I think it’s easy to believe a show was profitable, without really looking at the costs involved. I just have to break in here to say how awesome it is that Phil and his wife closely analyze exactly how much money they net from doing big indie craft shows. Plush is labor-intensive and it’s hard to make it profitable. It’s painful and usually unpleasant to see the numbers. My wife and business partner is business-school trained and great at doing all the soberingly accurate and detailed analyses of our business. No matter how big the show, we usually break even at best. After doing the indie craft show rounds for about five years, we feel like we still aren’t finding our market there. Our decision to pursue cons was easy to make. Our rough guess (having visited NYCC last year) is that it will be like three days of Crafty Bastards plus a day of trade show. Prior to this, the largest show we’ve vended at was Crafty Bastards or Renegade Brooklyn. We’ve never sold at a con (meaning a comic book convention) and have only ever been to one before this one. It’s hard to say what we’re expecting out of New York Comic Con. Here is what Phil shared with me about his hopes for the show (huge props to Phil, by the way, for talking to me from the car on his way from Virginia to New York): As an indie plush designer, what can you get out of going to Comic Con? This was his first Comic Con and I wondered what motivated him to sign up. I got in touch with Phil the day before he left for New York to ask him what he was hoping to get out of the weekend. I’ve followed Phil’s work for a long while now and I was excited when I saw on Twitter that he was heading to the show. Phil makes wonderfully furry, fleecy monsters. There were a few plush makers at New York Comic Con this year, including Phil Barbato. But many of these same people also love vinyl toys like these by Pete Fowler and creative, creepy, and interesting plush. It’s a gathering of like-minded people who love comic books and cosplay. This isn’t a plush show per se, and it isn’t a craft fair either. What caught my attention about Comic Con was the focus on toys, and especially on plush and indie plush makers. All kinds of comics and literary stars and well-known entertainers come to meet their fans and talk about their work. New York Comic Con started in 2006 and is an incredibly popular and well-attended event drawing devoted fans from all over the United States and the world. There are other comic cons in the US, including a huge one in San Diego, but New York is a pretty big deal. It’s held at the Javits Center and sells out with over 75,000 people in attendance. New York Comic Con is an annual convention for fans of anime, comics, video games, and toys.
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