 6th - 9th - Javits Center - New York, NY. 3 3

[alexgross.com]

come on people, lets see pics!!

[Buzzetta]

I was there briefly yesterday to do a quick run around as I had to get home.  It’s really on the way home for me.  Saw a couple of board members.

Bought the cgc grading guide. 
 

I have a two hour window this afternoon before I head home.  Saturday is up in the air. Sunday maybe as well. 

[ThothAmon]

I’m jealous of those with the energy to go. If anyone sees Carbone or Chuck please snap a photo for posterity. 

[Cobbledclam]

On 10/7/2022 at 1:51 PM, ThothAmon said:

I’m jealous of those with the energy to go. If anyone sees Carbone or Chuck please snap a photo for posterity. 

 

[Buzzetta]

 

On 10/7/2022 at 4:51 PM, ThothAmon said:

I’m jealous of those with the energy to go. If anyone sees Carbone or Chuck please snap a photo for posterity. 

Carbo is all over the place.  Friend saw him and texted me and asked, “Isn’t he banned?”

Texted another board member who isn’t here and told him I saw Carbo. 
 

His immediate text back ?

”Isn’t he banned?”

[alexgross.com]

looking forward to pics of this show and hearing about everyone's experience at the show this weekend. 

[Buzzetta]

By the way... 

Apparently you need to be aware if walking down the subway steps... 

The homeless are now tossing bikes.  This was around 7am this morning.  Guy tossed a Citi Bike down the steps in anger and started screaming by the A C E platform by Penn Station.  NYPD responded as my train arrived.  Whatever you are doing... be careful all of you and keep your head about you.   

Also, keep your eyes about you if you MUST buy anything at the food carts around Penn on 8th Ave as you go to the show, even if it is a Gatorade.   The homeless come up to you asking you to buy them a soda or food or give them money.  Watched that happen while I was on the corner waiting to cross. 

Just be careful. 

 

[Eclipse]

I went there specifically to get books graded ( i had like 20 to submit) and they told me the wait was over 3 hours. 3 HOURS! Needless to say i walked away

[justafan]

Heres my quick report:

Trained in wed night, from DC. hung out and crashed with friends in Jersey City so i would get to the con on time.

Thursday morning. Grabbed gourmet latte and cresant. Promptly missed 3 busses and ended up getting to the con an hour late. Transportation and goal fail.

Found the Comic Mint exclusives line and got in line about 200 people deep at that point. Goal unlocked. 3 hours later I dropped $500 on a bunch of exclusives including the ASM NYCC exclusive. Goal achieved.

Hit the CGC booth at 1pm to drop off my submissions i had already prepped through the online form. Inquirrd about pay for grades secret menu option but either she wasnt aware, played dumb, or i didnt use the right password to unlock that access. Took me only 5 min, no line. Primary Goal acheived. Inquired about talking to grades and told to come back at 1pm tomorrow to see Matt. 

Hit all the other con exclusive booths that dodnt have lines and blew another $1000. Budget goal fail.

Sat down and had a banana and water for lunch. Psuedo lunch goal acheived.

Began my regular marathon of run-filling hunt going from dealer to dealer diving through long boxes and squinting at the wall books.

Very few dealers willing to budge even on bulk purchases or paying cash. Im not staying til sunday so it was deal or no deal. Huge markups, lots of passing on books but still managed to fill 50% of the luggage space i have.

Finished Thursday making it through the first 2 rows of dealers. Overall thursday was a success.

Found out one of my friends is now very rich after selling his company. Side quest unlocked. Had greek food and an older fashioned hanging out on my friends boat.

Friday morning packed up and said goodbye to my friends. Hate goodbyes.

Caught the first bus and got to the con on time., goal acheived.

Continued marathon of run-filling, comic diving, negotiating, and chatting with dealers and collectors. No internet access, lots of bandwidth issues preventing cc sales.

Found some good deals, needed cash, went on side quest for the atm. Returned with cash, bought more books. Budget goal continues to be failed.

Hit the CGC booth at 1pm, No Matt but did see a Tod McFarlane showing off a piece of OA and doing signings. Took some video and pics. Asked about seeing Matt and was told to come back at 3.

Continued comic book hunting making my way through another 2 rows of dealers.

Returned to the CGC booth at 3 and got in line. Checked out the new CGC guide to grading. Saw Matt, had him review my 1 book and received his opinion and advice. Asked him about his new guide to grading and whether it was a replacement or supplement to the overstrreet grading guide.  He explained: For experienced graders, it is meant more as a reference to be used as a tool in conjunction with other grading guides. For novices it helps quickly close the knowledge gap on all aspects of determining comic book condition and value. Only agreed to buy a copy if Matt signed it for free. He wasnt charging for autographs anyways. Bought a copy of the CGC grading guide at $29.99 and got Matt to sign the inside 1st page. Had the signing documented by the cgc photographer as content for the 2nd edition. Asked if he counts as his own signature series whitness and would slab it. Was told CGC doesnt make holders big enough. Secondary goal achieved with 2 bonuses.

Stayed and watched him review about 20 golden age beauties. Listened and watched how he handled and examined the books for defects, restoration, and pressing candidacy aided by a square retractable loup that is no longer made. Satisfying to see that my own grading practices and grade estimation for the books are very similar to his.

Continued marathon comic hunt. Filled up all my luggage space with books. With no more space and feeling I should leave. Found myself by the whatnot and Marvel booths. Took lots of videos. 

Made a few take it or leave it offers to dealers just to try and justify any more buying.  None bit so I walked away. Feels good to walk away sometimes.

Took picture with Demigorgon.

Finished hitting every comic dealer at NYCC and made some final purchases despite have absolutely no more room in my luggage. Found a whatnot bag on the floor and used that to carry my excess. Avoided and resisted buying overpriced t-shirts and nycc souvenirs for my family.

Exited the con and hoofed it to NYC Penn station to catch my train. Got another contact high. My 13 y/o swiss army roller case lost most of both wheels but made it.

Grabbed a burger and soda and boarded the accela back to DC.  Friday goals mostly successful.

 

 

 

[Buzzetta]

I am not going today, but did anyone else catch Eric Arndt (nZo / Enzo Amore) standing off to the side of the tables that Solofa Fatu (Rikishi) and Charles Wright (Godfather) were sitting at and signing autographs? 

I noticed him when I was standing around on my phone and this guy to my left is shouting at people to get their attention for autographs and things.    He did not have any table space at the Heroes table nor did he really seem invited.   He had his own camera guy that was following him around.

 

SMH 

He seemed to be drifting closer and closer into Virgil territory. 

I am guessing the next "appearance" will be in the subway. 

[1webslinger]

I saw Carbo on the show floor Sunday afternoon. 

[tonytitan]

great ny comic con. CGC booth super busy and staff great.

cbcs booth and there 224 TATS quiet as a mouse looking for cheese

[speedcake]

Is this where we are posting trip reports? I had a four day badge, but ended up only going Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. By then I was cooked. I know I probably missed out on some deals and deeper discounts in bargain bins on Sunday, but I felt I had done alright by then and had already spent more money than I planned anyway.

Thursday was pretty stress free. The place is never packed on the first day, but for some reason we decided to get to Javitz at 8 am anyway? I don't know, don't ask.  It was clear right away that quite a few regular comic book dealers weren't present, but there were enough to separate myself from most of my cash.  I found one solid short box of mags at the entire show at a smaller vendor booth and bought all the Skywald and Eerie stuff out of it including two nice keys. Plus a handful of Tales of the Zombie including a very nice #2.  They were all priced incredibly well and I got another little discount for cash. the only other dealer I found with some mags was Very Gary and I only found a decent copy of Savage Sword of Conan #5 that he sold me for twenty bucks. Pretty pleased with that.  Not pleased with the lack of magazines over all, oh well.  Bought a handful of nice Hulks and Tales to Astonish from Harley. Ate nasty cheeseburger. lived to tell the tale.

Friday I browsed a few aisles of the usual con junk to start the day and check out some of the changes, the addition of the gaming area and many more food vendors along the back walls. Unless I've missed them in the past? Was nice to see more video games, and other actual collectible things as opposed to endless vendors with mystery boxes and pops, although there were still plenty of those around.  On Thursday Dave & Adams guys tried to sell us on their $300 Carbo legacy mystery boxes, and honestly they didn't look terrible, but I don't do mystery boxes so passed. But I also passed on looking at their actual comics, so Friday I noticed the 75% off deal and took a look.  Immediately found two or three really nice books that after the discount turned out to be priced really nice.  I think people were mostly turned off by seeing the sticker price and not doing the actual math, so the boxes seemed mostly unpicked.  Built a huge stack, got an additional break for paying cash, was happy.  Also bought a small stack from High Grade Comics, but they weren't cutting quite the same sweet deals yet as it was only day 2.

Despite losing out on every single reservation I wanted except for the Cartoon Network Sunday thing, we got in to see Violent Night on Friday evening and that was pretty awesome.  Way funnier and more entertaining that it probably has any right to be, but also ultra violent. Don't take the kids.

Saturday I got to the con an hour after opening with my wife in tow. She's always super excited about following me around for a full day at Comic Con, but she's also a trooper and a very good bag holder during emergencies.  So we mostly browsed and people watched, but I once again hit the Dave & Adams booth, built an even bigger stack than the previous day and got an even bigger break on top via cash, bought more mags out of the single good mag box at the convention, then capped it off by seeing the Halloween Ends panel with Jamie Lee Curtis despite once again not having a ticket for it. I think most of the stand by line got in, so  /shrug

Wasn't a bad weekend. We even scored actual chairs to sit in for lunch on all three days.  

I didn't take any pictures. sorry.

 

[Cocomonkey]

I had the same reaction Thursday morning when I started walking the floor and saw Carbo was not only back but had a booth...I was like, "Wait, wasn't he banned?"

I had a blast, but some of that was aided by the fact that I managed to get through the online reservation queue early, so I was signed up for all the panels I wanted (though only a few truly filled up anyway; pretty sure the entire standby line got into most panels). Saw the Smallville reunion, the BTTF reunion, the Batman/Superman: Battle of the Super Sons screening (was great), Violent Night (hilariously hyperviolent), the full Star Trek: TNG reunion at the Picard panel, and the Weird Al panel, among others. Crossed maybe 6 more books off my Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 run (down to <60 total left) and like another 60-80 or so books from discount boxes over the 4 days I went.

The show floor...that's where it got a bit disappointing to me. On the one hand, some of the big exhibitors were back that skipped last year (like Marvel), which was great. On the other hand...I feel like they're still suffering a bit from the one-two punch of the construction being completed--adding a whole lot of additional space to Javits--and covid, combined with what I have to assume are ever-increasing booth rental prices. It felt like there were fewer comic vendors, I don't think I saw some of the ones that I usually see there every year, and many that were there had higher prices and fewer $1/$2 boxes to be found ($3/$5 seems to be the new $1/$2). I saw maybe 2-3 vintage toy booths instead of the usually 5-8+ scattered around, I don't think I saw any booths really selling board games (like, the full-booth board game sellers), and nobody was selling unpainted D&D figures (much to my friend's dismay; she buys some every year to paint, and there was nothing this year). I think I only saw maybe 1-2 vendors that were dedicated to used video games, too, instead of at least a half-dozen (there were video games at some mixed-goods booths, but not as many of the dedicated vendors). There were so many vendors that had like 4-6 booths scattered around--mystery boxes and dice sellers, mainly.

Biggest impact for me...the PC gaming lounge area, plus having the entirety of Hall 1A dedicated to tabletop gaming, felt like ReedPop was scrounging to fill space because they couldn't get the exhibitors/vendors to fill it. Don't get me wrong, that's a pivot that makes some sense with the crowd that attends...but it still felt like something added just to fill space (which it was, last year, when a lot of exhibitors didn't come back right away). I never even saw either gaming lounge area more than like a third full (pretty sure on Saturday, I saw the PC gaming lounge just being used by people as tables to eat lunch off of, without really even playing anything).

Still...there was a good lineup in the Artist's Alley this year. I'd bought a Jim Lee autograph in the first session on Friday (10:30), got there early to be towards the front of the line, and then Jim Lee...decided to do some private signings and sketches for other guests/artists/exhibitors that were there, and didn't start the signing until 11:15. There were a lot of angry people in the line, because we all knew he was there in the curtained-off booth (NYCC staff was telling us that, and I saw him go in just after 10am anyway), they'd paid for their signing(s), and they had other scheduled photo ops/autographings that they were going to be late for or miss entirely if they kept waiting in line for Lee to bother starting. One person got ejected from the line (for not putting on a mask when asked, but he was already getting antagonistic with the NYCC Staff guy that came over before being asked to mask up), others were demanding refunds...good times.

I have photos of some of the panels I went to, but nothing really of the show floor, unfortunately.

[MisterX]

Huh, usually someone starts a thread in Comics General about their experiences at NYCC. Maybe they still will.

In the meantime --

I went on Sunday. This year that was the only day I had free to go. I arrived early, waited about 45 minutes or so, and got to the main floor to look for books. I came loaded for bear, but only bagged a few chubby chipmunks.

I guess I should have done my due diligence before buying a ticket, but I was unpleasantly surprised by the smaller number of comics dealers at the show. (In my defense, I don't know if the exhibitor list was finalized when I bought my ticket back in May.) Quite a few dealers weren't there, or I couldn't find their booths. I'm pretty sure that --

Dale Roberts wasn't there. Superworld wasn't there. Basement comics wasn't there. JHV Associates wasn't there. Graham Crackers wasn't there. 

Thank God for Bob Storms! I picked up some books at his booth, and few others at, I think, Gary's Comics (?) and Reece's Comics.  I couldn't find anything on my list at Harley's booth, and nothing jumped out at me as an impulse buy. 

My impression is that the convention is making it a real hassle for comic dealers to attend. That, and/or it's become too expensive, with booth prices, hotels, etc. making the event a money loser.

There was a lot of discount stock being blown out, mid-grade books, sometimes dumped in boxes out of alphabetical order. I also saw a lot of books that probably should've been discounted to get them to sell. Mid-grade Gold Keys, stuff like that.

There were a lot of high-priced, slabbed wall books, mostly the usual suspects. I overheard a dad pointing them out to his kid, calling them "investment comics," and considering the prices, I found his statement discouraging.  In fact, I overheard a lot of people inquiring about wall books, only to be astounded at the prices before moving on. The rarified air of high-grade keys might be good for some of us in the hobby, but I think it's a serious barrier for new entrants. For all the slabs I saw, it seemed like only a handful of people were buying them.  I saw almost no one at the tables selling original art.

Once I gave up on hunting for books, I wandered around a little. If you had a booth selling fake, plastic katanas, you were rolling in money. There were huge booths for several anime attractions like One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and a few others. There were tons of vendors selling mystery boxes. There was an insane amount of people stampeding through the aisles. Lots of big strollers, big backpacks, cosplayers with wings, stuff like that.

I left at 1:45, and was glad to be out of there.

Honestly, I think this might have been my last NYCC. I wanted to go back one more time after Covid, but if this is a preview of what next year will be like, I'll skip it. 

[Robot Man]

On 10/10/2022 at 8:41 AM, speedcake said:

Is this where we are posting trip reports? I had a four day badge, but ended up only going Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. By then I was cooked. I know I probably missed out on some deals and deeper discounts in bargain bins on Sunday, but I felt I had done alright by then and had already spent more money than I planned anyway.

Thursday was pretty stress free. The place is never packed on the first day, but for some reason we decided to get to Javitz at 8 am anyway? I don't know, don't ask.  It was clear right away that quite a few regular comic book dealers weren't present, but there were enough to separate myself from most of my cash.  I found one solid short box of mags at the entire show at a smaller vendor booth and bought all the Skywald and Eerie stuff out of it including two nice keys. Plus a handful of Tales of the Zombie including a very nice #2.  They were all priced incredibly well and I got another little discount for cash. the only other dealer I found with some mags was Very Gary and I only found a decent copy of Savage Sword of Conan #5 that he sold me for twenty bucks. Pretty pleased with that.  Not pleased with the lack of magazines over all, oh well.  Bought a handful of nice Hulks and Tales to Astonish from Harley. Ate nasty cheeseburger. lived to tell the tale.

Friday I browsed a few aisles of the usual con junk to start the day and check out some of the changes, the addition of the gaming area and many more food vendors along the back walls. Unless I've missed them in the past? Was nice to see more video games, and other actual collectible things as opposed to endless vendors with mystery boxes and pops, although there were still plenty of those around.  On Thursday Dave & Adams guys tried to sell us on their $300 Carbo legacy mystery boxes, and honestly they didn't look terrible, but I don't do mystery boxes so passed. But I also passed on looking at their actual comics, so Friday I noticed the 75% off deal and took a look.  Immediately found two or three really nice books that after the discount turned out to be priced really nice.  I think people were mostly turned off by seeing the sticker price and not doing the actual math, so the boxes seemed mostly unpicked.  Built a huge stack, got an additional break for paying cash, was happy.  Also bought a small stack from High Grade Comics, but they weren't cutting quite the same sweet deals yet as it was only day 2.

Despite losing out on every single reservation I wanted except for the Cartoon Network Sunday thing, we got in to see Violent Night on Friday evening and that was pretty awesome.  Way funnier and more entertaining that it probably has any right to be, but also ultra violent. Don't take the kids.

Saturday I got to the con an hour after opening with my wife in tow. She's always super excited about following me around for a full day at Comic Con, but she's also a trooper and a very good bag holder during emergencies.  So we mostly browsed and people watched, but I once again hit the Dave & Adams booth, built an even bigger stack than the previous day and got an even bigger break on top via cash, bought more mags out of the single good mag box at the convention, then capped it off by seeing the Halloween Ends panel with Jamie Lee Curtis despite once again not having a ticket for it. I think most of the stand by line got in, so  /shrug

Wasn't a bad weekend. We even scored actual chairs to sit in for lunch on all three days.  

I didn't take any pictures. sorry.

 

“$300. Carbo “legacy” Mystery boxes”?

Run Forrest, Run!   

[Robot Man]

On 10/11/2022 at 7:44 AM, MisterX said:

Huh, usually someone starts a thread in Comics General about their experiences at NYCC. Maybe they still will.

In the meantime --

I went on Sunday. This year that was the only day I had free to go. I arrived early, waited about 45 minutes or so, and got to the main floor to look for books. I came loaded for bear, but only bagged a few chubby chipmunks.

I guess I should have done my due diligence before buying a ticket, but I was unpleasantly surprised by the smaller number of comics dealers at the show. (In my defense, I don't know if the exhibitor list was finalized when I bought my ticket back in May.) Quite a few dealers weren't there, or I couldn't find their booths. I'm pretty sure that --

Dale Roberts wasn't there. Superworld wasn't there. Basement comics wasn't there. JHV Associates wasn't there. Graham Crackers wasn't there. 

Thank God for Bob Storms! I picked up some books at his booth, and few others at, I think, Gary's Comics (?) and Reece's Comics.  I couldn't find anything on my list at Harley's booth, and nothing jumped out at me as an impulse buy. 

My impression is that the convention is making it a real hassle for comic dealers to attend. That, and/or it's become too expensive, with booth prices, hotels, etc. making the event a money loser.

There was a lot of discount stock being blown out, mid-grade books, sometimes dumped in boxes out of alphabetical order. I also saw a lot of books that probably should've been discounted to get them to sell. Mid-grade Gold Keys, stuff like that.

There were a lot of high-priced, slabbed wall books, mostly the usual suspects. I overheard a dad pointing them out to his kid, calling them "investment comics," and considering the prices, I found his statement discouraging.  In fact, I overheard a lot of people inquiring about wall books, only to be astounded at the prices before moving on. The rarified air of high-grade keys might be good for some of us in the hobby, but I think it's a serious barrier for new entrants. For all the slabs I saw, it seemed like only a handful of people were buying them.  I saw almost no one at the tables selling original art.

Once I gave up on hunting for books, I wandered around a little. If you had a booth selling fake, plastic katanas, you were rolling in money. There were huge booths for several anime attractions like One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and a few others. There were tons of vendors selling mystery boxes. There was an insane amount of people stampeding through the aisles. Lots of big strollers, big backpacks, cosplayers with wings, stuff like that.

I left at 1:45, and was glad to be out of there.

Honestly, I think this might have been my last NYCC. I wanted to go back one more time after Covid, but if this is a preview of what next year will be like, I'll skip it. 

The list of dealers that wern’t there is more significant than the ones that were. I would also add in Bedrock, Worldwide, Terry and a few others. The ones that were seem to be “making the circuit”. Maybe Harley would have been the only one with anything I would want. 

I collect more obscure and rare GA publishers. There is rarely much of that available and when it is, I have to think long and hard if I really want it bad enough.

Prices have gotton to the point where the average collector and even a lot of more seasoned or advance collectors like myself have been pretty much priced out. This is not good for the long term of this “hobby”. 

[tonytitan]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:44 AM, MisterX said:

Huh, usually someone starts a thread in Comics General about their experiences at NYCC. Maybe they still will.

In the meantime --

I went on Sunday. This year that was the only day I had free to go. I arrived early, waited about 45 minutes or so, and got to the main floor to look for books. I came loaded for bear, but only bagged a few chubby chipmunks.

I guess I should have done my due diligence before buying a ticket, but I was unpleasantly surprised by the smaller number of comics dealers at the show. (In my defense, I don't know if the exhibitor list was finalized when I bought my ticket back in May.) Quite a few dealers weren't there, or I couldn't find their booths. I'm pretty sure that --

Dale Roberts wasn't there. Superworld wasn't there. Basement comics wasn't there. JHV Associates wasn't there. Graham Crackers wasn't there. 

Thank God for Bob Storms! I picked up some books at his booth, and few others at, I think, Gary's Comics (?) and Reece's Comics.  I couldn't find anything on my list at Harley's booth, and nothing jumped out at me as an impulse buy. 

My impression is that the convention is making it a real hassle for comic dealers to attend. That, and/or it's become too expensive, with booth prices, hotels, etc. making the event a money loser.

There was a lot of discount stock being blown out, mid-grade books, sometimes dumped in boxes out of alphabetical order. I also saw a lot of books that probably should've been discounted to get them to sell. Mid-grade Gold Keys, stuff like that.

There were a lot of high-priced, slabbed wall books, mostly the usual suspects. I overheard a dad pointing them out to his kid, calling them "investment comics," and considering the prices, I found his statement discouraging.  In fact, I overheard a lot of people inquiring about wall books, only to be astounded at the prices before moving on. The rarified air of high-grade keys might be good for some of us in the hobby, but I think it's a serious barrier for new entrants. For all the slabs I saw, it seemed like only a handful of people were buying them.  I saw almost no one at the tables selling original art.

Once I gave up on hunting for books, I wandered around a little. If you had a booth selling fake, plastic katanas, you were rolling in money. There were huge booths for several anime attractions like One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and a few others. There were tons of vendors selling mystery boxes. There was an insane amount of people stampeding through the aisles. Lots of big strollers, big backpacks, cosplayers with wings, stuff like that.

I left at 1:45, and was glad to be out of there.

Honestly, I think this might have been my last NYCC. I wanted to go back one more time after Covid, but if this is a preview of what next year will be like, I'll skip it. 

i also stopped by high grade comics booth. had some nice comics. i bought my fantastic four 55 CGC 9.0 from bob

On 10/11/2022 at 10:44 AM, MisterX said:

 

[Foolkiller]

On 10/11/2022 at 9:48 AM, Robot Man said:

The list of dealers that wern’t there is more significant than the ones that were. I would also add in Bedrock, Worldwide, Terry and a few others. The ones that were seem to be “making the circuit”. Maybe Harley would have been the only one with anything I would want. 

I collect more obscure and rare GA publishers. There is rarely much of that available and when it is, I have to think long and hard if I really want it bad enough.

Prices have gotton to the point where the average collector and even a lot of more seasoned or advance collectors like myself have been pretty much priced out. This is not good for the long term of this “hobby”. 

Ted may be back -- but I doubt many others on this list will be.  Ritter was at the show (from Worldwide) but they were shopping only.  Terry I doubt will ever do another NYCC nor will Al, just no reason to.  Ben from Zapp didn't come back for this show, nor did JC Comics.  I think you may see Richie Muchin disappear from this show next year as well.  One of the big issues this year was load in was particularly difficult.  The public was there and spending money and I think many dealers were very happy -- but I also think smaller shows that cater to collectors who want vintage books can be equally as lucrative for many dealers and just less hassle.  one thing you can't deny though is that reed put the people in the building.  It was jammed and sold out all weekend.

[cms1]

On 10/11/2022 at 7:25 PM, Foolkiller said:

Ted may be back -- but I doubt many others on this list will be.  Ritter was at the show (from Worldwide) but they were shopping only.  Terry I doubt will ever do another NYCC nor will Al, just no reason to.  Ben from Zapp didn't come back for this show, nor did JC Comics.  I think you may see Richie Muchin disappear from this show next year as well.  One of the big issues this year was load in was particularly difficult.  The public was there and spending money and I think many dealers were very happy -- but I also think smaller shows that cater to collectors who want vintage books can be equally as lucrative for many dealers and just less hassle.  one thing you can't deny though is that reed put the people in the building.  It was jammed and sold out all weekend.

Zapp was supposed to do the show, but got screwed out of their normal setup.  I kinda of get the impression that regular comic vendors will soon be gone and there will only be the guys that sell the exclusive books.