After a month of prepping getting both ready for my first convention and redoing my online shop, the big weekend finally came. Hub City Comic Con was luckily being held where I lived so the stress of packing everything up and going to a different town was absent, but there was still stress. I ran out of chain and lobster clasps like three times and had the hardest time just getting change. I can't imagine having to do that in a different town. But after very little sleep but pretty easy set up, we were ready for preview night on Friday.
Now since this was the first year they have had this convention and the first one in Lubbock, no one was really able to measure expectations. Friday was for VIPs only, but I kinda figured the people that came would mostly be there for the Dragon Ball Z and Power Ranger signings. Which I was correct on. Also, we were the weird booth apparently. Go figure.
But Friday gave me time to organize and finish anything I hadn't. And it was a chance for the vendors to browse around since it was going to be close to impossible on Saturday. I got to network a bit and kinda made friends with the lovely ladies at another booth over our love of comics and Steven Universe. It was nice.
Day 2 was the big big day. General Public was allowed in at 1030 and by noon we heard there were lines. Big lines. Mind you, the convention center is like a wall-less pit. No outside light comes in so I didn't even know what time it was or how big the line was or what it was like for the crowd out there but I heard it was pretty crazy how long it was. Saturday I sold mostly stickers and charms.
I think I only ate like half a burrito throughout just because I was too busy. I did get a chance to make phone charms though which seemed to do well.
There were a ton of cosplayers though! This made me happy because you hardly see any in town but there were tons and tons! (And our booth seemed to have the most traffic so that was nice to get pictures of them)
I made back my booth and supplies cost and had an overall good time. I did pretty good for my first convention though I would probably tweak some stuff for next time. I ended up clipping displays of my charm necklace to grid and I would have liked to have a jewelry display holder. I was only able to get postcard sizes of my prints done and didn't get to finish them all or my portrait style ones. But I did good and I'm proud of myself for that.
I had Geek Girl Brunch cards out and got to promote the chapter a bit along with one of our other Officers Alex who had a booth selling her custom hats (you can check her out on Instagram and her Etsy will be opening soon!) so we had a few girls interested. We also had a Ladies Night poster hanging up so I got to let more people know about that! (Too many hats on my head but all well)
At the end of Day 1, we were all kinda exhausted. I ended up passing out on my couch before going to hang out with friends. I didn't even get to work because I passed out again as soon as I got back home. We were dead tired on Sunday morning but were much more prepared.
The crowds weren't as big as Saturday, but Lubbock is a church town so we didn't expect to get crowds until after noon. Last minute buyers were grabbing prints that day so i sold more prints and stickers and a few charms. I was even able to go and grab some prints and stickers myself from other vendors. But by 4:00 the crowd had pretty much disappeared.
Lubbock on Sundays closes down very early. Most retail stores are shut down by 6 and everyone knows that. So it was kinda not surprising. We stayed a couple more hours and sold a few things, but after a long weekend, mostly we just walked around the place, checked in with our friends at the other booths (I bugged Star Comics a bit), and packed up.
Like I said, overall my experience was good. Things could be better but it was a first time convention and I was a first time tabler so there are things to be learned. The hard part is over though. Today we are getting everything ready for the shop to open up tomorrow and I'm very excited. All my prints will be available, #Workcomics, my sketchbook, charm necklaces and phone charms, stickers, buttons, everything. One more push and then I will be able to relax for the rest of the week.
At least until we start getting ready for Ladies Night.
Thank you to everyone that came to see me and buy stuff! It was great meeting everyone! And until next time!
-Sam <3