Several months ago, I made the decision to attend my first Con as a vendor.  Given the concentration of sci-fi geeks in one place and what have you, I figured I’d see how the first one went and then make decisions on whether it was worth the time, $$ (oh, I’m sorry, we’re at $$$$ now), and effort.  While this won’t be a live blog of the Con (will be selling!), I figure this helps as a running after action review (AAR) of what is happening and how things are going.  For those of you following the blog, I’ll be at KC Planet Comicon in Artist Alley’s Booth 327
Things I have learned so far:

  1. Never has the phrase “you have to spend money to make money” been so appropos as preparation for a convention. Ankle biters after ankle biters, from “Oh, wait, you thought we were providing you electricity free of charge?  HA!” to “Hmm, might want to get order forms made up…” will rear their ugly head.
  2. Some companies, despite glowing recommendations and clear deadlines, will still manage to screw the pooch.  Other companies (Hi Stickermule!) will go above and beyond.  Make sure to give shout outs to the latter.
    3. Try to get things you’ll use over and over again.  While the lockable, rollable containers I got were not a pleasant expense, after loading them up I realized that this is something I should have done a long time ago.  No more “Man, why am I carrying all these books in here?!” moments.
    4. My friend Leslie Stein passed along a saying her family has about “paying tuition” for life lessons.  Basically I’m going to look at this as a life lesson.  Even if my sales experience mirrors that of a pork rinds vendor on the outskirts of Mecca, I figure you only get so many chances to have thousands of geeks in one place.
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