Prepare yourself for the convention season.
Yes, the convention season is about to kick into high gear and getting as prepared as you can will greatly increase your chances of buying wisely, having fun, maximizing your time and keeping your sanity. Comicbookdaily.com is offering up a series of convention prep tips that are designed to turn you into a lean mean con machine. You’ll learn to think with clarity, make good split second decisions, haggle with dealers and eat right along with many other needed skills that will enhance your convention experience. Usually tips like these on a DVD can cost $19.99 + S&H but CBD is posting them absolutely free.
Convention Tip #7 – Network!
Big, juicy delicious Comic Book Conventions don’t come to small towns. In fact you can probably count on both hands the number of really big important cons in North America. I stress this point to highlight just how big an event this should be for the collector who doesn’t have the time and money to jet set across to all the big comic cons. Most of us will be lucky to get to one really good con this year. Luckily the majority of us live at most a few hours drive from at least one of these cons so getting to that one should at least be relatively easy.
Whatever you are into in the wonderful world of comic books, you absolutely must take advantage of this opportunity to network.
I’m sure you are on all kinds of social networking sites. Let it be known that you’re heading to the con. People with the same interests may make contact and try to meet you there.
Dealer’s booths are usually places where discussions are taking place between customers and dealers and many times between customers themselves (the etiquette is not to mention in front of the dealer to another customer that there’s another dealer that has better stuff and it’s even worse to try to sell someone something in front of a dealer’s booth). Feel free to join in and engage in these discussions. Often you’ll learn something that may be of help to you at a later time.
Chat with the people in the artist signing line with you or with the people next to you at one of the press conferences. There will be many opportunities for you to engage with people that share the same interests as you. No friendships have to develop but I’ll guarantee you’ll go home knowing a lot more about the very thing that you’re passionate about and you’ll have that great feeling that always comes after you’ve interacted with society at large. You’ll be an active participant in an event that is truly special and you’ll have helped make it that way.
Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
