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Baltimore Comic Con Photo Report(s) - October 2019
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211 posts in this topic

On 10/21/2019 at 9:13 AM, miraclemet said:

Another great year, would love to hear from the dealers if they felt sales were up or down from last year. 

Im a GA collector and all I'll say was this show was the BEST for raw GA that I've been to in years. I could have spent 3 days going through the GA dealer stock. So much great stuff in the $200-600 range, which often is not there (it's bad when it's $10k books on the wall and animal books in the boxes). Multiple dealers said they had new GA collections on the wall and in boxes.

The CGC Sunday 5pm pickup line was worse this year than last. Maybe because they weren't letting submitters know when their books were ready so EVERYONE went at 5pm. Last year my submission status got updated when the books were graded and I went and picked them up, this time it seemed like no one got notified that their books were ready so everyone was there at 5. I submitted books in the first hour on Friday and another submission at 5pm on Friday, and both are still in Grading/Quality Control status... last year they actually updated when they were graded. 

Everyone I talked to said the same thing (which was an echo from last year and the year before) BCC is a comic book show first and foremost and the dealers love it. The few "celebs" that are there are typically smaller potatoes and are relegated to the side of the show. The dealers love that there's less emphasis on cosplay and such too. 

As far as costs go, it's still an affordable con. 1 day tickets were $30, parking was $20 for the day within a block of the convention center. Saturday had the down-side of being the same time as the Baltimore Marathon, not sure how that affected people (I went Friday and Sunday). It rained cats and dogs on Sunday, which Im sure made load out lots of fun... 

Its a very kid friendly con. Artists engaged my daughter, there were multiple kid-centric activities going on each day, and I saw many dealers who were happy to chat up the kids about comics (including one fun explanation about how Mr Fantastic was a ripoff of Plastic Man, not the other way around as the kid proposed)

I simply "MUST" attend BCC.  I've heard nothing but great things about it.  Thank You 1Cool for post this thread.  It's simply amazing. So many comic book dealers - AWESOME!  I hope to make it out there next year. 
I think this is "THEEE" show to be at  from what I've been reading in this thread.  
I will attend ASAP! 

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7 minutes ago, musicmeta said:

How hard is it to get tickets and accommodations? Is it like the San Diego Comic Con where it's really tough to get tickets and the hotels raise their prices pretty high?  
Have to buy your tickets...like now...for next year's show?  
 

Not as hard as SDCC for tickets. Weekend tickets might sellout before the show, but I'm pretty sure you could buy one day tickets at walkup.

Hotels close to the convention center do need to be booked well I'm advance I believe. Still not as crazy as SDCC.

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2 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

Not as hard as SDCC for tickets. Weekend tickets might sellout before the show, but I'm pretty sure you could buy one day tickets at walkup.

Hotels close to the convention center do need to be booked well I'm advance I believe. Still not as crazy as SDCC.

Great! Thank You for the info. 

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48 minutes ago, musicmeta said:

How hard is it to get tickets and accommodations? Is it like the San Diego Comic Con where it's really tough to get tickets and the hotels raise their prices pretty high?  
Have to buy your tickets...like now...for next year's show?  
 

Definetely do not need to worry about tickets selling out far ahead of time and I think some people even used a Groupon code a few months from the show.  Nothing like SDCC in terms of media blitz and people waiting in lines everywhere.  I paid a bit over $100 a night for the Sheraton (parking was $30 a day) which i got thru Hotwire and was very happy with the price and location.  I had one big Con I could go to this year and I chose BCC and I think I chose very well and I'll definitely do my best to come back next year.

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4 hours ago, speedcake said:

Well I'm always down for splitting hotel costs for a weekend. Or sleeping at the train station.  In Baltimore. I'm sure it's fine.  :popcorn:

I remember cramming a dozen guys in sleeping bags and eating at Denny’s so you could spend all your money in the dealers room at the SDCC at the El Cortez. Good times!

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3 minutes ago, shortboxed said:

One customer literally asked, "Your prices are really, really fair. Why?" My response: (shrug)

It was great meeting you @1Cool!

Thank you @comicjack! Always a pleasure seeing you at cons - looking forward to seeing you again at Terry's show in Jan. 

We've been to the con as just attendees the past few years, but this was our first time setting up at the show as well as our first East Coast show (we're from Seattle and San Francisco). It was so much fun meeting people from the boards and Instagram and just having a ton of fun after the con, too. Thanks to all the boardies who stopped by to say hi!

Here are a few shots of our booth, as well as some fun pics we took with cosplayers holding their first appearances or key issues:

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Great set up and beautiful books. Great to see some “new young blood” on the scene. Hope you guys did well!

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6 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

I remember cramming a dozen guys in sleeping bags and eating at Denny’s so you could spend all your money in the dealers room at the SDCC at the El Cortez. Good times!

I’m used to five or six in the room at Dragon Con. More money for the dealer hall, the better!

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On 10/21/2019 at 9:36 AM, justafan said:

Just curious but what shows do you normally attend for less than that tat are not local?  I'm pretty surprised at this compared to how much so many other equally big shows cost.  For admission pricing, BCC is hard to beat.  Now I hear you about the parking and the hotels but at any other con you don't live near you're already spending over $100 on travel and lodging but that comes with every distant show.  If you're local, the public transportation options are pretty cheap and save you on parking.  However, for cheap parking there are a few lots further away that go for $8-10/day all day if you're willing to walk a little further or there's also street parking that you may have to renew every 2-4 hours which is easy with the parking mobile app.

If you book a hotel further out, you can get a great deal and not have to park but can take public transport or a cheap uber ride in.  Going all 3 days is not as worth it for me as it used to be but if the con keeps getting bigger I may have to.  Typically I go on Fridays and Sundays which are the 2 cheapest days at $15/day and see everything I want to see. Parking cost me $11/day.  I just drove in each day so no hotel cost for me but I live within 200 miles of the show.  Frankly if I'm spending less than $200 on attending a con I'm already ahead. 

Here's what I usually pay for other shows:

SDCC cost me $213/day to attend Fri-Sun (4-days) in air fare/uber rides and admission only because I have friends that let me crash at their place.  If including a hotel it comes to $325/day or more or less depending on when you book and how far out.

NYCC cost me $350 to attend in transportation/parking and admission for 1 day.  For multiple days add an additional $275/day for hotel (or Amtrak round trip tickets) and additional ticket.  Using Megabus would bring the 1 day cost or daily cost down to $175.

Heroes con costs me $155 to attend in transportation/parking and admission for 1 day.  For multiple days add an additional $110/day for hotel and admission.

Awesome con costs me $50 to attend in Metro/parking and admission for 1 day cause I'm local but I can usually hit every dealer's booth in 1 day so no need for more.  For multiple days (not necessary if just comic shopping) would cost an additional $50/day if local.  The 3-day ticket is $75 so if you were staying at a hotel, you could do it for $135/day if you stay at a hotel and take metro to the con.

VAComicCon costs me $50 to attend in gas/parking and admission for 1 day also because I'm local and the show is dirt cheap.

At $100/day, Baltimore is by far the best bang for my buck remote show followed by Heroes Con based on where I live so YMMV greatly.

 

 

You are completely correct and there is no way to argue with it.   The budget we have is a lot smaller than most of you guys and the reason why we go is different too.  We are not into back issues or anything like that.  We go to find new creators or self-published people and see what they have to offer as well as meeting people whom we have enjoyed reading over time.   When it came to the point where one year there was only 1 person there we were interested in meeting so we thought to just skip the show.   We have skipped it ever since.        

 

When people ask why go to BCC?    I always say, "Go there because it is a comic book show for people who love comic books"

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14 hours ago, shortboxed said:

One customer literally asked, "Your prices are really, really fair. Why?" My response: (shrug)

It was great meeting you @1Cool!

Thank you @comicjack! Always a pleasure seeing you at cons - looking forward to seeing you again at Terry's show in Jan. 

We've been to the con as just attendees the past few years, but this was our first time setting up at the show as well as our first East Coast show (we're from Seattle and San Francisco). It was so much fun meeting people from the boards and Instagram and just having a ton of fun after the con, too. Thanks to all the boardies who stopped by to say hi!

Here are a few shots of our booth, as well as some fun pics we took with cosplayers holding their first appearances or key issues:

IMG_20191018_115440.jpg

Did you bring more books than the 2 wall displays?

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35 minutes ago, shortboxed said:
50 minutes ago, manetteska said:

Did you bring more books than the 2 wall displays?

Just the two wall displays plus 3 short boxes (hard to see on the table). We only brought slabs. 

Did you drive it there or fly? Looks like the decision to only bring slabs paid off.

Great job.

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