Rhode Island Comic Con 2015 Review Part 1.
Hey guys this is my review for the 2015 Rhode Island Comic Con. This is going to be a long one so sit back, relax and get yourself a snack.
This was the second year I have attended this show, last year was the first. So I'm going to try and review this con in two separate parts. I worked the show with a dealer friend of mine so I get to see the behind the scenes of what goes on and get the dealer perspective. I'm also a fan and collector so I went to this con to buy comics and I also hoped to get a few sketches.
So let me start off by saying if you went to this show last year you know that there was problems with them overselling the show and a lot of people had to wait hours to get in and it was a disaster. As far as I know that wasn't an issue this year but there were still a lot of problems.
So they let dealers set up starting on Thursday, We didn't bother to set up until Friday. So I got there at about 7:45 Friday morning. So it was pretty quite when I got there, set up didn't actually start until 8:00 so I was early. But when I got there I took a walk around and talked to a few people that were already there. They told me they had problems loading in on Thursday night. Now before I go on I want to express that what I'm telling you is what I heard from other dealers. I didn't speak to anyone who ran the show to corroborate what I was told, but they really wouldn't have any reason to make anything up. They also told me that they over sold tables for the show and had to relocate some vendors and try to find me suitable spots. One of the dealers I knew only got a booth half the size of what he had paid for and they didn't fix it so he was forced to take a lot of inventory back. Security there was also extremely rude. One guy even told me he was going to kick me out if I didn't put my vendor pass on, even though I showed it to him.
So last year the show was held solely in the Rhode Island Convention Center, this year it was held there as well as the Dunkin Donuts Center, I guess they did that to help with the overselling of last year. So as far as load in goes it went alright. The line of cars to get into the loading dock was long and moved pretty slow but there was plenty of time to set up. I don't want to spend too much time talking about the set up process because it's pretty boring and self explanatory. The sort version, bring boxes from the truck to the table and set up a wall and organize it all.
So day 1 of the con was Friday. The show hours were from 3:00-9:00, kind of weird hours to be honest. And it was not a good day at all. Honestly maybe the worst single day sales wise I've ever seen at a con. People trickled in very slowly and that's pretty much how it was for the entire day. Very slow and people didn't seem to have an interest in buying much.
Now let's talk about the layout of the show. It couldn't have been any worse. So we were in the same room as last year. Except it was smaller because they walled off a portion of it. So the room we were in had a decent amount of vendors. Maybe 20 or so comic vendors. We also has the comic book artists in the room with us as well. Now the entrance to the show was in the Dunkin Donuts Center. And when people walked in they werent coming our way, instead they were going down into the Dunkin Donuts center, they had more vendors down there, most weren't comic dealers, and also the celebrities were there. There wasn't one single sign up telling people to go to our area, not one. It felt like there were two different cons going on. And when I made my way over there on Friday it was packed. Completely different from our area. It was just a terrible layout. They had programs but no map to tell people where to go. They also had an app which I thought was cool and they did have a floor plan but it was confusing and didn't list vendors. So Friday was a complete bust. It was awful. I knew quite a few dealers at this show. After doing the con circut for a while you get to know people. And they all had a terrible day on Friday.
So day 2 was Saturday. Right away getting in in the morning you could tell something was different. The area that had been walled off was now opened and they put the celebrities there as well as some movie cars and a few more dealers. One of the dealers was a guy I knew and he said he loaded in there on Friday night and it was a nightmare. And for some reason the booth they gave him was twice the size of what he was told so he couldn't even fill it how he wanted too. The hours for Saturday were 10:00-7:00. And right away it was busy. Total opposite from the day before. Thank God. There seemed to be a steady stream of people for most of the day. And they were buying. Sales were so much better, not only were they frequent but we had some large sales as well, which definitely made up for the disaster that was Friday. And that seemed to be the consensus of the room. I'm not sure if moving things around was a big factor in the success of the day or if it was just good because it was a Saturday.
So day 3 was Sunday. I didn't attend that day but from what I heard it was better than Friday but not nearly as good as Saturday. I don't want this to be extremely long so I'm actually going to make this a 2 part review. So part 2 will be my personal experiences at the show. So look for that soon.
Thanks for stopping by and take care guys.
This was the second year I have attended this show, last year was the first. So I'm going to try and review this con in two separate parts. I worked the show with a dealer friend of mine so I get to see the behind the scenes of what goes on and get the dealer perspective. I'm also a fan and collector so I went to this con to buy comics and I also hoped to get a few sketches.
So let me start off by saying if you went to this show last year you know that there was problems with them overselling the show and a lot of people had to wait hours to get in and it was a disaster. As far as I know that wasn't an issue this year but there were still a lot of problems.
So they let dealers set up starting on Thursday, We didn't bother to set up until Friday. So I got there at about 7:45 Friday morning. So it was pretty quite when I got there, set up didn't actually start until 8:00 so I was early. But when I got there I took a walk around and talked to a few people that were already there. They told me they had problems loading in on Thursday night. Now before I go on I want to express that what I'm telling you is what I heard from other dealers. I didn't speak to anyone who ran the show to corroborate what I was told, but they really wouldn't have any reason to make anything up. They also told me that they over sold tables for the show and had to relocate some vendors and try to find me suitable spots. One of the dealers I knew only got a booth half the size of what he had paid for and they didn't fix it so he was forced to take a lot of inventory back. Security there was also extremely rude. One guy even told me he was going to kick me out if I didn't put my vendor pass on, even though I showed it to him.
So last year the show was held solely in the Rhode Island Convention Center, this year it was held there as well as the Dunkin Donuts Center, I guess they did that to help with the overselling of last year. So as far as load in goes it went alright. The line of cars to get into the loading dock was long and moved pretty slow but there was plenty of time to set up. I don't want to spend too much time talking about the set up process because it's pretty boring and self explanatory. The sort version, bring boxes from the truck to the table and set up a wall and organize it all.
So day 1 of the con was Friday. The show hours were from 3:00-9:00, kind of weird hours to be honest. And it was not a good day at all. Honestly maybe the worst single day sales wise I've ever seen at a con. People trickled in very slowly and that's pretty much how it was for the entire day. Very slow and people didn't seem to have an interest in buying much.
Now let's talk about the layout of the show. It couldn't have been any worse. So we were in the same room as last year. Except it was smaller because they walled off a portion of it. So the room we were in had a decent amount of vendors. Maybe 20 or so comic vendors. We also has the comic book artists in the room with us as well. Now the entrance to the show was in the Dunkin Donuts Center. And when people walked in they werent coming our way, instead they were going down into the Dunkin Donuts center, they had more vendors down there, most weren't comic dealers, and also the celebrities were there. There wasn't one single sign up telling people to go to our area, not one. It felt like there were two different cons going on. And when I made my way over there on Friday it was packed. Completely different from our area. It was just a terrible layout. They had programs but no map to tell people where to go. They also had an app which I thought was cool and they did have a floor plan but it was confusing and didn't list vendors. So Friday was a complete bust. It was awful. I knew quite a few dealers at this show. After doing the con circut for a while you get to know people. And they all had a terrible day on Friday.
So day 2 was Saturday. Right away getting in in the morning you could tell something was different. The area that had been walled off was now opened and they put the celebrities there as well as some movie cars and a few more dealers. One of the dealers was a guy I knew and he said he loaded in there on Friday night and it was a nightmare. And for some reason the booth they gave him was twice the size of what he was told so he couldn't even fill it how he wanted too. The hours for Saturday were 10:00-7:00. And right away it was busy. Total opposite from the day before. Thank God. There seemed to be a steady stream of people for most of the day. And they were buying. Sales were so much better, not only were they frequent but we had some large sales as well, which definitely made up for the disaster that was Friday. And that seemed to be the consensus of the room. I'm not sure if moving things around was a big factor in the success of the day or if it was just good because it was a Saturday.
So day 3 was Sunday. I didn't attend that day but from what I heard it was better than Friday but not nearly as good as Saturday. I don't want this to be extremely long so I'm actually going to make this a 2 part review. So part 2 will be my personal experiences at the show. So look for that soon.
Thanks for stopping by and take care guys.
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