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Wizard World Austin -- November 17-19, 2017
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Started by mysterio,

40 posts in this topic

Trev

Trev

Posted
Posted

I spent a few hours at the show yesterday evening. I really enjoyed visiting with the dealers and picking up books. I tried to spend some with every dealer I wanted to return to the show. There aren't any other shows in Austin, so want to encourage more dealers to come to this one.

 

The high points:

 

1. It was the best layout I've seen at the show for years. Aisles were organized primarily by what they were selling -- all the comics dealers were relatively close together. Then AA, then the celeb pics at the back.

2. Picked up books from almost all the dealers. High Grade, Duncanville, Black Cat, Monster Lair, Rick's

3. Was able to spend a few hours there rather than the 20-30 min I spent last year.

 

The low points:

 

1. Still no carpeting on the show floor. This really detracts from the atmosphere and I'm sure doesn't help the people standing in booths all day

2. It's a single day show that runs over 2.5 days. I don't see any reason anybody would necessarily need to be there all 3 days.

3. AA needs work -- too many prints, not enough published artists, and the few they had that were published were guys from the 90's selling photostats of original art for $20 a piece.

4. I would say Wizard used up about 50% of their available space and that was even spreading things out quite a bit. They could cut their rates in half, fill the hall, and do better from a dealer and attendee perspective.

 

Here are the pics I took of the dealers, etc.

 

LOTS of available space

 

20160923_213830776_iOS_zps9ainh50i.jpg

 

High Grade

 

20160923_220011548_iOS_zpssvztvvwg.jpg

 

Duncanville

 

20160924_002242549_iOS_zps76krrn9a.jpg

 

Black Cat and Monster's Lair

 

20160924_002249087_iOS_zpsyqylt4jd.jpg

 

Rick's Comic Crypt

 

20160924_002301996_iOS_zps6wuct4pw.jpg

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DvilleBookstore

DvilleBookstore

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Posted

We set up at the show for the first time in three years and I will tell you it was not a horrible show sales wise for us. We sold some nice keys and some box stock too but overall, it was a grind. There was some quality books in the room. Rick from Rick's Comic Crypt always has a nice wall of keys, from silver age to modern age and fairly priced table stock. Rob from Monster's Lair and Boyd from Black Cat Comics shared a corner booth across from us. Boyd had stocked up on some cool golden age romance and horror comics as well as lots of silver age keys. Rob brought a good selection of modern to silver age keys and variants for his wall and had just about the only $1.00 boxes in the room, with a good selection of modern marvel and dc books that were already bagged and boarded. Bob Storms from High Grade Comics made the trip and set up with an inventory that is only brought out for shows in this region so it has not been picked through, as well as a fantastic wall of silver age and golden age keys, including a very nice presenting Detective Comics #31. There was a handful of other dealers in the room with an assortment of modern age keys so no one can say that there wasn't comics in the room but I am not sure how many comic buyers decided to show up. This show has plenty of problems and I am not sure Wizard can or will fix them. One of the reasons we chose not to set up at this show the past three years was because it was a two day show, Friday and Saturday, on Halloween weekend. I thought going back to a three day show would be a good thing but it was not. This show needs to be a two day show, Saturday and Sunday, with a $20.00 entrance fee and booths need to cost $500.00. None of this will happen though. There is also a LOT of competition in Texas for shows and I think that hurts this show as well. In three weeks, the buyers have Fan Expo Dallas and at the end of October is Alamo City Comic Con. Both shows are cheaper to get in to, will have a better selection of dealers and will have more comic guests. We were asked several times if we would be attending those two shows, which we always do. So overall, as a vendor, it was slow but eventually worth our time and effort to set up. It was great to see quite a few people from the Austin area that we have not seen in a while. As a comic buyer, I would suggest that you not completely give up on the show but it is good for only one day.

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mysterio

mysterio

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  • Author
Posted
We set up at the show for the first time in three years and I will tell you it was not a horrible show sales wise for us. We sold some nice keys and some box stock too but overall, it was a grind. There was some quality books in the room. Rick from Rick's Comic Crypt always has a nice wall of keys, from silver age to modern age and fairly priced table stock. Rob from Monster's Lair and Boyd from Black Cat Comics shared a corner booth across from us. Boyd had stocked up on some cool golden age romance and horror comics as well as lots of silver age keys. Rob brought a good selection of modern to silver age keys and variants for his wall and had just about the only $1.00 boxes in the room, with a good selection of modern marvel and dc books that were already bagged and boarded. Bob Storms from High Grade Comics made the trip and set up with an inventory that is only brought out for shows in this region so it has not been picked through, as well as a fantastic wall of silver age and golden age keys, including a very nice presenting Detective Comics #31. There was a handful of other dealers in the room with an assortment of modern age keys so no one can say that there wasn't comics in the room but I am not sure how many comic buyers decided to show up. This show has plenty of problems and I am not sure Wizard can or will fix them. One of the reasons we chose not to set up at this show the past three years was because it was a two day show, Friday and Saturday, on Halloween weekend. I thought going back to a three day show would be a good thing but it was not. This show needs to be a two day show, Saturday and Sunday, with a $20.00 entrance fee and booths need to cost $500.00. None of this will happen though. There is also a LOT of competition in Texas for shows and I think that hurts this show as well. In three weeks, the buyers have Fan Expo Dallas and at the end of October is Alamo City Comic Con. Both shows are cheaper to get in to, will have a better selection of dealers and will have more comic guests. We were asked several times if we would be attending those two shows, which we always do. So overall, as a vendor, it was slow but eventually worth our time and effort to set up. It was great to see quite a few people from the Austin area that we have not seen in a while. As a comic buyer, I would suggest that you not completely give up on the show but it is good for only one day.

 

Thanks for the detailed report! :applause:

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Trev

Trev

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Posted
Back on the schedule.

 

and back to November! grrr. I was hoping they would avoid the holiday season again.

 

wizard really needs some leadership changes. what they do with this show makes almost 0 sense. I remember when people were afraid to schedule something near a wizard show -- now I think it would be tempting to setup a comics only show opposite wizard at the palmer center.

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mysterio

mysterio

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Posted (edited)

About two months away. The guest list is pretty solid as far as celebs go, but the comic side is pretty weak. Stan Lee cancelling will not help ticket sales...

I miss the glory days of this show, it used to be a lot of fun.

Edited by mysterio
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1Cool

1Cool

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Posted

So based on the pictures at the top of the page we can say for certain the number of comic book dealers was WAY down for this show even compared to last year?  Yet another nail in the coffin of the theory that the comic con bubble has popped for comic book dealers.

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THB

THB

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Posted (edited)

More like Comic dealers are bailing from shows that lose their focus. The only Wizard World here in San Antonio was a joke. It is not hard to see why they are going under. I had my best year ever at shows here in San Antonio.

Edited by THB
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