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Calgary Comic Expo 2012 Stunning

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Calgary was a massive, hectic, crowded show and I'm still feeling dazed and scattered. Please be patient as I try to order my thoughts and get this thread rolling.

 

Back story. Kimik, Piper, Artboy99, 500club and myself met on the boards a few years ago and decided to meet in person. After a few beer and wings outings we decided to go to a local show and sell our under copies and odds and ends. We did well enough to go to another show and another show and now we have 4 years of shows, 4 or 5 shows a year, under our belts.

 

It is fun to sell books and use that money to buy keepers for our collections but I certainly see myself as an advocate for collectors and I want to sell the right book, graded accurately, to the right guy for a fair price. I believe the other guys feel the same way.

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Show opened Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Kimik had to pass on the show at the last minute due to family commitments. Artboy99 and I drove 200 miles south from Edmonton and 500club drove 125 miles south from Lacombe for the show.

 

Artboy and I arrived around noon. 500club had already setup our wall rack and hauled his books in and was probably out for lunch. The show is pretty well organized and unloading was easy. Before we even had our cart stopped in front our booth Harley and a few other dealers were ripping the tops off our boxes and pulling books out. I was a bit put off as I don't think they even asked if they could look, they just swarmed us. Harley has a great eye, naturally, and managed to pull many good books in short order but I was surprised to see him pull a super obscure Canadian White out of my odds and ends GA short box. I think most pros would have missed it in a quick scan.

 

I gave Harley a price, he tried to bump me down and I flat out told him I was a collector who paid retail and I couldn't sell sell keys and demand books for less. He took them all and I'm sure they are all on his wall at 30 to 40 percent over GPA.

 

The dealers across from us were from Winnipeg and buying mostly for their personal collections. They paid fairly and took some great books like GIC87 and Four Color 203 in high grade. Throughout the show they came back to our booth and bought more quality GA and 50s books and they were a pleasure to meet.

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Once the vultures had circled and picked us clean I noticed that the booth behind us stuck out into the aisle about 3 feet more than us. I knew the advance sales for this show were huge and I knew at least 20 friends making the 200 mile drive from Edmonton to Calgary, most of which had never been to a Comic Con, and I knew that as the crowds walked down the aisle they would bunch up in front our booth and become a problem. We discussed asking the organizers if we could move our table out and Harley told us to just do it and the worse thing that would happen would be being told to move it back. We did and it gave us an extra 3 or 4 feet to move around in our booth. Harley then said that we could probably fit a 4 ft table at the front of our expanded booth and he had seen some 4 ft tables in the back. A few minutes later Harley came back dragging the table. This isn't his first rodeo.

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Now our booth had a 12 ft front table and a 8 foot side table. We moved the tables a bit further out to give us an entrance at the side and we started putting our books out. 1/2 way into setup the organizers announced that the doors were opening for the VIP ticket sales. :curses: We hustled to get our box tops off and our display wall populated. Next came the hoards of people.

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

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I would kill to be able to do this stuff! Sounds like so much fun.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

It is fun but it is a ton of work. Try it for a few shows and you will soon have a great deal of respect for dealers. Load in and load out is tiring and a 3 day show is a physical and mental grind. And a dealer doesn't just show up and rake in the money. He spends many hours buying inventory, grading and pricing and bagging and boarding and preparing for the show. Then he has to put on a smile and listen to low ball offers, tell people how much their Spawn #1 is really worth and direct people to the bathroom or ATM.

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

 

Dead on. Not to mention buying hundreds of $$ worth of bags and boards. I spent at least a month preparing for this show.

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I know there's a ton of work involved. I don't mind that at all when it's working with stuff I am so passionate about. Sadly, the cash isn't there to do, nor will it be. I still can dream, though.

 

On with the reports! :)

 

Peace,

 

Chip

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

 

Dead on. Not to mention buying hundreds of $$ worth of bags and boards. I spent at least a month preparing for this show.

 

I enjoy shows but I find the mental stress to be immense, trying to control the crowed, answer questions and just keep track of inventory.

 

 

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

 

Dead on. Not to mention buying hundreds of $$ worth of bags and boards. I spent at least a month preparing for this show.

 

I enjoy shows but I find the mental stress to be immense, trying to control the crowed, answer questions and just keep track of inventory.

 

 

Imagine doing four shows in a row then.

 

On with the report!! Looking forward to it. :popcorn:

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Sales were steady through Friday. Show didn't close until 8 pm so we were pretty tired.

 

New boardie Gyro/Randy stopped by. Vern came by with a backpack of GA books and I pulled out a Marvel Mystery 20 in lovely mid grade with wonderful colour and purchased it. I think I've purchased one good book from him at each of the last 4 or 5 shows in Calgary. There are lots of great books out there so I always go out of my way to buy from people I like and from collectors who love the books. And I'm not slagging dealers here as some of them are honest and are great to deal with and I often do.

 

About 10 of us went to the keg for supper. Gyro, 500club, Artboy, couple guys I play hockey with, purse and clothing seller we knew who set up across the aisle. Somehow I made a wrong turn in the dark and we drove beside a railway yard for miles. When we finally turned around we saw a welcome to Calgary sign. We were miles off course. The four passengers in my car tortured me with laughter throughout the drive. We finally arrived at the restaurant to find the other 1/2 of our group had finally found a table in the crowded restaurant.

 

We were starved and the meal was great and we had a great time. Liaton/Liam was in town but couldn't make supper Friday.

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

 

Dead on. Not to mention buying hundreds of $$ worth of bags and boards. I spent at least a month preparing for this show.

 

I enjoy shows but I find the mental stress to be immense, trying to control the crowed, answer questions and just keep track of inventory.

 

 

The guys across from us showed Artboy a trick people were using to steal books. Pull it out to look at it and then then slide it back at the front of the box in front of the inner flap and slide it down through the box and under their coat. Artboy then tried it on me while I was looking right at him. I never saw a thing. Note to self, tape the bottom of every box at the front where one fold of cardboard meets the other to close this loophole.

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Sounds like so much fun.

Chip

It is a LOT of prep work. Will take you at least 1 full month to grade and price your vintage comics plus 1 week to figure out how to build/erect a wall display, arrange for booth space, hotel, parking, food, gas bill for mini-van or big SUV, etc.

 

Dead on. Not to mention buying hundreds of $$ worth of bags and boards. I spent at least a month preparing for this show.

 

I enjoy shows but I find the mental stress to be immense, trying to control the crowed, answer questions and just keep track of inventory.

 

 

Imagine doing four shows in a row then.

 

On with the report!! Looking forward to it. :popcorn:

 

4 shows in a row is tough but fortunately bags of Mylar and backing boards don't weigh anything. :tonofbricks:

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