Omg we made it!
New York Comic Con/ New York Anime Festival is THE biggest con in NYC and it was the first time working it without partnering with ATNYC. Since the beginning of this convention, my sister, Tina, and I had always been just plain old attendees walking the long walks thru each and every aisle seeing everyone's offerings. Last year, I agreed to work with ATNYC to share a table under said name and test the waters of how things were. Since then, I've wanted to be a vender. Yes, I got to see screenings as a plain ol' attendee, but I felt it was time to move on and so did Tina.
Let me tell you, my sister and I were freaking out. We took a week off from work to work on things to sell b/c, thanks to dad, we were ingrained with the notion that we needed to have more, that what we had wouldn't be enough. So Friday (one week before NYCC/NYAF) thru to Tuesday, we were cranking out product. Tina worked hard on making our table sign:
We had gotten a chip board set on clearence so it saved a load of time. Add in scrap booking paper I had saved a while back and bam! a table sign was born :D The con was letting pros and artists come in starting that Tuesday but we decided to go in Wednesday and set up:
I'd like to thank scrapbookers everywhere and The Martha (Stewart) for helping me in making this garland sign possible. Without the awesomeness of the scrapbooking section, I don' t know what would have come of that side. We were the first artists to arrive and you can see in the back the few others that made it in after us. So we worked a demo, felt good with what we had, took a pic and put it all away. Being the first con we were working, we didn't feel comfy enough to leave everything out just yet.
Thurday was the first day of the con and was only open to VIP pass holders, press and pros (exhibitors/artists). The alley we were in wasn't open to the public and according to the email we got, we only had till 12:30 that afternoon to finish up then gtfo. We walked around, visited our awesome artist friend
Echo Chernik, buy a few things we either never got to get last year or new things that came this year. Then, with a keen eye, Tina saw people walking upstairs in our alley. We were like "Omg no they didn't just let someone upstairs." We got our poker faces on and went to investigate. Turned out they were letting artists come in and set up. Made sense since some poeple probably couldn't come till that day. So we worked on our setup again and placed a bedsheet over it for a table cover. Yea, a bedsheet with little red roses on it. Someone further had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bedsheet over theirs so, it's all good :)
Day 1 of the Anime Artist Alley! We finally made it past the starting gate and our table was loaded with stuff. That's me sitting behind the table with a serious frow going on. I was working on hats b/c the supplier made our order in by the skin of everyone's teeth.
It was a little slow that day but we did make some sales. While we did get placed by the front for everyone to see, we got the "let's go see what else is here and we'll come back" from lots of people. While that was a little discouraging, people I knew came by and gave praise so that felt good. Even saw a couple of coworkers I didn't expect to see there! That was awesome.
Day 2 and 3 brought us to the realization that, yes, we needed to change things up on our layout. I was now well hidden working on more hats b/c that seemed to be the thing that sold the most and it was the thing I didn't have enough of.
My sister's side of the table was much more like a bakery than my choppy jalopy side of little bits and bobs but it did reflect out products. Felt foods is what she does.
This is a shot of how we had them Day 1 and and you can see from above, we learned that bigger is better. She had those wicker baskets for ages and they finally got used.
Day 2 definitely brought us the most business, including this custom request. Cupcake by Tina, mounting it on the headband by me. it was a good thing I packed ribbon I hadn't used yet b/c they worked fantabulously with the cupcake. She was very pleased.
Overall, we were pleased. No, we didn't sell everything but no one ever does. Proof positive that making more of something means it may not sell out while making not enough of something means it will. I think I'd have to thank dad for that philosophy. He tends to do that at his job and all we can do is *smh* when mom tells us so. Anyway, other things we learned:
- Being in the front may not have been the best place to be but placement is something that's out of our control. We can only hope that next year we'll be given someplace in the middle.
- Layout is important. We ended up taking down some of the displays we brought b/c we ran out of room and some ended up not working out in the end. We really shoulda worked on that better and now we know.
- Having enough change on the last day is muy importante! Stupid coin toss told us to stick with $20 in change. Last time we listen to Washington again. Luckily, people came with just enough from time to time so we didn't have to bug the nice guys at the table next to us. Never ignore that gut feeling!
- Portable table! Working on a sliver of your sales table just doesn't cut it.
All in all, we did good for our first time rocking a convention. Our next event (hopefully) will be the
American Legions' Holiday Crafts Fair next month. A rep from
Cook's Crafts had come by our table and invited to attend. Also, the organizer of
Roc-Con invited us to be venders ao we're working out plans for that. Only good things can come from now on! Bring it! >D
