Happy Valley Comic Con Review

Date: March 1 - 2

Location: Nittany Valley Sports Centre, State College, PA

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Upon reviewing show tracker report and reflecting on a fellow vendor and friend’s statement, here’s my thought about Happy Valley Comic Con:

Starting with cost of show and AirBnB, the cost for a 10x10 booth is somewhat above the

average of what I’ve spend on 10x10’ booth. Tad costly for someone starting out or, sadly like

my friend, have a basic set up with the table. Now thing is, I’ve invested in my 10x10 spacing

since that's what I’ve been doing most of last year so I’ve been able to make my space pop.

However, there was some draw-back that I’ve noticed - spacing between my panels and table are

still a bit snug but manageable and unless I have the panels set-up just right to be eye-catching,

people seems to skip going into my booth area. As for the cost of the AirBnB, honestly that’s

what saved me this show. Had I’ve done hotel like normal, I would have suffered a great loss

instead of gaining roughly 50%+ in profit. Show is definitely small where I’ve actually debated

on whether it would have saved me money to stay at AirBnB or just put up with the 1.5 hour

travel back and forth, spending roughly $60-$75 in gas money.

As for the show itself, while it was great that the main parking lot and overflow parking lot filled

up to point shuttles had to be taken, the crowd itself was still somewhat small. There had been

bursts of customers walking through but there would be also be times where the convention

would be nearly dead via foot traffic. Not exactly great for a convention that claimed to have

done advertisements with tv ads, social media, etc. While my stuffs did sell, the most popular

products sold was the Monster Hunter franchise, which didn't surprised me due to the recent release of Monster Hunter Wilds.

What I think about the con? I’m a tad worried given how this is the con’s third year running and

it’s still this small. Sales were ok...fan arts definitely reign supreme compared to original arts so that's something to keep in mind. Con definitely need a place that offers better wi-fi since my

terminal system was completely down - it refused to connect to con’s wi-fi and struggled greatly just to get a signal. Phone have also struggled with getting signal to run my Zettle mobile terminal. Normally I would give conventions 2 years of possible running to see if its worth the investment but due to increase of pricing from $225 to $260, and how my crafts have been lately, I probably won't be applying next year. It's too early to say but that's how things stand right now as finances are currently tad tight.