Wizard World New Orleans -- January 5-7, 2018 0

[alexgreece]

Austin and I had a solid show there, we had good sales from high end slabs to low end raw books, and we also bought a large Silver collection, so it was definitely a good show all around. I talked with Dale and Bob who seemed pretty happy with their sales for the weekend as well. It seems like Wizard definitely listened to dealer feedback from last year, as the show only went until 9 Friday night, and though they did have a main stage, the speakers were facing away from all of the actual booths so it didn't impact sales. We will definitely be back next year.

[Dale Roberts]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 5:40 PM, mysterio said:

Glad you had a good show! Despite being a Wizard show I’ve always thought it was legit for books. I’ve been twice and would go in ‘19 if it works out. 

I don't get the hate for Wizard shows. I haven't done many of them that I didn't do very well at. Maybe I just choose better, but I have no complaint. And most of the guys I hear complaining rarely ever attend them. They are just hating to hate.

Besides that, the show is being run by new people. The new owner is apparently a billionaire. He and the CEO were both at the show this past weekend checking it out. They listen to dealers. Prices have actually gone down if you take advantage of their discounts and there was a pretty good guest list at the show this weekend. Show ends at 4 on Sunday which cuts off an hour of wasted time. The only complaint that I heard was that there were so many people who were trying to get Stan's autograph that it took forever and basically the space they had allotted for it was inadequate.

The management is trying to make the shows better. So far, they are being successful. I'm sure they will hit some bumps, but how does it help anyone for there to be a group of people who continually gripe about the shows?

[mysterio]

13 hours ago, Dale Roberts said:

I don't get the hate for Wizard shows. I haven't done many of them that I didn't do very well at. Maybe I just choose better, but I have no complaint. And most of the guys I hear complaining rarely ever attend them. They are just hating to hate.

Besides that, the show is being run by new people. The new owner is apparently a billionaire. He and the CEO were both at the show this past weekend checking it out. They listen to dealers. Prices have actually gone down if you take advantage of their discounts and there was a pretty good guest list at the show this weekend. Show ends at 4 on Sunday which cuts off an hour of wasted time. The only complaint that I heard was that there were so many people who were trying to get Stan's autograph that it took forever and basically the space they had allotted for it was inadequate.

The management is trying to make the shows better. So far, they are being successful. I'm sure they will hit some bumps, but how does it help anyone for there to be a group of people who continually gripe about the shows?

I was on the fence about whether to respond or not. I can’t tell if you’re talking about me, but since you quoted my post you might have been at least a bit. 

If you were talking to me directly, go back and take a look at who started 95% of the event threads for Wizard shows in the past 3-4 years to make sure the boards were aware of them. 

As for your “haters gonna hate” line of reasoning, I’ve personally been to about a dozen Wizard shows in three cities (Chicago, NO, Austin). The first two are good if you want a variety of dealers to shop for books, especially Chicago, and the third one used to be (09-10) but has become terrible. I can’t comment on the last two NO shows as I didn’t go, but Chicago has been declining in the number of comic dealers and overall booth occupied (reference the recent Chicago event threads for a variety of eyewitness opinions). 

The majority of posts referencing comic dealer participation at the other Wizard shows are negative. You’ll also notice that many Wizard show event threads receive no posts at all other than my bumps every couple of months. Is apathy considered hating?

As for management, I’m glad they are trying to improve, as all businesses should strive for this. Their image was done no favors by buying out local shows and then failing to deliver (i.e. scheduling and cancelling Albuquerque THREE times, scheduling and cancelling Orlando TWICE). The Pittsburgh market also seems to have been underserved by Wizard moving in. 

Personally, I am a huge fan of shows, large and small, and would much prefer that Wizard get back on the rails and deliver good shows that contribute to a healthy environment for comic conventions to thrive long term. That isn’t going to extend to sugar coating posts about Wizard shows being good COMIC shows if the evidence is not there. 

[1Cool]

14 hours ago, Dale Roberts said:

I don't get the hate for Wizard shows. I haven't done many of them that I didn't do very well at. Maybe I just choose better, but I have no complaint. And most of the guys I hear complaining rarely ever attend them. They are just hating to hate.

Besides that, the show is being run by new people. The new owner is apparently a billionaire. He and the CEO were both at the show this past weekend checking it out. They listen to dealers. Prices have actually gone down if you take advantage of their discounts and there was a pretty good guest list at the show this weekend. Show ends at 4 on Sunday which cuts off an hour of wasted time. The only complaint that I heard was that there were so many people who were trying to get Stan's autograph that it took forever and basically the space they had allotted for it was inadequate.

The management is trying to make the shows better. So far, they are being successful. I'm sure they will hit some bumps, but how does it help anyone for there to be a group of people who continually gripe about the shows?

The gripe I normally hear is the high ticket prices do not justify going from a buying books standpoint.  If you want to shell out $50 and go get a few autographs then Wizard is the show for you but with the $1,000 booth fees it usually scares away most of the small time dealers and you tend to see the same 4 or 5 big national dealers at each show.  I do think Wizard shows are great for dealers with a wall of key books which is why I hear mostly positive word of mouth from guys like you, Greg and Gator but the smaller part time dealers have definitely soured on setting up at Wizard shows.  The local Cleveland Wizard show is considered a huge success but the number of comic dealers that set up each year shrinks smaller and smaller.  I live 15 minutes away but I just can not justify buying a ticket to go to Wizard Cleveland.  Is that bashing Wizard shows? 

[Dale Roberts]

2 hours ago, mysterio said:

I was on the fence about whether to respond or not. I can’t tell if you’re talking about me, but since you quoted my post you might have been at least a bit. 

If you were talking to me directly, go back and take a look at who started 95% of the event threads for Wizard shows in the past 3-4 years to make sure the boards were aware of them. 

As for your “haters gonna hate” line of reasoning, I’ve personally been to about a dozen Wizard shows in three cities (Chicago, NO, Austin). The first two are good if you want a variety of dealers to shop for books, especially Chicago, and the third one used to be (09-10) but has become terrible. I can’t comment on the last two NO shows as I didn’t go, but Chicago has been declining in the number of comic dealers and overall booth occupied (reference the recent Chicago event threads for a variety of eyewitness opinions). 

The majority of posts referencing comic dealer participation at the other Wizard shows are negative. You’ll also notice that many Wizard show event threads receive no posts at all other than my bumps every couple of months. Is apathy considered hating?

As for management, I’m glad they are trying to improve, as all businesses should strive for this. Their image was done no favors by buying out local shows and then failing to deliver (i.e. scheduling and cancelling Albuquerque THREE times, scheduling and cancelling Orlando TWICE). The Pittsburgh market also seems to have been underserved by Wizard moving in. 

Personally, I am a huge fan of shows, large and small, and would much prefer that Wizard get back on the rails and deliver good shows that contribute to a healthy environment for comic conventions to thrive long term. That isn’t going to extend to sugar coating posts about Wizard shows being good COMIC shows if the evidence is not there. 

I'm not trying to slam you or anyone else in particular. In fact, the majority of the posts, I don't even know who wrote them. I probably should not have quoted you at all.

I do realize you post the Wizard threads. And as I said in my post, I am talking about people who never go to the shows, yet still complain. If you want there to be a good show in your area, you have to go to the shows. For those who don't realize, it all works together. If you don't go to the show, what incentive is it for either an increased number of dealers, or for those dealers who were there to come back. And it doesn't cost $50.00 to get in the door. Most of you could do everything you need to do in one day, and some of you even know a dealer who would get you in for free. 

Chicago might be declining from the very peak, but it still has more comics than almost any other show in the country. Typically almost every major dealer in the country is in attendance, even some from the west coast. I could literally spend 50K there anytime I wanted to do so and come home with great books and great deals. As for Pittsburgh and Albuquerque, those all fall in the previous management and I'm certain that the management failed to calculate other factors when purchasing the Pittsburgh show in particular. Those aren't the only shows which have been a flop. And I am not saying that they have everything worked out perfectly for each show. But they are trying.

My point is this, past "image" has nothing to do with what is currently going on, other than it makes it harder for Wizard to establish itself with its new plan. 

[mysterio]

1 hour ago, Dale Roberts said:

I'm not trying to slam you or anyone else in particular. In fact, the majority of the posts, I don't even know who wrote them. I probably should not have quoted you at all.

I do realize you post the Wizard threads. And as I said in my post, I am talking about people who never go to the shows, yet still complain. If you want there to be a good show in your area, you have to go to the shows. For those who don't realize, it all works together. If you don't go to the show, what incentive is it for either an increased number of dealers, or for those dealers who were there to come back. And it doesn't cost $50.00 to get in the door. Most of you could do everything you need to do in one day, and some of you even know a dealer who would get you in for free. 

Chicago might be declining from the very peak, but it still has more comics than almost any other show in the country. Typically almost every major dealer in the country is in attendance, even some from the west coast. I could literally spend 50K there anytime I wanted to do so and come home with great books and great deals. As for Pittsburgh and Albuquerque, those all fall in the previous management and I'm certain that the management failed to calculate other factors when purchasing the Pittsburgh show in particular. Those aren't the only shows which have been a flop. And I am not saying that they have everything worked out perfectly for each show. But they are trying.

My point is this, past "image" has nothing to do with what is currently going on, other than it makes it harder for Wizard to establish itself with its new plan. 

All this is fair. I would argue that Wizard does have to overcome their own legacy and get out of their own way in terms of cleaning up their image and growing their brand. Hopefully they will be able to do this, but they may not last the year. 

You're definitely right about Chicago, its my favorite show of the year.

The dealer room for Wizard at this point is a catch 22. People don't make an effort to attend the shows because there aren't enough dealers, but you're right that dealers won't come if they can't make any money. While you're correct that most of us around here could score passes for a Wizard show if we wanted to, the general public is paying $50 or more to get in the door (plus parking and ever escalating costs of the celebrity autograph or VIP package they want). This doesn't leave a lot of extra cash for books (again, from general buyers, which are needed to pad most dealers' bottom lines). I am not sure there is any fix for this, other than to provide some incentive for dealers to come back. Austin is a classic example of a show that had great dealers and books in the room several years ago, but the number of dealers (particularly national ones) dropped precipitously following 2011 or 2012 or so. Not sure whether it was more the lack of buyers or a rise in costs that kept the dealers from considering it, but whatever the factor/factors involved that show cratered. 

[Dale Roberts]

8 minutes ago, mysterio said:

All this is fair. I would argue that Wizard does have to overcome their own legacy and get out of their own way in terms of cleaning up their image and growing their brand. Hopefully they will be able to do this, but they may not last the year. 

You're definitely right about Chicago, its my favorite show of the year.

The dealer room for Wizard at this point is a catch 22. People don't make an effort to attend the shows because there aren't enough dealers, but you're right that dealers won't come if they can't make any money. While you're correct that most of us around here could score passes for a Wizard show if we wanted to, the general public is paying $50 or more to get in the door (plus parking and ever escalating costs of the celebrity autograph or VIP package they want). This doesn't leave a lot of extra cash for books (again, from general buyers, which are needed to pad most dealers' bottom lines). I am not sure there is any fix for this, other than to provide some incentive for dealers to come back. Austin is a classic example of a show that had great dealers and books in the room several years ago, but the number of dealers (particularly national ones) dropped precipitously following 2011 or 2012 or so. Not sure whether it was more the lack of buyers or a rise in costs that kept the dealers from considering it, but whatever the factor/factors involved that show cratered. 

That article is laughable. They could sell Wizard Chicago for 20 million dollars alone, plus as I said, their new owner is a billionaire. Not sure where the author of that came up with their numbers, but Chicago alone is a very valuable piece to leverage if it were needed.  A little smarter management and a little less wasting of money (particularly on the celebrity end) and they should be fine.

Peter was very forthcoming at the show. He stated last year was not good, but that things look very good going into the new year.

People have been predicting Wizard's demise for any number of years, yet here they are, coming off of an excellent show. When you combine that with the fact that they have the financial means to do basically anything they need to do now, I would predict they will be around for a while.

[mysterio]

7 minutes ago, Dale Roberts said:

That article is laughable. They could sell Wizard Chicago for 20 million dollars alone, plus as I said, their new owner is a billionaire. Not sure where the author of that came up with their numbers, but Chicago alone is a very valuable piece to leverage if it were needed.  A little smarter management and a little less wasting of money (particularly on the celebrity end) and they should be fine.

Peter was very forthcoming at the show. He stated last year was not good, but that things look very good going into the new year.

People have been predicting Wizard's demise for any number of years, yet here they are, coming off of an excellent show. When you combine that with the fact that they have the financial means to do basically anything they need to do now, I would predict they will be around for a while.

I agree that the situation is almost certainly not as dire as the article makes it out to be, but even a billionaire isn't going to be content to continually lose a few million a year. They've got some shows that are definitely profitable (NO & Chicago, for example) but those are currently outweighed by plenty of others that can't be making too much money (Des Moines being Exhibit A).

[1Cool]

2 hours ago, Dale Roberts said:

I'm not trying to slam you or anyone else in particular. In fact, the majority of the posts, I don't even know who wrote them. I probably should not have quoted you at all.

I do realize you post the Wizard threads. And as I said in my post, I am talking about people who never go to the shows, yet still complain. If you want there to be a good show in your area, you have to go to the shows. For those who don't realize, it all works together. If you don't go to the show, what incentive is it for either an increased number of dealers, or for those dealers who were there to come back. And it doesn't cost $50.00 to get in the door. Most of you could do everything you need to do in one day, and some of you even know a dealer who would get you in for free. 

Chicago might be declining from the very peak, but it still has more comics than almost any other show in the country. Typically almost every major dealer in the country is in attendance, even some from the west coast. I could literally spend 50K there anytime I wanted to do so and come home with great books and great deals. As for Pittsburgh and Albuquerque, those all fall in the previous management and I'm certain that the management failed to calculate other factors when purchasing the Pittsburgh show in particular. Those aren't the only shows which have been a flop. And I am not saying that they have everything worked out perfectly for each show. But they are trying.

My point is this, past "image" has nothing to do with what is currently going on, other than it makes it harder for Wizard to establish itself with its new plan. 

Just checked and tickets for the Cleveland Wizard show are running about $50 a day.  Friday a bit under and Saturday a bit over.  There are so few dealers set up I don't think I could get a dealers badge unless I get really lucky and I don't usually have too much trouble getting one for bigger shows.  Wizard is expensive and due to the lack of newness between different years there really is nothing to entice people to pony up $50 and those that do tend to not have much left in their pocket for comic books.  I'm glad you and Greg had a good show and appreciate you giving us a Con report since we don't seem to be getting many people coming on and expressing how Cons went.  I'd love t hear how the show went from a smaller local dealer stand point or someone who went there to buy (think we heard one guy was disappointed). 

[Dale Roberts]

1 hour ago, 1Cool said:

Just checked and tickets for the Cleveland Wizard show are running about $50 a day.  Friday a bit under and Saturday a bit over.  There are so few dealers set up I don't think I could get a dealers badge unless I get really lucky and I don't usually have too much trouble getting one for bigger shows.  Wizard is expensive and due to the lack of newness between different years there really is nothing to entice people to pony up $50 and those that do tend to not have much left in their pocket for comic books.  I'm glad you and Greg had a good show and appreciate you giving us a Con report since we don't seem to be getting many people coming on and expressing how Cons went.  I'd love t hear how the show went from a smaller local dealer stand point or someone who went there to buy (think we heard one guy was disappointed). 

There was plenty there to buy. One guy in particular sold his whole booth and it was primarily Silver Age. Harley bought some, Mark Haspel bought quite a bit, I bought quite a bit, Storms bought some, and several other guys bought from him before the Reece boys bought/traded him out of what was left.  I saw books at other tables as well, and I didn't really look that hard. 

Wizard Cleveland is 40.00 for Friday. Also $80.00 for 3 days. While I have never done it, I hear there are coupon codes you can get online, as well as they ran a huge black friday sale where you could have gotten 30% off ticket prices.

Typically Harley, Dave Kapelka, Bill Pappas, and others set up at that show.

[1Cool]

5 minutes ago, Dale Roberts said:

There was plenty there to buy. One guy in particular sold his whole booth and it was primarily Silver Age. Harley bought some, Mark Haspel bought quite a bit, I bought quite a bit, Storms bought some, and several other guys bought from him before the Reece boys bought/traded him out of what was left.  I saw books at other tables as well, and I didn't really look that hard. 

Wizard Cleveland is 40.00 for Friday. Also $80.00 for 3 days. While I have never done it, I hear there are coupon codes you can get online, as well as they ran a huge black friday sale where you could have gotten 30% off ticket prices.

Typically Harley, Dave Kapelka, Bill Pappas, and others set up at that show.

Did most of this buying occur on Thursday and Friday afternoon before the show started.  I enjoy getting first shot given by a dealers badge but just wondering if the booth mostly sold out before the public got in?

[Dale Roberts]

2 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Did most of this buying occur on Thursday and Friday afternoon before the show started.  I enjoy getting first shot given by a dealers badge but just wondering if the booth mostly sold out before the public got in?

My buying happened on Friday the day he sat up. The Reece boys got everything that was left Sunday at 3.

[BenF]

This was my first Con. I'm from La. and don't travel much so it was a must because of Stan being there. I brought my X-men 1 to get a pic of it with Stan.  After, I happened to be passing by CGC and figured it was high time I got my X-men 1 slabbed, so I went ahead and signed up for a membership. I plan on sending a bunch more books in soon. I seen way more quality comics than expected. Someone in line had an AF 15 that she let me hold for 5 seconds and take a pic. It was an absolute highlight for me. That and meeting artists that I've worshiped since I was a kid. Got my Superman 233 signed by Neal Adams!! It was crowded and loud, but I thought it just made it that much more fun!

[blazingbob]

On 1/10/2018 at 2:12 PM, mysterio said:

All this is fair. I would argue that Wizard does have to overcome their own legacy and get out of their own way in terms of cleaning up their image and growing their brand. Hopefully they will be able to do this, but they may not last the year. 

You're definitely right about Chicago, its my favorite show of the year.

The dealer room for Wizard at this point is a catch 22. People don't make an effort to attend the shows because there aren't enough dealers, but you're right that dealers won't come if they can't make any money. While you're correct that most of us around here could score passes for a Wizard show if we wanted to, the general public is paying $50 or more to get in the door (plus parking and ever escalating costs of the celebrity autograph or VIP package they want). This doesn't leave a lot of extra cash for books (again, from general buyers, which are needed to pad most dealers' bottom lines). I am not sure there is any fix for this, other than to provide some incentive for dealers to come back. Austin is a classic example of a show that had great dealers and books in the room several years ago, but the number of dealers (particularly national ones) dropped precipitously following 2011 or 2012 or so. Not sure whether it was more the lack of buyers or a rise in costs that kept the dealers from considering it, but whatever the factor/factors involved that show cratered. 

Lack of Sales, Lack of books to buy, lack of customers asking to see books = Bob doesn't do the show.

It is never personal,  it is all about the numbers.  And not just the selling numbers.  There are a number of factors that warrant me doing a show and I am always inclined to look at my selling first before I blame the promoter.  

[blazingbob]

On 1/10/2018 at 5:07 PM, 1Cool said:

Did most of this buying occur on Thursday and Friday afternoon before the show started.  I enjoy getting first shot given by a dealers badge but just wondering if the booth mostly sold out before the public got in?

You don't need "first shot" to make money at shows.  I didn't have first shot at Thursday and did just fine.  I even made money off buying from Dale 

[Dale Roberts]

2 hours ago, blazingbob said:

You don't need "first shot" to make money at shows.  I didn't have first shot at Thursday and did just fine.  I even made money off buying from Dale 

[greggy]

2 hours ago, Dale Roberts said:

Whoa