/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>9977976
Its just a likes and popularity contest.

>>9796518
>his nose

>>9795002
How long have you been looking? It pops up regularly.

>>9433761
Yeah, there's an invisible zipper in one end that you can use to close up the cushion.

Also, one of those 20 pz bags of fiberfill from local craft stores filled up about 4-5 of my cushions (I ordered 40 hahaha rest in fucking pieces) so if you're going to fill them yourself, it's better to buy stuffing in bulk.

Hey guys, so I went ahead with a small cushion order for me and a friend. Idk if the people who emailed me will see this, but I sent an email out and didn't get a response so I just proceeded with the order. Also attaching my name so vendettachan doesn't have to make a point about it again.

The cushions were awesome quality and way bigger than I expected, which is great! I'd say a bunch were closer to 50cm even though the manufacturer said that their max was 45cm. They also shipped them to me unstuffed, which saved a ton on shipping (almost half!)

I think it's important to consider the other anons' feedback, though. I may have lucked out, and if other people have had issues with quality consistency and shipping deadlines with this manufacturer, it's likely to happen again. I just wanted to chalk up this time to good luck and maybe the manufacturer putting his best foot forward to secure a new business relationship.

Anyway, if people missed the last couple threads, tl;dr
>cushions done with Wuhan Yi Bo Digital Textile Technology on Alibaba.
>pros: quality is great, you can make big cushions
>cons: reports of inconsistent quality, service, and shipping. Use at own risk

>>8999230
Literally every con I go to because I'm a lazy fuckass who just doesn't like table setup. But once I actually get my shit together, I usually end up enjoying the con.

Any seagulls wanna take my Indy Pop Con table? It's a really solid show in Indianapolis- Weekend of June 18th. I made a decent profit despite flying in from CA. I'll ask you to sell a couple of things for me (mostly smaller stuff, no prints) but other than that, the table will be all yours.

Wanted to offer it to seagulls first before trying AANI.

>>8963930
I just have a couple original illustrations that I like to have up because they grab attention and because they make me really happy when they sell (which is not often, but it's okay).

There's not really a "minimum" amount, but I think it's better to specialize in a handful of fandoms instead of going for a ton of them, unless you're one of those megatables with enormous displays that DO have every fandom ever. If that's what you'd eventually like to do, it's better to build up to that instead of having it all out at once. Having a small handful of fandoms that you have multiple items for helps appeal to a lot of different price points and ups the chances of people buying multiple items, which helps in the long run.

>>8963899
My art school vendetta is showing, but this post sounds so fucking pretentious.

Is it not completely fucking obvious that selling at a convention has a completely different focus and objective than selling or displaying art for a gallery or a show?

I mean, I guess enjoy trying to sell your display with all your perfect ratio of negative space to hundreds, if not thousands of fleeting attention spans and shallow wallets.

My salt is oceans right now.

>>8959700
>When did you guy start doing AA?
2007. I'm an old fart.

>At what point did you decide that you are ready/good enough etc?
I started out as a pretty cocky little shit. I went to a local con to scope the quality of artists and felt that I could do better and so signed up for the next con. DIdn't do great, but primarily because I didn't know shit about display, marketing, etc. Managed to break even, but used the mediocre sales to research and try to do better. My costs were always low so it didn't take much to make some money, but I also wasn't really "successful" either.

I met some friends in college who had also been doing AA for a while and were loads better than me. They pushed me to get a lot better, draw more, and work on a better display. I didn't really think I did "well" until SakuraCon in I think 2011. I did really well and sorta found my niche. Since then, I've been pretty consistent, but haven't had really much of a growth, probably because I got an actual job. Kinda looking to up my game a little bit. I don't go to cons as frequently anymore, but I'm hoping to at least make each one I go to count for a lot more.

I think if you keep telling yourself that you aren't good enough or have enough, that's going to deter you from actually trying. Improvement and profit come from actually throwing yourself out there and figuring things out on the fly. Just go in with realistic expectations and expect your first couple of cons to be learning experiences. Then start trying in earnest and put forth your best effort to actually making money.

>>8957577
It sounds kind of ruthless, if anything, but sometimes you just need that "at-con" buddy that never really turns into anything else. That's ok! Sometimes you just need someone to talk to to get through the con. If you find yourself going to the same long-distance con a lot and see familiar faces over and over again, then it might turn into an actual friendship, but at the end of the day, vendors are at cons to make money. Don't take it too personally and focus on your goal.

A con experience is definitely made a million times better when you're around people you know and like, but when you aren't, you just kind of have to make the best of it. Good luck!

>>8957525
I've done 7-8 hours for sure, but that doesn't make 6 hours any easier. I've been whiny and lazy about cons that are 3 hours away haha.

Do you have anyone to drive with? Going with someone makes things a million times better

>>8957284
I'm just hypothesizing, but based on what I saw this year, I don't know if the split AA makes much of a difference. There was definitely enough foot traffic to go around, and it's not like one side was more heavily populated with big-name artists than the other. I didn't feel there was a discernible difference in quality of art or traffic between the two sections.

They're moving to a jury system now. Sign-ups open in May and will go through June, I think, with slight preference going to first-time ECCC exhibitors.

>>8954931
AA tables weren't that much. I think 350 was for like one of the smaller exhibitor spaces.

I didn't have any expectations, but did really well--about as well as I do at fanime, which makes sense since they had about the same number of attendees. The AA staff was super cool and accommodating and the attendees were too. It was definitely a print con, as a lot of comic conventions tend to be, so that's probably why I did well. I didn't know anyone else tabling, so I couldn't tell you how well other types of tables go (i.e crafters, zines, etc.).

At this point, I prefer comic cons despite their higher table prices because the return is better and the organization is a lot better too. I'd say it's worth it.

>>8947320
Congrats on having the worst drawing in this thread, if you want ass pats post on facebook so your grandma can tell you that you're a great artist.

Tiny hands are a tell tale sign of a shit artist.

>>8949676
Well, you forgot a lot of things like skill, anatomy and talent...

>>8943574
It's Skin's prestige snail masks are solid. Pricey, but good. I also really like their aloe masks. Very soothing and pretty easy to find.

>>8945244
Make sure you tag your shit with the appropriate fandom/item. I had an etsy for a short while and didn't expect to make much off of it, but still managed a bunch of sales of some of my more popular prints.

Then, wherever you DO have presence, advertise it so people know. From there, it's staying consistent and fulfilling orders regularly and continuing to network.

test

>>8935433
How are you displaying things? If you've got one or two "obscure" things, people will quickly/easily gloss over them and miss them. If you've got a bunch of things from that one obscure series, it's easier to attract the fans over to your table, and you'll at least make a couple of sales

A lot of the times, obscurity vs popularity doesn't factor into sales as much as your marketing/display/organization. Artist Alleys are a saturated market- if it exists, people will be a fan of it and buy that shit. You just gotta put it out there so people will actually notice it.

>>8922171
>volunteers

Holy shit, they were great. Really friendly, polite, and helpful. They probably got comped with badges or w/e but they were so chill.

>>8922167
I can see two sides to this. On one hand, since it "absorbed" Big Wow, including their staff, certain things, like reg, shouldn't have gone like a first year con since they technically aren't "first year."

On the other hand, it definitely seemed like they weren't able to anticipate some things and weren't able to accommodate... much like a first year.

Still, I don't know if it was that bad. They were still able to deliver an experience so I think most people ended up pretty happy regardless

I was there on Sat/Sun, mostly selling in the AA. Sales were really good. I had little to no expectations for this con and sold as well as I do at Fanime, if not better. Based on the pics, looks like I missed out on a lot of the quality cosplays there.

Didn't stick around for the costume contest.

General rundown, based on my experience and word of mouth from friends:
Pros
-Panels were cool/interesting
-Dealers had a lot of variety including some obscure and hard-to-find stuff for super cheap
-"Museum" stuff was cool
-Generally a chill and fun time
-Lots of celebrity run-ins. I guess a lot of the guests were able to just mosey around the exhibit hall and stuff.

Cons
-Organization was shit, esp for reg. I don't think my friends got into a panel because they got cut off right before, but it could've been because people were weaving through the reg line (which was right next to the panel room) and cutting. Organization for getting into the panels seemed bad.
-Everyone was losing their shit. People were losing stuff. Kids were losing parents. Parents were losing kids. Someone lost a golden idol from Indiana Jones. I half expected them to say that they lost Stan Lee at one point like goddamn keep an eye on your shit (this isn't really the con's fault though haha)

Overall, it's looking like a really solid start.

Also, I love the Woz. I love him so much. He's so happy and enthusiastic about this con so I will support it 150%. Very intrigued to see how it goes in Japan, since I guess they're hosting a sister con there in December.

>>8921222
There are a couple of places online that do custom shirts. You can also check with local printers if they do screenprinting (either on shirts or paper) and ask if they'll do shirts in bulk for you. I used to work at an online tshirt printing company and all they did was have screenprinters around the country print stuff for them. Basically, if you search around and find a local printer, you'd be taking out the middleman, which is what most online shirt printers are

>>8905366
You'd be surprised how little online presence can factor in AA's. Yeah, someone who's super popular will def. have people flocking to them, but everyone else is just there to buy stuff regardless of your efame. If you have solid merch/preparation and halfway decent art, you'll probably do fine provided you're not just doing really obscure/original only stuff.

(Not to rag on original content or obscure fandoms, but the threshold to doing well with either of those is higher than just general fanart. )