Convention artists-- how much merch do you bring?

[Michelle]

Hey folks!

I'm preparing for SV Comic Con at the end of the month, and I always get tripped up on how much stuff to bring. For those with experience tabling at comic conventions, how many copies of your comic/illustrations do you typically order? And best estimate, how many comics/prints do you usually sell?

I'm not sweating it too much, since I have a local show the week after... I figure whatever I don't sell at one show will be stock for the other! :u Still, I'd like to avoid A) running out of stuff early or B) having a buttload of unsold comics taking up space in my apartment.

[AnnaLandin]

What sells, and how much of it, varies from con to con!

I've done mostly small-press-focused cons, and there my comics always sell better than my merchandise and trinkets. At the few bigger pop-culture-focused cons I've been to, the merch - mainly cute stickers - have been more popular than the comics, though both have sold (not very well, though; I don't sell fanart).

I've mostly done comic print-runs of around 50. That's big enough that it feels meaningful to print, but still small enough that it doesn't clutter your whole living space up in case you don't sell them all. After a few years of that, I've recently felt comfortable upgrading to 75-100 copy print-runs, as I know I'll have returning customers.

The places where I've gotten my merch done tends to have minimum orders of 50 (acrylic charms, stickers, etc.), so when I'm uncertain, I go with the minimum order. If you sell out, you can always take pre-orders for the next batch!

[shazzbaa]

Depending on the convention, 15 - 20 books for Chapter One, with fewer sales the further from chapter one you get. Closer to 10 books at a smaller or shorter convention!
(My newer series sells much better than my first one now -- the older series gets maybe half the sales -- and I don't know if that's due to having signage for the newer series now, or if it's just that most folks who want my older series have already bought it in previous years.)

My colouring books sell a little better (I sold 30-some-odd once) but that's probably not widely relevant.

Prints, if they're new and sell well, I'll get like...15ish sales? But others only sell like 4 or 5 a con -- and I don't have many displayed, which probably affects sales!

I'll usually overstock (which now means "more than 20") on the first book in each series, because it sells the best and once it's gone I won't be able to sell the others, but for book 2, 3, etc, as long as I have around 10 I'll be fine. For prints I do 5 prints of things I don't expect to sell (like posters of my comic), 10 prints if they're not obscure but not special, and 15-20 if it's something like My Little Zombie or the Introvert poster that I expect to do really well.
This does result in me taking some stuff home, which is usually fine, but if you're going to have to ship your stuff there and back it might be better to bring fewer, and just let yourself sell out if they do really well!

[revisionstudios]

Hmm, it seems my experience with comics is a little different!

So, right now I sell 11x17 prints (mix of original and fanart), buttons, and comic issues. As a general rule, my comics always sell 3 times as much as my prints. I usually sell 30-60 per issue depending on the con (I have 4 issues out right now) so my print runs are between 150-250. 500 if it's the first book, because those will consistently sell (I go to 3-4 cons in a year though, so those numbers make more sense for me). I'm finding it harder to guess quantities for later issues, so I may actually have some waste with issues 3 & 4. Argh.

As for how many you should ACTUALLY bring, I'd say 75 each, maybe 50 if you don't think it's necessary or you're tight on room (fair warning though--I sold 64 of issue 1 at my first con, so I'm wary of telling you less.). If that con is by chance local, I would market yourself in the area. Print out some flyers to hang in comic shops, colleges, etc. letting them know you'll be at the event. Some cons/venues will even let you hang flyers on site around the convention center. It really helps draw attention to you. I get a noticeable bump in sales if I market ahead of time.

Print wise: Fanart stuff always sells better of course, but it's not a guaranteed sell. Variety is most important. I would only print 15-20 of each (maybe even just 10 if it's original) to test out the design. Some print places, even if it's a high minimum order (like 100), will let you print multiple designs within the order. I would seek those out (I've heard catprint.com is super good). I've only sold out of a print on its first run once, and it was of Sesshomaru--apparently mainstream nostalgia sells well, haha. I printed 20, probably would've sold 25-30 at that con if I had more. Now I print runs of 50 with that one so it lasts me a few cons.

Buttons sell here and there for me, but they're not huge. I've heard of some people whose main money maker are buttons, though. I like having them around, and they're fun to make. Symbols sell best for me since I don't do any fanart with those.

Even aside from merch though, your display is really important too. Having consistent branding and vertical displays will help a lot!

[shazzbaa]

I usually sell 30-60 per issue depending on the con (I have 4 issues out right now)

Dang, that's awesome! Is that your $15 book, or smaller floppies?

[revisionstudios]

They're the smaller ones! Since I just got the trade paperback this January, I haven't been able to take it to any cons yet. I'm really curious to see how they sell next to the issues. I imagine I probably won't sell many of issues 2-4, which is why I said I might have waste. :c It costs more to get all the issues than to just pick up the paperback, after all...

My issues are saddle stitched, 48-52 pages and I sell them for $6, 2 for $10. I don't profit a lot from them ($2-3 ea at most), but I feel it strikes a balance between being worth it to the customer and still covering my costs.

[Michelle]

As for how many you should ACTUALLY bring, I'd say 75 each, maybe 50 if you don't think it's necessary or you're tight on room (fair warning though--I sold 64 of issue 1 at my first con, so I'm wary of telling you less.).

Curious, about how large do you estimate the attendance is at the shows you sell at? 30-60 per issue is way more than I would have anticipated (that's great though!). I'm hovering around stocking 50 each of my two issues, but I've never tabled at a comic convention of this size-- they estimate at least 70k in attendance. Though I price my books a few dollars more, so they likely won't move as quickly. x: So maybe 50 would be sufficient.

[Shanny8]

Right now I mainly sell prints & comics at shows I've been to. I sell more comics than prints as well- my prints are of course my creator owned properties...I started out with 4 various prints last year(11' x 17'); this year I'm making 4 more. If anything I learned in the 1st year of doing cons is that I need to have a larger variety of prints; I was looking at tables around me, and these guys would have 20-30 diff prints- of course a good number of them were fanart prints, which is what I try to stay away from.

I started out with 30 books, then increased my volume to 100(I have 5 issues of the same title/series). I've done pretty decent at cons, but I still have stock left; I'm not bummed about it because it keeps me from having to order more right now. I'm also in the process of getting Ch 1 of my webcomic into a printed book, so that will add some bit of variety as far as books go. I'm not doing as many shows this year as I did last year, so I may start looking into selling other merch like pins, as well as upgrading my stickers to die cut(I may have to start selling the stickers to make up for the costs- the first batch I printed & cut myself; gonna try to keep the cost of the stickers affordable if I can).

I've sold as little as 33 books, and as much as 80. 2 of my 5 books go for about $3 each(the page count is under 20); 2 are priced at $5 each(over 20 pages), and I have a 40 page one I sell for $7. I price my prints at $5- right now prints have been a little hard to sell, but I think it's because I dont have a large variety. Sometimes I'll offer a bundle deal with my comics- if they buy all 5 books, I'll let them get a free poster of their choice- and that's only coz the breakdown cost per poster was so cheap & the profit per sale is effective enough that I can afford to do it.

[DeadAccount]

I find it all really depends on a convention and footfall!
At London MCM I easily sell 50 copies of each issue I bring, especially if it's fairly new. Smaller cons bring less cash, but again, some have really friendly crowds so you never know.
Ordering is tricky. My first print run of my very first book was 80 issues, since then I went from 100 to 300 :'D Right now I wish I got 500 of every issue in litho as it's way, way cheaper to print, but you also don't want to end up with boxes upon boxes of books you can't shift.

[revisionstudios]

I'll be real honest, I do worse at larger shows. I stick to small-medium cons, like 6-10k. I did ACEN one year (like 30k+ ) and it was my worst con to date. We barely sold anything and went pretty deep in the hole. (I just looked at it and holy crap we only sold 16 copies. Ow my soul.)

It's because the vendors floor is enormous. There are too many places for people to buy from, and because of it, they hang on to their money for official merchandise. Not a lot of impulse buys, especially when it comes to original content. It's so easy to get swallowed up by everyone else if you're not careful.

That said, I went to ACEN within my first year of tabling back in 2014. I didn't have much content and my table didn't look as full or professional as it does now. Still, I've personally decided not to tackle something of that size again until I have a looot more to offer and a little more traction online. I wish I had better experience for you to draw on, I'm sorry if I sound like a negative nancy now. :[