by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Today is the 3rd post in my series of posts about the Star Wars Fan Days Convention that Chris McGinry, Chris Noble, and I went to. You can read all about Chris McGinty’s experience this last week as well. My first part covered the setup day and the first full day of the convention. Today I will cover the 2nd day and the wrap up of the series.
The second day of these conventions usually start a little later than the first which will allow time for a little sleeping in but Noble wanted to get there early so he could search for stuff to buy. Noble is a huge Star Wars fan (Bobba Fett in particular) and wanted to scour the show for something to buy. I agreed to show up early but I failed to realize that although the shows opens later to the public that does not mean the dealer room would open just as early to exhibitors as it did on Saturday. On Sunday morning I got up and did a double check on the opening and say that I had about an hour and a half to kill before we should even leave. I farted around the house and eventually Noble showed and we left. McGinty wasn’t sure he was going to come and later confirmed it (or perhaps he confirmed it the night before).
Texas has been a drought for a few years now. This year has been especially bad. We haven’t had rain in more than a month (and even then it was very little). Late Saturday the heavens opened up and we got drenched. It rained all night and the ground became a swamp. I decided to take my wife’s SUV instead of the truck so the stuff wouldn’t get wet on the way back home. Noble brought his kid and we set off for the show.
Sunday was more of the same as Saturday, cheap-ass customers, self-promoting douche bags, and ass-hole exhibitors. To add insult to injury the concession staff was rolling around coolers trying to sell $3 sodas, sounding like carnival barkers. The crowd was much lighter as expected and it was a struggle to sell anything. I got with Hank and we made a trade of some graphic novels and models. I utterly failed to get his email once again but I am sure we will see him again. About two hours before the close of the show the guy who runs it made an announcement that went like this: ‘Exhibitors, we are still selling tickets and people are still coming in. Do not pack up and leave yet. Please give these fans a chance to buy something.’ Are you kidding me? I paid for this space I can do whatever the fuck I want to. If you are a greedy enough individual to be still charging admissions to people right before the shows closes that’s your issue, not mine.
Nothing else of great interest happened during the 2nd day. When four o’clock rolled around we packed up and started loading up the SUV. Now I was already worried that we had too much stuff to cram in there and my fears where quickly realized. We had 2 big boxes left over and no more space to shove it in. This was getting irritating. We should have been out of there long ago but were stuck for about 50 minutes just unpacking and repacking the SUV. Finally we got it all shoved in, having to ditch one large box and simply place it’s contents in all the nooks and crannies inside the vehicle. We got home and I got unloaded while Noble took off for home.
After doing some inventory work and figuring out what I had and didn’t have after the show I came to the grand total of -$23 in sales. I had brought home almost at $1,000 but when you calculate the cost of renting the tables and such I wound up paying to go through all that trouble. Take that cheap-ass customers! Oh, if you then add in the State Sales Tax I will be paying for this event my grand total comes to about -$100.
As I said in part two my enjoyment for this type of event is waning. We might setup for the next one because of McGinty’s brother and I will more than likely try for the May show again but I’m getting jaded. I’m thinking that the real money is online.