What did you buy from the dealers?

[Rhy135]

Did anyone end up buying much from the dealers?

 

 

 

I didn't go home with as much as I thought I would, but I did get :-

 

 

 

Indiana Jones Letter Opener Set

 

The Legend of Zelda Shield and Sword display

 

4 x badges (4 for £3)

 

Toy Story Lithograph Art Print

[chrisrus]

Didn't buy to much.

 

Got 2 long pics for £10 one of Billie Piper and another of Elish Cuthbert.

 

1 pic of Billie Piper from a secret diary of a call girl of her sat in a martini glass for £3

[level242]

i was a little disappointed with the dealers room .

the only thing i bought was the Hiro Nakamura sword from Heroes.

[sdog]

Hardly anything.

 

Just 4 10x8 stills and that was it.

 

I thought the stalls were a little disappointing to be honest as usually I can be persuaded to part with my cash quite easily but this time round there was very little to interest me, and what there was I felt was a bit on the pricey side.

[Phantom]

A dedicated to "William" original signed Peter Cushing still.

There was nothing else i was interested in.I pondered buying LET THE RIGHT ONE IN on dvd but it was 20 quid so ill wait fot the uk release.The dvds were very highly priced,i saw a couple of Hammer dvds you can pick up in hmv for 4 quid going for 3 times that.

I thought id find some good Hammer stills but all i could see were pics of modern day "celebs" eg Myleene Klass,Danielle Lloyd etc and the other usual suspects Johnny Depp,Tennant etc.There were no real treats to be had.The belgium couple had some nice original vintage posters but i saw a few ive won on ebay for 15 quid which were going for well over 4 times that.

A few years ago i was walking round like some kid off Crackerjack i used to buy that much stuff but nowadays that just doesnt happen.The stalls are becoming like the high street...same old same old.Thank god for Ebay when it comes to collecting.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Phantom

[Lizzy]

I thought id find some good Hammer stills but all i could see were pics of modern day "celebs" eg Myleene Klass,Danielle Lloyd etc and the other usual suspects Johnny Depp,Tennant etc.

 

Yea, I agree... I was hoping to find some nice new Trek movie photos/prints or New Dwarf ones, but I couldn't find much that was decent, or that I couldn't print off myself by just downloading the wallpapers from the official sites.

 

And I did see the new Trek figures I was after- for nearly twice the price they are going to be sold at in Toys r us next week I think I can wait...

[Phantom]

On the subject of prints and stills this weekend finaly convinced me to always bring my own.

Whilst Dave Prowse had some quality Vader images that is all he had,he didnt have any Frankenstein ones and though im loathe to lay any kind of critisism on them Caroline Munros and Madeline Smiths were a little washed out looking too.Thankfully i took my own again this time round.I learned my lesson with Bruce and Englund.There are a couple of Freddy images from an Elm St 2 photo session and a couple of classic Evil Dead images ive always liked but they were not available on the day so whilst im chuffed i met them and got their sigs the images provided were a let down and still bug me to this day.

Ive always liked this Madeline still so i bought it beforehand in case it wasnt there on the day which it wasnt.

I know many fans take their own stills.Its highly recommended.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Phantom

[BeatrixKiddo88]

I got a load of 10x8s for my wall (and for later signings of the people in the pictures are announced for an event)

 

Normally all I get now, as the dealers at the last few events either put their prices up or I just cant bring myself to buy anything.

 

My mum's voice echos in my head too much when looking at collectables now. 'Where would I put that...do I really need it...my room has no space for this stuff anymore...' and I end up not getting anything fun lol

 

Not that the pictures arnt fun, my wall now looks awesome with my fandoms all over it lol

[maegurwen]

4 keyrings

quite a few dvds at a low price

A lightsabre

two long pictures for ten (one of torchwood the other of reddwarf)

and some comics..

 

Although i have no where to atually put the lightsabre...whoops...

 

oh and i forgot to add...t-shirts.

Edited April 21, 2009 by maegurwen

[nosfer2]

I didn't buy anything. I went with the intention of buying boxes of Star Trek trading cards but there was only one trading card dealer and I already had the boxes he was selling.

[chrismk]

I thought id find some good Hammer stills but all i could see were pics of modern day "celebs" eg Myleene Klass,Danielle Lloyd etc and the other usual suspects Johnny Depp,Tennant etc.

 

Yea, I agree... I was hoping to find some nice new Trek movie photos/prints or New Dwarf ones, but I couldn't find much that was decent, or that I couldn't print off myself by just downloading the wallpapers from the official sites.

 

And I did see the new Trek figures I was after- for nearly twice the price they are going to be sold at in Toys r us next week I think I can wait...

 

Although I wasn't selling my stuff at the event, I just wanted to make a couple of comments on behalf of the dealers (or at least some of them).

 

Firstly, what kind of stuff would people like to see represented in the dealers room? I often see comments about the choice being a little poor, but there is rarely any examples of what people would like to buy.

 

Secondly, the pricing. Yes, the prices have all gone up. The reason for this is laregly down to the exchange rates. A year ago, you could buy $2 per £1, this meant that an item available from a US retailer or distributer costing $20, would cost a UK importer £10 (exlcuing taxes etc). Now, the exchange rate has dropped to around £1 = $1.50. This means that the same item, still costing $20, now costs £13.33. Because most of the cool stuff is from the US, British retailers don't have any choice but to pass on this additional cost to the customers.

 

Finally, the posters/prints. I know one retailer at CM Midlands who told me that it is very difficult to get quality prints from UK shows like Red Dwarf. British TV companies don't seem to have properly grasped the whole merchandising thing*, so there is very little available and they are also a lot less keen to embrace the digital age, meaning they don't release digital images that might allow someone to make a 10x8 print.

 

 

p.s. This isn't intended to be directed at Lizzy, I just replied to her message as it contained a point I wanted to refer to.

[Phantom]

My problem is that what i want to buy is from a period over 30 years ago and ive been lucky at times but in the past two years ive had to move onto the more recent Hammer and Universal related products.I used to purchase stuff from SIDESHOWs Universal Horror line at shows but all that stuff has been snapped up.

I also collect chase cards from all the Hammer trading card series released since the 90s but there doesnt seem to be so many trading card dealers as there used to be and again if you want that kind of stuff ebay has it all.

I will say i saw some cheap autos but im wary of buying autos of people i havent met in person.I saw a guy with a pile of Christopher Lee Dracula autos and another pile behind the counter which seemed a bit sussed as there were no other images signed of him as any other character from his vast career and Lee pretty much refuses to sign anything Dracula related nowadays.Christopher Lee has one of the easiest signatures to copy ive ever seen,ive had a go for my own amusement in the past and i got it spot on after a dozen attempts so i will only buy one if hes sat in front of myself.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Phantom

[abstractharmony]

I didn't (for a change) actually buy anything this time.

 

Very nearly bought the Fred & George Weasley Minibusts and was stood waiting to buy a Episode One Destroyer Droid figure but the dealer seemed to think that chatting to his mate for 10 minutes was much more important than taking my money so back it went.

 

Hoping that CM15 & LFCC will relieve me of a bit more cash.

[nicky]

Firstly, what kind of stuff would people like to see represented in the dealers room? .

I think it's only natural and intelligent if dealers anticipate fans wanting to buy merchandise that fans would want to get signed by guests that are there.

 

At LFCC I was left frustrated cos no one had an Alien 3 one-sheet poster....you'd think dealers would have got their hands on some repros* in time for the event seeing as there were two actors from that film there and the large fandom that Alien is. I foolishly left it too late when I ordered mine online and was thinking the chances of a poster there would be good but only ONE dealer had a crummy one (not the one-sheet).

 

*There is a shortage of repros at cons I find specifically one-sheets. Does anyone even sell any? Not everyone is into 8x10s.

Edited April 21, 2009 by nicky

[chrismk]

Firstly, what kind of stuff would people like to see represented in the dealers room? .

I think it's only natural and intelligent if dealers anticipate fans wanting to buy merchandise that fans would want to get signed by guests that are there.

 

At LFCC I was left frustrated cos no one had an Alien 3 one-sheet poster....you'd think dealers would have got their hands on some repros* in time for the event seeing as there were two actors from that film there and the large fandom that Alien is. I foolishly left it too late when I ordered mine online and was thinking the chances of a poster there would be good but only ONE dealer had a crummy one (not the one-sheet).

 

*There is a shortage of repros at cons I find specifically one-sheets. Does anyone even sell any? Not everyone is into 8x10s.

 

Yeah, but do you know how hard they are for dealers to get hold of*? I can imagine it's not easy to get stuff for a film that is years old (and wasn't that popular at the time). Anything you can get is likely to be expensive and then if you don't sell it, you're stuck with an over priced poster for a film that wasn't that popular. That, or it's going to be an illgal copy, in which case you're taking a risk (especially at an event like MK, when Trading Standards people are often kicking about.)

 

 

*A brief look at ebay, shows just one Alien 3 poster available in the whole of the UK

[nicky]

Yeah, but do you know how hard they are for dealers to get hold of*? I can imagine it's not easy to get stuff for a film that is years old (and wasn't that popular at the time).

I wasnt talking about originals BTW, I said repros and they are easy enough to find (hence why they are repros): Moviemarket has Alien 3 (which I'm only useing as an example) for £10 and Moviegoods for £20 so it would have been wise for dealers to get a few for people who didnt get one in time at last year's LFCC - it's a common problem for overseas fans who order posters online but dont receive them in time. I mean dealers already sell 8x10s, why not repro one-sheets?*

 

It doesnt matter if the film wasnt that popular at the time cos SM have still got the guests there (and SM are advertising they are from that film) and fans are meeting them for those films. Besides, Alien (as an example) is one of the biggest fandoms around, that cant be denied...it's not as if dealers are having to get posters for obscure films that wont sell like Ladies In Lavander (non-fandom Charles Dance film).

 

I think it's unwise for dealers to not anticipate fans wanting to buy a poster for a fandom-freindly film when the con has 2 guests from that film there plus others in the other sequels. Plenty of pepole were getting Alien (as an eaxmple) items signed by Dance and Postelwaite and were running out of spce cos they only had their DVDs to sign - they may have hoped to get a big poster like me too instead...if they could find one there.

 

Repro posters arent illegal, are they?? Loads of dealers sell reprints of 8x10s and even those dealers sell those homemade cardboard-mounted postcards thingys and those dodgy homemade collage photos.

 

*At this show it would have been wise for poster dealers to have Temple of Doom, OHMSS and Predator repro one-sheet posters but I only saw, yep you guessed it, 8x10s. I specify one-sheets cos they are generally the official, main posters for the film's marketing machine that everyone recognises. There was actually 3 of us here looking for a Predator one sheet in a recent thread I started here last wk which supports my points.

Edited April 21, 2009 by nicky

[chrismk]

Yeah, but do you know how hard they are for dealers to get hold of*? I can imagine it's not easy to get stuff for a film that is years old (and wasn't that popular at the time).

I wasnt talking about originals BTW, I said repros and they are easy enough to find (hence why they are repros): Moviemarket has Alien 3 (which I'm only useing as an example) for £10 and Moviegoods for £20 so it would have been wise for dealers to get a few for people who didnt get one in time at last year's LFCC - it's a common problem for overseas fans who order posters online but dont receive them in time. I mean dealers already sell 8x10s, why not repro one-sheets?*

 

It doesnt matter if the film wasnt that popular at the time cos SM have still got the guests there (and SM are advertising they are from that film) and fans are meeting them for those films. Besides, Alien (as an example) is one of the biggest fandoms around, that cant be denied...it's not as if dealers are having to get posters for obscure films that wont sell like Ladies In Lavander (non-fandom Charles Dance film).

 

I think it's unwise for dealers to not anticipate fans wanting to buy a poster for a fandom-freindly film when the con has 2 guests from that film there plus others in the other sequels. Plenty of pepole were getting Alien (as an eaxmple) items signed by Dance and Postelwaite and were running out of spce cos they only had their DVDs to sign - they may have hoped to get a big poster like me too instead...if they could find one there.

 

Repro posters arent illegal, are they?? Loads of dealers sell reprints of 8x10s and even those dealers sell those homemade cardboard-mounted postcards thingys and those dodgy homemade collage photos.

 

*At this show it would have been wise for poster dealers to have Temple of Doom, OHMSS and Predator repro one-sheet posters but I only saw, yep you guessed it, 8x10s. I specify one-sheets cos they are generally the official, main posters for the film's marketing machine that everyone recognises. There was actually 3 of us here looking for a Predator one sheet in a recent thread I started here last wk which supports my points.

 

Are repros actually legal, I'm not sure? I don't know of many distributers of those things, so if a dealer had to buy a poster for £10-£20, then when you factor in costs and profit, it would likely be too expensive for customers (and you're stuck with a bunch of expensive posters if you get it wrong, which is why it DOES matter if the film is unpopular, because you're going to have a hard time shifting it and are going to have your money tied up in stock.)

 

Dealers sell 10x8 because they can produce them from their homes/businesses if they have a decent enough printer. I would suggest that most dealers do not have the facilities to reproduce something poster size (even assuming they could find a suitable digital image of sufficient quality). I can't comment on the legality of them, but some of them have the copywrite stuff, which *implies* that they've bought them from the US websites and imported them.

 

I don't agree that the Alien franchise is one of the biggest around, certainly not in the UK. It doesn't come close to Potter/Bond/Star Wars/LotR/Indy.

 

I know that dealers want to try and anticipate their prosepctive audience, but it's not always worth the risk if it's outside the huge fanbases.

 

I'm surprised you didn't see any Indy posters, I'm sure I saw at least one that weekend. Predator is again, a smaller, older, less popular franchise, so that surprises me less. The fact that you had to start a thread to find a Predator poster, shows how rare these things are, which means it's just as difficult for dealers to find stock.

[madmilburn]

Bought a pack of Power Rangers trading cards 4 a friend of the family whose son is MAD about them and a couple of 1.50 posters from the belgian(?) poster plp nxt to the doors leading to autographica from cm.

 

Did hope that i could find a pic of david warner from 39 Steps but had no luck. Happy enough with the Omen pic i got though.

 

On the sunday in autographica bought 3 signed pics for a tenner of Virginia Wade, Geoff Capes and Nikki Diamond-Scorpio from original Gladiators and a necklace for me mam.

Edited April 21, 2009 by madmilburn

[nicky]

are repros actually legal, I'm not sure?

 

I don't agree that the Alien franchise is one of the biggest around, certainly not in the UK. It doesn't come close to Potter/Bond/Star Wars/LotR/Indy.

 

Predator is again, a smaller, older, less popular franchise, so that surprises me less. The fact that you had to start a thread to find a Predator poster, shows how rare these things are, which means it's just as difficult for dealers to find stock.

Are repros illegal? I dunno, it was you who suggested they might be in your earlier post! They sell repros in Forbidden Planet and HMV anyway and all those poster sites havent been busted by the movie studios so I'd say repros are fine...just as long you're not passing it off as an original cinema poster.

 

The Alien and Predator franchise sell just as many if not more collectables than any other franchise I know of - it's just not talked about as much cos it's not really a family or PG rated franchise like the others nor is it "down with the kids" or "so hot right now". I really dont think SM have Alien or Pred themes/reunions for no reason either. I'll give you Star Wars/Potter/LOTR but I'd say Alien/Pred has a bigger fanbase than Indy or Bond...even in cosplay but esp in collectables, comics and games. The Alien/Pred (maybe not AvP) guests such as the marines (even non-speaking ones) have always brought a decent crowd, certainly more than Bond girls or minor Indy characters.

 

I didnt start a Predator poster thread cos it's rare to find. Why did you think that???? I started one cos my own didnt arrive in time and I was asking if anyone had a spare that they could part with if I arranged to meet them at the con! I wasnt asking where I could find one cos I couldnt track one down. There's Pred one-sheet poster all over the place but I had a time limit so wanted to see if anyone had spare they could just bring to the con. You can find posters on eBay, moviemarket, moviegoods and most other decent poster sites...it and Alien and everything else is not rare...they are repros from the 80s/90s which have been reproduced in their masses, not originals - they're rare!!!

 

Anyway back to my point: repro one-sheet posters would be good to see as many people do get them signed esp for films starring the guests at the con. I think it makes perfect sense as people are always leaving ordering stuff to get signed online too late. If SM can book the guests from films, it's only natural people would want posters signed. And repros are not fuckign rare!!!! Or expensive!!!

 

What do you sell on your stall anyway, chrismk?

Edited April 21, 2009 by nicky

[chris_mk]

are repros actually legal, I'm not sure?

 

I don't agree that the Alien franchise is one of the biggest around, certainly not in the UK. It doesn't come close to Potter/Bond/Star Wars/LotR/Indy.

 

Predator is again, a smaller, older, less popular franchise, so that surprises me less. The fact that you had to start a thread to find a Predator poster, shows how rare these things are, which means it's just as difficult for dealers to find stock.

Are repros illegal? I dunno, it was you who suggested they might be in your earlier post! They sell repros in Forbidden Planet and HMV anyway and all those poster sites havent been busted by the movie studios so I'd say repros are fine...just as long you're not passing it off as an original cinema poster.

 

The Alien and Predator franchise sell just as many if not more collectables than any other franchise I know of - it's just not talked about as much cos it's not really a family or PG rated franchise like the others nor is it "down with the kids" or "so hot right now". I really dont think SM have Alien or Pred themes/reunions for no reason either. I'll give you Star Wars/Potter/LOTR but I'd say Alien/Pred has a bigger fanbase than Indy or Bond...even in cosplay but esp in collectables, comics and games. The Alien/Pred (maybe not AvP) guests such as the marines (even non-speaking ones) have always brought a decent crowd, certainly more than Bond girls or minor Indy characters.

 

I didnt start a Predator poster thread cos it's rare to find. Why did you think that???? I started one cos my own didnt arrive in time and I was asking if anyone had a spare that they could part with if I arranged to meet them at the con! I wasnt asking where I could find one cos I couldnt track one down. There's Pred one-sheet poster all over the place but I had a time limit so wanted to see if anyone had spare they could just bring to the con. You can find posters on eBay, moviemarket, moviegoods and most other decent poster sites...it and Alien and everything else is not rare...they are repros from the 80s/90s which have been reproduced in their masses, not originals - they're rare!!!

 

Anyway back to my point: repro one-sheet posters would be good to see as many people do get them signed esp for films starring the guests at the con. I think it makes perfect sense as people are always leaving ordering stuff to get signed online too late. If SM can book the guests from films, it's only natural people would want posters signed. And repros are not fuckign rare!!!! Or expensive!!!

 

What do you sell on your stall anyway, chrismk?

 

I'm sure the repros sold by HMV/FP/etc are legal, I would guess that there are companies licensed to make repro film posters. The problem being that they only make them for current and upcoming films. They may well have made them for Alien 3 and Predator in the past, but those films are more than 10 years old, why would they still be committing themselves to large print runs? (Don't forget, the print company isn't going to make 10-12 just for an event, I would imagine every print run goes into the tens of thousands). This means that dealers either have to find old stock of these posters, or find a way of printing them themselves, which is obviously incredibly difficult, given the equipment needed and the fact that the high res digital images would not be readily available.

 

You seriously believe that the Alien/Predator franchises sell as many collectables as the Star Wars or Harry Potter ones? Seriously? SM have had reunion themes for those films, because they are huge film fans and they're guests that they want to meet. I don't think that those guests draw as many attendees as some of the other guests. I can't comment on the BOnd guests, but I think the Indy guests have always been very popular.

 

As I said, ebay only had one entry for an ALien 3 poster.... Also, in truth, there were at least two stalls selling posters last weekend. I would imagine poster stalls are quite difficult to do. Posters aren't easy to display (if you think about a display in HMV, those units hold maybe 20-30 different posters and take up quite a lot of space).

 

I sell genre-related games and collectables.

[nicky]

You seriously believe that the Alien/Predator franchises sell as many collectables as the Star Wars or Harry Potter ones? Seriously?

Yep. I'm thinking specifically in the model kits, statues, dioramas, replicas and 1/6 Hot Toys action figs and NECA/McFarlane Toys. Probably not trading cards though but when it comes to serious collector stuff that (Potter) kids cant afford like the stuff you see on Sideshow Collectables.

[Rhy135]

 

Firstly, what kind of stuff would people like to see represented in the dealers room? I often see comments about the choice being a little poor, but there is rarely any examples of what people would like to buy.

 

 

 

 

 

Imported stuff based on popular franchises, mainly from Japan would be on my list, along with a few pieces of video game memoribilla.

[chris_mk]

You seriously believe that the Alien/Predator franchises sell as many collectables as the Star Wars or Harry Potter ones? Seriously?

Yep. I'm thinking specifically in the model kits, statues, dioramas, replicas and 1/6 Hot Toys action figs and NECA/McFarlane Toys. Probably not trading cards though but when it comes to serious collector stuff that (Potter) kids cant afford like the stuff you see on Sideshow Collectables.

 

Mate, Hasbro (one of the worlds biggest toymakers) have made Star Wars stuff for years. Star Wars is THE DADDY of tie-in merchandising. I guarantee you that there is more Star Wars merchandise available than there is for Aliens.

 

 

Firstly, what kind of stuff would people like to see represented in the dealers room? I often see comments about the choice being a little poor, but there is rarely any examples of what people would like to buy.

 

 

 

 

 

Imported stuff based on popular franchises, mainly from Japan would be on my list, along with a few pieces of video game memoribilla.

 

Fair enough, although again, the weak pound means that importing stuff is hugely expensive at the moment, but it's true that I've not seen anyone selling that kind of stuff.

[TerraHawk]

Mate, Hasbro (one of the worlds biggest toymakers) have made Star Wars stuff for years. Star Wars is THE DADDY of tie-in merchandising. I guarantee you that there is more Star Wars merchandise available than there is for Aliens.

 

Yes, what Star Wars did well always was to do toys for Children, some of whom grew up to be collectors. That early MOC stuff is so valued is due to the fact most of it was opened and enjoyed! The collectors market just evolved on its own.

 

Aliens & Predator weren't (or at shouldn't have) ever been aimed at children. It used to amuse me to see action figures for films with an 18 rating. When I was younger!

[Phantom]

Im sure that the Star Wars line is far more profitable than any other toy line.Ive never known any movie tie in to sell so steadily for such a long period.From 77 - 85 they had to be the highest selling range and then after a decade away they were back at in again in 95 then next through the prequels and now with the s*** load of stuff theyve got for The Clone Wars and thats just the 3 3/4 figures.

As for the other SW merchandise they have price guide books bigger than the one with the other greatest story ever told out there and thats not all the stuff included in there.

There have been misfires like the talking 2ft Jar Jar and the Ewoks line in 85 but as far as i can see there is always stuff coming out weekly and selling.The forthcoming sideshow 12" Vader has sold out already i believe on pre orders alone.

Im sure the Aliens and Predator stuff sells but i reckon its small change compared to the Lucasfilm SW merchandise phenomenon.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Phantom