You may (or may not) remember the post I made in April about the Dallas Comicon and all I was hoping for with the upcoming convention. If not, you can read it here. The convention happened last weekend.
This I am bringing you 3 Blog posts about the 2011 Dallas Comicon. I will talk about the event itself, my experience, and what happened (sales wise). This is part 3 of 3. Click here for part 1 & 2.
As you remember from the previous posts we were in the middle of the convention...
The day went hot and heavy until about an hour or so before closing. It slowed down and by this time Chris looked like a zombie. I did a rough count of sold items (we were trying to keep track of them on paper as we sold) and I think we sold 134 items that day. The last customer we had was another dealer who was from a comic shop (somewhere, I can't remember) and he wanted some of the Japanese models since people were always asking for them. He bought about $380 worth. That was a nice end to the day.
We wrapped up for the day and headed out. I usually remember to bring a sheet or two to drape over the stuff but I forgot so I wound up putting it back into the tubs and out of sight. We left and I dropped Chris off home and went home myself. As it turns out Chris (being Chris) doesn't go get some sleep... he in fact went to a concert that night and didn't get home until who knows when. Originally I was going to take my coworker Chris with me on Sunday but he couldn't so Chris was thinking about coming out with me again on Sunday but he wasn't too sure. He told me to call him when I was heading out on Sunday to let him know by calling and he would see if he was up to it. When I talked to him on the phone after closing up on Sunday I only understood the words 'alright' and 'ok'. I literally couldn't understand what he was saying to me (he was so groggy).
I went to the convention myself the next day and handled it with no problems. It was much slower (but still good). That morning I did have to go park my truck in the parking garage and walk all the way back to the exhibit hall which sucked. Suddenly there were Iriving police directing traffic, private security all over the place, and the Irving Fire Department roaming the dealer's room (looking for violations I guess). ALL the concession stands were open as well. I guess someone got serious about the event (a little too late). I did get my nachos after all. The line for Stan Lee was once again all the way back to where it was the previous day. That guy is popular.
When all was said and done I sold almost $2,000 worth and about 65% of my stock of models. When I originally planned to go into the Japanese model business again I went on the premise that I could buy the classics and they would sell. They might take time to sell, but they would. My main focus was Macross and Starblazers. The Starblazers sold the best with Macross following a distant 2nd. I did sell all of the Gundam kits but I only had a few to start with. A lot of people showed interest in them so I did order more for the next convention.
As I said earlier my model kits were 50% off. This was so that I could move them out and make a new order (and buy more of the kits that moved well). The company I use in Japan will give you better discounts the more frequent your orders are so this was a good thing. I didn't make so much in profit like I do on Ebay or on my PayPal store but it's so much less hassle to sell right to the customer than having to pack them up and go to the post office with all the hidden costs there (like time, effort, gas, supplies). I did a cost analysis of the mini Starblazers models kits in my previous Blog post about eBay's fees and by selling right to the customer I am saving about seven dollars.
Sunday night when I got home I got online and made my next order. Texas Comicon in San Antonio is the weekend of June 22nd so I need to get restocked as soon as possible. I will build on the kit collections that sold so well this time and will have the same big 50% off sale. I also need to get restocked for my PayPal store and any auctions I still have up. The next Las Colians event is in October (Fan Days) when will be needing a restock after the San Antonio show. This event is usually not nearly as big as the May one so I will need to keep that in mind. Who knows... maybe it will be big with the new location. I also did a lot of promoting to buyers that I would be there in October as well.
Thank for reading about this event and if you are interested in my model kits visit RenegadeAnime.com.
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