Daniel McAbee of The Tangled Web in Spartanburg, South Carolina, attended Wizard World
2006 was the first time that I haven't actually worked my booths (selling mostly statues and Silver Age comics) during WWCH in the last 9 years. This year, after having an exceptional Heroes-Con, I decided to sublet my booths to another dealer and just make WWCH a buying trip for my customer want lists. To be fair, it had become increasingly difficult for me to be profitable in recent years due to the proliferation of statues and statue dealers coupled with the high expenses of
I was pleased to see that Stewart Morales and staff continued the fine tradition left by Brenda Cook as she was promoted up into lands unseen. The addition of both floor and show hours to the back of exhibitor (and maybe all?) badges was a small but very convenient bonus. Overall the show seemed to go off smoothly in all areas. I was able to get through several of the exhibitor lines and collect a couple of exclusives for my home customers, and I was even able to get a few sketches for my sketchbook. Koi Turnbull (Aspen Studios) was easily the most accommodating artist I met at the show!
On the down side, I wasn't able to fill many of my customers' wanted items even though I wasn't trapped behind the booth as in previous years. Long exhibitor lines for many key exclusives were daunting, and I was surprised to find that the recent books on my customer want lists could mostly be found only in un-sorted 50-cents stock. My biggest complaint about WWCH (and I supposed that it is the same at any large show) is that show dealers are still competing with the exhibitors for show dollars. I estimate that maybe 40% of the money that is spent at WWCH is gobbled up by the exhibitors who are optimally placed at the main entrance of the hall.
I understand the need for exhibitors to recoup the money that they spend attending these shows but feel that they could do the same thing by also offering the exclusives to the show dealers. This would let the dealers do the work of selling product so that they can do the work of promoting their wares. Game companies could demo more games in an area unoccupied by long lines, and comic and toy companies could spend more time talking to consumers and getting feedback instead of pushing a waiting line through 'cattle gates.' Exhibitors may argue that the dealers will only mark up the product and make it more expensive to the consumer, but if you take a quick look at e-Bay any day this week, you will see no shortage of show exclusives being sold.
I believe that when exhibitors harm their retail partners by selling these exclusive items without making them available to us, they are losing more in the long-term than they are making at their booths. I know that last year, I personally stopped stocking any product from WizKids due to this practice. When I stopped carrying WizKids product, I stopped running their tournaments and started running Clout tournaments to huge success. The resultant places on my sales figures flipped and now
I hope everyone who attending WWCH had a safe and successful trip.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
