Hello lovelies, 

the weather is going from dreary to sunny to snowy. It's weird with cold patches and then succeded by warm foehn wind - definitely not my weather. 

This year I attended my first comiccon and I was happy that I was there as a seller and not as a visitor because the comic con was packed. At the entrance of Hall B, where all commercial sellers were located, there was almost no passing through. My booth was at the artist area, at the back of the hall and we didn't have the huge mass of people but it was busy nevertheless. 

Pre-comiccon

To be honest, Vienna Comic con was not on my list of conventions this year. But comic con announced on their insta that they were opening up a new area and had space for a huge artist alley and they invited artists to apply for it about 1,5 months before the event. Usually, I need more time to get things ready but I was curious and so I applied for it. And I kid you not, the costs where overwhelming. I was already thinking of backing out of it, but then got a hold of myself and decided to just go ahead with it. 

The communication was slow. Emails that were promised to be sent out in less than 24h took three days to arrive and all in all, it was just a standard mail sent to everyone in German and English. When I saw the final costs I did a bit of a double take.

The costs were as following: 

• 1x Artist table: 116€
• 2x Chairs: 25€
• 2x Exhibitor tickets: 65€ 

All in all makes it 249,67€ for one weekend. Ouch. That's a lot of money for two days. In comparison: Animarket took 17€ for one day. 

 

Setting up the booth had to be done on Thursday or Friday before the convention and we were not allowed to come early on Saturday to set it up. It had to be done before Saturday. So, after my regular work, I travelled to the convention hall and set up the table. I had forgotten a blanket to cover it all but my partner didn't. Phew. 

My two new moon shelves were also in use but they were so wobbly and we always feared that they would tip over soon. But at least they looked super cute.

Comiccon

The event started at 9am for VIP and at 10am for regular ticket holders. We were there by 9 and around 10-11am the event also started for us as the people slowly trickled into the area. As mentioned before, the commercial sellers were first and there was also a whole other Hall to visit, it was no wonder that it took people a while to get to us. The first day we were there for almost 12h as the event closed at 8pm. The second day was similar as we worked from 9am to 6pm (or was it 5pm? I can't seem to recall the exact time). 

I roamed around the hall once on both days but didn't buy a lot. The food was mediocre and one could choose between waffles, burger and fries, fries, ice-cream, coffee or bubble tea. So, we both are a portion of fries for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Super healthy, I know. Aninite had at least 10 different food booths (I may exaggerate with 10 but they had a lot)  and all the food looked super tasty. Comiccon really dissappointed me in that regard too. 

On Saturday we both had ice-cream too but I didn't like it. It was tasteless???

My sales for the weekend was fine, not great but not bad either and I had made about 250€ the first day. Imagine working for one whole day and just earning the price you paid for the booth. It had also made me immensly nervous but after realizing, I was at least at 0 now, made me a bit calmer. 

My partner and I talked to a few artists and most of them told us, that they either didn't break even. Damn. I was one of the few lucky ones, I guess. One artist made a kind of passive agressive post on Instagram telling everyone how bad the convention went for her. :(

Post-Comiccon

Comiccon went ok for me but I will not go back for next year. 250€ for one table was too much. 

I had set my selling goal to 1000€-1500€ but didn't reach it. My earning for selling 32 items was 902,27€. 

Let's do a quick math:

• 32 items sold
• 902,27€ Profit
• 250€ fee

= 652,27€ gross profit for two days

And this is for two days of work and countless hours of work doing embroidery, cross stitching and resin pouring. 

Comparing this to Animarket in May:

• 26 items sold
• 481€ Profit
  
• 17€ fee

= 464€ gross profit for one day 

The next comiccon will be Austrian comiccon in Wels (Upper austria). The price is so much cheaper: 

• 2x Tickets
• 1x Booth 120x60cm
• 2x chairs

For only 120€!

My conclusion: Vienna comiccon is not worth the artists money and unless they reduce their fees, I will not go back and sell there. (Of course, this is my personal opinion only.)

All the best,

Auris Lothol