Hey folks!
Just getting a chance for one of our employee’s to write
from their experiences at Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con…
“Part One – The Bad and the Ugly”
Hi!
This is Cody from Cody’s Collector’s Corner with my feelings
of Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con.
I was able to attend this “great” event with the help of Comic Story Café
and with the help of Club House Comics. I
am very grateful for their help in attending this event, as the cost for me,
(in the Boston area), to travel to the
closest of these events was truly daunting!
This was my first time attending Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con and I
must say I was very intimidated with even the notion of attending this event, since
I can remember being a collector people whispered such high regard for the show of the year– the one and only
Philadelphia Comic Con - and I have to say for an event that shown like a
diamond among onyx… it was certainly more glitter than gold. L
For all intense and purposes, I really wanted to check out
the Con – convention or con man I don’t know – but was alarmed at the prices… $35.00
to $45.00 just for general admittance!?!
What is up with that? $200.00 - $300.00
for a VIP ticket to see Stan Lee or a list of one of the other guests? I
thought this was supposed to be for the fans!?!
Heck for all this I could easily follow a group of Paparazzi buttheads
and get more help from these idiots to get a simple hand shake and
photograph! Now I get TMZ… its not the
paparazzi that ruins simple fan and celebrity exchange… it is really the
promoters… sorry Wizard, maybe your magazine failed because of a larger issue… P.S. way to go with Wizard World Boston!
Inside $5.00 for one hot dog, drunken idiots roving from liquor
line to liquor line bumping into you, dropping items and opening sealed toys,
less than satisfactory lines for the major celebrities… by the way, if you don’t buy those VIP
tickets… GOOD LUCK trying to
get your chance inline, because you may not be able to catch your celebrity…
I really was hoping for much more… By the way, I had to charge extra for
some items at Cody’s Collector’s Corner because we were whacked with a $1150
booth charge – one table, one 10 by 10 square! – this is not including all of
the out of pocket expenses that we had to also pay for - For this I expected a
little more bang for our buck… heh, now I see why Comic Story Café was not
going to initially attend this event…
What I really feel bad for is the fans…
For what person had to pay just to get in and maybe get an
autograph or two… I am sorry you certainly deserved better… not to mention not much for free or exclusive
items… the few that I found were unbelievably high, (oh yeah, with what they
charge for a booth… its no wonder that Avatar had to charge so much for an
exclusive cover variant)…
Not to mention all of the staff and volunteers jumping
around like monkeys and stepping up to people like mafia with arms crossed,
chest bulged, saying, “No photos allowed”.
If I wanted to I could take their pictures free outside, besides
didn’t we all pay to get in here in the first place, so what if I take a random
picture of my celebrity sitting down at a table… signing autographs… for what? Oh
yeah, signing autographs for the fans… I am not asking for a picture with the person, just a shot for my
photo album heck, half of those guys were actually really cool – “normal people”,
if you asked they probably wouldn’t care in the first place. “Hey Wizard, why don’t you throw all the
celebrities in a hotel room and let one person in at a time, pat them down like
the airline molesters and scam another dollar out of the fans before you let
some five year old get a measly little picture of their childhood idol Thor…”
I can’t tell you how many times I heard the saying “just
wait until SDCC”… well guess what I am here, in Philadelphia… lets talk about this
show, not the show that would cost me over $5,000 just to get to! What the heck! Way to market a show… “Come to Philadelphia Comic Con we don’t have
any of the guests or venders as San Diego, but we will still take your money
with a smile!”
From a vendor’s perspective…
Thanks a lot for making me feel welcome… not only did I have to show up
and announce my own entrance, they couldn’t even provide me with a simple
banner to show my booth. I entered as
Cody’s Collector’s Corner – Dealer BEWARE – They charged me way more than what they charged
other people whom were only doing this one show! The wonderful staff at Wizard boasted “three
times” the amount of attendance… “what a joke!” the only day I saw even a
remotely large amount of people was on Saturday – (oh yeah that is the day you
ripe people off by scheduling all the celebrities to show up – thus not giving
anyone a chance to meet everyone and charge more for entrance.
By the way, a big round of applause for Peter and Natalia at
Wizard, not only did I have
to introduce myself, (I could have been anyone set up in that booth – let this be
a lesson to anyone who wants a free ride at the convention), but you also didn’t
even bother to say “hi” or “How was the show?”
GREAT JOB GUYS!
Something for the kids… Nope.
Something free for the fans… Nope.
Exclusive material… Nope.
Major appearances by Mattel, DC, Marvel Comics, Hasbro… Nope.
Deals on hotel, food passes, parking… Nope.
If it weren’t for everyone
else trying this would have been completely a horrible show!!! Everything cool was done by everyone else…
that’s really sad. All the extra after
parties, movie showings, additional venues… all the extra rooms that were open –
were all bought and paid for by other parties…
Other than pay the initial bill to fill the convention center - Wizard…
What did you do? Bought a great Venue –
Philadelphia Comic Con and turn it into a failed Comic Magazine. I am sorry to say, but history repeats itself,
with social networking becoming as big as it is, it’s only a matter of time
before a face book group or set of vendors come together and throw a REAL
convention that costs a fraction of what you charge… It will be Wizard Magazine
all over again, then what are you going to say… “Just wait until SDCC?” Good Luck.
Thus ends “Part One – The Bad and the Ugly”
