Mighty Con DuPage - Saturday Sept 30, 2023 (Wheaton, IL) 1 1

[captainzombie]

Hi all, there is going to be another con in the area next weekend.

Saturday Sept 30, 2023 (Wheaton, IL)

Hours: 10 am - 3 pm (early bird is at 9:30 am)

Admission is $8

https://mightyconshows.com/show/dupage

 

I'll be a vendor there and hoping that we have a good turnout.

[manetteska]

I was too late to sign up as a vendor, so will be there as a buyer/browser/complainer.

[captainzombie]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:17 PM, manetteska said:

I was too late to sign up as a vendor, so will be there as a buyer/browser/complainer.

How has this show been in the past as a vendor?

[manetteska]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:24 PM, captainzombie said:

On 9/27/2023 at 1:17 PM, manetteska said:

I was too late to sign up as a vendor, so will be there as a buyer/browser/complainer.

How has this show been in the past as a vendor?

I have only setup there 3 or so times over the years and it was always a good show for selling for the area. However, I haven't done it in a while and, overall, I'm hearing sales are slowing down at the other local shows.

Specifically at this show, one of the main dealers would make it his mission to hit most of the other dealers before the doors opened and make large piles of books to buy. I don't think he has done that in a while, or even shown up at this show (that spending spree alone would probably make it a good day for the majority of sellers).

@jsilverjanet has been setting up at this show consistently for years; he will have more comprehensive info.

[captainzombie]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:34 PM, manetteska said:

I have only setup there 3 or so times over the years and it was always a good show for selling for the area. However, I haven't done it in a while and, overall, I'm hearing sales are slowing down at the other local shows.

Specifically at this show, one of the main dealers would make it his mission to hit most of the other dealers before the doors opened and make large piles of books to buy. I don't think he has done that in a while, or even shown up at this show (that spending spree alone would probably make it a good day for the majority of sellers).

@jsilverjanet has been setting up at this show consistently for years; he will have more comprehensive info.

Thanks for the info. I setup at both Palos Heights and Orland Park these last two weeks and I will say that foot traffic was not that great at either show. I did pretty decent at Palos, while others did very bad. It was pretty dead most of the afternoon. Then at Orland Park, I didn't do so well which really sucked.

With this being in Wheaton, it should probably attract also some new people too vs. those last two shows you saw a lot of the same people going around from the past two weeks. 

That would be nice to have a dealer like that going on a spending spree.

[1Cool]

On 9/27/2023 at 2:34 PM, manetteska said:

I have only setup there 3 or so times over the years and it was always a good show for selling for the area. However, I haven't done it in a while and, overall, I'm hearing sales are slowing down at the other local shows.

Specifically at this show, one of the main dealers would make it his mission to hit most of the other dealers before the doors opened and make large piles of books to buy. I don't think he has done that in a while, or even shown up at this show (that spending spree alone would probably make it a good day for the majority of sellers).

@jsilverjanet has been setting up at this show consistently for years; he will have more comprehensive info.

Hector - you setting up at shows any longer?  Last I remember was you were selling books at any reasonable offer.  Hope you are doing well.

[jsilverjanet]

On 9/28/2023 at 9:07 AM, 1Cool said:

Hector - you setting up at shows any longer?  Last I remember was you were selling books at any reasonable offer.  Hope you are doing well.

yes i am setting up still - I've done 3 shows so far in September and this will be my 4th

@captainzombie I was at Orland Park also. Where were you? I was in the main room and had BOGO on my boxes

[jsilverjanet]

This continues to be the best local show in the area. 500+ attendees, with many customers that I only see at this show (outside of the big ones like Fan Expo/C2E2)

I hope the trend continues but I have seen a decrease in the market

[captainzombie]

On 9/28/2023 at 4:16 PM, jsilverjanet said:

yes i am setting up still - I've done 3 shows so far in September and this will be my 4th

@captainzombie I was at Orland Park also. Where were you? I was in the main room and had BOGO on my boxes

This will be my 3rd show this month. I was setup near the back right across from Randy Hogan's tables.

I did pretty well at the Southside Comic Book Show the week before in Palos, but at this Orland show we didn't sell much. The crazy part was that the show in Palos had very low foot traffic.

On 9/28/2023 at 4:17 PM, jsilverjanet said:

This continues to be the best local show in the area. 500+ attendees, with many customers that I only see at this show (outside of the big ones like Fan Expo/C2E2)

I hope the trend continues but I have seen a decrease in the market

I am glad to hear that this show continues to be good. Hoping good luck for both of us.

@jsilverjanet what is your vendor location, I will have to stop by and introduce myself?

[1Cool]

On 9/28/2023 at 5:17 PM, jsilverjanet said:

This continues to be the best local show in the area. 500+ attendees, with many customers that I only see at this show (outside of the big ones like Fan Expo/C2E2)

I hope the trend continues but I have seen a decrease in the market

My Con this weekend turned out great even with the obvious drop in people - how did yours go?

[jsilverjanet]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:05 AM, 1Cool said:

My Con this weekend turned out great even with the obvious drop in people - how did yours go?

it was decent, transactions were lower than before ($5-$10 vs $20) but overall number was consistent with what I normally make

 

[manetteska]

I received a last-minute notification I was off the wait list and had a table if I wanted one (actually, two tables as it turns out).

I'm not a "regular" dealer by any stretch, and mainly sell on eBay, so none of my stock was priced but, as Hector said, this is the "big" local con in this area and I didn't want to pass it up.

Thankfully, 95%+ of buyers understood they had to ask for prices, but I (tried) to make up for my unpreparedness by discounting prices a good amount.

I almost always go to this con as a buyer, arriving early and leaving around noon and there was always a line waiting to pay and get in. This year 10am (full opening) rolled around and the hall was empty. Hector was saying other local cons had a low turnout but I thought this one would be different -- it was not.

I can't speak to any market or buyer changes as I setup so infrequently, but even with the lower-than-expected attendance, I sold a lot in volume and price-wise.

My stock for this show was not Marvel/DC/Bronze/Copper/Modern -- it was almost exclusively weird indie stuff and Star Wars.

Edited October 2, 2023 by manetteska

[captainzombie]

On 10/2/2023 at 1:45 PM, manetteska said:

I received a last-minute notification I was off the wait list and had a table if I wanted one (actually, two tables as it turns out).

I'm not a "regular" dealer by any stretch, and mainly sell on eBay, so none of my stock was priced but, as Hector said, this is the "big" local con in this area and I didn't want to pass it up.

Thankfully, 95%+ of buyers understood they had to ask for prices, but I (tried) to make up for my unpreparedness by discounting prices a good amount.

I almost always go to this con as a buyer, arriving early and leaving around noon and there was always a line waiting to pay and get in. This year 10am (full opening) rolled around and the hall was empty. Hector was saying other local cons had a low turnout but I thought this one would be different -- it was not.

I can't speak to any market or buyer changes as I setup so infrequently, but even with the lower-than-expected attendance, I sold a lot in volume and price-wise.

My stock for this show was not Marvel/DC/Bronze/Copper/Modern -- it was almost exclusively weird indie stuff and Star Wars.

 

On 10/2/2023 at 11:11 AM, jsilverjanet said:

it was decent, transactions were lower than before ($5-$10 vs $20) but overall number was consistent with what I normally make

 

 

On 10/2/2023 at 11:05 AM, 1Cool said:

My Con this weekend turned out great even with the obvious drop in people - how did yours go?

It was nice meeting you guys this weekend at the con. I am glad that I was able to get into this one last minute as I did better this week than the one in Orland last week. It just seems like foot traffic is down quite a bit for these shows as I have noticed the last 3 weeks. The southside comic book show was good for us about 3 weeks ago, but after 12:00, we didn't have a single customer.

I have always attended this con as a buyer and it was much busier in the past, but at least we did have some nice foot traffic that came around.

I was able to sell a few lower priced slabs, and one guy made a pretty sweet trade with me on some slabs + cash.

Other than that, I primarily was also able to sell a good amount of my $2 books. Some of my wall books also went which was nice. Like you guys, we did have a lot of the lower priced items moving much faster than the pricier books.

Have you guys ever attended Mighty Con Madison and would it be worth it trying to sell at that show?

I was even considering Romeo-Con II in November, but I know that is more focused on toys, but I guess they are trying to also add comic book vendors.

[jsilverjanet]

On 10/2/2023 at 3:12 PM, captainzombie said:

 

 

It was nice meeting you guys this weekend at the con. I am glad that I was able to get into this one last minute as I did better this week than the one in Orland last week. It just seems like foot traffic is down quite a bit for these shows as I have noticed the last 3 weeks. The southside comic book show was good for us about 3 weeks ago, but after 12:00, we didn't have a single customer.

I have always attended this con as a buyer and it was much busier in the past, but at least we did have some nice foot traffic that came around.

I was able to sell a few lower priced slabs, and one guy made a pretty sweet trade with me on some slabs + cash.

Other than that, I primarily was also able to sell a good amount of my $2 books. Some of my wall books also went which was nice. Like you guys, we did have a lot of the lower priced items moving much faster than the pricier books.

Have you guys ever attended Mighty Con Madison and would it be worth it trying to sell at that show?

I was even considering Romeo-Con II in November, but I know that is more focused on toys, but I guess they are trying to also add comic book vendors.

I've heard Madison is good foot traffic but never attended it as buyer/seller

Romeocon did fantastic foot traffic last time due to heavy promotion from the mayor, but his shows are primarily toy shows (Funko) however not sure what sales were like (don't know anyone who did it)