Shopping at the Con

OMG SO YOU MADE IT TO THE CON!! Good for you but now you see the true size of the con and you have no idea how you will get though it all. Well it is not going to be easy but it can be done, well for the most part and if you know how to go about it. So this week I will discuss the many different ways to shop and how to look for the vendors there that you can buy from. There is also a place to where you can meet actors and atresses to where you can get autographs from them as well as pictures. Some are cheap while others are expensive. One should always be wary of how they go about shopping there. There is one thing I have learned is that you NEVER do all your shopping in one day. There are several ways to go around all this these steps are easy to follow.

Step 1:  Set the amount of money you want to spend for the entire con or if you have a good amount to spend per day set a limit of how much you will spend per day. Some people I have heard spend $1,500+ per day if this is the case set the entire amount that you want to spend for the entire weekend or if you are like me you might need to set a budget on how much you can spend per day. A good example of this would be.....ok lets say for all 4 days you can spend a total of $600 and you will be there for 2 days the best way is spend $300 or less per day. Spending it all in one day means you are less likely to get everything you might want to get unless you will be willing to go over your budget for the entire time you are there. 

Step 2:  Decide what days you will do your shopping. Over the years I have learned to never buy on Thursdays or if you go to preview night. You might be looking for something in particular that they DO HAVE but have yet to unpack it. If you plan on buying the best days to do it would be on Friday and Saturday the reason is chances are they will have everything unpacked which means if you are looking for something they are more likely to have it. 

Step 3:  The most important and I can not stress this enough is try to have an idea of what you are shopping for. Are you into movies like the Avengers, Lord of the Rings, or the newest movies such as Stephen Kings It [which I loved more then the original]. Or are you more into tv shows like Once Upon a Time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Game of Thrones. If you know what movies or shows you like or love and what to get stuff from that movie or show will make it easier to shop. If you are like me and are in to anime know what shows you are looking to get stuff from. Doing this makes it easier to not only shop but to get though the entire con being able to see everything there is to see in terms of shopping.

For me 98.8% of the stuff I get is from anime. Mainly from One Piece and Naruto so when I look at the different vendors I will look to see if they sell anime merchandise. If I see they sale anime items be it movies, figures, stickers, ect. then that is where I will stop and look. But it's also because I mostly buy this kind of stuff that I do not buy right away, some of the vendors sell the same thing when its anime so you might want to spend the first day or two looking just for those anime items you want to get to see what the price range is on it all and see who has the better deal. Sometimes I also buy on Sunday this is for two reasons. One of course is because they might sell at a cheaper price no matter what kind of item you are trying to get the other is that you might find yourself wanting more then one item [same item just different vendor] or it could be that you want two different items from different vendors and like me can never decide between the two. But this approach has a down side which is simply they might not have it on the last day they might sell out, another good reason to know what you want to get before really buying. This is why you will only see me buy on Friday and Saturday.

Days of Comic Con

Hello since this is my first time doing a blog I don't really know what I am doing. So this will be interesting to say the least. Today I will talk about picking the best days to go to this con. Of course all 4 days should be attended. Because there are so many coming it can get pretty packed, it can be worse than traffic on the most busy day but for all the trouble it is worth it. It starts in mid July usually the second or third week, but it always starts on a Thursday and ends on Sunday. If you are lucky enough to get all 4 days, you will have the opportunity to go to preview night.....I highly recommend doing this since this will give you a very good idea of what to expect and lets you get a more detailed idea of what is there. It might even give you more ideas on what you might want to look for when buying.

*MAKE SURE TO SIGN UP FOR A MEMBER ID ON THE SITE THE TICKETS RUN OUT QUICKLY SO DO NOT WAIT TO LOG IN BE THERE AND ONLINE AT LEAST 45-60 MINUTES EARLY THOUGH THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL GET A TICKET!! THE EARLIER YOU SIGN IN THE HIGHER AND CLOSER YOU ARE TO THE FRONT! Look on the right hand side on the very top to sign up for the id without this you can never buy tickets*

The link to the site is: https://comic-con.org/

If you are the type of person who does not like crowds all I can say is FIND A WAY! Comic Con is not just some convention. If you are into movies, tv, anime, and comics this is something you do not want to miss out on. The best way of doing something like this when you don't like crowds.....go for just 1 day I would say pick either Thursday [which although still very busy and packed will NOT be as packed as it would be on a Friday or Saturday] or go on a Sunday since that is the last day it is still very packed but not as packed which means it is easier to get around that day. Do this for the first year or two then expand on your days of going it will be worth it. To give you a idea of how crowded it can get, in 2018 an estimated 200,000 people came so you can imagine how it can seem like traffic but it doesn't get bad enough to where you are constantly stopping like you would in traffic. As someone who has been going for over 20 years I get depressed and need to go for pizza for everyday I have missed which has never happened until last year 2018 on a Friday sadly this year it has happened again only on Saturday which sucks because every Saturday they have a party but I am hoping that I can get into the party without the pass since I am not going into the exhibit hall.

Panels are another reason to go everyday. There are several panels a day everything from movies to tv to anime. Everyone from Harrison Ford to Ben Affleck to cartoon voices such as Porky Pig, Goofy ect. Anime fans voice actors come as well. Steve Blum to name just one of the many he is the voice for the Toonami robot that always starts things off. He also does the voices of Orochimaru in Naruto, Spike for Cowboy Bebop, Darcia in Wolfs Rain and many more. He is a good friend of mine and I always look forward to seeing him along with many others who I have come to know really well over the years. There are more voice actors who come as well. Though I should warn you the lines for these panels can get very very long you could wait for hours to get in and sometimes after hours of standing in line you might not get in. So my advice is simply this try to get in line as soon as possible the closer you are to the door the more chance you have of getting in unless you are disabled then you get a sticker on your badge which lets you get in immediately and a front row seat. Some people will camp out all night as well just so they know they will get in no matter what so if you have a fold up chair or a stool BRING IT WITH YOU! If you plan on staying overnight bring a blanket, food, drink if you are alone. if you have people with you in line take turns to get food, drink, to walk since sitting there non stop is a no no not sure how the bathroom thing works when staying overnight.

There will be a lot to cover on this so I will try to put out a new blog every week give or take. Do let me know how this turned out or if you have any suggestions and if you have been to the con well good for you. Never stop going you never know who or what is coming next.