NYCC 2018 has come and passed. It was a great convention but I must be honest, I didn’t get the same vibe this year as in the previous years. So, welcome to what’s really grinding my gears NYCC 2018 edition.
Perhaps it was the lack of exclusives being offered. Seemed like a bunch of the comic exclusives were not popping (Anthony likes using that term so I’m stealing it) as the previous years as well.
Liefeld at Midtown Comics Times Square
(you know, the guy that created Deadpool
) at Midtown Comics Times Square shopping and snapping pictures of himself likely for some Instagram or Twitter posts, posing with a Deadpool Chia Pet.
Yes, Liefeld was shopping and I believe he actually bought a Deadpool Chia for himself from Midtown.
I didn’t bother Liefeld but I’m sure you’ll see Anthony’s selfies he got with Liefeld. I’m pretty sure I would have mentioned something about drawing feet and you would have seen Liefeld and me on the New York special news alert, Chicken Wins Fight Against Deadpool Creator!
James Haick of Solar Flare
Out of all my comics I could have lugged to NYCC this year, the only books I brought were my Solar Flare
books. Not just the Scout issues but the self published
issues. Yeah, the really hard to find self published issues.
James Haick (who also recently released The Mall which was optioned) was a cool guy and I finally got to meet him with my stack of books to go along with the meeting.
He was excited to sign them all for me and luck me, the artist that did the cover art for issue #6 of the self published series was actually at the convention so cha-ching, bonus signature. I might just have to make it a mission now to get each cover artist to sign as well.
It was refreshing to know he loves my drek picks each week when he gets a chance to read them.
What Exclusives?
Seemed there was a lack of new exclusives this year at this convention. The previous two years were great. It was pretty much buy buy buy, sell sell sell, every single day.
The usual great thing about attending conventions is they usually pay for themselves. Guys like us that can attend pick up and sell the things to those who can’t attend. It’s a nice trade off because for some attendees, the costs are high just for travel and the room and board.
For the most part it seemed a lot of the exclusives were just remaining inventory from SDCC and other conventions. This is why I mentioned the vibe didn’t feel the same from previous years vibe and atmosphere.
Of course the Funko POPs are selling for some of the rarer ones but this year they excluded anyone with Press Badges from entering the lotto to get a chance at some of those exclusives. One would think Press gets a shot automatically, we write about such things, it makes these vendors more money when we do.
Return of Wolverine Marvel Exclusive
Surprisingly, the winner in the comic category this year for me was the Marvel Return of Wolverine J. Scott Campbell
exclusive Glow in the Dark variant they were selling for $25 at the Marvel booth (which I usually avoid, there’s always a crowd lingering around the entire booth and it’s almost near impossible to get around people).
Anyways, as I usually dog Campbell’s art for his ongoing Mary Jane covers, I really like it when he does other artwork. So in this case, this was a winner because it wasn’t Mary Jane in the typical photo-op pose he does for just about every other cover.
This was a really cool cover and when we thought they were out for the convention, they popped back up with literally no lines to grab a few. These were $25 books and they’re easily selling upwards of $100. I must say, the glow in the dark worked very well. I’ll try and get a good picture to post of the glow in action.
IDW Exclusives
Out of all the IDW exclusives, the one to grab was the Natali Sanders covers, particularly the G.I. Joe #255 Virgin Variant
. Sadly these had some serious spine damage and what looks liked a printing roller issue across most of the covers.
I was able to snag the best two Virgin Covers I could fine with minimal damage but it’s really disappointing that out of all the books they offered, these were the only ones that seemed to have damage.
I’m still happy though, I already sold the sets that more than made up my entire purchase at IDW.
Overall I still had a blast. It was fun hanging out with Anthony and Tyson. The real winner this year was all the extra site seeing I went and did. I even took a break Saturday morning to venture out with Tyson down to the 9/11 Memorial, see the new Freedom Tower and tool about up towards the Federal Hall and Reserve Bank.
Yeah, Solar Flare is a good book. If it ever gets optioned those self published books will be impossible to find!
Not entirely impossible to find, I know where a signed set resides now 😉
there were too many exclusive only tables
poyo sorry I missed you guys. what grinded my gears this year was 1. exculsives being sold out by Friday morning . looking at you heroes in crisi #1 foil return of wolverine #1 cambell most foils and the funco pop booth was like a wwe event . 2. the cel phone service. like come on fix the place already.3. that anima expo was in a sepreate bulding this year creating all sorts of problems . my top four highlights were 1. meeting the cast of daredevil&geting an autographed poster . Charlie coxx was #awesomesauce.2.geting the last ticket for the macfarline signing on Thursday. got my spawn #1 autographed as well as the poster .4. meeting Donny cates .5.all the cost. play and the cost. play cruiz after party justa blast . hope you enjoyed your time in nyc
Yeah, the cell service did suck. Half the time I couldnt get any internet connection. The Marvel Wolverine they ended up having more available on Saturday with no line, thats when I scored my copies.
Random question, but have yall ever attended any of the Dallas, or Houston conventions. Do they have cool comic variants. I have never been to either. I have seen the guest lists that Dallas has had and they look impressive.
I’ve never gone to either. I do usually hit up the Mondo Con here in Austin though. San Antonio’s convention seems to be pretty good from most attendee’s but I’ve never been to it either.
For me the Exclusives that made my day were:
– Stranger Kids , Garbage Pail Kids A&B Set w/ Bonus Card
– A Walk Through Hell Convention Variant 1 of 200
– Long Lost NYCC Exclusive
-StarCraft Scavengers(Dark Horse) 1 – NYCC
– Transformers NYCC IDW Exclusive
– Rick & Morty Foil “Sleeping Gary”
-Rick & Morty Connecting Variant (One Press & IDW..I think)
– Stranger Things – Fabio Moon Variant
– Murder Falcon – Image/Skybound NYCC Exclusive
– Dead Rabbit- NYCC Image Exclusive
– GI Joe Virgin Natali – I agree these were “Jacked Up” I had the guy grab me some fresh copies from the back to pull from
I grabbed the Stranger Things Garbage Pail Kids but think I may have been on e of the few that flipped them. They were going for $200 on Thursday but by Sunday with undercutting, it was a race to the bottom. Still got $200 for the three sets. I grabbed the Super 7 action figures, a couple of the Misfits and a couple of the Starslayer bootlegs. The Zombie Tramp foils were a good grab at $100, sold them for $200. I was able to grab six copies of the Campbell Return of Wolverine.
As always thanks for these great write ups that keep me pushing myself to be a better flipper. Like I mentioned to Anthony I do disagree on the amount of flippable exclusives. I’ve been making a killing with many exclusives. Ive made plenty cash with some of the ones Peter Taylor mentioned and I would add to those Montress HC Excusive $35 but selling for +$90 and two Blackbird Exclusive both $15 selling for $30+. Of course some were more profitable than others and other than the Marvel booth Return of Wolverine there wasn’t much in terms of large profit margin combined with large demand. A lot of small market books with moderate profits. But overall I thought I did just as good if not better than last year. But that of course was my personal experience and I can’t say it was easy. I did have to constantly navigate the floor with a sense of urgency and it was exhausting. Research and showing up early was the key. Thursday is always crucial. Some booths were considerate enough to distribute certain exclusives evenly through all four days. Others obviously couldn’t care less if they ran out by Friday morning. But this is a hustle game so if you show up expecting anything noteworthy to still be available by Friday afternoon then prepare yourself for disappointment. Thanks again for your contribution guys.
-Edwin
I did see that the Monstress HC was going for some decent money but since I fly so far for this convention, lugging around HC books becomes a hassle. But thanks for the reminder, I meant to make a mention of the HC’s that were being flipped.
oh okay, yeah seeing all these crazy amounts of NYCC variants looks pretty cool. I hope to go one day.
I wish some of these booths offering these variant books would a least have them bagged and boarded. IDW just had there books are a wire rack and when you are spending decent money on these books you expect them to be in good shape. The reedpop both was the same way with the Miller foil, a lot of the copies were not in good shape. I think DC learned there lesson of selling their books bagged and boarded already to cut down on damage.
I really like Solar Flare too, and I have a set of the self published, a set of each covers.