Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	12.0%	[ 80 ]
Summer	30.2%	[ 201 ]
Fall	6.8%	[ 45 ]
Winter	5.4%	[ 36 ]
Any time!	45.6%	[ 303 ]
Total Votes:			[ 665 ]

[Fiammetta Rey]

If you do the wire crates, get them from Bed, Bath, and Beyond... that's the cheapest place I could find for them.

[StarMasayume]

I'm still trying to picture the wire crates.

Thanks Sakura Alchemist smile I'll save that link. Maybe I could have my dad think up a more stable set up for it--he's good with that stuff.

[Vicemage]

Seijaku_Ishida

Vicemage

Seijaku_Ishida

At Ohayocon, I had packed some waterbottles with the Special K stuff that helps supress hunger, and some things in bar-form. Otherwise I had to rely on friends getting stuff from the food court, which was pretty overpriced.

The cold sub thing is a good idea. Or even just making sandwiches or whatever else keeps well.

You think so? I've actually found the food court prices are decent for a food court, and are in fact better than a lot of cons I've attended. (Seriously. The first time I went to Reactor, I watched the prices at the food stand go up every time I walked past it. Acen charges me $4 for a freakin' hot dog with nothing on it. The prices at the Ohayo food court really aren't bad at all. smile )

I actually ate fairly well at Ohayo, myself, since I had an assistant who would run down and grab things from the food court for me... I just wish I'd known about the day Emily was going to come around with sammiches, I wouldn't have sent her down that time, since it arrived just after I'd finished off my purchased food and wasn't hungry anymore. sweatdrop

Most other cons, I don't do so well... I bring food but forget to eat it, or I forget food and dig in my heels about paying $3 for a tiny ice cream cone or $2 for a 50-cent bag of chips. biggrin

Well...some of it was overpriced. Mostly the things like chips and drinks...but don't mind me, I'm a cheapskate XD

Heh, I am too... and yeah, usually chips at least tend to be overpriced. Subway and the diner (Fame's I think?) tend to both be pretty reasonably priced, though, and the fries from the Steak and Potato place are really good and a decent price... ^_^ I love that the food court is there, too, it's the easiest con for good food choices! biggrin

The wire crates come from all over the place, I can't recall what they're called either, though... I wish I could tell you where mine came from, but it was a long time ago. I furnished large parts of my college dorm with them, so I have a massive number of leftover pieces that I parted down into a small display setup.

[Nyawyn]

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13652600

i think these are the ones that we ended up buying. These ones are about 5 dollars cheaper than the ones at target.

[Sarruru]

Thank you so much for this thread! heart
So many of my questions are already answered, I'll try to think of some new ones. I've never been to an anime convention, let alone have an artist alley table. I totally want to do that one of these days.

[ninniku]

Actually, the wire crates at Target I think you get 6 for just a couple dollars more so their price is really better per crate.

[Konbanwa_megami]

StarMasayume

I have a question to pose to you guys. I'm going to be at Metrocon in two weeks and have a whole table to myself. So I'm planning to spread out my merchandise and prints a lot. I have a couple of large traditional fanart (12x16 matted into 16x20) that's different then my regular work. I figured I could display at least one on top of my table.

Now would it be better to have a high buy it now price or would it be an idea to do something like a raffle each day? Are raffles for artwork allowed in the artist alley and would they be a bad idea? A friend mentioned to me before so I thought I would consider it. I did sell my Sailor Moon one at the art show of the last con for $65 and wouldn't want to make less then $30 to $40. They are large pieces. What do you guys think? If it's safer to do buy it now prices, what price might you suggest and which of the below would you showcase (since I probably only have room for one at a time). I don't have the Sailor Moon any more, but I have a Kingdom Hearts one (not chibi)




The other thing is I've been warned about the artists next to me--apparently they've had problems with other artists in the past (hogging artist tables throughout the con, registering under false pretenses, mass producing fanart)--she has two tables by me and two tables somewhere else. Their artwork (even if it is all fanart and mostly the same) is pretty decent and I've bought stuff from them previously I think. I thought it was weird there wasn't even a link to a gallery like most of the artists (apparently she's been banned a lot on DA). I'm going to assume things will be all right. I do know they have a really big display (usually large shiny prints framing the entire table and such).

So it got me thinking, what kind of displays do people do to attract people? I've had another friend do the pipe and string thing to hook prints across the table. Is something like that worth the trouble?

I know the worse thing is to keep everything flat. I have a sign post my dad made with frames on all side and artowrk so it's viewable from different directions and somewhat high. When I can, I'll put up a few 4x6 or 5x7 prints in frames or use a frame stand to hold a matted print. smile

I think metrocon has a rule about raffles or events that attract a lot of people, they need to know when you plan on doing it for safety reasons. Where will you be in the artist alley? I'll be there with a table too. ^ ^

I got a link of that artist from another person at the artist alley. apparently she buys tables under different names to get more people to look at her art?

[Nyawyn]

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=/qid=/ref=br_1_10/175-4936413-6519745?ie=UTF8&node=366735011&frombrowse=1&asin=B000LRBSFI&rh=&page=1

These are the ones from target. same amount of crates though for 25 instead of 20. Although if you want them in black then you want these.

[Jayde Panda]

I use the wire crates. I think I got mine from Target. I love them--as several people have said; it's easy to clip art to them, and I can use the back side as easy access storage shelves for me, so I'm not having to constantly dig in my bag/cart/thing for stuff.

On stickers: I found a site that would print whole sticker sheets. It's here if anyone else is interested. I'm not sure on how reasonable or good their prices are, as they're the only ones I've found so far who print sticker sheets. I've heard good reviews from artists who have purchased individual stickers from them on quality, although I haven't tried them yet personally.

[Vicemage]

Oh! They added sets! biggrin

They were the first site I thought of when the sticker sheets were mentioned, but the last time I poked their site, they only offered the single sticker pages, so I just kind of didn't really think about them again... now that there's sets, I might get in on this action. biggrin

Edit: They added sets and grey-area/fair use/parody rules... now my mind is ticking on this...

[serene delusions]

Paper Forest does really good work on their stickers. You just really need to make sure the files you send are in the right format and a good resolution. @____@ Thankfully they DO contact you if they aren't and are willing to help you correct it. heart I've used their services a few times.

[Fiammetta Rey]

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...

The reason I said it was cheaper is because it was cheaper than the one someone posted on the Otakon forums... those were $45 for the same thing Bed Bath and Beyond has for $15. Thanks for the link to the cheaper ones, though...

[Onigiri Monster]

Does anyone know a good way to keep your PVC display stable? This is my first year selling and I didn't realize that people have had issues with keeping them up properly... I already bought and cut the pipes so I'm going to have use them this year since I can't return them.

Also a question about prints:

Do people prefer buying glossy prints or lustre prints? The place I'm getting mine made charge the same amount for glossy and lustre so I can't decide how I want them done.

[[Kako]]

I prefer non-glossy, personally.

As far as PVC display goes, as long as you have strong clamps and aren't using super-thin pipe, you should be fine. The guys next to me at fanime had this beautiful, intricate display... but they used really thin pipe. It wasn't sturdy enough, and they spent the first day holding it up by hand. >_<