Heroes Con 2023 - Charlotte NC - June 16-18 (STERANKO, SIENKIEWIC, CLAREMONT, THOMAS, JRJR, SHOOTER, FRENZ, GRELL, more!) 2 2

[Sackolantern]

I spoke with a few dealers, and one mentioned they were having a great weekend - as of late Friday afternoon, when I asked!

Off the top of my head, I spoke with dealers who trekked in from Baltimore, Detroit, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and that was just the few I asked, or who displayed their locality. At least one guy with a very nice stock said he doesn't have a store; he's a local collector who decided to set up a booth at the show.

I spent too much time in signature lines, but got 2 commissions, and a few odds and ends.

Also of note; a really good vibe at the show. Maybe it was the good clear weather and low Temps (low 80's) instead of mid 90's, the long holiday weekend or both, but just a positive feeling/atmosphere all weekend!

Maybe the just-announced NCComicon return for November will be the same! Arthur Adams as the main draw so far.

July also has Raleigh Galaxycon for your TV and movie person fix, along with a host of comics people; Clayton Crain, Billy West, Peter Cullen among them.

 

 

[Sackolantern]

Looks like my shot to the right only reached aisle 1400... the room extended all the way to 2200.

[Robot Man]

On 6/17/2023 at 8:53 PM, gumption said:

Here’s my meager haul from the show. Finding one AAC at a show always feels like a lucky strike, whereas finding six is the mother lode. Four I needed for my run, the 83 is an upgrade, and the 65 undercopy is headed to a collector friend in the UK. 
This was my first visit to Charlotte and I had a blast. Yes, this did feel a lot like a comic collector’s show. The first couple of hours on Friday morning - the calm before the storm - was perfect to find those first dibs. And for the first few hours, I didn’t notice any cosplayers, non-comic book, or Etsy stuff at all.
Quite honestly, I kept finding new Golden Age gems throughout the two days I attended. Harley even emailed me back, saying he got fresh stuff in on Friday late afternoon.

There were lots of big name dealers and certainly a good number of mom-and-pops… some of whom made a long trek to NC… because this show has that longstanding cred and reputation of being a collector’s show.
Definitely hope to make it back next year.

Nice group of All Americans! How was pricing on GA at the show?

I went years ago and was very impressed with the selection of vintage books there. 

[PsylockeSmythe]

I was only able to go on Saturday and had the wife and our middle grandson with us this year, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to browse and look for books that I needed to finish off runs.  I was able to pick up an X-Men #6 and #67, which was my minimum goal while at the show, so I'm now down to 13 books to complete my run of X-Men 1 to 400.  The #1 when I bite the bullet will be the painful one on my pocketbook, but the other 12 are all in the 70's and 80's, so those won't be too bad.

Looking forward to next year and hopefully having more time to look for what I want

Psy

 

[joeypost]

The show seemed light, but it was steady. This was sometime Saturday. 
 

[1Cool]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:13 PM, joeypost said:

The show seemed light, but it was steady. This was sometime Saturday. 
 

Wow - that was the crowds on Saturday?  I thought the earlier pictures may have been late Sunday or Friday.  Looks very light for a Saturday.

[gumption]

On 6/19/2023 at 7:41 AM, Robot Man said:

Nice group of All Americans! How was pricing on GA at the show?

I went years ago and was very impressed with the selection of vintage books there. 

I only looked at GA DC books and thought they were priced fairly. Wish I had brought another $3K to buy a couple of issues of Prize Comics. But I also saw some Fox and lots of Timelys... books that are out of my league and don't really follow, and I was told that pricing on some of those were a bit high.

Comparing this to the comic-centric shows I've attended in the past 18 months (e.g. Collectors Summit, Cal-Comic Con), Heroes had 2x or 3x the number of vintage dealers, from big names to mom-and-pops. And there was so much variety with just the Golden Age stuff.

The convention floor at Heroes Con is L-shaped, and it seemed like the front half of one wing was packed with comic dealers (the back half had creators). The other wing had the Etsy stuff, and more of the Indy Creators. CGC on-site grading also had a big presence here.

[gumption]

On 6/19/2023 at 11:28 AM, 1Cool said:

Wow - that was the crowds on Saturday?  I thought the earlier pictures may have been late Sunday or Friday.  Looks very light for a Saturday.

The crowd was pretty solid on the Saturday... it's just that the convention floor along the main aisles is very roomy. But the cross aisles had less room between facing dealers.

[thehumantorch]

On 6/14/2023 at 8:17 PM, Timmay said:

Tom Cruise? 

[Sackolantern]

They opened the hall into the L shape last year, or was it earlier, but still recent. This opened up space a bit, making it easier to get through thinner crowd density.

My earlier pics were from later afternoon Saturday. I will concur that crowd #s seemed down, and the NASCAR HOF parking deck seemed much less crowded than previous years (not fighting for space this year).

That said, it seemed to go well for dealers and shoppers.

[joeypost]

It seemed everyone in attendance was shopping and buying. Not too many tire kickers this year. 

[joeypost]

There were some dealers I desperately tried to spend money with, but their pricing was Covid peak squared. 

[PsylockeSmythe]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:28 PM, 1Cool said:

Wow - that was the crowds on Saturday?  I thought the earlier pictures may have been late Sunday or Friday.  Looks very light for a Saturday.

Best guess is that was early Saturday shortly after it opened.  

We were there from about 10:45 to 2pm and there were more people there than that picture shows.  The one good thing is that since they have started to use the whole hall area, the booths are spaced pretty well so that if people are digging through boxes on both sides of an aisle, people can still get by.  Though there were a few spots that we had to wait for the people to move before we could continue to walk down that aisle.

Psy.   

[StingerMcK]

Yeah with every hall open now, the crowds look deceptive. Gone are the days of bumping into box divers, as you walk though the isle.

Saturday was loaded, the newer part where CGC and Claremont were at was crowded. I didn't even try to get over there on Saturday. Sunday was slow though with several dealers packing up early. 

I was looking at a lot of DC gold on the walls and prices were high. But plenty of deals in the boxes. 

[1Cool]

On 6/19/2023 at 3:26 PM, joeypost said:

It seemed everyone in attendance was shopping and buying. Not too many tire kickers this year. 

Do you think that was because of the deals being offered at some booths or was it something else?  I'd think the number of pre-show flippers and big buyers would be way down.

[jjonahjameson11]

I was at the show Fri and Sat and the crowds were much, much lighter than last year.

while it’s true that several dealers were still asking peak Covid prices, others seemed to be concerned about the light crowds and were very willing to bargain by mid-day Saturday.

I’ve been told by several dealers that Sunday was dead

[Robot Man]

On 6/19/2023 at 1:00 PM, StingerMcK said:

Yeah with every hall open now, the crowds look deceptive. Gone are the days of bumping into box divers, as you walk though the isle.

Saturday was loaded, the newer part where CGC and Claremont were at was crowded. I didn't even try to get over there on Saturday. Sunday was slow though with several dealers packing up early. 

I was looking at a lot of DC gold on the walls and prices were high. But plenty of deals in the boxes. 

Almost always the case. Wall books usually only suck me into the boxes where the good deals are for those willing to do the work. 

[Robot Man]

On 6/19/2023 at 12:27 PM, joeypost said:

There were some dealers I desperately tried to spend money with, but their pricing was Covid peak squared. 

Who were some of the dealers with nice books priced fairly? 

[StingerMcK]

TNT comics went half off the entire booth on Sunday.  A friend, my wife and I cleaned up there. Dave's comics had a lot of good deals.  Worldwide had an amazing high grade GA booth.

[Dale Roberts]

On 6/19/2023 at 1:28 PM, 1Cool said:

Wow - that was the crowds on Saturday?  I thought the earlier pictures may have been late Sunday or Friday.  Looks very light for a Saturday.

It's aint the quantity that matter, but the quality.