Thursday, July 20, 2006

Conventional Wisdom

Okay, so I haven't been to a Comic Convention since I was ten or eleven, and the ones I went to then were in a Holiday Inn or something in Ohio. I've never been to a major convention like San Diego or Chicago or anything. The closest I've come is two trips to BotCon, the Transformers convention.
This year, however, I plan on going to WizardWorld Chicago, and I'm wondering what to expect. I mean, I know all about bringing a backpack and a sketchbook and bottled water, I know about scheduling things so you can make it to all of the panels, and knowing where the bathrooms are, and not hassling creators on the floor. That's common sense stuff. What I'm wondering is a bit more practical, a bit more financial.
Namely, is everything going to be horrendously overpriced? Will I be looking at $6 for every tattered issue of Power Pack, or might I actually be able to pick up a run on Icon for $20? Will I be able to bring $100-150 and feel like I've gotten bargains and spent money well, or should I just not bother with looking for deals?

I'd like to use this opportunity to polish off my collections of comics-I-discovered-after-they-were-cancelled-or-shortly before, like Young Justice and Icon and Major Bummer and Supergirl and Superboy, but if every table's going to be using Near Mint prices out of Wizard for everything, then I don't think I should get my hopes up.

What's your advice?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They'll be plenty of dealers with the comics you want. It'll take some time thumbing through long boxes but I have little doubt you'll find what you're looking for.

Plus there's always at least one dealer that has lots of long boxes full of randomly inserted comics at ridiculously low prices. Two years ago, one dealer was selling by the pound.

Tom Foss said...

Well, it's not so much the finding things I'm worried about, it's finding things on a budget. But comics-by-the-pound gives me all sorts of hope.

RedheadFangirl said...

Tom-
If signings are important to you from the special guests, you have to budget most of your time for that. I always have much less time than I want for looking at the dealer tables, because I spend my time in artist alley seeing indie artists and trying to support them.
And, no matter how early you are there, at least at Philly Wizard it's like an hour after it opens that I get in. So at 11 you can wait 1.5 hrs to get a Jim Lee signing, run off to a Vertigo panel, try to grab a drink or snack, then get freebies at the DC booth.
Nerd heaven- can't wait to see how it goes for you!
And since I run a little con, try to make it to one of those. Great face time with guests, dealers compared to the blockbuster of Wizard.