Jet City Comic Show - October 26-27, 2019 - What I learned

Ok so here are a few things that I have learned and my thoughts on Jet City Comic Show:

I was pretty excited about this show, since I am very unique in what I do. I applied and set up what I thought I would need for my booth on the application page, one 10x10 booth area, inline with an extra 8’ table, $335. So for that money I thought I would at least get walls to hang my banner from, I did not, I received an email much later and I would have to pay extra for just “pipe and drape” to cord off our area.

So let us fast forward to set up (Day before the show). We cannot set up until 2pm so understandable, I mean all the people who paid extra for power would need the cords run to their booths and with no walls, someone would need to tape off the 10x10 areas we all bought, except they didn’t. I had an amazing guest artist Rain Pirate Queen who was setting up in my booth as well. An hour or so into set up, someone started to put the tape down and knocked down her amazing display of originals that she had done and pictures went everywhere, they then tried to pick them up by bending them.

Looks like NO ONE got the extra pipe and drape.

Part of my payment was an extra 8’ table, when I brought up that I did not have the second table, they offered me a 6’ table because that is all that they had. When I informed them that I needed an 8’ table the answer was that they would try.

The people around me were very nice so this was not a problem, and I got a table from some awesome neighbors who were very gracious. Set up resumed and we got everything in. So we leave and come back for day one.

Day One: It was a very slow opening, only a few people trickle around, or they are not coming into the show. Those that did were incredible people, I even met Zamesta and Sionnach Studios as well as many awesome people, however zero sales and many comments about how “overpriced” my items were (Spoiler alert: I don’t make money doing this, I am trying to Destroy the Pine Wand Guy from ECCC but I digress). Also, Day two went better.

I started wondering if it was just me or was this something that custom wands would not sell well at.

Day two: I sold two wands which definitely made me perk up a bit (I was starting to wonder if I had made a mistake, again I was amazed that one of my customers was a young lady and it is always a great feeling when kids love my wands, though feel free to tell me what you think, I do like everyones opinions.

All this was actually very eye opening. First, though some die harder’s come to Jet City, this is not the place for someone selling high end products. After all I spent to get in, I found out that the tickets were selling for $15-$25, I am not an economist but I think that this has a lot to do with my “bad luck” and I now see this is not the show for me. There are so many awesome new artists, some old, many many comics that are actually pretty awesome, and tons of very friendly and fun loving people! Now let’s see what this Wizards Yule Feast will be about, I am actually excited and hope they accept my application!

As always, Read More Comics, Keep It Nerdy, and Live Your Dreams!

-Doc