Heroes Convention 2006 Report

[RickHigh]

Banner, it was good to see you at the show. Just so everyone will know, those LB Cole covers look even better in person. Awesome pickups. Sorry I missed dinner guys. Hope you see you before next year's show.

 

Rick

[sterlingcomics]

Sorry I missed out on dinner. I spoke with arexcooke and he said he would call when things got firmed on location. Unfortunately I didn't check out the Comic Events thread in time. Next time you'll have to stay over so there won't be a rush. I have tons of Marriott points and can hook you guys up at no cost to you. My sister lives in Knightdale just outside of Raleigh so it's probable that I will be in your neighborhood at some point during the year...

 

Oh yeah...although PGX had a small booth tucked away at one end of the hall, they all looked professional and poised. In contrast CGC's table the folks there looked relaxed, and not uniformed.

[arexcrooke]

My con report:

I actually went down to Monroe (my homerown) on Thurdsay night. I visited my mom and took her out to eat and stuff like that. Had a good visit.

About a week before the show, Paul (silverandbronze) asked if anyone would be interested in helping out at the Toon Tumblers booth. I offered my help (and hopefully i was more of a help than a hinderance) and Paul and I worked out the details for Friday Thursday night.

 

So, I arrived Friday morning at 10:30, paid $7 to park (you need to remember that the largest town i have ever lived in had 25,000 in it, so paying to park somewhere is a foreign concept. I then proceeded to walk the block and a half to the convention center.

 

As was arranged, I called Paul when I got there and he met me upstairs and handed me an exibitors pass We go down the escaltor and Paul's booth was the first booth on the right as you walked through the door.

 

From there we start putting out the Toon Tumblers. Not trying to plug Paul's stuff, but these are quality glasses. If you dont have one, what the Juststopit.DoyouWANTastrike? are you waiting for. Paul has some really cool X-Men glasses and he added a Bronze Spidey that is really cool

 

We got the table set up and about the same time the doors opened. Paul had a deal with Shelton to hand out a certain number of glasses to the first 150 people everyday. Of course, Shelton mucked that up and gave out the wrong cards for the wrong day

 

Once we got that kinda straightened out, business was pretty steady and Paul seemed to be happy with the amount he was selling. I wont steal his thunder and will let him post if he so chooses.

 

Personally, I really went to the con for 2 reasons:

1-To help Paul out at his booth

2-To meet up, hang out with, and go to dinner with the fellas.

So the con was a tremendous success for me. There have been enough books on Ebay that are on my wantlist to keep from wanting anything. In fact, i didnt even buy a single book there. I did buy 5 trades:

Masterworks:

Avengers 1-10

X-Men GS-99

X-Men 100-110

JiM 11-120

Kree-Skrull War

 

I did take a few breaks from the booth and wandered the con floor. I walked around some with Rich (rahigh) and mostly with Banner and Sal.

 

As Mike said earlier, Chuck was in attendance. Mike and i were amazed as he was at 1 booth for about 2 hours (at least) thumbiung through .50/1 bins. Yes, he was working off of a checklist.

 

Talked to Don Rosa, and he seemed an eccentric enough fellow. Very nice and socialble. He and the guy sitting with him in his booth could not understand why people would want to buy books encased in plastic.

He derided the "investors" and cheered the "collectors", It seemed that in his mind these were the only 2 camps that people fall into.

 

As far as dealers and selection go, with the exception of Harley and Dale Roberts, there wasnt a large Slab contingent. However, there was a dealer selling modern 9.8's for $8.99 each or 10 or more for $5.99 each. He had literally 10-15 boxes jammed pack with 9.8 moderns.

 

I cant really comment on what the selection of books was like. The only book that I was really looking for was GL87, and of all the boxes I looked through, no one had a single copy, much less a 9.0/9.2 copy that I want.

 

At about 6:30 we started working our way to dinner. Due to various schedules, we kinda had a floating dinner going.

 

We ate at Uno's which was surpisingly good. I felt the service was excellent (the waitstaff never got peeved because we sat there for over 3 hours talking and not really doing a lot of drinking.) the food was good and the company was the best.

 

By the time I got there, Banner and Zonker had already ordered. I got a beer and a tea and started chatting with them. Buttock (Dan), Mrs. Buttock (dont remember her name ) and baby Buttock (john) arrived. John is 2 years old and adorable! They ordered and after they ate, Mrs. Buttock and Baby Buttock retired to their hotel room. Dan stayed around and we soon learned the story behind the IRS collection. Soon, Paul, Kris, (thecollector), Stephan (KingofRulers), Jeff (Stronguy), Anthony (Pirate) and a few others I dont remember their names arrived. Unfortunalty, Mark (Sal) showed up and it all went downhill from there

Lively and intelligent conversation was the rule of the day (yes, I know I was there, but i mostly kept my mouth shut )

 

We finally broke up the party at around 9:30 and we all retired to our various hotels or cars.

 

All in all, a great time and I look forward to attending the Baltimore show in September.

[jonjesper]

 

Arex and I stopped by and talked to Don Rosa for a while, not about his work, but about his collection! To paraphrase, Don indicated he was more than happy to sell his 9.6's and 9.8's to "investors", but was equally happy to sell his unslabbed books to "true collectors". We asked when he might sell his pre-1970 books, and it didn't sound like it would be any time soon as he had more of an emotional attachment to his earlier books.

 

 

 

Sooner than you think from what I was told in a phone conversation about a week ago....

 

Great report by the way!!!

[buttock]

My $0.02 (although I'm going to have to start charging more if I want to make Heroes every year)

 

Preliminary thoughts: I didn't go last year, but compared to 2 years ago, this is a really great show. Probably 1.5X as many people, and a much higher collector to weirdo ratio (I saw ZERO overweight women in spandex!) This is a really great show, and I'm lucky to be only 2 hours away. Now if we could only get a few more dealers from up north to come... The ToonTumblers are pretty cool! Anyone who's scared of them being glass is a insufficiently_thoughtful_person.

 

Anyway, after reserving my hotel room, I was notified that I had a meeting Friday afternoon from 1-3 PM . So we left about 3:45 and sped down I-85 jamming to "Finding Nemo" (thank God for portable DVD). Rolled in about 6:30 just in time to meet drbanner, arexcrooke, silverandbronze, thecollector, Zonker, pirate, and a handful of others at Unos. Stayed until 9:30 or so when the waitress started throwing glassware at us. Lots of good conversation and good people. I then meandered over to a friend's hotel room to finalize a trade we've had going for 9 months or so. After all that time, you'd think one of us would have counted the pages on the damn book. When all was said and done, I ended up with this rarity (CF missing )

 

 

and what will probably turn into a gorgeous Mystery Men 9. I got to bed about 2 AM.

 

I wandered around downtown from 8-9 AM the next day hunting down breakfast for the buttock clan (if I phrase it like that, I feel like a manly hunter-gatherer) and got into the show at about 9:15. I immediately found a sharp Superman 233 and HOM 174 - neither of which I was in the market for, but were upgrades of my personal copies and the price was right . I spent the rest of the day looking (hunting?) for some nice Atlas war and DC war, along with a few Neal Adams covers I haven't been able to track down yet. I bought a nice OAAW 56 and World's Finest 208 from Dale Roberts - who also had the nicest AAMOW 9 I've ever seen - but a little more than I would have been willing to pay for that copy. Then I went to Harley's booth and he was the ONLY person in the room with any Atlas war of interest. I ended up passing on everything since there weren't any great Heath or Severin issues - although he had some pretty nice Spy books. I had pulled out a book I wanted from him and he was holding it for me, but I got distracted and forgot to come back for it . With any luck it will make it via a friend. Harley ended up having the best stuff in the room (not surprisingly) both in terms of selection and quality.

 

From there, everything was pretty much a miss - until I ran into Bob Beerbohm's booth, of all places. He had some really nice stuff on the walls and in the boxes. I managed to plug 3 holes in my Tomahawk run with 9.2-9.6 books! That was completely unexpected, but welcome.

 

I ended up veering wide of Chris Foss' booth because I didn't have time to spare.

 

 

Interesting conversations of the weekend:

1) "I just got solicited by a prostitute"

2) "vasectomies, past and future"

3) "cauliflower ear"

4) "nuances of potty-training"

5) "how long would it take me to grow a perm-mullet like that?"

[drbanner]

Cool Headline!

 

From there, everything was pretty much a miss - until I ran into Bob Beerbohm's booth, of all places. He had some really nice stuff on the walls and in the boxes. I managed to plug 3 holes in my Tomahawk run with 9.2-9.6 books!

 

Scans?

 

I almost snagged a pretty nice Tomahawk 121...someday...maybe...soon?

[awe4one]

I did learn that my "longest known" forum member is actually Paul (silverandbronze), who was a participant on the Usenet comic message boards with me back in the pre-ebay days!

 

What was your USENET alias? Mine was James Corcoran (I was very leery and pretty much naive in using my real name on the "evil" Internet in those days) and posted on those comic boards for years...

 

Jim

[drbanner]

I did learn that my "longest known" forum member is actually Paul (silverandbronze), who was a participant on the Usenet comic message boards with me back in the pre-ebay days!

 

What was your USENET alias? Mine was James Corcoran (I was very leery and pretty much naive in using my real name on the "evil" Internet in those days) and posted on those comic boards for years...

 

Jim

 

I think I just used my email address, which back then was "ncg8or". Were you on the rec.arts.comics.marketplace boards? The archives go back to '91, and I did see an "Evan Corcoran" in the search.

[awe4one]

I think I just used my email address, which back then was "ncg8or". Were you on the rec.arts.comics.marketplace boards? The archives go back to '91, and I did see an "Evan Corcoran" in the search.

 

No...I was on the rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe and rec.arts.comics.misc boards...

 

Jim

[Ringfinger]

Great reports!!

[Sal]

I had e-mailed Sal and indicated I would probably be at the con; he had suggested that he would be at the finecomics table at around 2pm or so...I casually walked by (the booth was busy) and didn't see he was there.

 

uh, Ster, my PM to you is as follows;

 

i'll be stopping by the finecomics booth (807 & 809) around 2:30 and seeing how the day goes from there...

 

i was in Jeff's booth for about three hours. sorry i didn't get a chance to catch up with you.

 

 

 

i'll have to give a full con report later, but for me the most interesting part of the weekend was the guy who piled about 100 longboxes into his space, priced as follows; in a bag it's $1, not in a bag $.50.

 

the guy had bought out a store in 1991 and put the books in storage until this show.

 

some dealer got a Conan 1 in F/VF for $1, another got a TOD 10 in F for $1, there were literally hundreds of SA books in VG-VF condition that went for 50c...have you ever seen a guy set up at a show with a vastly underpriced booth and the resultant feeding frenzy?

 

not pretty my friends, not pretty at all

[THE_BEYONDER]

Did you take any pics of the feeding frenzy?

 

 

Can you track down Kevin Boyd & check on the status of my SS submissions?

[Sal]

Did you take any pics of the feeding frenzy?

 

sadly, it happened before i got there. i only heard secondhand. what a madhouse that must have been.

 

 

Can you track down Kevin Boyd & check on the status of my SS submissions?

 

i'll see what i can do

[sterlingcomics]

no problem, Sal. I believe I cut out early and was checking to see if maybe you had arrived before your stated time. It was all last minute anyway

 

Are you referring to the 50cent/$1 bin vendor? Maybe I should've investigated that one a little further...although all of this would've happened BEFORE it opened to the public, I assume.

[THE_BEYONDER]

[buttock]

 

Scans?

 

 

[buttock]

 

There's nothing wrong with this book

[buttock]

 

Or this one!

[tilleycs]

My 2006 con report

 

I went there yesterday (Saturday), driving from Raleigh. I'd never been to the Charlotte Convention Center (CCC) before, but it was very easy to find (fortunately). I'd never been to the con before, so I have nothing to judge it against. Even though Saturday was probably the busiest day, I didn't have to wait to get a ticket, and there was a short line at the escalator going downstairs. I was worried that it would be so crowded that you couldn't get into people's booths, but space really wasn't a problem, and I was there all day.

 

I went there to find comics that I needed for my full runs. I looked at some dealers' wall books, but more out of curiosity than anything else. I didn't go there to buy any big-ticket items, I didn't bother checking or comparing prices.

 

The convention, for my needs, was fantastic. It was dollar-comic Heaven. I got nice copies of dozens of books that I needed for a dollar each, or less (there were several 50-cent bins that I found stuff in). One dealer had "$1 each or 12 for $10", and I bought 24 from him. The oldest book I got was a decent reading copy of Flash (Barry) #213 for a dollar. I also got two Hulk paperback novels from the late 70's ("Stalker from the Stars" and "Cry of the Beast").

 

I got a lot of JLA Classified and JLA (the modern series) books, including #6, which I've needed for a while. I also got a lot of modern Hulk and What If (vol. 2 and the modern one-shot issues) issues. I also found Daredevil (vol. 1) 354 and 370 for a dollar each, which I was pretty happy with. Some issues near the end of vol. 1 have been tough to find at low prices.

 

I was hoping to find reading copies of Cap #241 and DD #380 for a dollar, but no luck.

 

The dealers that I talked to about the con overall said that most people had moved a lot of dollar-comic stock, but not many big-ticket items.

 

I went to the booth that had the comic store stock selling for .50 if it wasn't bagged. There were a bunch of short boxes stacked on top of each other, and it wasn't in alphabetical order. It was near the end of the day by the time I got there, and I had no energy left to go through all the boxes comic by comic, hoping to find something. Maybe if I'd hit it earlier in the day, but by then, forget it. I'd already dug through enough unorganized boxes. I was in and out of the booth in about a minute.

 

I had planned to take a bunch of pictures, but I was so busy going through dollar bins, I lost interest in taking pictures and took my camera back to my car. By the time I got done, the show was almost over for the day. I was worn out from digging through boxes. I found a lot of good stuff, and thankfully, a LOT of dealers had their dollar bins in alphabetical and numerical order, but not all of them did.

 

I got to meet finecomics (who was busy with customers, so I really didn't a chance to talk to him), thecollector (whom I met briefly), and Sal. I met a couple of other people who are forum members but don't post much. I enjoyed hanging out and walking around with Sal. Too bad I wasn't able to come on Friday.

 

I'm like arex, I didn't think about having to pay to park. I had to pay $8 to park, but it was right across from the CCC, so it was a very short walk back to my car (I'd take my comics back to the car when I'd fill up the bags they gave us; I'm glad I didn't have to lug everything around all day!).

 

I went back to my car and ate a breakfast bar (I bought a box at the grocery store as I was leaving to eat on the say) for lunch, and had some pizza at the Fuel restaurant across the street from the CCC for supper near the end of the con. I left probably around 6:30. Traffic wasn't bad going there or coming back, which was a little surprising considering it's a holiday weekend.

 

I saw some statues/busts that I'd love to have, but I've intentionally NOT started collecting them. The one I liked the most, I'd never seen before - it's a big statue of The Thing, based on the cover of Fantastic Four #51 ("This Man, This Monster"). I'd love to own it, but $150 is just too much. I didn't have that much money with me, anyway.

 

I'm not an autograph or sketch hound, so I didn't venture to that side of the room or upstairs during the signings. I also didn't attend any of the speeches/discussions, either, so I don't know how those were. I don't even know who all was there. I saw Don Rosa, but only because Sal pointed him out to me.

 

I picked up some extra programs if anyone would like one. I also got a couple of extra posters (the "Marvel Zombies" poster that is based on the Avengers #4 cover), but I'm not sure how to go about mailing those of someone wants them mailed flat.

 

All in all, I had a great time, and I'm glad I went. I'd been on a comic-buying moratorium since last year while we paid off some bills, moved, etc., so it was good to mark a lot of things off my want list. I hope I can go again next year.

[HouseofComics.Com]

You could probably mail flat posters the same way some people mail original art. Put it between stiff cardboard and then take a flat-rate priority mail box (the rectangular size, not the square size) and place the cardboard inside. The trick is, you don't turn the priority mail box into an actual box. You leave it flat and unassembled and just tape up the ends.

 

Marc