Artist Alley General: Post Otakon flood edition

Anyone know what happened with geekgirlcon?

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Even though I didn't get into Liberty City Anime Con this year, they still sent me an AA placement map. It seems like splitting AA into two separate rooms is the new thing.

>>9598961
Isn't that con pretty shitty? I heard it was dead last year so I didn't bother applying.

>>9598962
The attendance was alright but most of the people that went were broke teenagers. I barely broke even.

>>9598967
Yea it seemed like most of the people I saw in Penn were young af, makes sense that the AA took a hit for it.

>>9598636
Please don't play with my heart like this anon

>>9598953
infighting and a lot of people quit staff, don't go this year

>>9598989
I heard from them yesterday and received an invoice so I hope you hear from them too, anon! For reference, the payment deadline is this Friday so if anyone cancels by then, they'll probably do another round of emails.

>>9598953
5 white staff members resigned and after resigning, hijacked the GGC official email account to send out a mass email to every single registered attendee, vendor, artist, and guest telling them most if not all the staff quit. The email accused GGC of racism & sexual discrimination as well as misuse of funds and highly insinuated that attendance numbers would be down due to such a big number of staff quitting. It suggested that it would be immoral to support this con because of the alleged racism and sexism.

What they didn't say was that it was perceived racism against white staffers and sexism against men and also that it was only 5 people quitting out of the staff of something like 60. It came out that they were mad because one of the staff who quit was slacking off so the board of directors created a "co-director" position to help. And since GGC is built on a lot of social justice values they suggested that this co-director position be filled by a non-white person, preferably a woman. The white dude staffer saw this as a demotion and as a ploy for GGC to replace him on the basis of his race and gender. That's the alleged racism and sexism. The quitting staffers left it out of their email manifesto because they knew how it would make them sound to the SJ crowd that attends GGC. A bunch of black panelists also came out on Twitter to speak about the "misuse of funds" alleged in the email. The staffers who quit were mad that the black panelists asked for a stipend/speaking fee - which is kind of normal with cons anyway.

I had concerns about attending at first but after a lot of the details came to light, I decided to still go. GGC is reporting that they sold more badges after the fiasco anyway.

>>9598967
You can make a little bit more money if you advertise that you will draw their OC. A bunch of teenagers were delighted to drop money to see their character drawn by someone else.

>>9599265
I hadn't heard any of those corrections abut GGC, thank you for the information, it paints the whole story in a different light.

>>9599420
No worries! I had a lot of reservations too when the news first broke. It'll be my first year tabling so I'm glad I didn't have to ask for a refund.

>>9598962
It was pretty dead but I did surprisingly well last year.
This year I have lower expectations becouse it seems like there are more artists and some of them are pretty decent. Giving it a try again becouse I'm local but if I don't hit 1k this year at least I probably won't go back.

In your opinion, on how many different products can you put the same image before it is overkill/ looks lazy? For example having a drawing of a cat or whatever on a keychain, but also having a enamel, a pouch design, a sticker etc. I was thinking having an absolute max of only four different items having the same image, and modifying the background/ simplicity of colors as necessary, which would probably equate to about 20%-30% of my expected stock types having that image on it. Is that too much? Do customers even care or for the most part like the choice? So far, I've only done a max of two but looking to heavily expand into different stuff soon.

>>9599476
I do this a lot but customers really seem to actually... enjoy it for the most part? It feels like the items go together/are a part of a set. I have the same image on keychains that I consolidated and put onto a pencil pouch and i also put the same images on a lanyard. The three of them often get bought together. I definitely agree not to do it too much, but 3-ish items seem to encourage people to buy them as cohesive sets.

>>9599476
There is a booth I see at a lot of cons that put their zombie alpaca on everything. keychain, shirt, lanyard, plush, etc.
I buy it all, and I'll buy what ever else they put the zombie alpaca on.

>>9599265
I'm really hoping I get an email from ANYC, it seems like it'll be fun. Seeing a big anime con in the javits center again is going to be nice. Congrats on your table!!

Reposting my question since last thread autosaged: for artists who take preorders at con, how do you go through with it? Do customers just pay (for the item + shipping) and then you take their mailing info to mail them their preordered stuff later on?

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>>9599489
This one right? That's tasty peach studio.

does pokemon merchandise sell at all or is it such a saturated market that most people will overlook it?

>>9599621
I take their money and their email to ask for their information later. I've had incidents where I've lost addresses or misheard/miswrote the information so getting an email is the simplest way. It also gives room for if the customer changes their address within the time it takes to ship out orders.

>>9599645
Lol these knockoff arpakasso. At least they look nice

>>9599645
yessss

>>9599668
I like tasty peach's alpachas because they are cute but not super feminine. I love cute+creepy or cute+tough.

>>9599650
I like pokemon stuff. 1st gen pokemon is 100% over saturated. Go for 2nd and 3rd gen. 3rd gen starters specifically I rarely see but have a huge amount of love. everyone loves mudkip

>>9599650
It depends.

You have to get super creative or risk drowning in the sea of Eevees.

>>9599480
>>9599489

Thanks for the input! Glad to hear that I'm on the right path with 3ish things. I didn't even think of the set aspect, so it might do me more good than I thought. I just was going with it so that people have more choices if they like the design but don't want the product for whatever reason, as well as try new products faster. On the other hand, I remember a couple booths that were literally the same set of images on everything and thought it a little lazy, so I didn't want to fall into that trap.

>>9599476
>>9599709
On the other hand, I think it can come across super lazy. Slapping the same drawing on as many products as you can, especially if it's not really an intriguing design (which, zombie Alpaca is), makes me think you don't actually have much going on. Definitely 3-ish things is good, though. I think as long as the art is a good design that makes sense for the product, it's fine. Once you start forcing it in everywhere I think is where the line gets crossed.

>>9598967
Really? I made a killing last year. I'm so excited for this weekend

>>9600010
What sort of price point/series do you sell? It's good that you were able to make good money at least.

>>9600070
Normal prices I guess? The bulk of my sales were commissions... not really of OCs but mostly /cm/ level stuff.

>>9600169
>/cm/ level stuff

Which table are you at? I'll check your stuff out!

>>9599650
Pokemon has always been a good seller to me! I think it may depend on how you market them. I have prints and buttons of pokemon, but my buttons sell the most. I had random pokemon though, and didn't focus much on mascots/starters.

>>9599650
I still find it to be a decent seller, mostly to younger kids and teens, and to people who don't seem to be as "into" anime. It also does well when you do comic shows, since it's a more normie thing.

Does anyone have any good tutorials or pointers on how to take nice product photos?

I made a makeshift lightbox and have photoshop knowledge, even put a photo editing app on my phone, but is their anything I could do to make pro looking photos?

>>9600381
depends on what you're shooting?

pics of what you have?

Are there any companies around that'll print A2-sized posters on 170gsm weight paper for a decent price? 135gsm is way too thin for my liking. Unless that's standard and I'm just picky or something, I don't know. For 10 digitally printed ones I'm seeing about the same price no matter where I go (~£45).

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I'm thinking about getting back into going to conversions. How acceptable is it to sell non-anime "anime style" (I don't know what else to call it) art at cons? If it's fine, does it sell at all? I've just noticed that I don't really make fanart too much anymore. Not that it's a problem, I can draw some whenever, but I have other items that could potentially be sold.

>>9600462
Do a smaller local con and find out. Really no other way to find out. As long as you aren't trying to sell comic style stuff at anime cons or vice versa, there is a chance it can sell well.

>>9600499
Guess I'll try that sometime then. Thank you.

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>>9600301
Yeah, if you're going to do Pokemon stuff, branch out and do your favorites that aren't starters or Pikachu or Eevee evolutions. They get more than enough official merch. There's plenty of mons that have virtually nothing.

Do customers tend to mind rough or sketchy prints?

>>9600551
>not making missingno merch

Does Pokemon Company or Nintendo care at all about MissingNo merch?

>>9600613
guess you havent seen hyperboosters commissions...

>>9600613
depends if it's visually interesting. imo i don't mind if the overall construction isn't extremely clean, i think it's being eyecatching that gets buys

>>9600613
I think it can look cool if it's a stylistic choice, like say for a TTGL or Kill la Kill print. You just have to avoid it looking amateurish.

I'm thinking about creating a new group on Facebook to replace AANI. Is anyone interested in joining?

>>9600445
Anyone?

>>9601270
How would it be different if it's a replacement? What are the plans to make it better than AANI?

So many pieces do you need to get a booth and have a good con? No, not talking about making a living off this, or breaking 10K like some of you seem to do, but just sell some prints, maybe chat some peeps up. Nothing crazy. I make like one print...a month. Cause I paint crazy slow and I have full time job. I'm not one of those Tumblr people who bust out a full print in 24 hours of a hit show and then get 100K likes and reblogs. I'm thinking like 12? So you can display 6 on each side?

>>9601270
How would that be different than what /cgl/ is?

>>9601309
There is no secret number. Just enough to where you think you'll at least break even.

>>9601309
I'm in a similar boat as you anon, I work full-time and my art process is slow too, so I'm lucky to even get a few new prints out a year. I would say 12 or more prints should be fine? Maybe if you can get smaller merch too, like charms or buttons would be good.

>>9601306
>>9601345
My main issue with AANI is the moderator and the culture that has been fostered in that group. The group would start off with people from CGL/mutuals but would still be open to others joining (through word of mouth at AAs, etc.) I suppose in the end its impossible to control it from falling apart like AANI has, but I want to believe that a better community can be made.

As far as CGL being different, it's a lot easier to post work/ask for advice without feeling paranoid that your name will be attached to 4chan. A lot of people (myself included) refuse to post their work for fear of association. There's a stigma attached to 4chan, a stigma that isn't attached to posting in a Facebook group.

I know others have difficulties posting on CGL as well because of the anonymous aspect. Having a name attached to things can be shitty, but it can also help keep the community less toxic.

Maybe I'm trying to say that I don't believe that the group itself isn't the issue, or how big it has gotten. The issue is the main moderator who cultivates a really bad environment that is not conducive to a healthy community. If there are concerns or suggestions you have about the new group, I'm happy to hear them. But I'd rather work on trying to make things better than just let things stay shitty the way they are currently.

Also, if you enjoy the community as is on AANI that's fine. But I have been receiving complaints from others that the culture is not good anymore but there's really no other alternative for them to turn to.

Does that make sense? Or am I talking out of my ass?

>>9601367
>There's a stigma attached to 4chan, a stigma that isn't attached to posting in a Facebook group.

The only people who would know that you post on 4chan are other 4chan users who I really doubt will think of you negatively for it. I'm also 99% sure anyone who even knows what 4chan is understands the difference between /b/ and /cgl/

I guess alternatively you could make a reddit group. There needs to artist alley related stuff on reddit. There are no real groups there currently.

>>9601270
I would join anon. I have recently joined AANI, and wouldn't mind another gruop that would actually give me crit.

>>9601367
it sounds like you don't like the fact that you can't post your artwork anytime you please.

>>9601367
We have a cgl discord for this sort of stuff though? Another FB group seems redundant. The reason why AANI has so many rules is because it has a huge amount of members. It would be chaos otherwise.

>>9601617
>understands the difference between /b/ and /cgl/
You'd be surprised, my normie friends who don't frequent cesspool communities assume the entire site is /pol/ levels. Most people don't even realize 4chan has individual boards, they're too scared to look b/c they think they'll immediately see gore/porn.

I wouldn't mind a subreddit even though I don't use the site, it'd probably be easier to navigate and organize than the facebook group.

>>9601617
That's not necessarily true. I feel like if someone really wanted to be vindictive they could post it publicly and it would just cause a lot of negative attention. So I get what you're saying, but I also disagree to a point. I don't know much about Reddit, so maybe another anon would be interested in making that work?

>>9601649
What are your first impressions of AANI? What do you like? What would you change?

>>9601658
Nothing wrong wth WIPW and SPS and I never said there was. Sounds like you're just really insecure and projecting. Stay on AANI.

>>9601676
The discord is limited to just people who frequent CGL. A new Facebook group would be more accessible. And I don't think the rules are what is causing AANI to be insufferable, it's the active Admin and the culture they cultivate. The new group would have similar rules, and probably be a better resource because of its smaller member count.

>>9601698
You're being really vague? I'm in both the discord and AANI and I'm not sure what kind of "culture" you're talkig about.

Be more detailed in your criticism because it just sounds like vague vendetta. If you really wanted to start a FB group you'd just do it instead of asking here.

>>9601750
Explain to me how trying to improve upon what I feel is a broken system is being vindictive? I asked CGL because I agree more with the culture here than in AANI. I wanted advice and to hear opinions of what people are looking for. If no one is interested then of course I'm not going to put time into making it. It seems like there's interest in a subreddit though, so there's that.

Anyway, if I wanted to be vindictive I'd name people but I'm not. I quite like some people in AANI actually, but it doesn't take away from the fact that there are some bad apples too. I'm not going into further detail because then it would feel like a vendetta, defeating the whole point of the conversation. I don't want to talk shit on AANI, I just want to see what they're doing wrong and right and try to improve upon it. That's it.

The main point being that AANI is good enough as is for some but not for all, and if others feel like they'd enjoy an alternative, it's worth trying.

>>9601782
You kept referring to a "bad culture" without specifying which is what made me feel like you were really grasping. If you can't really be specific with your problems then I don't really see you being equipped enough to run a group like that.

>>9601793
That's a fair argument, I'm just trying to avoid unnecessary drama. I can see I did a bad job of that.

If I had to pinpoint one thing, I'd say what bothers me most is how much of a circle jerk it is, and how snarky/patronizing the interactions feel between members. The one thing I value in a community is honesty without bullshit, and respect. That's one thing I feel is really lacking in AANIs community at large.

>>9601804

SJW detected

>>9601804
Hm okay, I guess I can see where you're coming from! AANI does have clique-y tendencies.

>>9601804
>honesty without bullshit
I assume you're talking about the people who post absolute garbage-tier work on SPS and WPW and just get ignored or get some faint asspats.

Giving these people critique is just an energy drain. Everyone has their own shit to take care of and it's a tossup as to whether they will actually listen to any honest criticism no matter how nicely you word it.

>>9601817
Yeah, exactly my point.

>>9601822
You kind of missed the mark but I absolutely agree with you. But the whole point is for people who WANT a community and feel it's worth their time (to give honest critique) to be connected to people who WANT to listen. And on the other side if you just want to utilize other resources and ignore member posts that's fine too I guess. Though that's not very high up on my list of priorities. The number one thing that irks me about AANI is how if you aren't a part of the in-group and go against the unspoken "values" you get spoken to like a child. I would share examples but again, I don't want to vendetta or bring attention to one person. Just search through "violation" on AANI and you'll find a ton of results dripping in scathing sarcasm.

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Any anons out there who have used ZapCreatives for charms? I've heard that some people love them and mentioned their print quality has gotten better over the years due a new printer(?) or something. But then some people report they still have that shitty grainy quality on their charms. I'd rather pay good money for print quality then shitty quality on charms.

I'm fully aware Vograce is another service that can do charms at a cheap price, but a friend of mine reported on the Artist Alley Network International facebook page that they saw a post on how someones charms were bootlegged after using their services and sold at other cons. Turned me into a nervous wreck and drove me away from using them.

I did discover a company in Australia called Vector Etch that specializes in laser-cutting services, including acrylic charms. Just wanted to post the link for ya'll if you're curious to try them out. Haven't found any reviews about these guys. http://www.vectoretch.com.au/

>>9601871
i recieved zapcreatives charms earlier this year (about 2-3 months ago) and they were great quality. however i also received vograce charms (my first order with them) and they were pretty damn indistinguishable in quality for half the price.
HUNDREDS of artists use vograce and haven't had their art bootlegged - i don't even believe that the charms that were bootlegged were because they had used vograce, as there are dozens of other charm manufacturers on alibaba.

>>9601824
>>9601824
usually people who just post willy-nilly without reading the rules get bent out of shape.

as for 'values' do you mean the sharing/hiding of resources dilemma? or the fanart thing? or that people are rabidly on the side of the artist?

as for not sharing examples, this is fucking 4chan. pics or it didn't happen and we just assume you're butthurt over some minor incident. there's always the courtesy of blocking names.

>>9601698
I frequent reddit. If no one has one set up by the time I get home from the con I'm at I'll set one up, and hopefully it wont die immediately.

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>>9601896
Thanks man, I figured Zap is alright. As for my friend who told me Vograce does bootlegs, i'll take your word for it. I found the post they were referring to but the artist, who goes by Moorina, mentions they have seen their charms being sold on eBay. They stated that they use chinese companies for their merch and they're chinese and know how these companies work by going on Pixiv or image sharing sites to steal and sell art.

Pic related.

One more question. I'm aware Vograce does quotes and doesn't list prices 100%, but how many charms did you order and how much did everything come up. I just need a general idea what i'll be paying, especially for 2" double-sided charms.

>>9602227
There are currently two artist alley subreddits. One has 1 post, the only has been around for 4 years... and only has 13 posts and the mod isn't even active.

Let me know if you decide to make one, I can help you out, I've been browsing reddit for a while and have over 100k karma.

>>9602263
My charms were single sided 2".

i got 300 charms and was quoted $1.14 USD per charm (so total was $340ish). shipping was like $25 USD too (but i'm not in the states).
I arranged my order through coco, i've heard people get more expensive quotes through other reps

one thing worth mentioning... my zap order took 24 days to reach me after I sent my files and I paid to expedite shipping + let them know I had a deadline. My vograce order took 11 days total - i let them know I had a deadline a couple months from now.

So I started a tictail shop recently, but fucked up and put international shipping on my online store for way cheaper than it actually costs, and somebody from Europe placed an order.

I don't want to only make $4 from an order that should've given me $12 in profit, but how should I word my apology notification to the customer? Just be upfront and concise about it? Has anyone else done this before?

>>9602352
Take the loss this one time and then fix your mistake.

>>9602352
Eat the cost and ship it. You fucked up, not the customer.

>>9602352
>>9602352
I agree with everyone else, this is your mistake. Fix it for next time. If you try to get your customer to cover the extra shipping, what's likely to happen is they'll just cancel your order so it doesn't matter if you're getting 4-12$ profit if you get no profit at all.

>>9602352
Small profit versus no profit. Your choice. Don't be a dumbass next time.

>>9602352
I had a friend this happened to too and it just got more troublesome to deal with. Just take the loss and know better for next time.

>>9602352
Happens to us all. At least you are actually still making money on it.

>>9602490
>Don't be a dumbass next time.

Anon you don't have to try that hard to fit in here.

>>9602360 >>9602455 >>9602468 >>9602490 >>9602491 >>9602532

Thanks everyone, will ship it out first thing tomorrow then.

I wasn't gonna make the customer pay for the extra shipping, but it was more of a debate on whether it was worth it to save the stock for the next order and refund them, or yeah, just ship it out. I guess this saves me the possibility of looking like an ass to the customer with last minute cancellations.... I'll probably just take international shipping off now and keep it domestic to be honest.

Thanks! Gonna try harder to get everything in order in the future.

>>9602746
Lol, thanks, but it was expected. It was my own fuck up, to be fair.

>>9602768
Yeah the cancelling of the order would have been the wrong route. Remember, if someone bought it, someone out there looked at it and went "yeah, I want this in my life" and went through the effort to get it. To cancel it would be a disappointment and make you look bad.

Dealing with shipping can be tricky, but now at least you know exactly how much it is. You might as well keep it on there for international shipping now, since you already got "burned" and know exactly what to charge. It sounds like for you it was a mistake, but I find sometimes the charges on the website versus the post office is different for whatever reason. Once you confirmed it for sure once instead of you just looking it up online, you know forever more.

>>9602768
>. I'll probably just take international shipping off now and keep it domestic to be honest.
just fix the shipping and leave it on. You'll lose out on a lot of sales otherwise.

>>9602798
Yeah, thinking on it more made me come to those same conclusions, so I'm glad I waited and asked here before doing anything.

I messed up on shipping because it was way cheaper when I used the machine self-checkout to send stuff to friends internationally before, which I just found out I wasn't supposed to do (no tracking, and missed custom forms and all that--they still got there, but in not the most legal manner, probably... side note in case that helps anybody). I just feel a bit awkward charging $14 for shipping, when the actual things I sell are just $10 keychains and small buttons and stuff like that at most--but I'll mull over it more for the future, since like you said, I guess someone wanted it enough to order from overseas.

Thanks again!

>>9602805
Most of my sales are definitely domestic, but yeah, I'll give it a go. Good point.

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Lol which one of you fucks did this at Otakon?

>>9603307
oh god

>>9603307
To be honest the artist that "did this" probably didn't even know they "did" anything, they probably just told people that booths were supposed to get more table space or something, i doubt it was done to purposefully trick or deceive anyone.

I'm honestly shocked the decorators/union people just listened to some RANDOM ARTIST instead of any sort of staff? Like how does that happen?

>>9603307
Yikes. I remember a lot of artists wit unlimited tables tweeting about being given 6ft tables instead of 8 but I didn't think one of them spoke directly to union members about it.

>>9603354
I've worked with union staff at several trade shows in the business world, they almost always will do the "extra" work when someone asks for it because they can charge out the ass for it when it gets done.

>>9603307
If that happened at a con I staffed for, I would be seriously considering the legal ramifications of murder.

Does anyone know about whether or not Anime Weekend Atlanta is worth attending? They sent out an notification saying that a spot opened up for me because some artists canceled. It seems a fairly big convention, but I'd like to hear from you guys how are sales. I'm not a local to Atlanta and don't have a lot of free schedule in my work schedule to do traveling.

>>9603503
Everyone did bad last year, you have to have a very specific style and market to do well there

>>9603515
Yikes, I think my style is pretty generic anime. I guess I am going to skip AWA because I'm tired of making my schedule work around it.

>>9603487
yikes, did not know that. I can't imagine any artist could have known that either. They also clearly ignored staff direction to give the booths the 8' tables first too so i'm 0% surprised now i guess.

>>9599621

I use Cognito Forms to take preorders, its free for 500 entries a month and they can send out confirmation emails, and then you can import the addresses into a spreadsheet/paypal multi order shipping. Really handy and prevents you from losing any pieces of paper with info written on it

>>9603307
sue the venue. They can't charge them for something they didn't order.

>>9603503
While its not a local con for me, its not too far either.
It is an ok con. Not awful, but not what you'd expect for a con of that size. I'd rate it 2.5/5

If you don't go, it'll be a plus for me, I'm also on the waitlist and want to get it.

>>9603624
Sueing the venue is a really great way to not HAVE a venue next year. It's in the convention's best interest to find a way to resolve things peacefully, to mutual benefit, and out of court. Expect at least a month if not two months until any resolution comes out of it, though. There's a lot of politics and red tape involved in compromising with a venue.

I don't know where else to ask this (maybe the bad handmade thread), but did anyone happen to get screen shots of the Pizza Rolls thread in the Plush Artists United group on FB?

We talk a lot in here about how people make $6k+ regularly and I have a theory about it. How many different items do you guys carry for a single fandom? For my top three most popular fandoms I carry 40, 33, and 22 items respectively and I tend to bring in 6-8k per con on average. I've shared profit margins with friends before and noticed a trend where people who make 6k+ tend to provide high numbers of items within a few fandoms they're passionate about while my friends who make 1-2k have 5 things max per fandom.

I've found that making individual pieces of merch for ensemble casts as well as providing different types of merch for a single fandom I'm known for helps build me a solid fanbase and name recognition. I'm just wondering if this is true for anyone else or if I'm pulling shit out of my ass.

>>9604343
I carry on average 1-2 items per fandom and consistently gross the same as you. I really think it depends on what you sell. I'm a print artist, so having so many prints of the same fandom wouldn't work for me, I think.

>>9604350
Oh definitely. I only carry about 3 prints max per fandom. I just happen to do a lot of charms and other merch as well. Just out of curiosity - do you offer a large variety of fandoms for your prints?

>>9604343
I try and carry a range of fandoms but yeah my table is heavily skewed towards (luckily, popular) fandoms that I care the most about, i.e Overwatch, BNHA. I almost always carry more than 1 piece per fandom (if I draw a print i'll always have a charm or a couple badge designs to go with it minimum) but my most 'focused' fandoms I carry 30+ items

>>9604343
>>9604350
>>9604360
>>9604585
This information is insanely helpful. To you find people buy the fandom items in sets or like the fandom but buy from you because you offer other options?

I'm not huge on too many fandoms. I like 2 of them that are hot right now and some games that have absolutely no merch that people love.

>>9604343
I carry multiple items per fandom.. but not nearly to that degree. Maybe 2-5 charms for a fandom and then a couple prints. I also don't participate heavily in fandoms online, I don't get involved with the discourse or ships etc. I make 6-8k at smaller/medium cons and 8-15k at big ones (ax, otakon and the like)

Any advice for getting used to drawing with a tablet? I've mostly done traditional art or more craft related items, but I recently received the Wacom Intuos Draw from a friend who moved on to something better.
Granted, I've only played with it a little so far, but it feels so foreign.

>>9604665
It's going to keep feeling weird until you get comfortable with it. There's no real trick other than to just keep using it and getting more familiar with it and it's limitations and how the pen feels. Remember that you don't need to grip firmly or add nearly as much pressure if you adjust your settings in your tablet/chosen art program.

>>9604585
OP here, I'm the same as you in that I offer a wide range of fandoms with a concentration of products in a few "focused fandoms".

>>9604626
People looooove buying things in sets, anon. Whether it's for themselves or to split with friends who are also in the fandom. It's why I try to do posters in sets of 3 because I have a buy two, get one free deal and most people will buy 3 posters from the same fandom if I offer them. I would highly recommend going for those niche fandoms you mentioned! The one I carry 40 items for is a western video game that has a fairly loyal fanbase but doesn't have a ton of fanart. I pretty much get guaranteed sales from that fanbase.

>>9604652
Did it take you a while to reach those numbers at con? Still trying to build a lot of inventory and just recently broke 1k at a con

>>9604728
1st year: about 1k-1.7k?
2nd year: 1.3-2K
3rd & 4th year: 2-4.5k
5th year: 8-15k (idk man)
This / 6th year: 8-15k but skewing a bit lower because i put more work in but am not getting the same return as last year.

>>9604728
>>9604752
Not that anon, but I also had a similar curve.

The first two years, I was ecstatic if I broke 1k with 1.5-2k being a great con for me. Third and fourth years I averaged about 2-3k although I did set a record of 5k at AX. Fifth year I averafed 3-5k.

Last year was my 6th year and that's where I started seeing 6-8k consistently. (It was also the first year I started doing AAs seriously and didn't have school/job competing for my time).

This year's my 7th year and I've broken 10k three times this year already. Made 20k at AX which was an all time record for me. Other than the three cons I've been seeing 6-8k! After you start doing this regularly, I think it becomes easier to see what sells/what doesn't so you can adjust your stock accordingly and tailor your new merch toward your customers.

>>9604762
Oh, also forgot to add that I'm talking about profit margins after I take out cost instead of just straight up gross/revenue.

>>9604762
Awesome info thank you! Just wondering - did you have one or two tables at AX? Which cons would you list as your top 5?

>>9604752
crap i just realized i look at the wrong line on my excel sheet, 3rd year should be 2-5k, 4th should be 5-8k with 10k outlier, and then 5/6 is correct so it's a more similar arc to >>9604762

>>9604856
I had 2 tables at AX!

Generally, I do well at big cons. AX, Anime Central, A-Kon, San Japan, and Fanime (on the years I manage to get in) are probably my top cons. I also tend to do well at LA Comic Con but it seems like I'm an outlier there because some of my friends have done middling to very bad there.

>>9604918
>>9604762
Congrats anon on the steady profits. Slowly but surely I'm making my way up the later. I just hope the AA bubble doesn't burst before I get there.

The plan
Table with tablemates --- I am here
Table alone at local cons
Travel further to cons by plane hopefulley with table partners.

>>9604903
I'm in my fourth year and I've yet to do 10k at a con but I got just under that at 3 cons this year (gross not profit) but I can never hit that number (seriously I was at 9.9 at ax) it's so frustrating becouse at this point in the year all the decent cons are over unless San Japan and youmacon are super good I doubt I can hit my 10k goal.

>>9604926
Good luck, anon! I was tabling by myself in year 2! I hope you can meet all your goals!

>>9604944
Since we're discussing profit and not gross - do you mind sharing your margins? Also I believe in you anon! SJ has been consistently good to me so I'm sure you'll make lots of money there!

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Guys can I get a quick QUICK opinion on my piece? It's just a smile I can't decide to go with, not looking for any other crit. I literally just want another pair of eyes on this thing and nobody on my tumblr will reply to me. I'll delete it in bit! Thanks much. A B or C?

>>9604957
A works best, imo

>>9604957
I like the smile.

>>9604954
>>9604926
May I ask how long you two had been selling your art before you started AA? Did you already have solid fanbases/websites?
I have done some commissions via Tumblr (as well as more professional art and design work) but AA seems incredibly overwhelming and like a probably crapshoot.
How did you take the plunge?

I hate enamel pins that look like exact rip offs from the shows they're from. What do you guys think about the whole pin scene? WIll it last, as far as AA sales go? Will it kill off regular button sales?

>>9604957
What's the situation? I mean the mood can help you pick? If Stain is being evil, go with A. That makes it look like he's saying something assholey. The other two frowns make it look like there's a kinship between them, especially B, like he's talking about how being a villain is better than being a hero? Which would be cool since that's Shinsou's struggle of being labeled as one. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

>>9604957

A or B because they are more defined and I like the little highlight you put on the top/bottom lip. If you go with C, render out the coloring better like the other two.

>>9604977
Have both. Cheap people buy buttons, people with cash like the novelty of enamel pins, different markets bro. Buttons are good side money, enamel pins don't move like super fast unless you got a certain aesthetic, but they can make their costs back pretty quick.

>>9604970
not them, but while having a fan base might help, it isn't needed.
Just find a local one day con or a small 3 day con and get a table, see how it works out. Or you can try to sell on etsy first.
I started out with going to a few one day cons and slower worked up to bigger conventions as I made more money.

>>9604977

Enamel pins are going to go through the same shit as prints, where everyone buys like crazy for a couple years but eventually just everyone has a billion pins and won't buy anymore. Too many people are making too many of them and the market is too saturated, as it gets with every product that gets popular.

>>9605027
Well fuck! What's next then...mmmmmm....earrings?

>>9605035
I would consider earrings an even more limited market than prints, and I hope to god it stays that way. You only have two ears. Would you buy stuff to stick in your face holes from some of the people on AANI?

Enamel pins I don't actually see running out of steam as quickly as prints in a customer's buying lifespan. You can fit way more pins on a jacket than you can fit prints on a wall. Pins also have some resale and trade value.

>>9604957
I was trying to put my finger on what felt a little weird about his mouth.

I'm fairly certain when he smiles or his teeth are shown almost always it's both rows of teeth shown, both top and bottom. Just my two cents though.

>>9605035
Considering desktop lasercutting/engraving is becoming a thing now, eventually we'll get to the point where people are investing in very personalized items.

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>>9605047

Nightmare fuel ooooor is that the somethin' somethin' that was missing?

>>9605051
NICE! Looks like a winner to me now with the bottom row there too!

>>9605051

Yes, that's the ticket. You get to keep his big teeth, but now it doesn't look like he lost his bottom teeth in a fight. Good eye >>9605047, I couldn't put my finger on it either but it was something.

>>9605051

I liked the before. Adding the bottom teeth makes it look goofy almost. Just the top teeth looked more "sinister"?

>>9604970
Started selling my art seriously about 7 years ago. Had worked with some clients on projects in college. Otherwise been in the art community all of my life.

I took the plunge when friends took the plunge as well senior year. Learned a lot since then.

CritAnon here, thanks for everyone's input! I'm going to go with the open smile and keep the bottom teeth in there. Great suggestion! Really helped me out here, gulls. Now I'm getting those warm and fuzzy feelings inside.

>>9605046
Am I the only person that rotates my products? I like to swap out items like prints to fit the decor every once in a while or swap out charms on my bags, luggage, ds.

You don't have to stick every item onto something at the same time.

>>9605086
yeah i'm a whore for fangoods so I ALWAYS cycle my shit after about 6 months. I swap the charms on my phone/main bag weekly and I resticker my laptop like every 3 months.

IDK about other anons but a lot of my customers are the type of hyper-energetic fan : they're utterly obsessed with and will buy whatever they can get their hands on of their current fave fandom, but will quickly tire and move onto the next thing and replace all the old shit with the new.

>>9604977
I agree, so many of them look like they just traced screenshots from the show. Surely there should be more of an uproar about this? You couldn't do the same with prints.

>>9605086
>>9605112
I never change anything ever when it comes to stuff on my wall or stickers on things I have unless I am truly over something or I just stop using that thing.
It's good to be meticulous! But lazy people will buy your stuff too...

>>9604926
Idk if it helps but I've never shared a table & never have helpers, even my first year i was already flying cross country. If you can afford to, hitting bigger cons will bring you better profits.

>>9604944
You may as well round up lol, when did my first 10k in 4th year it was like 10.8 so juuust barely eeking past. If not this year then next year! Had i had 2 tables like >>9604918 I may have hit 20k this year at AX as well, because i had 15k for two years in a row with one table at AX, sad. But always next year for both of us~

How long should I keep preorder open? Is it longer the better?

>>9605298
I don't have an answer for how long but longer is not necessarily better. If it's too long, people feel like they can just put it off and wait till later, making it possible for them to forget. I know i've seen pre-order windows that are months long and i just figure i'll order it closer to the actual end date and then forget to order completely unless i happen to see it re-promoted, in which case it would have been easier to just promote with a shorter window.

>>9604954
Thank you anon! May I ask what your numbers are for San Japan? I'm very worried it won't be profitable becouse I'm splitting my booth.
My investment ranges wildly but for my top 3 cons I profited an average of 7.5k after expenses, ax my expenses were insanely high at 3.5k becouse I flew in a helper, had a big booth and paid for both of our hotels, food and entertainment and my stock investment was high. But it was also my highest grossing convention to date, I wish I lived and had friends on the west coast so I could commute/save on plane tickets.

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Does anyone know where to buy this style of strap,or even just the search terms you used? The only type that keeps popping up has metal beads(?) attached to the braid part...

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>>9605370
I just searched braided cellphone strap and this lot came up.

https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32557189898.html?spm=a2g0n.search-cache.0.0.7f25570fSoEzKN#autostay

>>9605557
Oh! I didn't think to search cellphone as one word,more are showing up. Thank you anon.

>>9605035

I agree with >>9605048 , lasercutting is gonna be the next thing. It's already trendy and affordable home cutting machines are currently hitting the market, so next year expect a billion lasercut anime logos in place of all those enamel pins.

>>9605682
The real people ahead of the curve will use their laser cutters to make pogs

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I have been lurking on these threads for several months now and have been obsessively researching in preparation for my first North American AA circuit. I have not seen many of chirimen crafts (pic related: a classic owl pattern) available at North American AAs, and so I am considering producing a few items (eg: key-chains, cellphone straps, pins etc) to sell alongside my prints.

Unfortunately, I am not sure what an appropriate price would be for such items. Given their size, I suppose that I could price them similarly to acrylic charms (~7-12 USD per unit). Mind you, given that the cost of materials and time required to produce an item is comparable to what goes into making a small plush/soft toy I feel as though that price range is a little bit low?

As a client, would chirimen crafts be something that you would be open to buying? If so, how much would you be willing to pay for them? Right now, I am leaning toward 12.00 CAD per chirimen charm (the mean height sans strap/chain being ~5cm).

I apologize for such questions, but any input on this matter would really be a great help.

>>9605739
I love this shit, I bought a macaron chirimen thing last weekend for $20 without blinking. If it's well made and cute, price it well

>>9605739
Separate them out from your mass produced stock and label them as hand crafted, and then price them appropriately the same way you would a plush. Make it obvious what they are to passerby and people like >>9605760 who love it will gravitate towards them while people there for fan art will crowd towards the other end of your table.

>>9605682
I've sorta been thinking about getting a small laser cutter since they are cheap. Think its worth it or just a meme?

>>9605760
I am so happy to hear that there are people who love chirimen. To be honest, I have always felt that chirimen craft is a hobby that would be well-suited to a lot of /cgl/ users (a lot of artistically inclined cosplayers who enjoy working with a range of materials).

Thank you for your input!

>>9605775
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. You bring up a lot of important points and I will definitely implement your suggestions into my table set up.

While I am aware that most table visitors aren't likely to stop and read when there is so many artists to see, would you recommend that I have a sign/some cards (for those who may be too shy to ask) that briefly describes the nature and origin of chirimen?

>>9605739
I...I literally have that owl charm sitting on my desk LOL I love stuff like that.
But anyway, I definitely think there'd be an audience for those, and 12 CAD sounds pretty good! In fact, I think you can go much higher than that esp if they're gonna be handmade.

For those who are full-time freelance artists and plan to be self employed for a long text, what are your thoughts on retirement plans? Have you opened an IRA account yet? If so, which one did you go with and why?

>>9605952
>for a long text
shit I meant time

Do you guys think it makes a huge difference for stickers to be matte vs glossy? Personally I feel like matte just feels very homemade so I prefer glossy, but glossy is also 2x the price...

>>9605952
Living in CA and the high rents doesnt afford me to think about saving for old age. I think it's only artists in affordable states that can entertain such long term plans.

Anyone have a table at Holiday Matsuri they've changed their mind on? Figured I'd at least check here.

>>9605970
Funny, as a customer I actually prefer matte because of the homemade feeling.

>>9605726

Jesus fuck I've been trying to make pogs for like three years, please yes to this revival.

>>9605952

Lol retirement? I'm counting on those nukes to drop eventually so I either don't have to worry about getting old or I can become a tattoo artist in a mad max apocalypse desert world.

>>9602227
I got around to setting it up: /r/artistsalley

It's still using a very generic layout but I'll replace the graphics later with more suitable images. I also threw down some discussions to hopefully get the sub going. Definitely open to suggestions on the rules, stickies, megathreads, etc!

>>9606038
Hope u set up Automoderator as a bot to help with weekly FFA threads! Idk if the other anon who's been on Reddit for a while can help u out w tips, but definitely apply a aesthetically pleasing theme asap as it will affect your subscriber rate (looks like u care and put forth minimal effort vs it will just be a spam subreddit). Get a group of AA friends to post on it with you frequently (so it looks alive) and when ur using Reddit on a browser, install the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension so your experience won't be as shitty (adds embedded video/images/previews from urls which will be helpful for art inspo threads) Hopefully you have some basic rules up so you have grounds to ban stupid people who don't bother to read the rules with 3 strikes allowed. I feel like subreddits exist between discord and facebook: username/forum etiquette w different viewing and sorting modes, slower than fb/discord and easier to catch up on what you've missed, and less tolerance for dumb/stupid people since fb groups are always full of shitty people.

>>9605035
Awhile ago I was joking that air fresheners would become a thing. In this day and age I wouldn't be surprised if they did happen somewhere down the line.

>>9606151
Dude that's actually a really fuckin good idea! When you use them up you can leave them in your car as a decoration, or you can put them in an itabag.
brb buying that Black Ice Waifu

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>>9606151
>>9606347
A few people on etsy do it, pic related. I actually thought about doing it a while ago but sorta figured it wouldn't be worth it. Probably about a profitable as stickers, as in, not much at all.

>>9606038
Awesome. I'm going to message you on there.

>>9605798
>sign/some cards
Depends on if you're trying to persuade customers to stop and look, or if you're going to be so busy you want people moving through the table in and out. As someone newer to AA I'm assuming you want the former, in which case a card would be fine, and could even help add value to the product by giving it context. I'd still keep it down to three sentences or less.

What kind of crochet things sell well? I remember one time I mentioned doing blankets and a bunch of Anons said they'd love to buy a blanket from a con. But would anyone buy a vidya/anime blanket? and if so, what would you like to see? Any other pop culture things you'd want to see in crochet? (I'm old, so my nostalgia gets in the way of what's popular a lot of the time.)

Side note: my shit state had its yearly "con" and the only person there with crochet stuff for sale had one pikachu blanket. That was the only thing Con related she had. The rest was in color combinations that Stevie Wonder picked out. I'm wondering how the hell she got a booth there.

>>9606347
>Black Ice waifu
Now I want a pine tree air freshener body pillow.

>>9606500
cute crochet plushies sell well.

>>9606110
>>9606409

Thanks you two! I am planning to set up automoderator very soon to get those weekly threads rolling. And right now I just have the Naut theme (so not default reddit), I'll be replacing the header images shortly as I get permission from people to use their pictures/art!

Also as per the latter anon's suggestion, I'm going to remove the "no merch sharing rule"- So feel free to share your new merch! The reddit is so small now I dont think this will cause any kind of clogging issue, but if the sub ends up growing so much that it becomes 90% new merch 10% discussion I'll revise the rule. Booths will still go in megathreads (Next week we'll have San Japan + Sacanime rollcall megathreads, and any people can make their own megathreads if it's a smaller con!)

I set up some rules in the system yesterday but I'll definitely get to finishing the rest of them today.

Thanks again!

I hate to bother everyone with this dumb question, but it's been YEARS since I've been on a plane: Has anyone ever had any trouble transporting their pins through TSA check?

I was gonna do carry-on and I checked the TSA website so I know pins themselves are allowed on the plane, but I wasn't sure if, you know, they'd have a problem with me carrying 500+ pieces of sharp metal vs some kid with pins on his baseball cap (I'd suspect they might treat it a bit differently, but idk)

I know it'd be much simpler to just check my baggage in, but I've already gone way over budget for this con and all my stuff fits in a carry-on anyway, so I'd like to avoid that if possible.

>>9606724
they literally dont care, they might inspect it but nothing will come of it

>>9606724
I usually check my pins but I've put 150+ pieces through carry on and they haven't batted an eye.

>>9606724

For the most part TSA doesn't care enough to expend energy giving people shit if they don't look like they're up to something, you're obviously not going to use your 500 Dream Daddy pins to hijack the plan. The only thing I generally get stopped for in TSA is stacks of cards/prints, because their machine can't penetrate it, but I've been through with all other kinds of weird merch and they don't care. If they ask, they're probably just curious.

>>9606724
They put more scrutiny on laptops and tablets right now than anything else, so if you're bringing those, be sure to brush up on the rules.

Does anyone know about how long Katsucon takes to finish jurying? I know I'm being impatient but I figure having a ballpark time period would help.

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Last post about this. I can't bring myself to leave the piece alone. So I had this awesome idea for a background, but due to my skill level and cutting it close to a deadline I'm on for this thing, I copped out and decided to leave it pure white. But as I was looking at some cool art, I got the idea of "what if I used the same image for the background....??" And now I kinda really dig it. Or does it look really tacky? Here's a snippet of the full thing. Leave it white or have a background to it? Again, not looking for crit on anything else at this point! Deadline is just a few hours away and I need to make up my mind. Thanks!

Hey cgl I've been steadily growing my charm inventory and my old display just isn't cutting it anymore. Does anyone have any good charm display inspo?

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>>9607175

I kinda like the busy background. It makes it look like a Yakuza tattoo? But be careful with just selecting the white spaces in Photoshop and deleting it. You get jagged gross looking edges.

>>9607181
I like flat displays with a big frame around them. I hate having to waste time and elbow room to turn little spinners to see your charms. Lots of AAs had that at their tables at Anime Expo and how much you wanna bet they lost sales. You have three seconds to show off EVERYTHING you have. You better make it front and center and easy to see. Also taller is better. You should display your charms over the heads everyone at the table.

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>>9607175
I prefer the white background between the two. The close up in the second seems pixellated.

I personally think this would look really cool with a single color bg (black or something like dark red) and white threads instead of the light blue you have going on.

>>9607208
Oh snap that looks good too. I'm gonna fiddle with that. Great advice, thanks so much.

hey moorina here, not sure how to use 4chan but just wanted to say there's no way vograce bootlegged my stuff. The stuff that's stolen are the 2 sets I never gave to vograce, but I did post on pixiv. The sets I used vograce with were never bootlegged that I know of. I trust vograce and like using them. Just wanted to clear that up!

>>9607234
Nice try Vograce, trying to cover it up only makes you look even more guilty.

>>9607234
thanks for the clarification, hope it eases the worries of the anons that were fretting about it

>>9607267
vograce has actual companies that order thousands of stupid anime shit from them, what makes you think that they give a shit about a small group of artists to post here? Are you actually fucking retarded?

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>>9607208
so far everything looks good but the top part looks like he's c/p'd in there. I dont know how the purple character's hair is supposed to be but it looks like it got chopped up

>>9607279
Anon... I wasn't the one asking for advice - I was just giving the original anon background options other than white. It looks c/p'd in there because I was working off of the original thumbnail because it's not my art.

>>9607181
I agree with >>9607194 as a customer. At AX whenever people have turners for keychains, you almost always have to wait your turn to even look at the table and more so to get to the spinner. I rarely bother with them in the exhibition hall, and AA is just so tightly packed that it's not exactly encouraging. I liked how some artists connected their keychains to a chain that was above most people's heads so you could see them even if you couldn't get close enough to the table to see the actual artist.

>>9607282
my bad I quoted the wrong thing, meant to quote >>9607175
my advice still stands from the original op's images. My issue is not with the background but the white glowing outline for the purple one. He doesn't look like he belongs there/is being held.

>>9607175
don't...don't do the thing on the right. It looks really amateur - reminds me of all the deviantart kiddies who'd do that "trick" for all their backgrounds in like 2007

General reminder: if you bring your SO to your table, please save the PDA for when the artist alley is closed. I've seen a couple people shuffle away from my table because the people next to me wouldn't stop making out.

>>9607181
When I was at AX, I noticed a lot of people were displaying their charms on wire cube/grid displays. Thought it was a nice idea since you can just clip them on and easily rearrange.

Does anyone have examples of table displays that are on the shorter side or don't require something towering over others?

>>9607509
That's actually what I've been doing but I think I need to either break away from that or change it up some how because the charms- at least the ones near the edges- are visually getting lost with the grid. I have a board behind the charms that they're stuck into so that helps them stand out somewhat but I think that by having the display be attached to the wire grid and rigidly stuck to the rest of my display is doing me a disservice.

But still, thank you for the suggestion! I guess there really are only so many ways to display charms.

>>9607522
Make a fabric cover for the wire cube section you hang your charms on with holes for the corners?

What is the biggest size you can go with a phone charm? I made 2" charms thinking that would be small enough, but it's impossible to put the charm through the strap :(

>>9607554
use straps that have lobster clasp ends..

>>9607571
Vograce assembles them without lobster claps... Do they offer lobster clasps?

>>9607516
If you look up the AA or small press tables from SDCC most of their displays are built up behind while the tables in front have short displays.

>>9607554
If you want a strap that can actually be used on a phone, I think 1.5" is the max?

>>9607575
I wouldn't know i don't use vograce, that seems like a stupid limitation as lobster clasp straps are so common...

>>9607522
>>9607509
I did that but I agree with the fact that the wire grid gets really distracting. I'm trying out cork boards with washi tape for my next con and praying to the lord nothing gets pulled off/falls off. I feel like there might be some trade off for aesthetics/security and convenience here lol.

>>9607554
You might have to assemble the lobster clasps yourself. I also have 2" charms but luckily they BARELY just fit through with a bit of manhandling. Vograce might have longer straps though, my last batch came through with extra long ones.

hi! i was wondering if anyone has recommendations for custom washi tape? I've heard bad stories about people getting their designs stolen from alibaba/taobao so I would like to avoid them, but, beggars can't be choosers.

has anyone had any luck making and selling original pieces at the con? I don't have as much merch as I'd like and I want to fill my table a little more, so I was thinking about making some postcard sized illustrations during my down time during the con. I'm mostly wondering how well they're received and how I should price them. I'm thinking they should cost more than my other similar sized prints, but maybe still less than what my commission prices are?

>>9607852
Like... do you mean original content or like the actual physical original pieces?

If they are the physical pieces, definitely price them more. If you are talking about prints with original content, price them the same way as your fanart prints to avoid confusion.

>>9607857
physically original! Sorry forgot that term has multiple meanings.

>>9607852
If they're more detailed than your commission work you should charge more of course. If you charge less, people will wonder why they're paying more for a commission. Even if they're smaller, don't charge the same as a print.

>>9607804
I've seen charms strung on chains/strings and then affixed to a picture frame. Seems pretty secure to me.

>>9607900
that's a good point, I'll definitely mark them up a little then. Thanks!

>When your mother doesn't have faith in you doing conventions and thinks working full time at your retail job is a better option.

I mean it's stable but I could definitely kiss all my opportunities goodbye at that point.

>>9607036
2 years ago, people got results in mid-November

>>9607843
> I've heard bad stories about people getting their designs stolen from alibaba/taobao

This needs to stop.

>>9608158
but anon all chinese people are untrustworthy and probably just out to steal from mediocre western artists ):

>>9608161
>>9608158
Oh please, like they don't have a reason to be worried when shit like that happens all the time.

>>9608158
What, the art theft? I absolutely agree. Because if you mean the stories, we literally had one confirmed last thread. >>9593029

>>9608200
>tfw you intentionally send your competitors art to tons of shops and wait to see the copies start popping up

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>>9608210
As if /cgl/ wasn't already paranoid enough

do you need to have a huge following before putting pin designs on kickstarter?

>>9608224
you dont need a fucking kickstarter to order pins its not that expensive

>>9608174
>>9608200
NYART but anon is clearly talking about just assuming that every single Chinese vendor is out to steal your art. Like yes, do your research to find reputable sellers but acting like all Alibaba agents are art thieves on the virtue of them being foreign is a widely held opinion that should stop.

And do your research means like... reach out to the agents, ask for samples, check their ratings and not just "ask /cgl/ for sources".

>>9608210
Don't do this. If this ever comes out it's gonna ruin your reputation forever.

>>9608231
>>9608224
this. unless you're doing a large set or something that had recieved a LOT of interest (i.e the size of the demand is too large for you to fund a run on your own) just save up and pay for it

It's been a while since I've been to an AA, otherwise I would just be able to look at people's displays, but how do people set up those extra side wings on their print displays when they just have a normal photography stand backdrop? I understand the use of clamps, but I don't understand how I could make it stand up with clamps without having them jutting out into the alleyway, or clamping them onto the side which doesn't work if I have a neighbor.

idk what is up with this on small con Anime day Nashville. I went there in 2015 and it was ok. Asked to come back in 2016 and they said yes... but failed to actually reply back in-regards to how I pay for the table and ended up just forgetting about it. This year, they message me asking if I want to come back, reply that I do, and a week later, no response.
why

>>9608046
then move out into your own place and don't worry about what your parents say. Its what I did.

A craft artist at otakon was straight up selling aliexpress heart ita bags how did they get away with that?

>>9608546
Were they in dealers or AA and if they were in AA were they reported so staff knew?

>>9608500
>then move out into your own place and don't worry about what your parents say. Its what I did.
>Move out

I'll be lucky if I can afford to rent a wooden plank

Can you make a good profit just doing stickers? Stickers really interest me and I think compliment my style better than full sized prints but I don't know if I should bother if I'm just going to be a table full of stickers

>>9608676
If you make nice stickers, you can probably make nice charms.

>>9608500
>live with parents in a really expensive area
>can't move to the middle of nowhere where it's cheaper because parents are old and need my help with stuff
>can't afford anything even remotely nearby
>I'll probably be stuck in this position for the next 20 years

At least I can sometimes get my mom to put together packaging for me when I'm doing the con-crunch thing...

>>9608847

Look man you either deal with your family's shit or you gtfo, we don't need to hear about it. Your solution is either tell your parents to shut the fuck up and have some goddamn faith in your ass for ONCE or go take the shitty job like a normie to get your mom off your jock. If you just wanna vent about it then take it to your blog.

How does one transport everything, like banner stands, art prints, art supplies, displays, wire cubes, etc to a convention?

I packed everything into a suitcase for the last artist alley I attended and some things got crushed.

Is there special luggage to transport your art prints, etc?

>>9609031
Do you not put your prints into a box before you stick them in your suitcase? Most of us use suitcases for travel. I've never had my prints crushed because I don't throw them in my suitcase by themselves... learn to pack better?

>>9608370
I use garden flag poles. Just use tape/zip tie/Velcro to affix to your side pole

>>9608662
Then you aren't making very much doing AA. I had a "normal" job and AA for a while before doing AA full time.

>>9608676
I tried doing stickers and very quickly realize its not worth it. Maybe if you have very nice stickers and can do it cheap enough, otherwise, they just aren't profitable. You'd have to sell 200 stickers just to break even.

>>9609046
I know I'm not making very much. It's getting better each con but I'm afraid going full time at my current job will leave me absolutely no time to work towards doing this full time and destroy my chances. I just don't want to be stuck there.

>>9609046
Nayrt but 200 stickers?? What kind of stickers are you making? I made some sticker sheets and only had to sell about 10 to break even.

>>9609054
just see if you can keep it part time for a while or better, work flexible hours. More during no conventions, and less during con season. good luck.

>>9609056
I'm assuming table cost $100, sell each sticker for $1 and you make 50 cents profit off each sticker.

>>9609031

I've only done local or cons I can drive to, but I keep all my large prints in a medium sized suitcase and charms/buttons/postcard prints/supplies into plastic boxes and then into a giant reusable shopping bag. I use another reusable bag for my display stuff like wire cubes, tablecloth, etc. Kinda unwieldy to have three bags but it won't all fit into a suitcase unless I bought a bigger one and I'd rather not.

>>9609085
OH, sorry, I thought they meant just the cost of the stickers. Brain fart, oops.
Then yeah, I agree. I'm not sure a sticker table would be worth it/profitable. I do mine only because I like the idea of having stickers for variety, but it's definitely not a staple at my table.

>>9608676
I agree with other anon about doing charms. Also simple cute art can look good on other types of products. Just look at pusheen stuff and other cutesy artists for ideas

>>9608889
Who the fuck shit in your coffee?

>>9609109
I had an artist alley table at New York Comic Con for the first time last year. Unless someone drives you and/or drops you off, it's near impossible to drive there yourself. In nyc, or at least near the convention, it's a pain in the ass to find parking. You'd have to park at least 10 blocks down. Imagine wheeling heavy luggage down several busy streets.

And carrying luggage into a subway or a bus is a nightmare.

I had to have two people come with me to help set up. One drove, the other helped with carrying my stuff in.

I can't imagine how people who fly in from other states/countries do it.

>>9609135
Uber/Lyft. I do 20+ cons a year, most of them out of state and I bring 4 suitcases with me. Lyft picks me up from the airport and drops me off right at the convention center. I have a helper so we take 2 suitcases per person and it's pretty easy to handle. For reference, I have the 4-wheeled suitcases so they're not as unwieldy as the 2-wheeled ones. I have a ton of friends who travel out of state as well and they manage to fit everything into 2 suitcases and they just double up on getting lyft/uber.

>>9609177
What about the cons centers that dont allow you to wheel anything in? Are you able to carry them?

>>9609183
That rule doesn't apply to suitcases/wheeled luggage. It means no dolleys.

>>9609202
Do you have luggage recommendations? Curious.

>>9609220
I just get whatever's cheap at the local Marshall's/Ross. The thing I have noticed is that while hard-shell cases are nice for protection + being waterproof, they do tend to crack if the airline manhandles them. The weak points tend to be around the wheels so if you're at that 50lb limit for multiple trips and they toss it onto the ground wheels first, it'll crack around the wheel attachment and make it a pain to wheel around. Cloth bags don't have that problem but they also offer less protection for whatever you're putting inside the bag, so it's a toss up.

>>9609132

I have no goddamn tolerance for this brand of self pity. You didn't come in here for advice, you came to vent about how mommy doesn't respect you, and you obviously intend to do shit all about it. Someone gave you advice, move out, and you had a list of reasons ready for why you can't. Be a fucking adult.

Is anybody having issues with tumblr? My post is not showing up in searches and under tags at all, no matter how many times I fix it. It's a fairly unpopular tag, so my post should show up,at the top but nothing. Does anybody know how to fix this?

>>9609274

Search has been really fucked for awhile. There's a particular search I check every other day and sometimes there's a hundred posts in it and sometimes there's literally four. None of my main blogs' posts show in searches, and it's always a coin toss if they show in tags. Tumblr is garbage and there's pretty much nothing you can do. Maybe try contacting aggregate blogs that reblog content for your tag and see if they'll reblog you to get you some exposure.

>>9609225
Lmfao I wasn't even the OP of the comment thread, you're just overreacting like an even bigger baby. You know life is easier if you just let things wash over you, right? Anyway, bye. Hope I don't come across your nasty ass at upcoming events.

>>9609274
Got any outside links in the post? I can't remember exactly what they were, but supposedly there are some websites that cause posts to get filtered out of tag searches when links to them are included.

>>9609031
Get a hard suitcase dumb dumb. Don't use those soft fabric type of suitcases if you need sturdier protection for your merch. And like another Anon said, just keep the prints in the box they came shipped in and throw that in your suitcase. I swear artists have the least common sense.

>>9608676
Individual stickers? The cost margin and selling price is usually not worth the effort?

Sticker sheets? Depending on how you price them, those might actually be worth it.

>>9609274
New blogs (that don't follow enough people, too young etc) don't show up, posts that have already appeared in the tag a lot and posts with links out of tumblr (etsy, storenvy, twitter etc) all will break search/tagging in different ways.

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Wondering what the opinion on something like this is?

I've done a few animal crossing portraits (hand painted) with handmade frames for friends but recently considered selling them. Would it be alright at an artist's alley (not as the only product of course). I'm just wondering since technically the portraits would just be a "copy" of in game art (since I do the same pose as on the portrait) or if it's alright since it's all done by hand? I'm not sure if this would be considered "different" than just re drawing character art and slapping it on a sticker sheet or not is what I'm saying, I guess. I do not trace, but I do try to replicate the same portrait as in game.

>>9609542
Nayrt, I've never heard of this! If having external links gets your posts to get filtered, how the heck are you supposed to post merch? I started putting links in my posts because I noticed that I get more traffic by making it easier for people to check out my store by clicking on a link.

>>9599265
happy to hear this. Its gonna be my first year, i was too shy to go last year regreted it since its getting to be such a big con so quickly

not a vender, but Im currently buying art for a pinball themed bar just outside of Alburn/Tacoma. Gonna be doing the seattle/portland cons (literally all of them)

if any of you venders have large traditional artworks featuring Villains (the owners wants it to be a "Villains Gallery") Ive been given a budget of about 300$ per painting/piece (about 8k overall)

>>9609592
apparently internal links to tumblr don't cause this, so if you have a link to a tumblr page, which itself has links to your shop or redirects to it, you should be golden.

>>9609600
Yeah, if you want to hear more proof, GGC has a video up addressing every allegation point by point and there are some very good Twitter threads with evidence as well. The funny thing was that the staff who left said they would answer DMs but not address the situation publicly and if you asked them in private for details they themselves would tell you it was about reverse racism and sexism against men. It was pretty ridiculous.

>>9609592
From what I've heard, people are putting something like "link to my store on my page!" like how people on instagram do "link to purchase in my bio"

>>9609559
People would buy this but I don't know if other artists would or if it would totally sit well with them. I would buy something like this if it was in the artist's style, even if the animal is in the same pose, but not if it's just a copy of the Animal Crossing style.

Any tips on keeping up with internet fashion trends? For example I know Tumblr is known for galaxy print everything and flower crowns, and I do still see those things, but are they still considered popular or relevant at all? Do you guys even bother keeping up with such things or including them in your art?

I mostly ask because I'm going to be doing some character design practice, and I thought it would be nice to have some reference for current online/alt trends

Can I request some artist table set ups?

>>9609736
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/trending can give you a rough idea

>>9609761
I was hoping for something a little more fashion-oriented, but this is still a nice reference to have in general, thanks

Has anyone had issues with uber 1910b? It stopped working all of a sudden. The pen doesn't work but I can still use the tablet as a second screen and it says my tablet is not found. Tried reinstalling the driver but no luck...

>>9609736
Have you tried simply searching "aesthetic"? It's pretty simple but generally you can see what's cool now. Those would have come up a lot more a couple years ago. Now it's all vaporwave/retro futurism.

I figure there will be things related to fashion you can find easily, but otherwise I don't really know how to follow trends.

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>>9609737

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>>9610024

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>>9610025

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>>9610027

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>>9610029

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>>9610031

>>9610027
oh shit can I ask who this artist is? That Akechi print..

>>9610052
JK, saw the lanyard at the bottom and figured it out LOL.

What's the consensus on real people art in artist alley? I want to possibly make some Kyary stickers..

Can someone update or link to the new Taobao/Alibaba services spreadsheet?

>>9610061
Something something drama something people blaming OP of the spreadsheet for bad experiences with China something something. I don't think anyone has access to the sheet at the moment, but feel free to prove me wrong.

>>9609044
That's a great idea! Thanks anon!

>>9610059
people draw kpop singers and youtubers all the time already so meh

Does it make me a bad person if I'm concerned that sales will be bad at San Japan because people will have less money since they had to stock up for the hurricane and some people had to pay for house repairs

>>9610059
I've seen people make Kyary merch before. Musicians and youtubers are generally a given as they have fanbases. There's a ton of Kpop and Jpop stuff in Artist Alleys. As long as you're not drawing like... Deb from math class and selling her likeness, I don't see the problem with it.

>>9610061
If you really want a sheet, make one on your own and link it. The other one's been down for ages.

>>9610059
I don't see the problem with it.

>>9610309
no but it's a concern you don't have to voice in public.

Kind of curious. Would any of you mind sharing your Etsy stats for this month? I don't know if Storenvy/Tictail offers something similar but I'd be interested in seeing those too. I'm just wondering how profitable online shops are for everyone.

>>9610309
Lmao not all of Texas is getting hit with the hurricane

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>>9610508
Sure, why not? This is an average month for me. I'm a craft artist selling cosplay stuff so most of my sales come in September and October. Last October I made $3,000. Been doing Etsy since 2015 and have 168 reviews.

I'd also like to see other people's stats, especially views. Only ~22% of my views come from people searching within etsy.

>>9610508
It's uh normally not this high, just had some new product releases and other junk i don't do every month. Next month will make it my first full year on etsy which is why the YoY things are wild %

>>9610627
I think over all for the year etsy is 22% of my views but per traffic per listing etsy is much higher?

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>>9610687
woops image dropped

>>9610691
What kind of merch do you sell, anon?

How are people doing at CRX? First impressions? I want deets!

>>9610691
my left over aa stock. charms, enamel pins, prints, etc

>>9610309
no, nice virtue signaling

>>9610808
nyart but virtue signalling is the dumbest phrase of the last couple years. that person is anonymous, to what end would they be "virtue signalling", to who? who is gaining the benefit of the signal if we don't even know who they are? jesus christ

>>9610808
>virtue signaling
>anon is clearly concerned about how their own profits will be affected
???

>>9610309
This is a real thing too. I went to Yama-con last year, a con in Pigeon Forge, TN that had a massive wild fire just a week before the con. There were much fewer attendees and I around the same in profit as I did the year before even though I had twice the amount of inventory.

Their sales will 100% be affected by it.

>>9610920
It can go either way, our sales were up in NJ on decorative goods because people had to toss EVERYTHING in flood water and just wanted something back to normalize their temp homes.

I have about 10 prints on a print wall photo stand. I've been letting my friend give me her art to sell for her on the table. She's kind of not that skilled compared to me, but she knows it and accepts she isn't that great.

But because of that, she prices her things for $1-$3 while I sell my prints from $10-$15.

I feel like people come to my table first looking ay my print wall, but then look down to see my friends art on the table and they immediately lose interest in my art. I'm not sure if it's because they are looking for cheap buys, or because I am just not offering enough verify... It's like a quantity vs quality thing between my friend and me.

She has tons of low quality prints, and I have few prints that I work on for a 1-3 months.

Is it possible to lose sales to cheaper shittier things? But then again most artists charge $20 for their prints and I'm doing $10...and the $20 artists around me seem to have no problem making sales, but also their style and quality is consistent within their table, as mine is divided.

>>9610817
if anything using the phrase immediately signals that a person is incapable of having independent thought

>>9610949
Yes. Especially if people are already on the fence about buying something, they'll probably just pick one cheaper thing as a 'sure' buy.
It may also be that the quality difference just isn't big enough to make up for the price difference.

>>9610949
In a situation like that I absolutely admit that I would stop thinking about your stuff and impulse buy the cheap shit.
I couldn't tell you exactly why, because normally when I buy cheap stuff it's as a last resort after lingering too long. But seeing your description of it I immediately felt this way.

>>9610737
Friday kind of slow. Saturday was amazing. Beat my AX Saturday record by 20%

>>9611021
Wow, that's crazy, nice! Which con do you think the crowd size is comparable to?

I heard some people were having dismal sales though, did you get a good spot?

has anyone found a source that kpop fansites use to make their custom plushies? i've been searching for ages to find out who is making them

>>9611046
>>9611046
pics?

So I have a friend who has been my table helper for the past year or so of cons and he has been absolutely great, probably the best helper I've ever had, and I'm very thankful for the work that he does and make sure to compensate him appropriately.

Lately, though, he's mentioned wanting to try tabling himself, but he's... not really an artist. Like at all. Like his drawing skills are below beginner level. I'm not trying to be mean but that's the truth.

Should I say something..? Like "Hey it took me years of practicing drawing and hard work before I even considered trying to sell it"? Or would it be kinder to let him try and then fail?

I feel like a terrible friend for even having to debate this.

>>9611243
Just be honest and say I don't know that you would make much back at this level, consider practicing more for a while. If you had space, i would even consider letting him display one or two things on your table at an upcoming con to show what you mean. If he doesn't make any sales he'll get the picture and he wouldn't have sunk all his money into a table and producing 10 prints that won't sell etc.

>>9611243
let him sell some stuff at your table and let him find out for himself if any of his stuff would sell or not.

>>9611243
Oh my god, I hate to assume so much off of so little but...are you based in SoCal and did you go to AX? (I know there are literal tons of people that fit this description, but...) I know someone who matches literally exactly what you're talking about. Like...spot on. Except he's not my table helper, just a friend--I don't actually know who he's helped out but based off of our friendship I do know he's a wonderful helper haha.

Whether or not we're talking about the same person (what would be the chances lmao) I'd be honest. When my friend talked to me about it, I kind of just chuckled it off cause I thought they were joking...but if they mention it again I don't think I would be able to find it in me to say "yeah! go for it!"
I agree that in this case you can let him produce some things (charms etc) and see if they sell, maybe let them jump in on a charm order with you or something, then encourage him to practice a little more and maybe offer cc if he wants it. But maybe gently push them away from getting a whole table (because it'll only lead to disappointment). Don't feel terrible, I think you're just thinking of the best for him.

>>9611254
>>9611264
Yeah, I think that that's what I'll go with... I don't want to be discouraging but it's true it wouldn't hurt me to to let him have some space at my table.
>>9611376
Nope haha wrong state and wrong coast altogether, but I guess that maybe this isn't too uncommon..?

Anyhow thank you everyone for your advice.

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Idk where else to rant about this but it's been bothering me a lot lately. I keep getting commissioned by creepy dudes even though they're far from my main demographic at cons.
I draw in a cute pastel style, mostly cute girls and j fashion and animals and stuff, and I post cosplay to my art page occasionally because I'm generally proud of the work I put in to what I make and it's usually a nice relatable thing at tables if I'm cosplaying from something I'm into and have art of. At cons my demographic is definitely other j fashion fans and I do a fair amount of on-site coordinate drawing commissions.

Online interaction is a totally different game and I keep getting messages like this and I hate it. I'm trying to build a following online that matches my con demographic.

>>9611454
I don't see the problem.

>>9611454
Are you the anon who made the lolita print set?

>>9611454
That's so bleh, i never get messages like that and i cater to people pretty evenly over all. I'm guessing they see your cute art and perceive you as a docile person. If they escalate to something explicitly weird tell them to fuck off.

>>9611576
Imagine how many people you creep on out a daily basis without knowing, damn.

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>>9610627
This one's mine! I had a lot of qualms about switching over to Etsy from Storenvy since SE was free, but honestly it was the best decision I've ever made. I only opened my Etsy shop last November for Black Friday sales and since then, I've gotten steady sales. This is getting to be a pretty regular month for me.

About 30% of my views this month were from people searching within Etsy but if we're talking about "for all time" it's 34% 40% of my traffic comes from direct links so I guess my business cards at cons paid off! Only 17% of my traffic is from social media and of that 17%, I get the most amount of hits from Twitter.

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>>9611638
Traffic stats for reference.

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>>9610508

I sell my leftovers from AA and put up new merch for future AAs as pre-orders once I finished. I'd say this is an average month for me even though it's on the low side compared to the other anons. For reference, I only do 2 cons a year.

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>>9611158
like these

Etsy vs storenvy vs tictail? What are your experiences? Which do you use?

>>9611810
Etsy is best if you are just starting out and have no following.

Got into animatic con, any deets about previous years?

Also the email stated that they could only give 6ft half tables! But are still charging the full amount. Like this seems like a red flag to me.

Got into Animatic con but the email stated they could only give 6ft half tables and didn't lower the table cost. Anyone ever go to this con? Should I even bother with it since this screams money problems to me.

Silly question, I've passed by AA a few times but never really understood how it works.

Do people just come with random things they made and sell it, or is it a place where artists advertise themselves for commissions?

>>9611916
Yes.

....post flood edition?

Did OP predict TX floods and San Japan being affected?

>>9612096
Post "Otakon Flood" Edition

The pipes burst at Otakon and flooded AA tables.

any advice on finding a good AA table partner? I don't have any close friends that table. I know a few friends that table very rarely and some that already have their usual table partner as one would say. Can't think of anyone I know that would make a good table partner =/

new thread >>9612358

>>9611916
Both.

>>9611031
Nayrt but I'd compare crowd size and sales of Crunchyroll to Sacanime (which is a medium sized con, 20,000 in attendance)

I was in the waaaaay back near the windows, but I had pretty good sales. Unfortunately I heard the people in the first row towards the wall had a really narrow row that people were intentionally avoiding because it was basically one-way only and anyone who'd stop to browse would bottleneck that row.

>>9610737
Friday slow, Saturday great, Sunday slow again but I get the feeling anyone who wanted to buy from me already did on Saturday.

Overall would come again, but I'm local, so why wouldn't I?

>>9611985
>>9613075
are things bought typically all for sale then?

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What search words should I use for this kind of strap?
Cell phone dust plug strap elastic brings nothing but ready charms attached to them, and I need specifically empty elastic ones that you can tie around your own charms.
I'm at a loss since English isn't my first language.

>>9614838
I forgot to mention I don't trust the cheap locks/clasps at all, hence the the elastic.

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anyone know where to get these faux leather bags with the straps? I saw so many artists at the one con with it but I can't find anyone doing a GO for them? Someone told me it was from Taobao but idk what search terms to use ;;;