Admiral_Bear Posted May 16, 2004 Author Share Posted May 16, 2004 Ash, the London show was bloody apalling in terms of organisation. Think yourself lucky that you wern't able to go. But on the plus side, both Marina and Armin were only charging £5 for a signature on a personal item. Respect Admiral Bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 (edited) I must agree with Bear.. the organisation left a lot to be desired.. I good example of their disorganisation was that when Connor and Dominic came back from lunch, their assistants were no-where to be seen.. no assistants, no cash box and a bloody long queue that couldn't get started.. Only one plus was that even though they organised a very good official photo opportunity, they didn't stop taking your own photos, even when queues were long.. Showmasters.. this is aparticular bug-bear of mine.. (and I'm not the only one here!!!) Perhaps in future you could consider doing this for the popular guests at your shows.. To take 20 - 30 mins out to do it isn't very long and would cater for a specific demand.. As far as I am concerned, some guests that I already have autos from, I really only get another one to get a pic with the guest at the same time.. eg: C6 with Brent Spiner.. I have all the autos I need from Brent but would dearly love to have my pic with him.. If these are being allowed at C6, I will buy another auto, to enable me to get this.. (I don't think it is right asking for a guest to pose for a pic without buying an auto!!) It woud be even better if you organised an official photo shoot.. You could charge two bands.. with or without an autograph on it!!! Edited May 16, 2004 by dragonmate1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuFF DaDDy Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 The guy who told me those rumours said that Mark Hamill will be charging £45 at LFCC. . .a bit frightening really. Respect Admiral Bear Id pay that with a smile on my face, his been charging £70 everywhere else, I also know a few others who wouldnt mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 There was a rumour about Liam Neeson attending Collectormania 4, but i hope this rumour is true about Mark Hamill, i can see his name pinned on the forum, but i am not sure if Showmasters would have both Carrie and Mark there, think how much it will cost and take out of there budget! But i pray that this is true, I have always wanted to meet Mark! I met Carrie last year which was a huge thing for me, but meeting LUKE SKYWALKER, well..... Another thing, Mark did not say that this is just a rumour he sorta went on to talk about the Shoat thing, lol, so..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 I would pay £45 for is autograph. As long as Showmasters puts a note under his name on the site and in magazines and that.... If hes coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 No way would I pay that much for an Auto.. no matter who it is.. besides, Mark Hamil is hardly a big superstar is he.. he was the main lead in a pretty good film and then played bit parts for the rest of his career.. If he is intent on ripping off the fans who have made him what he is, then I think that is a poor show.. Then again, if I was a die hard Star Wars fan, then I'm not sure what my position will be.. At £45 a throw, I don't think he or Showmasters will recoup their costs.. Take Robert Beltran this weekend.. a major bridge crew member from Voyager ( a major TV show that ran for 7 years (not a one off film)) and decides not to rip off the fans and only charges £10.. Now that's how it should be. giving something back to the fans that put them where they are.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emotionalvampire Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 There was a rumour about Liam Neeson attending Collectormania 4, but i hope this rumour is true about Mark Hamill, i can see his name pinned on the forum, but i am not sure if Showmasters would have both Carrie and Mark there, think how much it will cost and take out of there budget! But i pray that this is true, I have always wanted to meet Mark! I met Carrie last year which was a huge thing for me, but meeting LUKE SKYWALKER, well..... Another thing, Mark did not say that this is just a rumour he sorta went on to talk about the Shoat thing, lol, so..... Saying about Carrie Fisher. I have it on good advice that she is indeed over in the UK later this year. As to what she is doing, Im not allowed to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Bear Posted May 16, 2004 Author Share Posted May 16, 2004 Well said, Dragon! But I suppose one could take the view that Hamill's right up there with The Shatner as being the biggest and most famous sc-fi actor of all time. As no more than a passing Star Wars fan, I wouldn't pay £45 for Hamill any more than I'd pay £45 for Shatner (which is what Creation were charging last year in London). And I'm a huge Trek fan. The only reason I got Shatner's signature at that event was cos I got my autograph tickets for free! Considering Hamill's done nothing for 20 years, and given the average age of Showmaster event attendees, I think he'll struggle at £45 a throw. He'll get the older, die hard Star Wars fans queing, but most people won't be suckered in to parting with that much cash even if they know who he is! And remember, many people at C5 didn't know who Peter Weller was. Respect Admiral Bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuFF DaDDy Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 The guy who told me those rumours said that Mark Hamill will be charging £45 at LFCC. . .a bit frightening really. Respect Admiral Bear surely they couldn't charge that much - who would be able to afford to meet him???? seriously £25 is pushing it in the way of my finances! xx Id pay that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SALEMSLOT Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 No way would I pay that much for an Auto.. no matter who it is.. besides, Mark Hamil is hardly a big superstar is he.. he was the main lead in a pretty good film and then played bit parts for the rest of his career.. If he is intent on ripping off the fans who have made him what he is, then I think that is a poor show.. Then again, if I was a die hard Star Wars fan, then I'm not sure what my position will be.. At £45 a throw, I don't think he or Showmasters will recoup their costs.. Take Robert Beltran this weekend.. a major bridge crew member from Voyager ( a major TV show that ran for 7 years (not a one off film)) and decides not to rip off the fans and only charges £10.. Now that's how it should be. giving something back to the fans that put them where they are.. Extremely well put! Its only a bloody signature - big deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SALEMSLOT Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 By the way, Carrie Fisher only charges £25 and she actually had a career after Star Wars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuFF DaDDy Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 By the way, Carrie Fisher only charges £25 and she actually had a career after Star Wars! Wasnt she in Blues Brothers (Top Film!) and Drop Dead Fred (SH1te film) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SALEMSLOT Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 By the way, Carrie Fisher only charges £25 and she actually had a career after Star Wars! Wasnt she in Blues Brothers (Top Film!) and Drop Dead Fred (SH1te film) She was excellent in The Blues Brothers - incidentally one of the best and funniest movies ever made! Can't remember her character in Drop Dead Fred. Not seen it since its release many years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 (edited) As no more than a passing Star Wars fan, I wouldn't pay £45 for Hamill any more than I'd pay £45 for Shatner (which is what Creation were charging last year in London). And I'm a huge Trek fan. The only reason I got Shatner's signature at that event was cos I got my autograph tickets for free! Mind you Bear.. there's one important difference.. Creation set the prices at their events and pocket the profits. After all Creation are not a fan based company, they are a business and their prices reflect that.. unfortunately for us!! Collectormania as far as I understand it, the actor's set their prices.. Edited May 16, 2004 by dragonmate1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfy_sah Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Ash, the London show was bloody apalling in terms of organisation. Think yourself lucky that you wern't able to go. But on the plus side, both Marina and Armin were only charging £5 for a signature on a personal item. Respect Admiral Bear O M G! I know SM is a buisness and everything but ti would be soo EXCELLENT if they considered something like this!! (hey I can DREAM can't I ) surfy sah xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebredy Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Ash, the London show was bloody apalling in terms of organisation. Think yourself lucky that you wern't able to go. But on the plus side, both Marina and Armin were only charging £5 for a signature on a personal item. Respect Admiral Bear No matter how baddly a show may be run - If you get too see the guests you want AND there being nice to you AND letting you talk to them(for more then a minute) AND there letting you take FLASH photos of them AND you can get 2 of your own items done for less then 15quid (£10) AND there are free (but small) talks then I think that is bloody fantastic. I went with about 100 today, I got everything I wanted AND more AND I still came home with change Admiral_Bear what did you think was so bad about the event and the way it was run. As I said above I think the prices and how polite the guests were, far made up for any organisational problems there may have been. I didnt have any real problems with the organisation myself other then getting into the event in the first place I just want to know why - If we can get prices like £5-10 pounds for a personal item from say most ST guests and £10-15 for one of there own pics I don't see why other events can't charge similar prices. Dont tell me its because other events don't charge an entrance fee because some do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veasse Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 the only way i would go to meet william farking shatner is if i was feeling evil and went to get an autograph and told him it was for my friend Wil Wheaton since he was such a git to him last time he may want to make up for it.. sorry been drinking dont like the guy and will not being going within reaching distance of him! Veasse xx P.S i love Johnathan Frakes! wooooo hooo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Fair comment.. I would like to see SM take on board the £5 per personal item bit!!! Re the organisation. most companies learn by their mistakes and ensure each show is an improvement.. Apart from the attitude of stewards (excellent) I saw no real improvement from the last one. The improvement on admission was a good attempt but could have been done better. I agree, the guests were excellent and did genuinely seem to want to spend a bit of time (more than the few seconds it takes to sign a photo!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfy_sah Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 The guy who told me those rumours said that Mark Hamill will be charging £45 at LFCC. . .a bit frightening really. Respect Admiral Bear surely they couldn't charge that much - who would be able to afford to meet him???? seriously £25 is pushing it in the way of my finances! xx Id pay that! that's prob cause you can AFFORD to pay that!! I, like MANY others, am a STUDENT, £45 is a week's living allowence!! you might think that doesn't sound so bad but we are talking about ONE auto here, not to mention other guests, there's already 10 people going I'd like to see, not to MENTION travel and hotels and talks etc etc! sure if I had a job earning in the thousands per year, why not, but I am a nursing student, I don't have time to have a job while studying and pay potential for when I do qualify everyone knows isn't looking too good!! finally, in agreeing with what has been said, Mark Hamill hasn't really done anything apart Star Wars. now I am a big SW fan and there are epic movies etc etc but £45?! surfy sah xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfy_sah Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Ash, the London show was bloody apalling in terms of organisation. Think yourself lucky that you wern't able to go. But on the plus side, both Marina and Armin were only charging £5 for a signature on a personal item. Respect Admiral Bear No matter how baddly a show may be run - If you get too see the guests you want AND there being nice to you AND letting you talk to them(for more then a minute) AND there letting you take FLASH photos of them AND you can get 2 of your own items done for less then 15quid (£10) AND there are free (but small) talks then I think that is bloody fantastic. I went with about 100 today, I got everything I wanted AND more AND I still came home with change Admiral_Bear what did you think was so bad about the event and the way it was run. As I said above I think the prices and how polite the guests were, far made up for any organisational problems there may have been. I didnt have any real problems with the organisation myself other then getting into the event in the first place I just want to know why - If we can get prices like £5-10 pounds for a personal item from say most ST guests and £10-15 for one of there own pics I don't see why other events can't charge similar prices. Dont tell me its because other events don't charge an entrance fee because some do. sounds like I should have gotten myself to this event some how after all if it IS true that guests set their own fee (I was under the impression that SM set it based on how much is costs them to have the guest?! ) then maybe we can hope that Marina will be £5/£10 at c6 but I don't see that happening, as much as I would hope that to be the case! I would buy 2 autos then surfy sah xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebredy Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Well I was thinking of getting my poster signed here and maybe my video too by Marina, and the pic at c6 but when I saw what the prices were and thought about how much it was going to be for a pic of heres at c6 I got everything I needed this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Bear Posted May 16, 2004 Author Share Posted May 16, 2004 (edited) There are two ways of looking at how this convention business works: 1. Assume that if you pay an entrance fee, the total partly makes up the amount that needs to be recouped by the organiser after they've paid the guests. This means that the organisers can charge less for a guest's autograph in order to make a profit. or 2. The guests have some financial arrangement with the organisers whereby only some of a guest's financial demands are met up front, and where the guest has to make the remainder from selling their autograph. or 3. That with no entrance fee, the guests have all had their fees paid up front and that autograph cost levels are set in order to make a profit for the organisers. As there were reports of Robert Patrick charging only £10 at Blackpool a week or so ago, and this weekend he was charging £20, I can only assume that number 2 applies in some form or another. Or else the Expo organisers were raking it in. Given that Larry Hagman was allowed to decide half an hour in to the day that he would charge £5 to have your photo taken with him, I can only assume that the guests at this weekend's London con were in charge of their own financial situation. Also, organisers will always have at least one up front cost . . .the cost of hiring the venue. Collectormania autographs probably won't come down in price as it's free entrace and you can safely assume SM's are charged a fortune for use of the MK Centre. Respect Admiral Bear Edited May 16, 2004 by Admiral_Bear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 I'm not so sure that all of the guests set their own prices, unless some of the newer ones simply took advice.. Take for example John Leigh.. He clearly hadn't done many of these evnts and considering the small part he played would have expected £10.. but on the other hand, maybe he nees to recoup the cost of getting there from NZ. Robert Ptarick was the biggest star there and £20 was a good price for him. I have greater respect for a lot of the actors (particularly most of the Trek actors) for providing real value for money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DavidB Posted May 16, 2004 Moderators Share Posted May 16, 2004 I've been to 3 of this particular show and I thought this was the worst by far ... even walking into the door u cud see how empty the place was in terms of dealers etc ... I know it's nice to have a lil space to walk around but you could fit hundreds of people down the middle of the hall and it was not that busy to warrant the extra space! It wasn't clear with the queues bending around everywhere, I don't think they'd grasped the virtual queue tickets ... giving them out and still having a hundred or so people standing in a queue, that made no sense ... plus some of the stewards just stood there not making the public aware that they were the ones with the tickets! And one I asked who the tickets were for and they just kinda grunted ... by the third time I finally got who it was for Obviously some people can go in, get exactly what they want, and leave ... I dont wanna pay entrance fee just to go for an hour - I want a good friendly enjoyable atmosphere, I wanna have some fun not just be pushed through a production line or something And as for the talks, the guests were great but I still think they leave a lot to be desired the way they are sorted out - shoved on a stage in the corner, everyone has to crowd round NEAR the queues behind them, it gets far too confusing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonmate1 Posted May 16, 2004 Share Posted May 16, 2004 Also, organisers will always have at least one up front cost . . .the cost of hiring the venue. Collectormania autographs probably won't come down in price as it's free entrace and you can safely assume SM's are charged a fortune for use of the MK Centre. On the other hand, the dealers pay a fair amount to pitch up at these events and probably alos pay a special fee for autos.. I bet that the money earned here will go a long way to pay the cost of the venue.. Can't imagine MK will charge substantially different to Excel.. One thing can be said for Showmasters.. they DO get the higher profile guest and as such we must assume that there is a need to recover that additional cost. I am happy to pay the current prices in order to get those type of guests.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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